Dungeon Blitz

1. The topic that was discussed in class this week was the concept of social gaming in the online context.  This focused around the theory of narratology which is concerned with the affect that narratives have on our perception of the culture as well as the world around us.  Dungeon Blitz is an online MMO game where you can pick different classes of warriors in order to begin your questing.  During the game the character you have chosen begins to get wrapped up in various different quests with stories that are based on saving someone, or achieving some goal.  These quests are narratives that help to better explain the world of Dungeon Blitz and why you are questing.
2. This tool allows its many users to escape the grind of everyday life and be transported to a world where you can be a warrior and fight off trolls, and save damsels in distress.  This is a quest based game which means that the users must embark on an adventure with a goal in mind set by the game.  For example you may have to fight through hordes of enemies in order to save the helpless NPC character created by the game. This game also allows you to invite your friends from Facebook to come along with you to chat or to quest together.
3. Me being a gamer mostly on XBOX found the game play very different from what I had grown accustomed to.  Instead of a controller I was now using the keyboard to play a game.  The difference I soon found out added to the intrigue of the game, and because I was not accustomed to this kind of play style I found myself more challenged, thereby having more fun than I ever would have otherwise.
4. The more I began questing the more I found out how difficult it was to overcome the hordes of enemies.  At first I did not realize that you could upgrade your equipment to better your stats.  As a result I was going up against stronger, and stronger opponents without growing any stronger myself.  I learned a little how to better my character but in the end I found that I had to really alter my fighting style to combat the harder opponents.
5. I found that I much preferred the lone wolf approach when it came to questing, I enjoyed going through the game in a single player style. Since I had this approach in the game the only time I ever talked to the other users from in between quests.  During this time I would ask some of the more highly leveled users what they thought of the game.  Some simply made flippant responses as I expected, but more than not I actually got genuine responses about their critique of the game.  Most said that they enjoyed the questing in the game and it was a great way to waste a lot of time without even realizing it.  Dungeon Blitz is a great and fun environment to communicate with your friends from Facebook and even a good place to initiate new relationships.
6. On a whole I really enjoyed playing Dungeon Blitz.  My enjoyment stemmed more from the actual game-play and questing than it did from the communication in-game.  Since I was immersed in the game-play I did not actively seek out communication.  I believe that the only reason that I communicated with other users was so that I could accurately answer the questions on my blog for this class.