Game Analysis

Based on my experience of playing massively multiplayer online games (MMOG) both after this paper was assigned and before I came to US, I cannot agree more with the points Torill Elvira Mortensen makes in his article, “Me, the Other”. I especially like these arguments he makes: “to a role player, the game mechanics act as a context and a directive for the events that create the story” (Mortensen 299); “[there is] no need to pause to interpret the actions of the other, none of the mundane ambivalence of everyday life” (302), and “to play a role in a role playing game frequently involves having and hiding a secret – the character becomes attractive because it is holding something back” (304). There is also one claim that I do not agree that much: “the gamers themselves are very clear about the distinction between the social real world and the world of play” (302).
My group members first decided to play Counter Strike, a shooting game in which team members coordinate with each other to kill people in the other team. But then we found that the game was nothing like a real MMOG, so we switched to DotA – a branch game of Warcraft, in which ten people play together each time, with five on one team and five on the other, respectively, trying to destroy their enemies’ bases. Because we did not find a proper time to play online together, I played with one of my friend instead.
It was the first time I tried to play DotA. I spent a long time learning the rules and operations of the game, and then I found it amazing how the rules connected people from different places in the world together. Each person chooses one of the thirty-six different “heroes” – characters with different names, gender, skills and backgrounds, to be himself. For example, I chose a girl famous for punishing thieves with her magical fire, which made me feel as if I was really a heroine like her, and what I should do was to punish my enemies. This way, I created a story by myself. During the game, as...