Violent video games have always been viewed negatively because of the influence that may make individuals to be violent in real life. For the longest time, people have speculated that they are the reason why violence in kids, teens, and even adults to increase. One of the reason behind this is the interaction they have within the game such as endorsing violent behaviours. However, there are many people who disagree since they view violent video games as an outlet of something that they cannot do in real life. My personal experience with interactions that I could not do as easily in video games is very positive. One of the things is talking about having people understand what I truly like within the video game without judgment which is very nice. Although certain communities can be toxic, people’s experience can vary. Another is immersing yourself into an environment that you may not be able to do like in real life due to finance and etc. Even though you are just staring at a monitor screen, it is still quite an experience with advanced graphics these days, it is unique and pretty to look at. Not only that, depending on the game you play, you can become someone that you are not, using abilities and skills to guide through the videogame. These experiences help players to do things that they can never do in reality. You cannot teleport around in real life, but you can achieve those things in a video game and I think that is the unique part of being inside an imaginative world. When we talk about these things, we cannot forget about the moral choices we are given when playing videogames. We tend to make choices that we may not be making in the real world because of how hidden we are to others. Our identities are not revealed unless we choose to do so. However, players are still human and we feel what kind of choices we make towards others, such as altruistic behaviours can feel rewarding for many of us because those are the human thing to do. However, we can also choose to ignore those around us, making others feel isolated or even bully in certain way because of how videogames protects our identity. These moral values determine what kind of people we might be dealing with online, and can sometimes be annoying in general. Hence the communities within the videogame world. Social structures are constructed where genuine or non-genuine people are divided among the world, being able to tell the difference between them almost right away. We humans may be moral as we want to be, but that morality boundaries can easily be broken within the game world society and that can divide as well as create communities.

There are many social aspects to Guild Wars 2 including chat, guilds, and trading. Not only that, but you can interact with anyone and anywhere in the game as long as they are online.  The game’s communication aspect was well present since there were many players approaching and completing the same quests, however, I did not have much interaction with any of them. I felt that this was because most of the time people were very focused on advancing to the next levels. Due to the lack of engagement of other players and them ignoring the requests and etc, I was not able to part take in guilds or voice comms. The game was very complicated when it came to the lore. Even though you were emerged within the environment, I started to question where and how the game elements got there in the first place, meaning I would have to look other sources in order to understand the origins of the environment, monsters, structures and etc. There are programs out there called trainers that allows players to “hack” into the game such as no clipping where a player can go through walls and etc. I think going online and searching for answers outside of the game is a great way to be associated with the game itself because you get to know more information that might not necessarily be provided in the game. Even though developers want people to find information by themselves in game, it is often difficult for people to do since it requires heavy investments and easter egg hunting. When it comes to players assistance when playing MMORPG, players are very helpful because one of the reasons why they are even in the game is they are devoted to it. When I was confused about something, I would often reach out to a visible player and ask about what is required to complete certain quests when some of the requirements do not really make sense. Players would often respond back, telling me what the best route and options I have in order to complete the quest. I have never had an encounter where anyone would offer their weapons or anything like that mostly because it was a hassle and they knew that in time I would get better weapons as I level up and etc. Report player function in chat felt awkward because anyone can report anyone and even though the management of reports would see the conversations since everything’s recorded, anyone could potentially be offended to certain things. Sometimes without even trying to resolve the situation, they would resort directly to the report function which can give wrong ideas of the report itself. My anonymity did not really matter in the end because I was forced to continue the game regardless of what the player would think or comment on specific characteristics of my avatar. Even though this never happened, conversations never really happened which goes back to the whole premise of doing your own thing to achieve your goals within the game. Responses to reading supportive comments would be very surprising since with my encounters within videogames in general, a lot of trolls come and go, and my immediate response would be either ignore or mute the player in any way I can. The game tries very hard to have everyone included, but with many years of playing MMORPGs, I have come to realize that overtime it gets very boring. One of the examples is that when I used to play MapleStory regularly in elementary school all the way to highschool. I realized how much I have attached myself to that game not because of the gameplay of it, but the social aspect of it. However, as time went on, it was the community that mattered the most and the gameplay was rather dry after awhile since MMORPGs are very grind based. Guild Wars 2 gave off the same vibe but more intensely because I did not grow up playing this game. Although the combat system and gameplay was different, it still had the core element of that grindy feeling which made me detach from the game. I genuinely think that people play these games to belong and to become someone who they are not, and they all experience loneliness at some point in there lives, and these games are one of many outlets to fulfill the loneliness.

Video games in modern days have gone through many changes over the years and very fast as well. Games like Guild Wars 2 adapts and integrates the main gameplay with its story which can be discussed over the coarse of this weeks blog post. Engagement of the narrative was very powerful with several cutscenes provided for everyone for different race and class. This lead to further expansion of interest with the lore, as if it was set up as a engagement movie. I did not skip over the story, but in fact, I looked into it more on different forums like GuildWars2 Wiki and started to connect different stories with different race and classes together. This enabled me to be emotionally engaged with my character and the progression of the story itself which made it more exciting to continue on to play the game. It has rather made me think more about the story than to simply go over what was there. I was amused by the mysteries surrounding the world, looking for easter eggs and etc. Looking at the game narrative is always interesting to me because I feel like there are more content than what you would see in movies or TV shows and it is really surprising how much the developers have put their work into this since the tiniest details matter to the community. I have played many video games and one prominent story that is compelling and bizarre even to this day is the Treyarch Studio’s take on the series, Call of Duty. The company made interconnected game series such as Call of Duty World At War, Black Ops, black ops 2, Black ops 3, and Black ops 4. To most audiences, these games are plain old shoot em up games where people mindlessly shoot and kill, however, the story is tremendously complex and indepth which drives the community with excitement. Zombies game mode within those games are the best example since the narrative of the game story is not just simply explained to you, but rather the players have to find the clues themselves and put the puzzles within the game to make sense of the story while trying to survive countless number of zombies. These make things interesting and makes you want to find more about the story. These games have conflicts, and killing and violence comes up almost everywhere. I do personally think that sometimes it is a problem because it can be projected and even bleed into the real world. However, I do feel like in order to attract many audiences, companies are pressured in some way to show some violence or even death within video games just like they do in TV shows and movies do, and since they are not in the real world, they can do anything to it. NPCs shape the story, and without them, the world would be empty because they bring so much character into the game world which provides context. Narratives in video games are very engaged and having to recreate that in other forms of media would possibly receive many negative criticisms from fans due to the different experiences each of us hold on to. Video game narratives are something that we find out ourselves since we can choose to continue or not depends on how we feel about it. Although seeing one of your favourite characters show up on bigger screen might be exciting, it can be very difficult for other media outlet to perfectly match the expectations of the player base.

Guild Wars 2’s idealizes the real world’s landscapes and problems to immerse us into the gaming experience. Every game does this since, without the core foundation of the real world experiences, these games would not be possible. These similarities can be seen through the game with the integration of fantastical aspects that build on top of the existing base. When playing as the human race, we are introduced with immediate problems that deal with the threat of the village. Conflicts exist everywhere and it’s the same concept within the video game where centaur invasion is a threat to the town. My character is encouraged to assist in fighting off the centaurs and protecting the NPC to get them to safety like what real heroes should do. These ideas of heroes fending off evil is present and the main premise within most video games such as this one. Visuals of different characters in the games are well distinguishable due to the environment and the marker that they are given. Hostile enemies have red bars whereas friendly allies have green bars above their characters. These are not the only factors that help to determine their hostility and friendly. The context of the situation can drastically help us recognize the difference between the two such as their behaviors and the way they act. We are capable of differentiating the morals of the story which can aid us in the journey. When it comes to supporting the NPCs within utopian and dystopian landscapes I was able to help the inhabitants since I actually had the abilities to do so. As I leveled up, I gained new abilities and equipment which made me stronger when it came to fighting new monsters. Because of that, I was not hesitant to help out anyone who was in need.  Ideas of order and control in an environment could be distinguished easily since it projected our society in some ways. We fight for our core values and depending on the values that individual societies hold, people within those societies are going to have different morals. We are taught to help out those in need, to be better than the bully and etc. Identifying the order and control within the environment was straight forward. The world is unchanging unless you go to another area where monsters are stronger and differences in appearance. As you travel further into the game, you move to different parts of the map. Even though the maps themselves do not change, there are parts of the map that depicts different vibes every time. Same thing happens to monsters, as some areas contain low level enemies where as certain area’s enemies are more difficult to hunt down. This greatly shows how linear progression can be without complicating the game. The gameworld contains many cultural moment which is surprising. Different enemies resemble mythological creatures we see in the real world such as giant worms, elementals, and stories of war and care of human nature. There are different races which make things more interesting. We see minimal conflict with humans themselves, but there seem to be conflicts within different races which can translate to how we face everyday with racism. Due to these findings, the game contains similar issues that we face in real life but in a metaphorical aspect of our lives which can be an interesting way to view the world.

Guild Wars 2 has an exciting way to attract players to have them immersed in the game as much as possible by adding multiple character classes and stories set for individual one. There were many choices when it came to creating a character, from different class, race, to customization, you could make a unique character that was different from everyone else. These choices were important to me because it either gave me the idea of creating a version of myself or a different version of me. When selecting human characters, not having the option of choosing red eye colour or blue skin made sense since humans can’t naturally have those characteristics. However, it would be a different story if I chose some other race within the game. The avatar somewhat represented my ideal self. The game cannot have variables for how my personality is exactly, but I tried to aim for what I would be if I was a character inside the video game. Choosing a name for this character was very difficult but I wanted to express myself as much as possible in game since I am goofy, weird, and genuine but very serious when I have to be. Therefore, setting the name as “Medium Rare Chungus” was a best fit for me. It does not make sense for a lot of people and they might question how it came to that idea, but it was something that represented a meme within myself. I chose the Thief class since they have the ability to go stealth and access to places that we were not meant to access, as well as increasing 1 on 1 combat. The avatar has this hood called Subterfuge Hood that only Thief class can wear like in the Assassin’s Creed games and it was described as “A mask draws attention, and an uncovered face allows people to identify you. I prefer a more subtle subterfuge. A drawn hood lets me blend into the crowd, and no one knows I was there.”. This allowed me to feel like a lone wolf and stick to the identity of a thief.

I have not made more than one character, but with the experience of making one was very unique. Other than the customization itself, the game was progressively letting me choose which path I took for the character’s backstory. These choices availability gives realistic customization of the characters that we are playing as we immerse ourselves in the experience and be the hero of the game. These game design helps us to find different meaning within the game, allowing us to reach a different goal rather than the ones we already possess in the real world, to be someone who we are not and that is the unique experience that video games can offer

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