...when 140 characters are not enough

The purpose of developing the vocabulary we are learning in this class is to learn to make these tools that we can use to enter into our design practice as opposed to just being terms that we can recite when called upon.

A story from Jeff Bardzell telling us what happened in a World of Warcraft experience to be critiqued by us.

Setting: The Lunar Festival
Characters: Jeff and Shaowen (Level 10 players)
Scene: Discovered Lunar New Year decorations when logging in. Not sure what it was. Asked around and found out. Both were delighted to see this going on and discovered that there were some interactive quests available such as setting off fireworks, get coins to buy Lunar New Year stuff. Chose to do this together as a "date".

Upon completing quest, received invite to another special world where all of the different WoW races were dancing and celebrating together and guards stood by to keep the peace - a totally non-WoW experience! Then invited to another town to meet another non-player character and received Chinese dumplings - a symbol of good fortune. Elicited great feelings of happiness.

On the way back to the festival, they encountered a night elf from the Alliance (Level 60 player) who climbed off his horse, killed both of them and spat on them - twice. Their skeletons are shown laying on the ground. They were in a PvP server (player vs. player) which means that players are allowed to attack and kill each other. If you are killed your character is re-spawned within a few minutes and can start playing again. Shaowen quit playing but Jeff kept playing.

• Did Blizzard screw up by letting this happen?
• Was a social contract established by Blizzard that they allowed to be violated by the night elf?
• It turns out that the path between the two towns is not a "safe zone".
• Did the night elf violate an ethical or rules agreement that exists within the game?
• Did this in some way say something about Blizzard's attitude or perception of the actual Chinese Lunar New Year?
• Culturally, it is a big deal to get killed during the Chinese New Year - perhaps the folks at Blizzard did not have a full understanding of what the real Lunar New Year means.
• Shaowen won't take out the trash on the real Chinese New Year's Day, very symbolic of what do expect during the upcoming year.
• Chinese WoW has replaced the skeleton image with a tombstone.
  

diegetic festival - festival within the game as a part of the game
non-diegetic festival - the actual festival in the real world
Blizzard basically took a real festival that has real meaning and simply used it as a prop.

The experience unfolded over time and everything being done built up expectations that allowed Jeff and Shaowen to let their guard down - just like a sudden twist in a movie - they got blind-sided. Was it intentionally built that way as part of the game.

Characteristics to take into the next project

1. unit of analysis is the felt experience of Jeff and Shaowen, not the interface. Showed real world pictures of Jeff and Shaowen. i.e. - user research
2. emphasis on the particular - don't talk about big trends, generalizations. Example - used a single runthrough of the sequence by talking about particular players at a particular time, not just generally describing the Lunar New Year environment. Actually get immersed into the experience - allows you to get more particular, more specific, more fine-tuned in the development of your critique. Note specific time references in youtube videos (1:23 mark).
3. Expression was structured in the form of a narrative, storytelling. Immersive, subjective, focused on feelings rather than functionality.