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I logged in early this morning and saw a few mails from the guild… today was wookiee armor day, when the armor design was released to live, so our armorsmith (who had presumably little to do before, since there was no wookiee armor in the game) had a very busy day.

I had donated some Yavinian leathery hide to the cause yesterday — that was the rarest ingredient for the suits, but the armorsmith was low on wooly hide, common but needed in bulk for the suits. I met another new guild member and a more senior one, who was playing in the evening to our morning (he was in Sweden).

We hunted tortons, big-ass turtles that shake the ground when they walk and tremble it when they fall. We harvested hundreds of hides and I joined multiple groups — the player from Sweden went to bed, the armorsmith himself joined in for a bit. As a bonus I made a little money and got a lot of experience.

We were having a tree out in our front yard, so I was home and played most of the day, and I was never really alone. I don’t know if it was time zones or power players with lots of time on their hands, or if people cleared out time for Wookiee armor day, but things were hopping all day. The activity was steady and good… playing alone you either feel the crowd of the bazaar or the solitude of solo missions. It’s nice to group, to be social without feeling the drawbacks of the “massive” — lag and chatter.

During a break from hunting, I made it to Naboo and got a new rifle that multiplied my best damage by 5x – 6x. I bowed to my guild compatriots in the Renaissance homage that is the central square of Theed.

I did a lot today. I hung out with a really taciturn melee fighter that took a break from our hunting to check out his resource mining installations. I trained in novice medic, because I’m sick of not being able to heal myself or others. I seriously considered dropping Entertainer, because I’m tired of being campy and want to be respected out in the field. I tweaked my hunt discourse from snarky to pop-culture humorous to minimal depending on my group members. I gave over 1000 wooly hides to the cause and, when the armorsmith gave me my armor, even though it was free to guild members, I felt I had earned it.

I’ve been writing a lot recently, but not here… I’m halfway through the conclusion to my dissertation, and hoping to finish the full diss draft in the next couple of days.

But that’s only half the story. I got Wookiee armor. Just rolled out today to the live Star Wars Galaxies servers.

Kyy in wookiee armor

Hell yeah. I’m well past those early stages of spatial, simulative and social orientation within the persistent world now, and experiencing what tends to feel, in these worlds, like “game adolescence”: newly guilded, developing viable skill levels, assuming a social identity, and, yes, picking up the cool guns and togs.

This is a identity moment for me: in James Gee’s phrasing, a moment of motion from I as Kyy, with the cognitive distance that emphasis on avatar implies. The virtual identity as Gee describes it emphasizes the capabilities and operations of the avatar, what Kyy can and cannot do within the simulation of the game. At early stages, I’m most keenly aware of this aspect, as my own desires for the game must adapt to what is and is not possible. As I grow accustomed to the space, I move toward the more liminal I as Kyy: Gee’s projective identity. I’ve played Kyy enough now that I’m good at it, “it” being more than quantifiable actions or strategies: “it” is being in context. I’m now naturalized (or virtualized) to the space, and I can begin investing a little more, focusing on my own desires as well as that of the avatar, and thinking about a performance in the space that satisfies and advances us both. See, I knew I could make this entry passably academic.

Some quick reflections about this: 1.) to me (if it’s not obvious), this is the moment when persistent worlds get really fun. 2.) getting to this moment as quickly, and yet organically, as possible is key to player engagement. 3.) this is the point when I begin thinking about really developing a player persona, and this is where I think the flexible professions system of SWG is so rewarding; I started this character out as an entertainer, but now I realize that dancing in cantinas isn’t really my thing. If I were stuck with entertainer as my core profession, I’d be a little annoyed, but I was able to switch gears and try new roles — with the same character — as soon as cantina dancing lost its sheen for me.

Anyway, I promise I’ll write cogent and substantive things fairly soon. In the meantime here’s another screenshot of my Wookiee in Wookiee armor.

I joined a guild today. It’s all wookiees!

It’s a whole new world when you’re in the guild. Before I joined, I teamed with a bunch of guys last night… we went to Yavin 4 and fought some gonzo monsters. It was the first time I’d really done a extended group, and it was great.

Anyway, I joined their guild today, and I’m in a guild meeting right now. It’s fascinating… I’ve never been in a networked virtual meeting of this sophistication. It’s spatial, multimodal… an amazing representation of a meeting hall. We’re obeying Robert’s rules of order and working down the agenda, with the meeting officials up on a stage.

The guild breaks down this “power-gamer/role-player” dichotomy you see all the time… people are very invested in leveling up, both for their own good and for that of the guild, but they’re also interested in being true to the universe and to how Wookiees have been defined in the SW universe before Galaxies. The guild has a warfaring side and likes PvP but clearly situates it within a view of the fiction, and balances it against the needs of the player city.

My guild is on a different planet, several stops away from Corellia, so I had to move my stuff. I’ve accumulated a lot of junk already. I now have two houses, one in my guild’s city and another on Corellia. Guess I need to put the latter one up for sale.

It was a very enlightening weekend, and Wookiee armor rolls to live this week, so the fun is just beginning…

The graphics are excellent in the lab.

One thing that’s been pointed out is the imbalance of population: packs in the cantinas, few if any people outside of cities.

It’s so hard to find a Rebel recruiter when you need one.

So today I’m planning to join the Rebellion, work up my skills a little bit, and get social in my player city.

What I’m thinking about: kicking around this heroic v. prosaic issue as manifested in the Jedi controversy. Wondering about perceiving the Galactic Civil War more deeply. Wondering about committing to a profession.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted. Darn it!

I’m on Corellia now. It took me a long time to venture from Tatooine, but travel is fairly easy. Coronet is packed and full of lag.

Once on Corellia I took a long trip to the hidden Rebel base. From there I took a few Reb missions and began the path toward joining a faction. I’m probably being hasty, but hey, nothing ventured, nothing gained. I’m nearly all the way to joining the Rebellion now.

Two Reb players in player associations recommended a player city on Corellia, so I headed there to check it out. It’s a very well-established player city… very impressive. I’ve been doing missions out of there for a while now, and I’ve joined the city whole-hog — built a house, declared citizenship. I’m paying taxes and the whole shebang. (Being a homeowner is fairly pricey, but I get the feeling it’ll seem less so over time.)

So, I’m established. It’s a little odd. I have only met a few people in town, but for a player city it seems pretty busy (that is, there are usually a couple of other players there). It’s a city with an allegiance to the Rebellion. I like that I’m being social and participating in the factions storyline (or “rhetorical simulation algorithms”) at once. I also like that I get to learn how to decorate.

I am working up the Brawler tree to Teras Kasi. You do as much damage as with a rifle, though it seems like you take more as well. Soon I’m going to have to grow up and decide what I’m going to do with my life.

Worked on the diss all day, so no Friday SWG marathon. I played a little over an hour after school, though.

I have a speederbike now. Did I mention that? It makes a huge tactical difference.

I think I might join a Rebel player association. It’d be nice to get into a group.

Two recent happenings in DC Comics — Superman: Birthright and a new Doom Patrol series — mark a flare-up in “continuity.”

In brief: the DC Universe, and comics universes in general, are large-scale, interconnected, branded fiction systems that undergo an ongoing process of community definition, signified by the term continuity, in order to manage their endemic internal tensions. This promises to be an interesting moment in this process.

(And, if you’re wondering where games fit in… this process can, I think, help us think about how emergent narrative (or content, or persistent output from the textual machine — pick your preferred term) works in persistent state worlds. More on that later.)

I finished a draft of my dissertation chapter on this a few weeks ago, and I’ll be presenting a paper at next month’s PCA/ACA conference in San Antonio on this as well:

Wed. April 7, 12:30-2:00 PM
San Antonio Marriott RiverCenter Hotel
Conference Rm. 12

082 Comic Arts and Comics III:
The Comics Industry and Comics Universes

Comics Universes as Fiction Networks

Jason Craft, University of Texas Austin