Today is the start date for my new course
mentioned in the last post,
Social Aspects of Games, Leisure and Entertainment. I spent a good part of the day reviewing the orientation portion of the study guide and setting up my profile and learning journal on
Athabasca University's online portal,
The Landing.
I had never really used The Landing before except to follow updates and discussions regarding the implementation of etexts, since that was a hot topic for myself, as well as many others. I didn't realize until today all the other ways The Landing could be used. I took the time to fiddle with all the little details and now have a pretty fleshed out user profile. I didn't feel comfortable adding an actual picture for my avatar, so I used the next best thing...a Dr. Horrible avatar. /grins
I also managed to find and join the group set up specifically for our course code, as well as create my own wiki complete with sub-pages for each of the four units that make up the course. I will most likely add more sub-pages to those sub-pages to further organize my reflections and tasks as the course goes on.
Earlier this week I also picked up two books to use as additional reading for this course. They both look very interesting. I have already started My Life as a Night Elf Priest, and it's even more enjoyable and enlightening than I expected it to be. I have sticky notes hanging out all over the place marking spots to go back and re-read and reflect on later. I read a bit of the beginning of Reality is Broken as well, I think it will be intriguing as well.
And of course...I spent some time gaming today! I made a fresh character on
Tera, on a new server where I had no previous social connections, and chose a new class I had never played previously (
Gunner). I named her Gwenyth.Love. I don't know if it's just the class, or they just made it much easier than it was when I first leveled my first character, but man, I am just whizzing through it! My goal is to get at least to level 40 so I can try their new super class they have, the
Reaper. You can only make one once you have a character reach level 40, and then the new Reaper starts at level 50. I'm not a fan of the fact that the Reaper can only be played by a female
Elin character (because I find them kind of creepy) but I will have to suck it up to be able to try it out.
I did have a positive experience pretty early during my game-play. Myself and 4 other characters were in an area where we had one of our first BAM (Big Ass Monsters) quests. All 5 of us kept jumping in and attacking the BAM. We were all trying to help each other, but no one was getting credit and we were all getting a little frustrate. Finally, one of the characters suggested we try attacking it one at a time and see what happened. Well that was exactly what we needed. It seems the quest was set so only one person could get credit at a time, and it is made so the character who does the most damage gets credit for the kill. We each took our turn, but we all still stood around and waited until everyone that had been in the area received credit for their kill so we could help figure out something else if there was any other type of glitch. Now that's what I call cooperation! A far cry from the rush in and kill the boss in front of the person that had been patiently waiting for it to spawn as so often occurs in WoW...
