CSCL 2011: Enrollment of a New Actor to WoW Raiding

Mark Chen University of Washington @mcdanger [email_address] This work is funded by the National Science Foundation through the Science of Learning Center program under grant SBE-0354453.

World of Warcraft
MMOG
6 million subscribers in 2006
Fantasy with races / classes
Complete quests, kill monsters for loot and XP

Raiding
Large group joint activity
Highly coordinated battles
Specialized roles
Tank, Healer, DPS

Here ’s a monster

Some players come upon it

The tank grabs the monster ’s attention Yo, over here! !

The healer and DPS get in position rogue (DPS) warrior (tank) priest (healer) mage (DPS) Yeah, hit me!

Each role acts to its responsibility rogue (DPS) warrior (tank) priest (healer) mage (DPS) pew pew! Yeah, hit me! SS, SS, Eviscerate! +300 +120

The monster attacks whoever is most threatening rogue (DPS) warrior (tank) priest (healer) mage (DPS) pew pew! Yeah, hit me! SS, SS, Eviscerate! +300 +120 Has the most threat and monster “aggro”

Threat, Aggro, Kenco’s Threat Meter (KTM) Time 1 Player Ability Activated Threat Generated (hypothetical) Existing Threat Total Threat (hypothetical) Wendy (tank) Sunder 260 780 1040 Rand (DPS) Sinister Strike 140 560 700 Shaun (healer) L. Healing Wave 400 400 800 Mandy (DPS) Frostbolt 500 0 500 Time 2 Player Ability Activated Threat Generated (hypothetical) Existing Threat Total Threat (hypothetical) Wendy (tank) Sunder 260 1040 1300 Rand (DPS) Sinister Strike 140 700 840 Shaun (healer) L. Healing Wave 400 800 1200 Mandy (DPS) Frostbolt 500 500 1000

A new addon and its effect on raiding
KTM = no longer keeping it in our heads
Yet KTM only used temporarily in Rags fight
KTM used on multiple scales of time and actor networks / mangles (Latour, 2005; Pickering, 1993; Steinkuehler, 2006)

Knockback
Rogues getting aggro

KTM configured to help diagnose aggro problems
Enrolled in a temporary rather than designed role

Mark Chen University of Washington @mcdanger [email_address] This work is funded by the National Science Foundation through the Science of Learning Center program under grant SBE-0354453.

http://markdangerchen.net	1074
http://markdangerchen.net.	4
http://translate.googleusercontent.com	3
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com	2

CSCL 2011: Enrollment of a New Actor to WoW Raiding

by Mark Chen on Aug 29, 2011

Accessibility

Categories

Tags

Upload Details

Usage Rights

4 Embeds 1,083

Statistics

CSCL 2011: Enrollment of a New Actor to WoW Raiding — Presentation Transcript