Okay...so this is my second posting in a very long time...this was supposed to be my log afterall! I was told by my husband to 'play more games!' if I was gonna write a bloody PhD thesis on gamers behavior and motivation especially SNS gamers. A very close friend recommended City of Wonder and wonder it is! I was hooked on the game almost immediately. It's amazing I actually remembered the mechanics of this blog and photobucket to actually post photos of Capitol of D34th!
Anyway, back to gameplay, in the past, games were just games. Nothing more. No thinking required. No strategy needed. My gameplay - if there's money, just go ahead and buy stuff. I did this with my first SNG - Cafe World. Again, my BFF was always ahead of me! Bah! Little did I know, there was little strategy invole in a simple 'clicking' game! Here was my mistake - I do not read the tool tips, I clicked blindly and didn't know what I was doing. However, all this changed when my husband took over the game for me and with BFF challenging me and my husband on levelling up.
Okay back to CoW, I've realise that i'm playing the game diferently. Not only am I reading the tool tips, but I also checked on it's spreadsheet and did some minor calculations (no! I hate numbers!).
I guess what attracts me to the game is that i have real friends playing the game with me where I could share tips with during our meets. It gives us something to talk about. But boy...it sure is a time sinker! I could go on forever sitted in front of the pc just clicking away and collecting coins and populations and goods. Not to mention exploring to collect XPs. This is just crazy! My husband is very into Verdonia, he sits at his pc staring at the screen for hours...which I always take as psychotic! How can one stare at a static screen for hours? It dawned on me when it was my turn to do the same with CoW. I spent hours - even in-between chores.
I've even added random people as friends on my FB (taken off the Playdom COW community form) just so I have more allies to unlock my marvels! How great is that! Fuck! This is so geeky!
I guess what motivates me here is being able to play a game with people I know instead of strangers and seeing the numbers go up on the XP bar and leaderboard. Oh not to mention, I've even attacked a few territories at the beginning of the game. After having read Bartle's play types where players are classified as either - Killers, Explorers, Socializers and Achievers...I guess I would have to go with Yee's conclusion - gamers are a mixture of various player types. Having gone through a week of CoW, I realised that I am a combination of Achievers, Killers, and Socializers.
Which simply means:
1. Achievers - I enjoy looking at my XP bar and leaderboard to see my progress ahead of friend's. I also mine data from the forums but do not contribute.
2. Killers - I enjoy attacking other civilizations and watch them burn! Muahahahahahahahaha!
3. Socializers - OFC I love talking about the game mechanics with friends who also play the game. As for adding randon strangers...well it's gotta be done to level up!!! If only they had a chat function...that would be awesome!
