Once upon a time there was a girl gamer named Gabby. She grew up and is now in this class!
Important to note here: I have not called myself a “girl” or a “gamer girl” for years.
That being said, though I am interested in games, it was not a motivation to get into the gaming industry or a fiercely loyal position to any game series or company that resulted in my taking this course. Instead, it was a sureness of what ultimate career I would like to take on, combined with knowing there is a chance such a position may be within the gaming industry, or that I may need to first work for a gaming company in order to get experience to get into my field: computational linguistics.
My goal while in college is to provide myself with a sufficient background in various types, methods, and languages of programming so that when I do confront the “real world,” I will be adequately educated to take on a filler position in any number of industries until I get enough experience to work in computational linguistics.
… that’s not to say I don’t love video games. I’ve played a few everyone knows, and a number most have never heard of. I’ll focus on a couple of the free online ones, as they’re easily accessible.
Text Games (MUDs)
Logo for the Text MUD Achaea
Logo for the Text MUD Lusternia
These two games, both made by Iron Realms Entertainment, got me interested in programming, Human-NPC interaction, artificial intelligence, and languages in games. They were completely immersive games; that is to say, while there were no graphics to be programmed to make you part of the game, you were whatever character you made, and you had to talk in-game as if you were that character; no mention of “computers,” “the internet,” or “cars.” They both featured extensive use of in-game languages applied to various parts of lore, characters, and quests.
Cute / Anime MMORPGs
Logo for the Anime MMORPG Fiesta Online
Logo for the Cute MMORPG Spirit Tales
These two games, made by Ons On Soft (Fiesta Online) and KoramGame (Spirit Tales) both have appealing features, which made getting stuck on them so easy and worthy of mention: soothing, stylized graphics and a good community. There is some plot featured in each, though it is not required to pay attention to the plot for any part of the game. The game also has a number of ways to express yourself, including overly-expressive faces.
Other MMORPGs
Logo for the MMORPG World of Warcraft
Logo for the MMORPG Perfect World International
Logo for the MMORPG Lord of the Rings Online
Most everyone has heard of at least Blizzard (World of Warcraft), although Perfect World (Perfect World International) and Turbine (Lord of the Rings Online) are relatively well-known. Of the bunch, these tend to have the best graphics coupled with (optional) immersion in the lore of the games, along with the books they may be based upon.
Dear Gabby,
I love how knowledgable you are, how much self awareness you have, and how easily you convey they two. Your post was informative and gave me plenty of ideas for topics I must research on my on so that I can hope to catch up.
Thank you, Stephanie! I’m sure you’ll manage to catch up quickly, and then we can nerd out together!
If you’re interested in trying any of the games I’ve listed, I’d suggest either Fiesta Online or Spirit Tales; they’re the most forgiving of new players. However, I think of this list that requires a client, only World of Warcraft and Lord of the Rings Online run natively on a Mac.
The text games can run off any computer connected to the internet, even directly from a browser, but have some personal requirements.
1. Be a typer of at least 65 WPM with adequate editing skills.
2. Be capable of reading on a screen between 350 and 600 words per minute with good to great comprehension.
3. Be able to keep in character.
You can find out your reading speeding and level of comprehension here, and your typing speed here.
Interesting read as always. Tried to play the MUD again.. never again.
Haha! Did you meet the suggested requirements I posted to Stephanie?