The Massively Multiplayer Online Classroom

Ever since I graduated from High School in 2005 one of my principle forms of entertainment has been playing MMOs. I have vivid memories of rolling my first character Elterron. As I loaded on to Dark Age of Camelot's Lamorak server for the first time, and slowly began running Elterron through the world, questing and killing the beasties that were around me, I realized I'd found my video game niche. Here was a chance to play the RPG style game that I loved, but interact with other people at the same time. When my father, my brother and I all swapped over to the Ector server to play a different realm, I rolled my favorite character. Zuljinn Bloodaxe, mighty troll warrior. Together with Grall the Berserker and Giell the Bonedancer, we quested and killed our way to level 50.

In a future blog, I intend to tell the tale of my MMO experiences, but that is not the point of this one.

MMOs have taught me many things, ranging from the importance of communication to the value of teamwork. Perhaps the most important thing, and the aspect that I'm going to focus on in today's blog-cast, is the importance of roles.

In most MMOs there are three roles, there are the tanks, the damage dealers, and the support classes. Throughout my sordid MMO career, I've given all the roles a try. In Dark Age of Camelot I was a tank for a long time. I eventually created a support class, and enjoyed that quite a bit. In City of Heroes I played a tank, D&D Online I dished out the damage, and in World of Warcraft I dealt the damage, and I tanked. In my return to Dark Age I've played all the roles. Some people may be asking themselves what exactly each of these roles does, and so I'll give a quick discussion of each job.

Tanks: For lack of a better description, these guys are the meat shields. Also referred to as battle turtles, these characters have high defenses, and are specifically designed to take a ton of punishment, and irritate the enemy monsters to the point that the monsters focus on the tank, and not on anyone else. Tanks are a complex and important role.

Damage Dealers: Also referred to as DPS'ers, the damage dealers do exactly as their name suggests. They deal out pain and punishment to the beasties. Yet despite how easy this job may sound, its not really that simple. DPS'ers have to monitor just how much damage they're dealing. If they steal the attention of the beastie from the tank, they're likely dead. DPS'ers commonly have massive attack power, but little in the way of defense. DPS'ers are the ones who bring the beastie to the afterlife, and as such are a very important group of people.

Support: Support is likely the most diverse class. Support, and the jobs that it is charged with filling, is dependent on the game. Some games support is strictly heals. Other games have support classes who are in charge of "buffing up" the party. Dark Age of Camelot (my game of choice) has support classes who heal, buff, and crowd control. (Crowd control is where a player is responsible for keeping mobs, or other players [in a player versus player environment] unable to function. The tools for doing this are myriad, ranging from putting them to sleep, to rooting them in place, to simply stunning them. A good crowd controller can win a fight for a group who was up against overwhelming odds.) Support classes shift the balance between life and death. If a group goes up against a beastie that is far more powerful than them (a boss), if they don't have heals, buffs or other support tools, they're very likely toast.

Something that is implied by the term group, is that teamwork is required. So any discussion of roles is going to include a discussion on teamwork. A group cannot succeed just by having a star of any role. A group, in order to succeed, has to have successful members in each of their roles. If any one role fails in their job, the group fails. Each of my descriptions included a mention of how important each of the jobs was.

Something that I've learned, as I've talked with people who don't play MMOs, is that for the most part they don't understand what it's all about. What's the fascination with playing with people you can't see? What's the fascination with pretending you're someone, or something else? The lessons I've learned from MMOs, and the friendships I have forged, transcend things I could have learned spending time in a bar, or at a rec center, or any of those sorts of things. I look at people I've met via Ventrilo Voice chat, folks like Mondi, Kaeran, Kaznon, Ori, Allecia... All of these people I never would have met if I hadn't played the games. Their's are friendships that I treasure.

What may shock people the most, is what I've learned about my real life relationships, simply from playing the game. The lessons that I've learned on team work, and on filling your role to the best of your ability, have helped me in every aspect of my relationships. Whether it be in my professional life, where I need to do the best at my job, because its a critical bit to a team, or whether its working as a team with Alicia. I treasure and value the lessons I've learned.

Perhaps where I've been realizing the most poignant lessons is in my relationship with my beloved Alicia. I find myself regularly in the support role. Luckily, I've overcome my dislike of this role (both in game and out of game.) I find myself happily listening to her about her problems, and doing my best to buoy her up. She comes to me for advice, we talk about everything under the sun. Caring for her, has become a primary concern, and I'm finding it's a role that I fill quite well. Interestingly enough however, is the fact that this isn't a role I fulfilled very well prior to playing games. Many of my relationships failed, because I couldn't step back and fill the role that was needed at the time. I couldn't take the aggro, or I couldn't provide the support that was necessary. I wasn't a team player, and it cost me. The time spent learning the ins and outs of roles, and the importance of team work, while not only done in game, was mainly a skill I acquired by operating as a part of a team. I want to thank those who taught me to be part of a team, it has helped me to cultivate one of the greatest blessings in my life.

It's my belief that the MMO world has the potential to be a classroom, and to teach us things we never would have realized outside of it. For me, I did individual sports all through school, I was focused on myself, and cultivated a selfish attitude and outlook on life. It took me a great deal of time, and a great deal of hardship, to break it. I can confidently say, that a great deal of the lessons I learned that helped to break those habits, I learned in the classroom of Massively Multi-player Online RPGs.

So until next time loyal readers, this has been another blogcast of the Rogue Signal. Goodnight, and good luck.