Practicum #2- Tony Porter

I got back online yesterday for about 3 hours. For the first half of my session I was mostly playing in a lobby called "Wager Matches". These are different types of games where you have to "buy-in" with points you have earned from achievements and experience. I decided to play in these games because it is every man for himself, but you hear everyone talking during the game. This allows for all kinds of trash talk or just simple chatter. There are different levels of buying in, some more expensive than others, but the lowest one allows you to play in "parties" which means you are with one or more people. I found this kind of odd since the games are all about playing by yourself, no teams, so I thought maybe you would start to witness cheating (Like letting your friend kill you to win). However, for the most part I didn't see this. Most people in the lowest level were just there for fun, with some taking it very seriously. I played in one game where every time one guy died, he had an excuse as to why the kill was not legitimate or complained of lag, which means slow internet so the gameplay is not as smooth. I love how you are allowed to mute people because I can handle trash talk (In fact it is fun to listen to) but having someone not stop complain because they are losing or hearing a little kid tell his mom just five more minutes for what seems like 20 minutes is awful.

After I played some wager matches I moved on to team based games. I played Capture the Flag which turned out to be pretty fun. It is teams of six and you both have a flag to defend and a flag to capture, which means going to the other base and bringing it back to yours. It is two rounds, sides switching at half time, and an overtime if tied after two. First team to 3 captures in a round wins the round. Pretty similar to rules of capture the flag in real life. I had a lot of fun playing this because it brings another aspect to the game than just shooting people. You really have to have strategy if you want to win. Some people asked if I wanted to "party up" with them but I told them I was just getting done playing. I am probably going to play later today after work and getting another post in tonight.