Unfortunately, I have become addicted to the game on Facebook called Kingdoms of Camelot. This game, of course, harks back to King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. We are sanctioned by the king to build cities around a castle and produce resources to support the one industry that is available to us: war. Of course, other activities, such research on improving things like fertilizer to grow better crops and training our troops, are part of the game, but mainly they are ways to have more might than someone else so that we can beat them. Furthermore, we have alliances of other players that will help us if we are attacked or if we need to have more resources than we can individually support.
The interesting thing to me is how this has drawn my family together. My brother and sister-in-law started playing and told us how fascinated they are. Then my sister started playing. Because of my classes in Walden, I resisted, but just like the Borg in Star Trek, resistance is/was futile. I joined and so did my nephew. All of these people are over 40; my 18-year-old nephew just thinks we are silly. There have been times that four of us sit in one room, each with his or her own laptop, playing the game and discussing strategies. It reminds me of a quilting bee, each of us working on our own project and chatting. There is also a very active chat online with this game. We have found a community of players who have avatars and names that hide their ‘real’ identities; my sister and I are taking our real selves to Pennsylvania next week to meet some of them and go to a Renaissance Faire. We also have a code of conduct, norms that are established by the high ranking members of the alliance. These norms sound very much like the Knights’ Code of Chivalry from the Song or Roland. So yes, the future is like the past, just with cooler toys. And only pixels died when we go to war.
Cyndy--LOL! At least it is something with some redeeming value (historical value) rather than Farmville.
ReplyDeleteThis harks back to any number of collaborative activities, like storytelling, traveling players and shows, and other pre-electroic media diversions. It is a reason for people to gather (physically and virtually) to share experiences and ideas.
Very cool example! Have fun at the Ren Faire this weekend! Take pictures!
Anne
Hi Cyndy, I should have known that you'd find someway to include Camelot! What a great post with a lot of originality. Don't you just love Anne's blog responses? She hit the "nail (or tin suit)on the head" when she talked about storytelling. My kids loved your storytime. The Renaissance Fair sounds wonderful. Have a great time. Deb :)
ReplyDeleteHi Cyndy,
ReplyDeleteIt's great the way you combined the technology and how it uses information that dates back to some ages ago. Although technology is new and constantly emerging, it will always rekindle something from the past. There are lots of other games that are on Facebook that include some type storytelling, traveling players, how life used to be without technology, and much more.