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Jacob McElwain

Professor Volstad

UWRT 1103-010

28 January 2019

RuneScape Reflection

Playing RuneScape was a new experience for me. I have friends who play RuneScape

who try to get me to play with them, but it’s just not my kind of game. I have, however, played

games similar to RuneScape, if you include Skyrim. I enjoyed that game a lot, because you had

complete control over your character. I saw a lot of similarities between the two games with the

time I have spent with them. Even though playing RuneScape was a new experience, I feel it was

a mostly positive experience. I did not have many troubles with the game, except for, at times, I

felt as if there was almost too much to it. I typically like simplicity, so I tend to stray away from

games like these and stick to games like Madden, NBA 2K, Ghost Recon, and Call of Duty. I

believe stepping into an unfamiliar discourse helps me grow. It is a new experience, and

therefore I can learn from it. New experiences help me understand others (especially those that

have different interests than I do)—new experiences with new discourses are always beneficial.

Participating in discourse communities is important because the communities allow those who

share common goals to communicate and help each other reach their goals. For example, those in

a fitness discourse community can share tips and workouts along with diet plans and such to help

those in a similar position that they are/ were in at one point. I believe I can benefit greatly from

participating in discourse communities of all sorts. Participating in those unfamiliar to me helps

me broaden my horizons. This, in turn, helps me get along with more people and allows me to

make more connections and become more well-versed. Participating in discourses familiar to me
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may help me strengthen my skillsets/ knowledge so I am more prepared for succeeding on my

career path. I think it is important to point out that one does not need to know much to participate

in a discourse community. As long as the individual mildly understand the communities goals, he

or she should be fine. On another note, my skills may have hindered me slightly for this

assignment. I am not a creative writer (I am sure it is noticeable). I excel at writing

argumentative papers and scientific reports. I am good at persuading and laying out details.

However, I am not so good at creating a story that is enjoyable for others to read. Nothing

unexpected occurred during this project. I cannot directly correlate this particular project to any

of my other experiences at this time. As of the creation of my RuneScape character, I would like

to mention that I (sort of) go about the same process for games like Ghost Recon and NBA 2K.

In each game, you create a character that is unchangeable after you begin the story mode, so I

think through every aspect of its creation. I chose each element of my RuneScape character,

originally, to be based off of a warrior. I wanted to wield a big sword and deal monstrous

amounts of damage with it. That being said, I chose the Smither’s kurta top, the plate-shin long

shorts, and steel-toed boots. Color-wise, I went black. It is a simple color (plus, it looked way

better than red). I feel like experience with a similar game would be almost necessary to

understand RuneScape. If I hadn’t played Skyrim, I would have had a much harder time

understanding the menus and such. I feel like you need to be able to focus in order to make sense

of RuneScape. If you don’t focus on the story line and just run through the missions, I think it’d

definitely get boring quickly, as it would become confusing. You also need to think critically so

you can counter opponents’ attacks to make sure you stay alive.