Laura's seventh practicum post

After looking at my classmate's 7th blog post I saw someone who decided to look up information about their site, so I decided to follow suit. Because I have been playing on Kongregate for months now and don't know much about it. (Except that it is too hard to reach level four.) Kongregate is an online host website created by a brother and sister team. The original design was created by Happy Cog Studios and now GameStop owns it. Users create all the games as Adobe Flash or Unity 3D . The badges and scores are only for those games that choose to feature API. API stands for application programming interface, which is a set of rules that allows software programs to communicate with each other.

This week, as I was on Kongregate I decided to play a game that was tailored directly for the female users. It was called "Being Fashion Girls." I will say now it was the WORST game on all of Kongregate. This game was worse than all the role-playing games or game where you are a wizard or dragon..which is saying something because those games are awful. In this game you are a big-boobed girl who needs to get her hair and make-up done before playing with her cat.

I wish this was a joke, but here is the description of the game: "A girl named Esther loves cute cats. She is going to have a walk with her cat. Dress her up. Choose good-looking clothes and stylish hairstyle. You can adjust the color by using the central palette. Then paint her face, and wear a pretty necklace. She is the most fashionable cat girl."

So I played the "game" the quickly rated it one star, at least I got a point for doing that!

Sadly, this mac I'm using won't allow me to upload this ridiculous photo of the girl. I might try later when I'm on my PC.

Laura's Sixth Practicum Post

Because my last post was overshadowed with my performance I forgot to mention my one big success on the site, which was finally completing the beginners quest and receiving the graduation medal!!!! To complete this quest I had to perform different tasks in nine different games. Some games were interesting and fun to beat but some were horrible. (I will admit that I couldn't beat bubble bully and had to have my boyfriend beat it for me.) The quest gave me 30 additional points on top of all the points I got for the individual games. Like I said in the presentation, the points and medals really don't matter on the site, but I will admit that I felt compelled to beat all nine levels and get the medal. Also, I'm 21 points away from level 4 which is making me play way more than usual. I'm starting to get addicted to the games and keep trying to find new ones that are more on the puzzle side of things.

Along with finding these games I decided I needed to get some kongregate friends. Starting out I just went in a chat room as I was playing cribbage square and asked if we were all playing in the same game..anyone who responded to me I friended. Well technically, I became a fan of them. As Nicole and I described in the presentation. Speaking of Nicole, or should I say Clovis23, we are now mutual friends on Kongregate and I left a "shout" on her wall about how all of my friends got addicted to her favorite game.

Laura's Fifth Practicum Post

Because Nicole and I have the same website, we were able to talk out the problems we've both been having with Kongregate. One of the problems is the problem of status. I learned that the points, the levels and the medals are all pretty much pointless on the site. They are just for bragging rights. The site is lacking an unlocking feature that gives special opportunities to higher leveled players. I feel as though the levels just allows the veteran players to discriminate against the lower level players. (because no one is very much help to a level 1) Another huge part about having the levels/point amount public information, is that it encourages users to keep coming back to the games so they can fit into this online world. Kongregate is different from many other gaming sites/console games because everyone plays games that they want to play instead of one common high intensity game that everyone is playing. This makes the site less of a community and less of a competition.

The question for my presentation goes along with this issue: How does the status of levels and points affect a person's involvement in the site?

Laura's Forth Practicum Post

I'm finally at level 2 on Kongregate!! (And it only took half of the semester..) A new thing I learned before playing the games today was that people on Kongregate can purchase "Kreds," which give power ups for 9 different levels. (The site claims that these 9 are the best games on the site.) The site explains: "While games on Kongregate will always be free for anyone to enjoy, kreds will enable players to purchase bonuses that would not otherwise be available. It's just another way we enable people to have fun while game developers earn their livings."

Besides being able to buy power ups with these kreds, you can also buy "Kongai Cards." These cards are then played on a game called "Kongai," a game in which there are weekly challenges to build up your card collection by battling an opponent. (Kind of like Pokemon.) I decided to bypass this game for my wallet's sake.

Back on my quest to fulfill my beginners badge, I played "Flying Purple Power Eater." This game was essentially just running my mouse over shapes, trying to pick up the yellow and purple shapes and avoiding the red shapes. I dominated and am now 2/10th of the way done with my badge.

Laura's Third Practicum Post

I have a nice routine down now for playing Kongregate. After my 8:50
on Tuesdays, when I just feel like sleeping, I go to the business
library and play a few games to keep me entertained before my next
class starts at 11.

Today I found out that I have 35 points and apparently that is only 15
away from level 2! Speaking of level 2, I found out today that this
website has different levels that you can get to. After some
searching around, I found out that the highest level on Kongregate is
level 65! There is a list of people with the highest number of points.
Jayisgames is number 1, with 384303 points. In my defense he has
been playing since 2006. This got me thinking, is there a community
of people who are all on level 65 that talk to each other? (Too bad
that is something I will never experience…seeing as I’m celebrating
getting to level two)

I also found that there is a list of your achievements, showing in
what games you got points/badges. But some games don’t give you
anything…for example my favorite cribbage game.

Today I’m trying to receive badges. Kongregate has beginner games, to
earn badges. I’m going to try, Spark of Life Badge, (because the icon
picture looks like a disco ball and I hate first person shooters
games!)


After playing the game I found out there is a beginner’s quest. You
have to win 10 badges; I have now earned the first one when playing
Spark of Life, which was probably the worst game ever. The game was
basically a terrible movie that told you exactly what to do, with
almost no thinking or strategizing involved. At least it earned me 5
points, which brings me that much closer to level two!

Laura's Second Practicum Post

After only playing card games on Kongregate, I decided to jump all in and play the top rated game. So, I played "Don't Touch My Gems." I hated every moment of it, including setting up the fortresses, being confused by the enemies and saving my gems. Next, I played the featured game. I was even more confused. I was in a bubble shooting other bubbles going into other bubbles. After playing these two games and still not receiving any achievement points, I turned to the puzzle games. I opened a game called, "The Company of Myself." Right from the start the game was very clever. On the loading screen there was a funny line about being impatient. The game was very good at balancing walking you through how to play and letting you figure the game out yourself. The back story was very interested and it was incorporated differently in every level. After about 45 minutes I beat the game! I finally have some achievement points!!

Laura's Practicum: post one

Today I signed up for my practicum website, Kongregate. My inital reaction to the website was that it looks like a cleaner version of addicting games.com, except I don't recognize any of the games. The first thing I decided to do on the site was to get my own profile. I signed up and got my own profile, although it is blank so far. There are many questions I have so far with Kongregate, such as: Why do I already have 15 points? How do I get more? Why is my avatar a frog? and Would any of my friends have a Kongregate, so my profile wouldn't look so sad?

I think it's time to play some games!