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General: Reading Comprehension
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
In his latest column for MMORPG.com, Managing Editor Jon Wood begins a discussion of reading comprehension with the Net-wide coverage of World of Darkness and the suggestion that permadeath would be included in the game. While the issue was discussed, it was discussed as a fan suggestion, not a developer inclusion in World of Darkness. Is this the first time something like this has happened? Read Jon's thoughts about the Net and the sound bite mentality. Then let us know what you think.
It’s easy to see how this has happened as our culture has shifted more and more into one that communicates in tiny snippets of the overall message starting, many would argue, with the nightly news soundbite and culminating with the 140 character limit of Twitter.
Read more of Jon Wood's column "Reading Comprehension".
Comments
Jon Wood, I see what your saying and agree. This may be something of a human evolution (or just impatient gamers) for information exchange. In EQ, we had to find our quests by reading a lot, then in wow we get a simple "!" to mark the spot and we skim for the kill 10 rats high-light, in SWTOR, now we dont have to read anything, we get dialogue.
I completely agree Jon Wood. So much so that the guild I am currently in has added features like you requested to determine if people actually did read our guild policies, etc. Just skimming over them will be obvious and leads to a denial of their application.
But to the point, you are correct. People see something and run with it without asking any questions. They write articles, post blogs, tweet, facebook updates, etc, and they are completely wrong. What is probably even worse is everyone takes this information to heart, runs with it, and spreads it.
I think that you have properly described the problem.
I often see posts in game forums where responces are simply "TL;DR". (Too Long; Didn't Read for those that do not know what it means.)
This goes to show that even when someone tries to present the context people are not interested in seeing it. This often makes it hard for players to exchange and discusss complect concepts, or for developers to get reasonable feedback of what players actually want to see in a game.
Players often jump on a bandwagon of a suggestion and each actually have different problems that they want to see addressed. This lack of willingness to communicate in both directions does cause a lot of problems.
I feel that most of the reason for this is a lack of reading comprehension. People do not want to read or write proper messages since they either can not comprehend them or are afraid that people will not understand them because the others can not comprehend what they said.
Well, Although I do see Jon Wood's point in this article I have to say that I think the cause of this is the new 'softer learning' approach they are using in public schools these days. When I was a kid we had students that would fall behind, sure but the response from teachers back then was along the lines of, "Do your work or else!". Now adays they seem so wrapped up in phsycoanalyzing everything that they have forgotten that they are there to teach, period. When we refused to do our work or just acted badly we were punished accordingly. Now all they care about is positive reinforcement and how little Billy feels about what he's done. This is the main reason I believe we have more kids graduating highschool now adays with about a 6th or 7th grade education tops... some graduate with a 3rd to 4th grade reading level. This is the root of a lot of the reading comprehesion problems in the world today. It isn't just on the Web either... I see it every day where I work as well. It's a shame really but public schools are failing our children horribly with these new teaching techniques.
Bren
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Jon Wood makes many English teachers proud this day.
Well, you caught one, Jon Wood. Not only that, but your victim has the longest response to your article and seems to be in complete agreement with you. Nice.
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
~Albert Einstein
I agree to a certian extent. I have a sense the reason people don't read throught things is because they are slow readers. I personally am one. It takes time for me to read. And I just don't want to put in the time to read every line, Jon Wood. I try, but like most people today I get bored easily and just don't want to continue. Then I skipped a couple of lines/pharagrahs. I think this is because of our culture nowadays. People want to rush things, or just start them and don't finish them. People want the end or the beginning, but not the middle, which is the most important, the most painful, and time consumming part.
I myself is one, but I'm trying to fix that. I'm not taking more time to read things. And actually understand them.
After hearing a lot of complaints, here is what I think some game company should do: Make an MMO with nothing... no real artwork, no text, just "head over here and collect this" and "head over here and kill this" or "Head over there and give this to that guy" with no reason whatsoever, no quest text, just directions, amke the gameplay like every other themepark game out there... have arbitrary weapons with no reason, just a number that does damage, armor that just gives you a number, add a Gearscore rating, and give no reason or story or meaning to anything. Then add PvP, an endgame where you need 50 people to kill the big bad boss, and a boss fight that could be learned by a 6 year old where the bad guy tells you everything that he is doing right before he does it.
I think gamers will eat this up. They don't read the quest text, they don't care about the lore, all they care about is "Is this the best build for my hunter thats possible" "I got the best sword possible" "Oh, this axe does 0.0001 more damage per 10 seconds, its much much better" "Your fighter sucks because he's not exactly built like my fighter, which I got from some guy online who says its the best there is". They don't really care about the story, or the artwork, or the detail, or anything.
Then, the game company can add whatever skin to the game you want. Based on all the complaints I hear about MMO's, and peoples true desire to race through content without actually enjoying any of it, and then subsequent complaining about it... I think this would be a success. Then, have whatever company makes it just throw a new skin or artwork into it for whatever fad comes along. Future/Space? Sure! Fantasy? Sure! Doesn't really matter, because most players won't care at all!
I know, this is filled with angst and anger, but I simply can not how anyone can find entertainment in that, and yet that is how a great portion of people play these MMO's. I do not, and I know there are a lot of mature players out there that don't do that as well. For the record, I am greatly exaggerating in this post. But really, come on, there has to be a point somewhere. If a quest text told you where to find something, but when you got there, there wasn't a gigantic arrow or bright sparkles or whatever directly overtop of what you're looking for, how many people then bother those in chat asking where to find it?
Its true, there is a great portion of gamers that don't read what is presented, can't see the value in a well crafted story or plotline, and just grind because they love to grind. I am not one of them, lots of people aren't either... but they are out there, and they determine how these games function.
/end rant
Jon Wood has hit the nail on the head with this one, and his example/test of comprehension allows us to see how some of the most long winded responses, though seemingly well thought out and cogent, can still miss one of the most important points.
Well...this time, Jon Wood hit the nail squarely on the head. Sadly, this is a relatively new phenomena - in the days of BL and GS2/3 you HAD to read, and understand - or you were dead. With the advent of Graphical games - coinciding with the 'me first' generation and the "I want it NOW"'ers - people read , and see, only what they want to. Plus, if what they see doesn't agree with them - they fly off the handle in the most absurd ways. Almost as if a developer/producer's only job is to keep them, and only them happy. I realize I've narrowed this down to almost a gamer only problem - but that's reflected in modern society as a whole now. It's something that's getting worse, and frankly - I don't see it getting any better!
I actually think part of the problem comes from people not looking at the original sources. Someone sees a blog, post about it on thier favorite MMO forum, No body goes back to see what the original blog says and with in hours it becoumes gospel among the community. Then we have to get some one like Jon Wood here to try and clear up the confusion.
I'm sure we will still see people on here a month from now criticizing (or praising) WoD for having permadeath.
I agree with John Wake, Permadeath in Secret World sounds good.
More serious: there is this game for children, where the first child whispers a sentence to the second child. Then the second whispers what he understands to the third and so on. Finally the last child out of a row of ten or more says the sentence loud. Mostly you hear a complete different sentence than the initially whispered one.
Maybe this was the case here, Jon.
This article reminded me of a test given to my English class in second grade, one I'm sure many people in my age group received: the test involved a list instructions and questions, some multiple choice, some question & answer. The very last entry directed the student to disregard all previous instructions and questions. Students who handed in an unmarked test form recieved an A, everyone else received an F. The point of the test was to teach students to thoroughly read their text before leaping to conclusions or taking action based on that text.
Thanks for taking the time to champion literacy, Jon Wood!
Heh, I had to do that test in highschool, and again in the military. First line said something like "read this test thouroughly before answering any questions." Then the last line would say "Write your name on the top of the page, do not answer any other questions, and turn in your test."
Most people failed.
I recall getting that test in high school, as well. It wasn't graded (which is good, most of us would have failed >.<) but it was kind of a "D'oh! Got me" moment for the class. And I had to chuckle at how this clever snare nabbed a couple people - one post had nothing to do with the article at all.
In agreement with previous posts, it is rather sad how reading comprehension has declined - whether because of poor education or Tweets or cell phone texting (which spills over to MMOs, ugh). If anyone finds a way that I could help, I'd give it a shot!
At any rate, loved the article, and before I get to rambling, I'd just like to say, "You're my hero, Jon Wood!"
I blame low post-secondary attendance rates in the U.S. for this. Even in first year courses at university students are taught critical thinking skills - how to read, understand, and analyze stuff they read.
Post secondary attendance has fallen by quite a bit in the past 10 years in the U.S. (the U.S. used to be #1 in the world, it is now something like #17.) The vast majority of traffic for the English speaking internet is from the U.S.
That, compounded with the fact that the gaming media has been outright sloppy in their coverage of this. For example, the title of the Massively article is "Permadeath considered for World of Darkness MMO" (http://www.massively.com/2010/09/30/permadeath-considered-for-world-of-darkness-mmo/) while the article makes it clear that it was only a fan suggestion. Yet those who just read the article title are going to think the devs are actively considering permadeath (a far better title for the article would have been "Fan suggests permadeath to World of Darkness MMO devs.")
(And yes, I'm ignoring that put your name in the post thing. Most people spelled it wrong anyway.)
What's amazing to me, John Wood, is that not only did a number of people miss the point of the article, but they also aren't reading any of the posts either. If they had, they probably would have wondered why several people keep referring to you like this.
People = endless entertainment.
A Little Dab'll Do Ya!
I'm totally agreed this.Jon Wood.
Most new age mmo players dont read the full detail to get full infomation,they just ask in forum and waiting someone to help them to get the answer.When you ask them to *READ* the patch note,they just ignore you.Becuase they have already get used to someone will help them to get the answer or his friend will tell him,never *READ* something is useful,just RUSHED everything.
I think another problem is TIME.They said only have 2 hours to play a MMO,so they dont want waste time to read something useful,but if they only have 2hours to play a MMO,why dont read something useful infomation when they are not playing it.I dont know if they are lazy or really that BUSY.Mabye it just a game,so they never take care about it.
Were you being ironic then? What do you think John Wood?
So far, Jon Woodpecker, 4 out of 19 did not read it, but they have extensive answers! 1 in 5... Quite alot of people!
"This is not a game to be tossed aside lightly.
It should be thrown with great force"
Funny how the ones who did all the ranting, didn't even read Jon Wood's entire blog, lol. It's all about the "instant-gratification" generation that has no patience and is usually hyped up on caffeine and ritalin. They whine in any mmo for the "easy button" because they don't want to take time to learn a game or read any quest logs.
would be interesting to get a statistice of edited posts for this thread.
Having seen time and time again the people that can't read quest notes (they did have to read more than 140 character to get that far, right Jon Wood -- interesting to note that people didn't get your name right -- right??) I can't help but agree. Having spent a lot of my time in text medium (MUD, MU*, I know it's heretical) I've "enjoyed" watching the same issue there. People tend to gravitate to the point of text that grabs their attention and remove the rest of the context as unnecessary.
Cheers to Dabruuzer on People = endless entertainment.
-D
Jon Wood is my new hero.
I've seen this in action over the years, since I used to follow the MMO game industry as a spectator sport. I've seen dev posts and mere fan posts about what features they wished to see in a game being taken for reality, even when devs show up and say it won't happen. Once the rumor genie is out of the bottle, it can be hard to get back under control. It's too late if someone has already taken that and posted it somewhere else.
It's also hard for people to find out the truth when they see something posted somewhere with no links back to the original source. No matter how well you read, you can't trust anything if it isn't coming from an official source or that doesn't cite the original source.
L2R, ppl.
hahaha I was thinking the same thing when I saw that long rant, that had been edited, where the guy explained why he didn't bother to follow the directions.
Jon Wood was spot on. Even as I was reading the OP I caught myself saying, 'ooo a picture' and skipping several paragraphs to read the text of the father/son comic. I embarrassingly must add that after looking at it I went straight for the mouse wheel to scroll down. Instantly realizing what I did, I went back up and read the last two paragraphs. The problem, as I see it, is that there is just too much information out there. I relax after work by reading my emails and shooting through various websites trying to get updates on all the stuff I like. It usually takes me an hour while I eat dinner and unwind, and even then, I'm still only getting the smallest chunks of all the info out there. The only way to not feel like you're being left behind in so many areas of interest is to try and get as much info as you can in the time you have. This leads me to skim over things rather than read them in depth.
The bad thing is, though, there are people that feel the same pressures of time I do, but also write blogs and report on these subjects. I see what Jon was talking about all the time. If you follow a subject far enough down the rabbit hole through the internet its amazing to see just how prevalent this is. You read the source, then jump through links after typing the subject in google to get more info and so many times you get insane reports that claim they are telling the truth.
This is also why I'm so slow to buy electronics and new games if I haven't seen them first hand. There's always tantalizing info out there making me want to buy buy buy but then I go a little deeper and find out most people are full of crap and just repeating what they heard. Too bad google doesn't have a built in thumbs up/ thumbs down feature that specifically lets people know if a particular website is more or less crap as you search for info.