Hello class,
This week I will discuss how I taught a friend when to physically move away from a hazardous designated zone within a video game using an audible sound utilizing the classical conditioning method. A game I had once played many years ago is called the World of Warcraft. Within this fantasy massive multiplayer online roleplaying game known as an MMORPG, players can come together in 10- and 25-man groups to work towards eliminating a single or group of enemies who can use a variety of abilities in an attempt to destroy the players. Amongst these enemies, sometimes they have an ability where they may place in a designated zone about 30 meters wide, that can be damaging to the players characters health with intent to eliminate them. When the enemies place these designated zones known as AOE (area-of-effect), the player will move away from the zones and continue fighting.
In this game we are authorized to install add-ons or perks that can make the game a bit more tolerable and/or easier to play. Amongst these are an add-on known as GTFO. I will not disclose what the abbreviation may mean but I’m sure we can come up with an idea. This add-on will create an addible sound to alert the player character they are standing within an AOE. The player character will then move upon hearing the audible sound and allowing their character a longer amount of time of survival. The sound used is a common sound used throughout the game over the years. One must learn how to differentiate the sounds from the engagement and the sounds from the add-on itself.
Now that’s out of the way. I taught this to my friend Dakota who had never heard of add-ons before. There are training dummies you can have imitate specific actions that produce sounds to help yourself be prepared for specific engagements. I had set the dummies to produce the sound of the alert system within the addon while it was engaging my friend in combat. The unconditioned stimulus is the AOE that my friend is standing in within the game. The natural response would be for him to physically move his character away from the AOE zone. The neutral stimulus is the audible sound that is produced when standing within the zone. Since players hear the sound throughout the game, it is common for them to ignore it or not hear at all during the engagement. During conditioning, the sound will be applied specifically during the engagement when the enemy places the AOE and the sound will stop as soon as the player has physically moved their character away from the designated zone. Upon acquisition that has been established, during the after-conditioning phase, the player will automatically move their character from their current position whenever the alarm system is going off even if there is no AOE at all.
For my pros, it teaches in this case my friend Dakota how to survive engagements on his character during strenuous moments where every motion and click could have in game consequences. Whenever he decides to do player versus player content (essentially a duel between two people), whenever the enemy player would use a AOE or any abilities that could target more than one individual, it would teach him to move out the way and dodge the attack or remove himself from the location in the event there is a damaging effect within the designated zone. It may also teach better hand eye coordination within the game allowing him to become a better player and more desirable for future group engagements.
Under my cons, it will train him to make additional movements at the sound of the alert system even if there is no need for it due to a congestive fighting environment with limited space. It will also reduce the amount of damage his character could output due to him focusing on self-survival and not dealing as much possible damage such as his role it set to since there are healers within the group whose job is to sustain the group at all costs.
I felt that using an audible sound within the game to assist in reaction time would be best used due to group engagements that are typically involving a high level or very strong enemy who can usually hit your character one time and your character dies. Due to the amount of stress involved where these group contents usually last between 4 and 8 hours on a given day and reach as late as 10 hours requires extreme focus and immense dedication. When doing this sort of content, we are using a voice chat system and we rely on it for the sake of hearing commands or directions. Seeing how hearing the skill most needed but not used as often, using the audible sound would be best so the individual does not have to redirect their attention to anywhere on the screen or relying on clicking a specific button that is not within their rotation of abilities to click on during the engagement.
I find that this teaching can best be tested for its effectiveness by seeing if the individuals have a better reaction time during those same instances of group content versus these overpowering enemies with those abilities. The player can also be tested in any environment in any content where AOE’s are being used which require combat engagement raising the stakes. Provided I have a link to the add-on for those who wish to see the reviews on people who also use this add-on. I have also provided a quick 16 second video from 12 years ago of someone using the add-on. You will see a green puddle and the character standing within it along with the audible sound.
GTFO – World of Warcraft Addons – CurseForge
standing in bad gtfo addon – YouTube
-Dustin J. Fontenot