Evolution of a PTI Gamer

Hi everyone!

Yes, it's time for another lengthy forum post from Tazwalker. Looking back, I can't believe it's been seven weeks already and that the game is coming to a close. I find myself to be a better person from it, and I feel accomplished for helping and getting to know others while I've used the city as my playground.

When I first heard of the game, a few days before it began, I was only slightly interested. I stood on the fence for a minute, but I eventually decided against registering. I'd have enough on my hands with schoolwork. After all, that should my primary focus, right? But then I received an email on the evening of September 11th, the day before the game began. It pulled me over the edge, and I signed up just in time to qualify for the Early Bird achievement. That night and the next day, I also recruited my Dad (bloechl), my roommate (Farm Boy), and a number of friends, only one of whom signed up (THawk89).

I wasn't hooked at first. I began by telling myself that it was for charity and I was only doing it because of that. I had no intention of going all-out. But the first scavenger hunt that Sunday got me started off on the right foot. What fun that was! I greatly enjoyed exploring the Neighborhood of the Arts with my Dad and roommate. The game also got me out of bed early enough to snap a bunch of pictures of the fiberglass horse on RIT's campus before the day's rain began. Getting me out of bed before 10 is really hard to do.

Wednesday rolled around and I was still hanging in there. My place in the standings would range greatly, as many of the competitors were still tied for first. Unfortunately, Wednesday was the day the deadline for the flash games changed suddenly. Not knowing about the new deadline, and thinking I could only play Maptitude once, I spent time looking up important locations in Rochester and memorizing their locations. I also spent a few hours out and about collecting papers for the Mystery Picture. Unfortunately, I didn't get around to Maptitude until almost 11, not having seen the post in the News and Updates forums. I lost 40 points due to the deadline change. They would be the only points I would miss throughout the remainder of the game. At least up through today.

I was disappointed, but I hoped I could catch up somehow. I'm a big competitor once I've latched on to something, and I've been gunning for first the whole way. Young professionals? Nah. A college kid can keep up with the best of the best. Never made it back to first (except for the occasional few minutes when I've completed the flash games before everyone else- I'm a master at the slide tiles and gears). I'm still down by those 40 points. But I wasn't the only one. Hfljazzguy sent me a message on Facebook the next day. He was also victimized by the new deadline. Over the next few weeks, we'd talk through Facebook about the game and help each other out with the achievements, but we wouldn't actually meet until the Faction Theme Song contest during week 5. That was fun. There were a lot of laughs that evening between the two of us and eaglevaulter.

The Monday of week 2 was when I found out I had won the Picture the Horses competition. From then on, I aimed for a winning entry in each competition. It wasn't until much later that I realized I couldn't win a second time. Oh well. The digital picture frame is still sitting on my dresser, buried beneath saxophone reeds and mouthpieces and lying next to the six-inch pile of Democrat & Chronicle papers I bought for the game, untouched for weeks. With school and PTI, I haven't had the time to open it yet. Maybe over break.

I started thinking about the gala once I got my tickets a couple weeks later. Would I be going? At first, the answer was an easy no. There was a hockey game that night! As a die-hard fan, why would I miss RIT's first in-conference home game of the season? But as I kept playing, the decision became harder to make. In the end, I decided I should make an appearance, being known to many other players, especially in Tree faction. The decision came down to whether or not I would have to wear a suit. I didn't have one- and still don't- and you couldn't drag me anywhere wearing something like that. It took me up until this week to finally decide to go in costume.

By nature, I am a shy person. I find it difficult to approach people I don't know. I'll ignore or avoid people I haven't talked to before, and it takes a while for me to get to know people. So it was in the middle weeks of the game. But around then, I began to meet a few people on the scavenger hunts and others through Facebook. I'm glad PTI made these barriers easier to break through for me so that I can talk PTI with people I've never met.

Despite being shy, I tend to be a good leader, so when the Forge surged ahead in week 5, I tried to step it up a notch. I put a few posts up in the forums calling for a little more organization and communication among the Trees. I helped this by creating a Facebook group for the Tree that now sits at just over 50 members and has encouraged further discussion and familiarity among players. For example, I didn't know that my grandmother knew Coriander- her father was my father's music teacher when he was in high school. We have random connection with people all around us, but it takes something like this to bring them to light. The Tree came in second that week. Hey, I tried.

And so we get to today. It started out like any other day- staying up late. Things got strange from there. Upon going to bed, I began a lengthy, extremely detailed and vivid dream about PTI. I still recall almost every piece of it. I had heard other players mention dreaming of PTI as well, but I never thought I would become that obsessed. This particular dream involved a scavenger hunt. It was in a large, wooded park, and brought in an aspect of Geocaching as well. It also seemed to be a race to the finish. Unfortunately, I lost this race due to randomly materializing in my own house (still in the dream) and being unable to find my way back to the scavenger hunt route. Oh well. Such are dreams. Actually, bringing players to parks for the scavenger hunts and incorporating Geocaching are a couple of things I'd like to see if there is to be a future in this game.

So over the course of these seven weeks, I've gone from unknowing to uninterested to involved to obsessed. PTI has kept me busy for these weeks, in fact pressed for time over much of it, but that's a good thing. In the process, PTI has changed a part of me, and I will sorely miss this when the game is over. Through PTI, I've been able to keep busy (and likely sane). I've found it easier to approach people, knowing that we already have something in common. And I've learned more about our city and it's history. That was really the goal here, wasn't it? And not only have my efforts gone to supporting one of three excellent charities, but I've had fun doing it.

So thanks so much to PTI and everyone involved in it! Just to name a few, thanks to Liz Lawley and Traci Bauer for being the backbone of this game! Thanks to Joe Peitruch for the daily web games! They were great! And thanks even to Larry Shearer and Zack Butler for their occasionally frustrating yet ever-enjoyable newspaper crosswords and puzzles! And of course to my good friend the Marquis, who shall remain unnamed, it's been fun seeing you around and talking to you about the game. And to everyone I didn't mention, your efforts have not gone unnoticed! I think this game was a fantastic success, and I would love to see something like it done again!

Even if there is no continuation, what we've accomplished here is revolutionary. We've all been pioneers of sorts. From the players to the programmers, we've done something new. We now have the technology for something like this to become widespread. Hopefully what has gone on here in Rochester can be copied or improved upon in other cities around the world. This doesn't have to touch only our lives. It doesn't have to end here.

Thanks for something useful to do with my life for seven weeks!

-Tazwalker