DDO and Classes share some traits.

Yesterday after spending more then an hour on the phone I got ready and went to my Thursday Japanese Language class. With the rain pouring down thick as the rain on Jurassic Park 1 my loving husband dropped me off. I got to class a little late and sat next to a younger student in the back as the teacher was converting names from English to Hiragana having seen me walk in she did my name Mina. She then practically begged people to suggest names for her to show them, her energy and love for the class and teaching is at times awe inspiring. So I handed her my business card for FMC and she took it with great energy and wrote it on the board. Furry Moon Creations in Hiragana, written by Megumi MiyazakiWhich one day I'll actually be able to read. The classes are held at ISU in Ames every Tuesday and Thursday from 1730-1830 in Sweeney Hall. Tuesdays is where the bulk of the learning and teaching happen and Thursday is refresher courses. Unfortunately for me I miss every Tuesday because of another class. Fortunately for me that other class is very important and is providing me with great training for running FMC. It's Hosted by ISED Ventures and is run by the equally energetic and enthusiastic Toni. It's an 8 week class held in Des Moines from 1700-2030. The class is only 8 weeks long 9 if you attend graduation (and why wouldn't I?). Here's one picture I took in class though taking of to many pictures is discouraged. Yes it's sideways, It's unedited stright from the camera.In it I along with dozen of other small business owners, inventers, teachers and curious people lean how to start, maintain, protect, promote, and work with other businesses to make any business successful. While I'm fairly sure this class is mainly for Iowans if your interested I think they can direct you to a program like it in your state.

In both classes there is one thing that I can not state enough the value of and that is the other people learning with you. They ask questions you didn't think of, they help you realize your not the only person trying to learn X or to be struggling with Y. They also are an unbiased sounding board, I recently got new business cards that I worried would not promote the look and feel of the company the way I wanted, however I trusted the company I hired to design them and handed them out as the ISED class. It was a success, those who had seen my old ones reacted very favorably to the new ones. much to my relief. Like wise some of them come to me for advice on which ISP to use or good tech websites. Meanwhile in the language class one to three of the other's in the class show me their notes from Tuesday prior and during small minute long down time we talk about various uses of languages, thinking in a language vrs converting in your head. Good Anime and cultural differances, goals and dreams, and other things that don't really have anything to do with the class. In every class you have those few two to six people that raise their hands, ask questions, volunteer for projects ect. Then you have those that show up learn, do their required tasks and leave.

Dungeons and Dragons Online or DDO. D&D for those who are tired of rules lawyers, DMs that don't like the fact you made a Halfling Lawful Neutral Paladin or just don't wanna drive to Fred's place accross town. When it 1st came out ages ago I bought the game and played it being in at the time 3 Real D&D groups. Well long story short it was not worth my money and I quit after a month. Last week I was downloading addon's for World of Warcraft and saw I could play DDO FREE. I thought, what's the catch? Being a game designer I wanted to see what their business model was and how it stacked up to mine. Being a gamer that loves grouping more then solo play I jumped at the chance to see if it's only redeaming value from when I quit still exsisted. I now have a level 3.2 Halfling Skill Rogue that can't kill something to save a cleric's life but can disable any trap or open in lock in the parties way. The great thing is, I can get paties, and easily, and it is free to play. There are perks to paying for it but that's another blog post. I took part in two groups last night. The 1st had a Cleric that upon hearing me over voice said I sounded like a nerdy homo girly man. Upon finding out I'm a girl, the bard told us that DDO's in game voice was low quality. Girl's he knows that play sound like guys pretending to be girls when they really have sweet voices. After a bit of the Cleric being a further ass I squelched KombatKyle and left the party, friended the Bard and looked for the next group as he went offline. Group two was a gem, The leader Lead using voice. Everyone did their job. If I saw a trap or Secret everyone stopped behind me and waited very calmly. We cleared Water Works quickly and got almost maximum XP without anyone dieing.

Much like in the class you had One person teaching, two people giving imput or asking questions and 3 people keeping their mouth shut and doing their job. This dynamic is true weather you have six people, gojyunana (57) people, or 300 people. We are social creatures, the smaller the group the easier to maintain a single common leader however to small and you become limited in what you can do. Two large and you become limited in what you can maintain. The military has found that seven seems to be a good number. I have found that Five in WoW means you need a raid group to have an impressive battle. Six in EQ 1 suffered the same fate to a much larger effect. I beleive 13 is the right max size for a MMO. One to lead, then two to lead five each. It has the advantage of being slightly larger then a 10 man in WoW while still allowing for two smaller groups. Yet still a common leader. This is how Moonshards will be once it becomes an MMO. So the next time you take a class, think about what roll you fill and realize that as long as your not hurting other's chances to learn your most likely more useful then anyone their realized.