A rose is a rose is a rose?

I have been researching games (mostly mmog's) for three years now. I still remember my first paper on rational choice theory in guild participation in EverQuest. It wasn't exactly a masterpiece, but it gave me a taste of something I didn't know at the time would be my academic path.

During these three years, the majority of my written work has been on games that I have played or ones that I have watched my partner play for endless hours. During those many many play sessions, I have asked my partner every mundane question I could think of in order to understand the game and its play from his perspective - a long time, hardcore gamer of anything but sports and racing games.

So, my choosing Final Fantasy X-2 for this project was not a random one. I watched him play the game for 3 days straight (was a three day rental, and he does not believe in returning rented games unfinished). We talked about the gameplay and how it fit into the larger Final Fantasy franchise, what the dress spheres were and tactics to kill the mobs along the adventurous way. So when I chose to play FFX2 I really thought I had it all figured out. I mean, I've played more hours than I care to count of EverQuest, Dark Age of Camelot, Horizons and Lineage II, I figured that an rpg is an rpg, right?

Well, let's just say that this experience has proved that watching is NOT experience - I had alot to learn.