On Hanging Out

Designing social places. How does one design a social place? Does it need to be designed? Or does it appear out of thin air? What comes to mind when you think of a social hang out? A bar? A park? Maybe in your favorite bookstore. What makes you want to hang out there? As I was playing some World of Warcraft in the few free minutes of my life that I've had recently, (I mean it. I have almost no free time right now. Kind of sad for a game designer.) I spent some time just flying around recreationally. I had found a rare piece of armor and wanted to sell it at a public auction house and so I teleported back to the human capital of Stormwind. This practice is quite common as auction houses are found in only a few cities. However, what I noticed is that different cities seemed more or less populated than the others.

I will be making some in game geographical references in this post, so I realize that some of this is going to be confusing for people who do not play WoW. This is a basic map of the game. Each of the little towers is a capital city. Technically there is another zone that is shown on a different map. There is only one capital there though, and it is almost always deserted. Given the subject of this post however, that is an interesting thing to note.

So. There are two major factions in World of Warcraft. Each faction has four home cities. There are also two neutral cities that allow players from both factions to enter. (So for those of you who are counting, that's 10 major cities) However, any moderately seasoned player knows that a city like Darnassus will have maybe four people max in it at any given time whereas Ogrimmar will have crowds. So what is it that makes certain cities more popular destinations to just "hang out?" I believe that is depends on a few things. The first being the simple one, location. If it's not easy to get there, not many people will do it. How many people climb to the summit of Mount. Everest a year? (Not many, I'll tell you that) How many people do you think visit New York each year. Convenience of location contributes greatly to how popular a place is. Darnassus is the city in the northwestern quadrant of Azeroth. The other capital near it is the Exodar, an equally deserted city. If you look at the map, both of these cities are on islands and it takes a several minutes of flying to reach them. (Oh yeah. WoW is a really big game. A flight across the entire continent takes about 17 minutes) A city like Dalaran, which is up north on the island where all the high level characters quest is the most populated city. It is close to all the relevant quest zones for high level players.

However, another important aspect to creating a lively "social zone" is the type of service provided. Basically, is there something interesting to do once you are at this place? You may live next door to a restaurant, but if there are only two items on the menu, how often would you go there to eat? (Unless it's some super awesome tasty dish!)

Game designers realize that in order to keep places in WoW and other online environments populated, they must constantly be drawing in players. There must be something to keep them interested. I mentioned Dalaran earlier. Dalaran is a new city that was added in the most recent expansion and contained all sorts of relevant content for veteran players. However, this also draws newer players away from the game because they don't really have much reason to interact with high levels players. In order to compensate for this sort of social divide, the WoW designers are not including certain services in the newer cities. For instance, the auction house. In order to give high level players a reason to visit the lower level zones, the designers place content that players of all levels can use.

All in all there are probably more reasons for people to just hand out. Preferences vary from individual to individual, but if there is an interesting service in a convenient location, you are likely to draw crowds.

Searching...

I signed up with the social bookmarking site Delicious. To be perfectly honest, I think I did it more because of the name than the site itself. However, it does seem to have a very intuitive interface. I was able to search using various tags and see who had bookmarked sites that I was finding. I did like the feature that allows you shows how many results will come up if you add a tag to the one that you are currently searching.

Unfortunately I am still having some difficulty finding interesting blogs or sites in my field of research. To remind my followers, I am looking at examining the various relationships that develop in MMORPGs and in particular World of Warcraft. I am finding many websites related to the game, but they are more focused on game mechanics and strategies rather than academic research. (I know the research is out there. I've read it!) Perhaps the "academic" authors don't like to write in blogs as much, or perhaps I am just having a hard time finding their work.

I have been looking at sites under the tags of World of Warcraft, Social, and Gaming, but I find that most of the results aren't terribly promising. Most sites are just casual posts from players that say they love how World of Warcraft is social, but that's about it. There are some other interesting things that come up, like tutorials on how to make machinima with WoW. That's an interesting subject for me as well because it explores using video games to express ideas in a more film like media. However, this doesn't exactly pertain to my topic of social structures and development of social practices in a virtual world.

I did find a slight trend of sites that try and show how WoW will help you develop skills in the real world. (I've always wondered...) I've seen articles like this before, but I'm not terribly sure that I believe them. It could be interesting however because it is trying to find correlations between face to face interaction with interaction online. Interactions in WoW are different than those found in other types of online social environments, like IMVU or Second Life.

The fact that there are multiple sites that look into this topic might be useful, but overall I still find it very hard to find good source material. Searching World of Warcraft alone as a tag results in things like (http://www.topworldofwarcraftguide.com/world-of-warcraft-gold-farming-guide). Not terribly helpful. Social Media seems to get slightly better results. Unfortunately, I believe that "social media" has become a bit of an overused buzz word and is being thrown around casually.

On guilds

I believe in my last post that I mentioned I would like to explore some of the various micro societies that have developed within World of Warcraft. (Or maybe I thought it and didn't say anything. It's been a long week) One of the fascinating structures within WoW is the guild system.
Guild:
- noun
1. an organization of persons with related interests, goals, etc., esp. one formed for mutual aid or protection.
(dictionary.com: guild)

For the most part, this remains true in the game. Players can band together to make a sort of private club comprised of players with a similar mindset or goals. These players often meet online several times a week to raid the high level dungeons in search of epic armor and weapons. (Also for fame and glory, of course)

While this might just seem like a casual gathering of players, true guilds are often very serious. Many have specific application forms and schedules for how often you must play. If you do not meet for scheduled raids or come unprepared, (for those who don't play, that basically means forgetting things like potions) you will often be demoted in rank or sometimes even kicked out of the guild.

Guilds can be quite small and comprised of friends or acquaintances (social guilds) or as large as several hundred serious players (hardcore raid guilds). This variety in size creates very different micro societies within the WoW environment. For instance, a social guild has almost no requirement whatsoever. You either know the people personally, or you just get along with them very well.

Raiding guilds can sometimes be comprised of many friends, but often they strangers that have one thing in common, that they take the game very seriously. Joining a raiding guild is a huge time commitment. Often taking several hours out of your evenings on three or four nights a week. There is also a lot of pressure to play well. If you fight enemies poorly or have not earned powerful enough weapons, you may get harsh criticism from other members.

These hardcore guilds have also created their own mini economy that is based around the fictional unit of currency, the DKP, or Dragon Kill Point. DKP are awarded to members that helped slay difficult bosses during a raid. Some guild leaders also give small bonuses based on individual performances. Players can then use these points to "purchase" rare items that drop from bosses. Each item is given a value that players can then trade in for.

This is a fictional economy. It isn't supported by the game developers and was created specifically by gamers to help distribute spoils efficiently and fairly to other members of their guilds. Fraudulent activities are policed by members and any transgressions are met with harsh criticism both in and out of guilds. Stealing points almost always ends in social death.

I am curious to explore the other aspects of these micro societies and particularly how these guilds function.

Trifecta Post

Rerolling (post 1)



After a long day of hard work, many people like to kick off their shoes, maybe take a shower and just plop themselves down on a couch. While this may be fun for most people, I like to relax by hurling bolts of frostfire at the faces of my enemies. Sometimes I join up with other people to take down towering dragons.



...



At this point, some of you may think I'm trying to make some elaborate joke, but I assure you that I am quite serious. :D I actually participate in these activities on a regular basis. Well, when I have free time anyway. However, I am not the only one. In fact, over 12 million other people have fun in this way. I am talking about the World of Warcraft. For those who don't know, WoW is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game developed by Blizzard Entertainment.



The game allows many players to log onto a virtual realm and don the personae of various fantasy archetypes. These characters can be made from a variety of races like humans, elves, orcs, trolls and many others. I have several characters in WoW, though I typically play my human mage Fenice, ambassador to the forces of the Alliance. (For those of you who play, I'm on the server Zuluhed)



Each player can then quest on their own or with other players, all the while slaying mystical creatures and obtaining rare and powerful weaponry for their characters. The game is ridiculously complex, but has a simple grace to it. It has been meticulously tested and revised since its initial launch in 2004 and is governed by ironclad rules. However, despite WoW's complexity, it has a striking amount of freedom.



I realize that there are many blogs about World of Warcraft out there. However, I hope to take a different approach to my blog. I am not only a player, but I am also a scholar. When I take off my robe of +58 stamina and +60 intellect I once again become an aspiring game designer and ludologist.



While games in general have been around for millennia, video games have developed much more recently. Computer games have developed alongside the computer and are therefore a product of the postmodern era. (Pretty much the latter half of the 20th century) Of course, games like World of Warcraft are even younger still and perhaps it is because the study of games is fairly young that many scholars look at them with disdain. Many see them as frivolous forms of entertainment that stupefy the masses. (Hmm. If I remember that's what they used to say about the study of film. I smell hypocrisy! )



I, however, believe that games offer a vast amount of material to study. Whether people realize it or not, their lives are filled with games, some that they themselves create. For instance, have you ever suddenly bet your friend that you can race across a field faster than he can? Or maybe that you can hold your breath longer? Even something as simple as betting on a flipped coin is a game. These little spontaneous games fall under the category of paedia put forth by noted French ludologist Roger Caillois.



Now. I realize that talking about games is a very broad subject that encompasses activities such as the aforementioned race, to games as complex as football, Monopoly, Dungeons & Dragons or Ocarina of Time. Therefore I will be focusing specifically on World of Warcraft and even more particularly on the social structures that develop within a digital environment. To be blunt, WoW is really a very elaborate chat room. (I'm sorry fellow gamers, but you know it's true) It has many things that you can do, but the whole game is really based around online relationships. Every day, strangers log on and group together to complete difficult quests. Serious gamers use voice chatting programs like Ventrilo to increase efficiency and teamwork. Some of these encounters require up to 25 people to work together for several hours at a time. At the heart of World of Warcraft there is a strong sense of community.



Yet even this is only a small aspect of the WoW universe. There are relationships within the game's virtual economy. While not immediately apparent, there is a faint class structure between players of different levels. I'd like to explore these forms of relationships as well as discover others and observe how relationships develop within a digital setting.
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A fellow WoW couple (post 2)

WoW. It seems to be really hard to actually find a blog that specifically addresses some of the topics that I would like to explore in mine, namely the various relationships forged between players in a online environment. However, I am not discouraged! This gives me an opportunity to act like a real scholar and observe behavior indirectly. (Let's read between the lines!) With that in mind, I tried looking for a more homely blog. Something more personal, you know? So after a little scouring of the blogosphere, I came across The Bronze Kettle: Good Eats & [Epic] Feats.

While I'm not terribly familiar with blogs myself, this one already seems unique because it has two primary authors, a husband and wife. (Let me just get it out there that first off, I think this is really cute.) This seems like a prime place to examine relationships and how they can relate to WoW. If you look into their bios, neither of them have a job working in the video game industry and therefore it should be noted that the blog is from a player's perspective. They don't appear to be "casual" players and adhere to a three day a week raid schedule. Even the blog is updated fairly frequently.

To be honesty, I'm not really sure how popular the blog is overall. There do appear to be readers as most of the posts have several responses. Granted, the wife Shelbi appears to be quite the accomplished chef and she occasionally posts delicious looking recipes. Perhaps some readers just come for the food. Haha. (They really look tasty. Check them out)

Recently the pair posted some photos from their recent trip to BlizzCon, which is Blizzard Entertainment's annual game exposition. Players from all over the country come to see their new games and meet fellow gamers. I realize that to a non WoW player, some of these photos might be uninteresting, they do demonstrate the strength of a relationship that many people have with games. People from all around the country show up, some even costumed as game characters. The 20,000 or so tickets that were sold, sold out in less than a minute according to Blizzard reps. (This was later confirmed in a article in the L.A. times. I also didn't manage to get one for myself. T.T ) That's over 300 tickets per second. Scholars shouldn't underestimate how important games can be in a person's life.

I believe I mentioned somewhere that it has been difficult to find an academically oriented blog about WoW that is related to my topic. (It still is) I have read a lot of academic literature on the game, but I don't know of any WoW scholars that post their findings in a blog. If anyone knows of any, feel free to suggest. For now I will continue to examine this one.

While I am studying the relationships of players within game, it is good to see players aware that they still have real world commitments.

"Life has been hectic at home and at the office, plus I've been spending a lot of time in game playing with my wife and the rest of the Awesomites."

Every WoW player faces a sort of dual lifestyle. You have relationships that you maintain in real life, and then those that you maintain in game. If you clicked the link, you will see the stats of the Awesomite's guild. In WoW, a guild is a group of up to 200 players that form a collective, often helping each other out on difficult tasks. These micro communities are quite fascinating as they are self regulated and often have lengthy screening processes for membership. Many of them even use a form of custom currency called the Dragon Kill Point and regulate their own personal economies. (More on that later.)

While the Bronze Kettle is a good blog to observe for research, my own blog will be quite different. While I am a WoW player myself and will be using my knowledge of the game to support my research, I plan on trying to take a slightly more academic approach. (Though I admit parentheticals and smileys aren't exactly "academic". Hey. It's the age we live in) I intend to look at questions surrounding WoW's popularity and how a micro societies within digital environments are similar and different from their real life counterparts.
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On Voice (post 3)



Voice. It's interesting to examine voice while writing online. These are just words being read online, but when you read them, you may notice that you can almost hear me saying them. You may imagine my voice as being rough and deep, or perhaps light and melodic. Who knows, perhaps you are imagining my saying these words in your own voice. However there is more to voice than just how they sound. Every writer applies different weights to words and by examining these words, we can get a sense of a writer's style, or voice.



Voice can give a personality to an otherwise lifeless page of words. For instance, Hardcore Casual uses a fairly colloquial form of writing that feels like the author is addressing his audience directly. In his Letter to Blizzard, he types out his opinion regarding the various changes that have occurred in WoW over the five years since its launch:

Okay, okay. I'm no game developer. I have no idea how hard it is to balance a game of this scale. Fair enough. However, FOUR years after release, you're telling me you STILL don't have a handle on Paladin tanking?

Shall we examine? (Sorry. You can't actually respond to that. Words on a page.) First off, the use of short sentences like, "okay, okay" and "fair enough" give the post a more casual tone. Even admitting that he isn't a game designer demonstrates that he is aware that he is not a true authority in the matter. However, this does not mean he isn't entitled to sharing his opinion. This gesture is both inviting and reassuring that the writer does acknowledge the limits of his knowledge.

He also tends to use capitals on specific words to create emphasis in his writing. In the previous quote, "four" and "still". In the next quote he capitalizes "you" and "forums". While it is a minor grammatical change, when read, these particular words carry more force and have a different intonation than the rest.

However, somewhere along the way, you stopped developing the game YOU wanted, and started developing the game the FORUMS wanted. I do not like this change in direction.

Highlighting these two words also creates a direct contrast between the opinion of the developers, (YOU) versus the opinions of the players, (FORUMS). He's quite direct about it actually.

He also tends to use one line paragraphs. (Hah. If I ever tried that in another writing course...) While in academic writing, this usage is questionable at best, online it adds a pause to create tension. It can also be used to add emphasis to a particular point. "Then, it happened," or "I could take over Bound by Honor!" These paragraphs are deliberately places between longer paragraphs creating a methodic rhythm to his posts. This technique is used in several places throughout his blog.

The thing I find interesting about these techniques is that they are written conventions that aim at making writing seem more like everyday speech. When we write, we have time to collect our thoughts and fine tune our words, (like I'm doing now) but when we speak we have to revise on the fly. Often stopping mid sentence or pausing to look for better words. Human speech is full of errors and we therefore edit in realtime by filling our sentences with disclaimers and explanations.

How does this style affect the blog itself? (One sentence!)

Good question. Well. Seeing as the blog is about playing WoW, it should have a more personal tone of voice. The style of Hardcore Casual is very much like listening to a player talk about WoW. The game is quite exciting and constantly changing and evolving. The game quickly changes between story and action, emphasizing key points. Therefore, I find that this writing style mimics some of the flow of the game itself.

Who am I? Who are you?

In response to:


I tried to roleplay once. To be honest, it probably didn't go very well. My very first server was an RP server in fact. It was a fairly casual realm though, so I didn't have much of a backstory. Still, it was pretty fun. I had never really thought about making alts on an RP server, but reading this post makes me want to try again sometime.

I am always fascinated by the relationships developed between different players in game. I occasionally role play with my girlfriend (though we typically play on PvP servers) and I find it very endearing. We don't have much of a backstory, but everyone in our guild knows that we are together. Typically our names have a personal meaning that relates to something from our daily lives.

I won't say I haven't created alts of course. As an avid player I like to understand and experience a variety of roles and play styles. I always think that this helps me play with other players. If you know what a healer has to go through, you tend to respect and appreciate them better when they play their role well. However, I have never tried relating my own characters to each other. I believe that this would be quite a fascinating and mentally challenging endeavor.

It's one thing to focus and fully develop the history of one character, but to then build another character that compliments your own. Well developed characters are very unique, but this isn't to say that you should make two completely different characters. Although, it could be fun to have two completely antagonistic characters develop from afar and design an interesting way for them to meet each other.

I think that the true test of a player's creativity and understanding of character would be seeing if anyone would notice. Notice that several characters were being played by the same player. True, someone might notice that two characters are never logged in at the same time, but in a game as large as WoW, this isn't actually that uncommon. I suppose that one could also effectively use dualboxing to have two characters speaking at the same time. To further develop the illusion a player could have a friend playing the other character and together they would improvise key scenes.

It's quite a fun thought. To create multiple personalities and explore them through a digital environment. What better place to do that in World of Warcraft.

slash Love

So it’s a Friday night. It’s been a long week and all you want to do is spend some time relaxing with your significant other. You could go see a movie, cook dinner together, perhaps play some boardgames.

Or… sit side by side and quest together.

Many people seem to think that playing video games is very anti-social, but I find that it is not only social, but also can be quite romantic. World of Warcraft is a game that is ultimately built around the same mechanics as an online chat room. WoW is inherently a social game. You meet people, build relationships, make friends, make enemies much like you do in real life.

In some instances, you can even find love. Call me a geek if you wish, but I truly enjoy playing WoW with my girlfriend. I first introduced her to the game several years ago. This was before we were dating. I had already been playing for about a year (I wasn’t terribly good, but I knew my way around) and was able to give her tips on how to play and where to get specific items etc. She quickly caught up to me (and I admit has now far surpassed me) and we began to start playing content that neither of us were familiar with.

This wasn’t just fun, it was romantic. The game events that had been programmed for anyone who played the game began to take on a more personal feel. They weren’t just experiences, they were shared experiences. We were creating memories.

We aren’t the only ones.

Many friends I have made in game also play with significant others. I’ve seen husbands fly through the skies with their wives. I’ve seen fathers heal their sons in battle. I’ve seen just about any loving relationship you can imagine in WoW.

Humorous anecdote.

I have also run into several funny instances where I notice a character logs on and I say hello, only to find out that it is my friend’s wife playing. This can sometimes be quite amusing actually. I have logged onto my girlfriend’s avatars and some of her friends start speaking with me, without realizing that she isn’t playing. There is a strong degree of trust and intimacy in knowing that your significant other will allow you to play his or her characters. It’s kind of like driving somebody else’s car. You want to be careful with it and prove that you are worthy of driving it.

Trust. Essential in a relationship.

One of the other reasons that I believe WoW is an effective romantic medium is because it also transcends distances. In the past, it would be difficult to keep in touch if your loved one was away. Granted, even in our high speed communication age, I still love writing a handwritten letter and sending it to my girlfriend. However, WoW allows people from all over the world to play together. As long as you have a computer with the software and an account, you can play with a friend in Europe while you’re sitting in your living room in Los Angeles.

Another enjoyable aspect to World of Warcraft is the fact

Relationships, whether romantic or not, are all about emotional attachment. This attachment can be to anything, as long as it has personal significance. Wow is great at creating emotional attachment because it requires a fair amount of work to play, but also rewards you with character upgrades and rare items. These items can be word as badges to demonstrate your ability in game. I have kept several items that don’t really have any value to other players, but are important to me because I have received them as gifts. These items are really only a series of 1s and 0s, but I have given them importance by associating them with much loftier emotions like love and appreciation.

These are just some of the ways that World of Warcraft can build relationships. Ultimately is comes down to having fun with someone you care about. Sharing experiences and talking about them. Even today, I took my girlfriend to an exhibit on World of Warcraft artwork and we both had a wonderful time. While WoW may not be everyone’s cup of tea, for those who do enjoy playing it, it can be a very romantic and loving experience. Some of my fondest memories are sitting next to my love while playing games together.

On Voice

Voice. When you think about writing at first, many just imagine words on a page. The words themselves carry meaning that are strung together to convey purpose and understanding to readers. However, words carry more meaning than what you would find in a dictionary. An author’s choice of words carries as much weight as the words themselves, and from that we derive a writer’s voice.

Voice can give a character to an otherwise lifeless page of words. For instance, Hardcore Casual uses a fairly colloquial form of writing that seems as though the author is speaking directly to his audience. In his Letter to Blizzard post, he types out his thoughts on the various changes to the game that have occurred over the years since launch:

Okay, okay. I'm no game developer. I have no idea how hard it is to balance a game of this scale. Fair enough. However, FOUR years after release, you're telling me you STILL don't have a handle on Paladin tanking?

The use of short broken sentences like, “okay, okay” and “fair enough” give a less serious tone to the post. Even admitting that he may not be an expert on the balancing of MMOs, he still does have an opinion of the matter. This gesture is both inviting and reassuring that the writer does acknowledge the limits of his knowledge.

He also tends to use capitals on specific words to create emphasis in his writing. In the previous quote, he capitalizes “still” and in the following quote, “you” and “forums”. While it is a subtle change, when read, the capital words come across with more force and carry some attitude. When paired in the same sentence, it also highlights the two words and sets up a contrast between the developer’s opinions versus the player’s opinions.

However, somewhere along the way, you stopped developing the game YOU wanted, and started developing the game the FORUMS wanted. I do not like this change in direction.

Another technique that he uses in his posts that adds a choppy liveliness to his posts is his one line turnarounds. In this post, he adds one line paragraphs that add things like dramatic tension, humor, or other emotions to his posts. “Then, it happened.” Or “Or, I could take over Bound by Honor!” are placed in-between longer paragraphs in his posts. This appears to be a common theme throughout his blog.

I find that this sort of writing style that breaks semi-frequently and employs bold text for emphasis mimics patterns of everyday speech. People write very differently from when they speak. Most likely because people have more time to craft and hone the meanings of their sentences on paper. When speaking, we rarely have the time to snip off errors and therefore have to correct in realtime and interject our own sentences with disclaimers and explanations.

So. How does this style affect the blog itself?

Seeing as the style of writing has a more homely tone to it, I would say that it certainly helps the blog. Hardcore Casual is a blog about the game itself. World of Warcraft is played by millions of individuals and a large portion of them have created blogs about the game itself. Everyone has their own opinion of the game and no two blogs are the same. However, as a fellow player of WoW, I would have to say this sort of casual voice that is constantly changing mimics the casual gameplay of WoW. The World of Warcraft environment is filled with many players and just as in life, changes at a moments notice.

A fellow WoW couple

Unfortunately I have had some difficulty in locating a blog that specifically addresses the subjects that I wish to explore with mine, namely the relationships forged between players in an online environment. However, this does give me an opportunity to really get into the mind of a scholar or anthropologist and read in between the lines. With that in mind, I tried looking for a more homely blog that gives off a personal air. So after a bit of double-clicking through the blogosphere I came across the blog, The Bronze Kettle: Good Eats & [Epic] Feats.

The blog is written by two people actually. A couple that plays World of Warcraft together. A husband and wife. First off, this to me seems very cute. Secondly, this is also already an interesting example of a relationship that involves WoW. While both seem to be well educated, neither have a direct relationship to the industry and therefore the blog takes on the perspective of two players. They do seem to be fairly serious gamers though as the blog is maintained fairly regularly and they do claim to adhere to a three night a week raid schedule. For those of you who do not play WoW, typically high level guilds will plan specific meeting times during the week to gather together and take on some of the more difficult game bosses.

It is a bit difficult to discern how popular the blog is since I am not terribly knowledgeable about this sort of thing. However, there are responses to several posts. Granted, the wife Shelbi appears to be quite the cook and she occasionally posts delicious looking recipes. So maybe people just come for the food. Haha.

http://www.thebronzekettle.com/?p=351

This post is probably not terribly interesting to the casual viewer, but it chronicles the pros and cons of the recent yearly big exposition that Blizzard holds to show new content for their games. I myself was not able to attend, but I have heard that it was quite interesting. The post itself may look uninteresting, but for me it is proof of the strong attachment that many players have to this game. People from around the country show up, some costumed, some just for kicks, but all for the games. The 20,000 tickets that were sold, sold out in less than a minute according to the Blizzard representatives. If this is in fact true, it only goes to show how important this game is to some people.

As I mentioned before, it has been difficult to locate an academic blog that truly coincides with my topic. I know that the research is out there, but most of the articles from academia are not published in blog format. Therefore I am having to be a bit more creative in my research. For now this blog will have to do. It seems to be a casual blog so I believe it is intended to be read by anyone who is at least remotely interested in playing the game.

This post really only mentions that the authors of the blog have had difficulty in keeping their post schedule recently. However, it does make the comment that life “Life has been hectic at home and at the office plus I’ve been spending a lot of time in game playing with my wife and the rest of the Awesomites.” This shows the various connections between the dual life style of a WoW player. The link in the Awesomites takes you the guild web site. While I have not had a chance to directly examine their particular site, typically they show records of who has played when and how many game points they have accrued amongst their peers. The guild is a community of players that play together regularly and will therefore the roster will be a good artifact to examine in my focus.

Ideally I would like for my blog to have a bit more of an academic approach. Rather than just recount stories from in game, or post about speculative modifications to the game, I would really like to examine the game as a social playground, as a mini society. I would like to try and find the answer to questions like, “why do 12 million people play this game?” By examining messages between players and how guild manage themselves, I believe that I will be able to get a better understand of the game.

Rerolling

After a long day of work, some people enjoy relaxing by kicking of their shoes, taking a shower or any other relaxing activity. Personally, I enjoy hurling missiles of frostfire at the faces of my enemies while a warrior in impenetrable plate armor shields me from damage. When I am hit by the occasional blow to side, I am healed by the powers of an elemental shaman carrying a mace twice the size of my head.

Now some of you might be questioning my sanity as you read this, but I assure you that I participate in such activities on a regular basis. In fact, 12 million people do. I am talking about the Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game developed by Blizzard Entertainment, World of Warcraft. For those who do not know of or play this online sensation, WoW is an online game in which players create avatars that resemble the various archetypes of medieval myth. I personally don the persona of the frostfire mage Fenice, ambassador to the forces of the Alliance. All of these players are then thrust in the immense digital realm of Azeroth where they band together to complete quests, slay terrifying beasts and obtain valuable weapons and armor. The beauty of the game is that while it is set within a digital world and therefore meticulously regulated by ironclad rules, it allows for social interaction and emergent gameplay.

However, when I take off my robe of +43 Int and +28 crit chance I once again become a student of ludology and aspiring game designer. While games have been around for millennia, video games were developed within the postmodern era, the latter half of the 20th century. Perhaps it is because of their infancy that many scholars look at the study of games with disdain. However, I believe that games offer a vast amount of material for study. Whether they realize it or not, people are always enveloped in games, even creating their own without even realizing it. Have you ever suddenly bet your friend that you can race across the field faster than he can, or that if you step on every line in a crosswalk that you will have a great day? I certainly have, and according to the theories presented by French ludologist Roger Caillois, these and many other activities are in fact games.

Now. I realize that games as a whole encompass many activities such as the aforementioned race to complex games such as football, Monopoly, or Half Life 2. Therefore I will be focusing on a specific aspect of games that I find fascinating, social interactions between people in a digital environment. In particular I will be examining World of Warcraft and how players develop relationships with each other and this magical digital realm. Every day, groups of strangers meet online to take on difficult quests, sometimes playing together from across the world. Many serious gamers use the popular voice chatting program Ventrilo in order to increase efficiency and teamwork during the more difficult dungeons. These group encounters often require 25 players to work together for many hours at a time. At the heart of World of Warcraft there is a strong sense of community.

I would also like to explore several of the other systems within the World of Warcraft community including the game economy's relationship to the real world economy and the various social structures that have developed amongst players. While the game is quite comprehensive and well built, occasionally the players themselves develop new and innovative ways to take part in the maintenance of this digital universe.

So sit back, kick off your shoes and join me as I dive back into the world that is World of Warcraft.