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.
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