On Combining Industries

An interesting evolution of video games that has been occurring over the past few years is the gradual merging or interplay of the film industry and the video game industry. Movies have been made from video games, but they have been disappointing at best. For many years videos game movies have received poor treatment in the hands of Hollywood. Yet, (thankfully) thing might be beginning to change. Over the past few years there has been a sudden flurry of proposed films based on video game titles, including a film adaptation of Blizzard's World of Warcraft. Other upcoming titles include a Bioshock movie, Prince of Persia (which has been picked up by Disney) and Mass Effect.

While video game films have been placed in the hands of some rather incompetent directors, they only mask a much deeper problem in their development. Basically, from what I've read and personal experience in both fields, the problem is that video games and films are produced differently. While this might seem like an obvious conclusion, it's more complicated than it might seem. Video games are much more personal project and are typically produced and developed by a team of workers that have known each other for a long time. The designers are very involved and work alongside producers. When producing a movie, funds come from various donations from private parties and employees are brought together from all over to work on the specific project and disband once everything is complete. The film passes through many hands and departments that don't keep in clear contact with each other.

This difference in structure has caused many video game companies to sign away the rights to their property without understanding how much they are giving away. More recently, developers are more cautious about just who they are giving rights to. Now they are thinking who might best represent their game or stick to the intended genre.

So why have these two industries begun to work more harmoniously? Well. For a long time video games were not respected by mainstream industry. Games were considered a niche market and therefore were left untouched by high risk and high budget films. However, recently movie investors have become more interested by video games rise in the global market. The belief that niche markets will not make great sales has also been weakened by the popularity on films based on classic comic book heroes. They're probably starting to run out of comics and so they are beginning to look towards video games.

I also tend to believe that this success has been largely related to film's increasing dependency on digital effects. Video games are build around virtual worlds and have used cinematic conventions to create better narratives. Films have been relying more strongly on digital rendering and have been approaching game companies for partnerships. The two media are building off each other and are becoming similar. Yet, I find that they will still be distinctly different. The entertaining part of video games is their sense of agency. You are put in control of the action. You make meaningful decisions. Games continue to explore and refine the science of interactivity and player immersion.

On Difficulty

While I'm not sure if this has far reaching consequences or some deep commentary on society, I do find it interesting to what lengths game companies will modify their games in order to satisfy. As I mentioned previously, WoW has been around for several years and I have been playing since launch. This means that I've seen new continents added, downed new bosses and unlocked new features. However, I have also noticed a disappointing trend. The game is becoming easier.

Well. Okay. Parts of the game have become easier. Mostly all of the old content. From the most recently expansion, the level cap was raised to 80, but us veterans remember the days when 60 was the highest attainable level. Since this is an upward form of growth, it is understandable that the designers added new content for levels 60+ since the larger portion of the fanbase was at that level. However, with each expansion, the designers have made the old content portion of the game easier to breeze through. They've employed several strategies including lowering level requirements for items that increase speed, to special experience bonuses if you reactivate your account after inactivity.

I am a little disappointed because while I understand the importance of creating fresh end game content, I think it would be much more interesting if the old game content was modified as well. One of the key elements of an online MMO is a persistent online world. I understand that this creates an element of fairness and security in a virtual environment, but over time it really becomes stagnant. This is why it is fairly easy to get through levels 1-60, but still somewhat difficult from 60-80. However, this does not attract new players to join the game itself. WoW boasts of 12 million subscribers, but they seem to be hitting their limit. They claim to still be recruiting, but at this point it seems like they are just trying really hard to retain their fanbase.

However, there is some hope for the future. World of Warcraft's upcoming expansion Cataclysm intends to do what I believe should have been done a while ago. Basically under the pretense of a great earthen catastrophe, the old world has been irreversibly torn asunder. This means that old familiar territories will be drastically changed and the old flow of the game will be modified to accommodate. I believe that this will once again make the natural progression of the game much smoother and make the entire experience more enjoyable overall.

On Gold Farming

Gold farming. Every MMO player knows of it, not all of them disapprove of it. To be honest, I'm surprised that I haven't spoken about it yet in this blog as it is a very interesting and controversial issue surrounding MMOs. If you stumbled upon this blog by accident and have no idea what gold-farming even is, check this out please. The business of gold farming touches upon questions of ethics, property rights and the general spirit of games.

As a player myself, I understand how much work must often go into obtaining gold in World of Warcraft. While there isn't a fixed rate, it certainly takes several hours a day worth of play to start making a decent amount of gold for yourself. After all that work, there is a certain sense of entitlement. You worked hard, you earned your reward. However, this sort of ideology becomes a bit fuzzy in the virtual world. Who does in fact own digital property? Is it the person who found or created an item or is it the team of designers who made the item? The jury is still out, but for clarification purposes, Blizzard clearly states in the terms of service that Blizzard owns the rights to all their players' accounts. So from a legal standpoint, Blizzard owns all the items and gold that is in game. From this point, real world transactions of virtual world products can be seen as stealing, or at least profiting off the work of another party.

The ethical arguments surrounding gold farming are varied. While it is a stereotype, typically gold farmers are players in China that work several hours a day for fairly low wages. In 2005, Ge Jin, a PhD student from UCSD made a documentary (preview here) that followed several employees of a gold farming business in China. The conditions in which they work are difficult and the hours are long. Yet these people enjoy their jobs. China's booming population requires many jobs and so its citizens are more willing to put up with working conditions that are very uncomfortable.

Another problem with gold farming is the question of source. As noted above, there is a stereotype that all gold farmers are Chinese. Some gold farmers however, are simply hackers. These players come from all over and sell gold that they have stolen from players' accounts. This is usually done by having players who want to buy gold accidentally download a trojan horse virus that siphons some gold from the player. In some of the more extreme cases, they steal everything: gold, items, even the characters, which are then resold. Recently worldofwarcraft.com released a cveaat against going to gold farming sites, explaining to users how gold is often illegitimately taken from other users.

I personally dislike gold farming. Yes, because of some of the above reasons, but also because as a game designer I find that it goes against the very nature of the game. It's turning something fun into a business. I understand that many of us do not have the time to properly gain wealth in WoW or sometimes it's just that tempting to buy that extra 1000g you need for an epic mount, but it just doesn't seem right. The game is so expansive and well crafted that if you play faithfully and truly experience the game, you will be able to get any item you want. Yes, it will require hard work, but that's part of the fun. Buying gold is a shortcut, which is borderline cheating. Sometimes cheats are valuable to the game experience. Designers cannot always plan for everything and occasionally players find ways to exploit the system within the game. This sort of exploitation comes from outside the game and ruins the magic circle.

On Addons

Last time I wrote about players policing themselves and keeping the community running smoothly. This time I would like to talk about another interesting community that has grown around World of Warcraft, namely the modding community. Many games like to keep their source code locked up tight and only allow the game developers to release any modifications to the game. Others prefer to go the opensource route and let the players modify to their hearts content. Both these extremes are often limiting and can sometimes prove detrimental to the game’s success.

World of Warcraft has an interesting middle ground in which the core game mechanics are well protected, but the user interface is left rather open. This decision prompted an explosion of custom addons that can be downloaded and installed by users. The functions of these programs vary from simple interface changes to programs that track demographics or transactions between players. A lot of them are quite complicated. Blizzard does not claim ownership over these addons and has overall been very accepting of what the players create. Occasionally Blizzard steps in if an addon goes against the core essence of the play experience, but on a whole they have been quite accommodating.

I find the growth of these addons to be interesting. As they are player created programs, it is up to the players to make sure that they work efficiently. Therefore, these addons are under constant revision and improvement. Addons that are well scripted gain a following and receive a large quantity of helpful criticism allowing for better revisions and prolonging the life of the addon as a whole. Some of these are so well designed that they have become canon for almost anyone who is at least partially serious about playing the game.

The community improves itself by self revision of its material. This creates a self-sufficient system in which players improve the community by contributing play time. As the addons improve, players spend more and more time playing. This sort of relationship will help keep the innovation within the game going strong.

On Machinima

Another fascinating byproduct of games is the genre of machinima. While machinima can be created out of almost any game, WoW has drawn users in because of its wide variety of character models and expressions. Since characters are highly customizable in game, it is easy to create an entire cast of actors for a short.

I find machinima an interesting phenomenon because it is a user based artifact. The players themselves utilize the models and environments made by development teams to create their own narratives that don't necessarily remain within the boundaries of the games that they came from. The creators of these videos are not necessarily cinematographers or have any relationship to the film industry. Yet these games allow players a cost effective way to create their own miniature films and express their own ideas.

While many have a stereotypical notion of the MMO gamer looking somewhat like this, this stereotype is (thankfully) eroding. Games are becoming a large part of our society and only recently have they begun to be accepted. This problem of acceptance is also prevalent in other cultures, most notably Japan where the Otaku is still considered a social outcast. (we're really not that bad) The notion of the "geek" or "nerd" (There is a hierarchy, though I forget which is worse than the other) seems to creep into all cultures.

However, in October of 2006, Comedy Central's animated series South Park aired the episode titles Make Love, Not Warcraft. A parody of WoW players and the MMO genre in general. While the episode itself was poking fun at gamers, the episode brought MMOs into the mainstream media. It is difficult to find someone who hasn't at least heard of WoW or can't recognize a screenshot of it. A large portion of this episode was shot using WoW's character models in conjunction with the known style of South Park. This episode was of course shot with Blizzard's permission, unlike most machinima found on the interwebs.

Machinima has an interesting relationship with other forms of pop culture. A WoW version of I'm on a Boat, was recently posted to WoW Moviewatch. The machinima version is surprisingly faithful to the original, showing just how flexible the medium is.

If you have the time, I would recommend reading the wiki on Make Love, Not Warcraft. There is a certain symbiotic relationship between the episode and the game. Both make references to each other. As a player, I find it amusing to find these sorts of relationships between different pop culture trends.

Here are a few videos to watch if you have the time:

Not Just Another Love Story (semi-NSWF)

skullcrusher mountain

I'm on a mount

On Holidays

It's the end of September and do you know what that means? It's time for Brewfest in World of Warcraft. Brewfest is basically the video game equivalent of Octoberfest. Aka. A chance to get intoxicated online. (Without any of the detremental side effects to drinking. :D )

So why do I mention this on my blog? Perhaps because like real holidays, in game holidays inspire social interaction. World of Warcraft has several in game holidays. Some mirror real life holidays. Some are just for fun.

Brewfest offers several specific events for players to participate in. Most of them are solo quests. Players can do beer runs, join clubs and collect tokens to be redeemed for novelty items. However, there are a few events that require multiple players to complete. One such event is Defend the Fest in which players must defend the Brefest tables from the Dark Iron Dwarves. In order to defeat the oncoming dwarves, group of players must drink rapidly and throw the empty cups to defeat them. The dwarves are controlled by the computer and mount an attack every half hour or so. A player cannot defend the encampment alone and must therefore call to nearby players for aid. If the group is successful, each participant is rewarded with tokens.

Receiving the tokens is really the only incentive to complete these quests, but for gamers the promise or rare or unique items is more than enough. A good way to get social prestige is to have something that someone else doesn't. People like collecting things, especially if those things have value to other people as well.

Now. I realize that this is only a trend because the holiday is currently in effect. However, it does allow me to examine the concept of social holiday within a digital setting. WoW celebrates many of the other commercial holidays. (Valentine's Day, Xmas, Halloween, etc) ((Oh. They also did celebrate Pirate Day! Yarg!)) Each holiday offers its own set of games and activities. Some are more group oriented than others, but all of them inspire gaiety and fun with friends. So grab a pint and go get smashed! (Virtually of course. This blog does not support excessive drinking. :P )

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.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


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.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.