Do those who play together stay together? The World of Warcraft community between play, practice and game design
2015; University of Bucharest; Volume: 6; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2068-0317
Autores Tópico(s)Innovative Human-Technology Interaction
ResumoAbstractIn a time when video games are commonly blamed for anything from antisocial behavior, to the isolation and alienation of their users Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games have developed to provide one of the ultimate online social experiences. Based on cooperation, coordination and communication among players, these games do more than simply provide entertainment: they foster communities, not only allowing trust and friendship to be born, but actively encouraging it. In fact, one of the main secret behind the success of this kind of game appears to be its capacity to stimulate interaction and bonding around a common goal for its players. This paper focuses on one of the world's most popular MMORPGs, World of Warcraft, specifically on studying the characteristics of the community of play and practice built around it and on the influence the game architecture has on the survival potential of said WoW community. In order to achieve these goals, I have conducted a qualitative research at the height of the game's popularity (2011) , conducting interviews with experienced, mostly hard-core and pro players and followed up with half of the original respondents four years later (in 2015), to see how their views on the gaming experience have evolved and to try to understand why the once flourishing WoW community seems to have started its decline.KeywordsCommunity of play, community of practice, World of Warcraft, MMORPG, gaming communityIntroductionAs soon as the internet was born, people started using it for two of society's favorite activities: playing and socializing. In no time at all, they combined the two, creating rudimentary, forum-like websites called Multi-user dungeons, where players from all over the world could come together, create characters and have imaginary text-based adventures with each other. Even though these MUDs were rudimentary from a graphical point of view, in comparison with the already more evolved single player (or multiplayer with 2-8 people) videogames available at the time, they provided a different, very powerful incentive for users: the thrill of interacting and bonding with many new people over exciting adventures of their choosing. Then, in what seems to be the blink of an eye, these text based games, whose sole graphic was that of the forum which supported them and the imagination of the players, turned into complex 3D virtual worlds (Nagy & Koles, 2014), such as massive multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPGs), where millions of people play together in fairy-tale like surroundings, put together by hundreds of technicians and artists.In time, these games have grown to the size of small countries, World of Warcraft, for example, hosting no less than 12 million players at its peak2, in 2011. At the same time, along the years, players have become more and more specialized; many of them have spent thousands of hours trying to master the synthetic world (Castronova, 2005) and to achieve a better position in the game social hierarchy. Strategies have been devised for optimizing one's performance and there are thousands of official and unofficial websites where they are explained, because committed MMORPG players want to know how to constantly improve themselves and are more than willing to share this knowledge with others. And since many play this game in the company of offline or real life friends and family or meet up offline with other players they have met in the game, the offline world sees its large share of MMORPG talk as well. Gamers get together with fellow MMORPGplaying friends, either informally, in places such as pubs or at official Conventions organized annually by game producers in order to discuss their hobby, compare achievements and find out tips on how to improve. Hierarchies are developed, pros are revered and noobs are mocked, all while using a rather complicated jargon and a large number of inside references and jokes. …
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