Returning to Azeroth: Nostalgia, Sense of Place, and Social Presence in World of Warcraft Classic

Games and Culture ◽

10.1177/15554120211034759 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 155541202110347

Author(s):

Jessica A. Robinson ◽

Nicholas D. Bowman

Keyword(s):

Social Presence ◽

Sense Of Place ◽

World Of Warcraft ◽

Original Game ◽

Survey Questions ◽

Unique Site ◽

Experience Survey

World of Warcraft (WoW) Classic (released August 2019) allows players to return to the original game experience. This study considers how WoW players experience game content through media nostalgia and sense of place and investigates how social presence impacts these components of experience. Survey questions addressed 306 participants’ experiences in WoW, feelings of nostalgia and sense of place in Azeroth, and experiences with social presence in WoW; open-ended questions were asked about their motivations to play WoW. Prior overall WoW experience and higher sense of social presence increase personal nostalgia scores (replicating previous research). Sense of place scores increased with higher sense of social presence but were overall lower for current WoW Classic players. Social presence proved an important component of both personal nostalgia and sense of place. These findings expand and extend researchers’ understanding of the relationships between nostalgia, sense of place, and social presence within this unique site of study.

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Impact of Multitasking on Listening Effectiveness in the Learning Environment

The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning ◽

10.5206/cjsotl-rcacea.2012.2.7 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 3 (2) ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Alla Kushniryk ◽

Kenneth J. Levine

Keyword(s):

Experimental Study ◽

Learning Environment ◽

Social Presence ◽

Online Survey ◽

Etude Expérimentale ◽

Face To Face ◽

The Third ◽

Survey Questions ◽

Recorded Lecture ◽

The Impact

This experimental study evaluated the impact of multitasking and social presence on students’ performances in the learning environment. In the first live-presenter group, the participants listened to a lecture in a face-to-face environment. In the second virtual-presenter group, the participants listened on their computers to a pre-recorded lecture. The participants of these groups listened to a lecture and simultaneously wrote responses to open-ended online survey questions. While the participants of the first two groups were multitasking, those in the third group completed listening and writing tasks sequentially. It was found that multitasking significantly decreased performances on both the listening and writing tasks. The experiment also uncovered that the degree of social presence did not affect students’ performances on the listening or writing tasks in the learning environment. The perceived degree of social presence was the same in the virtual- and live-presenter groups. La présente étude expérimentale évalue les conséquences de la multiplicité des tâches et de la présence sociale sur la performance des étudiants dans l’environnement d’apprentissage. Le premier groupe a assisté à une cours donnée par un conférencier sur place. Le deuxième groupe a écouté le cours préenregistrée à partir d’un ordinateur. Les participants de ces deux groupes ont répondu simultanément en ligne aux questions ouvertes d’un sondage. Alors que les participants des deux premiers groupes ont effectué des tâches multiples simultanément, ceux du troisième groupe ont d’abord écouté puis ont répondu au sondage de façon séquentielle. Les chercheurs ont découvert que le fait de réaliser des tâches multiples entraînent une baisse importante de la performance en ce qui a trait à l’écoute et à la rédaction des réponses. L’expérience a aussi permis de découvrir que la présence en classe n’influe pas sur la performance des étudiants en ce qui a trait aux tâches d’écoute ou de rédaction dans l’environnement d’apprentissage. Le degré perçu de présence sociale était le même dans le groupe du conférencier virtuel que dans celui du conférencier en direct.

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Second Life and World of Warcraft

Handbook of Research on Practices and Outcomes in Virtual Worlds and Environments ◽

10.4018/978-1-60960-762-3.ch012 ◽

2011 ◽

pp. 236-254 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Chaka Chaka

Keyword(s):

Case Studies ◽

Social Presence ◽

Second Life ◽

Virtual World ◽

Role Playing ◽

World Of Warcraft ◽

Cognitive Presence ◽

Future Trends ◽

Role Playing Game

This chapter explores the potential both Second Life (SL) and World of Warcraft (WoW) as instances of a virtual world (VW) and a massively multi-player online role-playing game (MMORPG), respectively, have for leveraging presence learning. The latter encapsulates, in this chapter, presence pedagogy, tele-presence, co-presence, social presence, and cognitive presence as mediated by both SL and WoW. In this context, this chapter contends that both SL and WoW help harness presence learning. Against this background, the chapter first provides a brief overview of SL, WoW, and presence learning. Second, it presents and discusses seven case studies demonstrating how both SL and WoW help harness presence learning. Third and last, the chapter outlines future trends for presence learning in respect of both SL and WoW.

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Network Autocorrelation of Task Performance via Informal Communication Within a Virtual World

Journal of Media Psychology Theories Methods and Applications ◽

10.1027/1864-1105/a000129 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 27 (1) ◽

pp. 33-44 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Caleb T. Carr ◽

Paul Zube

Keyword(s):

Task Performance ◽

Virtual World ◽

World Of Warcraft ◽

Online Game ◽

Informal Communication ◽

Online Groups ◽

Network Autocorrelation ◽

Virtual Group ◽

Group Members ◽

Individual Achievement

Network autocorrelation occurs when individuals receive assistance from others which regulates their own behavior, and it can be used to explain how group members may improve their task performance. This study explored how network autocorrelation, via informal communication within a virtual group, affected an individual’s task achievement in the online game World of Warcraft. Informal interactions between guild members during a 4-year period were collected and analyzed to assess how informal interactions with other group members affected an individual’s in-game achievement. Findings indicate informal communication from other group members (specifically the experience and helpfulness of the other members) positively predict an individual’s task performance, while tenure with the group negatively predict individual achievement. Findings are discussed with respect to network analysis and influence in online groups.

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Effects of Human vs. Computer-Controlled Characters and Social Identity Cues on Enjoyment

Journal of Media Psychology Theories Methods and Applications ◽

10.1027/1864-1105/a000218 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 31 (1) ◽

pp. 35-47 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Jorge Peña ◽

Jannath Ghaznavi ◽

Nicholas Brody ◽

Rui Prada ◽

Carlos Martinho ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Social Identity ◽

Social Presence ◽

Group Identification ◽

Virtual Character ◽

Character Type ◽

Computer Controlled ◽

Media Enjoyment ◽

Identification Processes

Abstract. This study explored how group identification, avatar similarity identification, and social presence mediated the effect of character type (avatars or agents) and social identity cues (presence or absence of avatars wearing participants’ school colors) on game enjoyment. Playing with teammate avatars increased enjoyment indirectly by enhancing group identification. In addition, the presence of social identity cues increased enjoyment indirectly by augmenting identification with one’s avatar. Unexpectedly, playing in multiplayer mode in the presence of social identity cues decreased enjoyment, whereas playing in multiplayer mode in the absence of social identity cues increased enjoyment. Social presence was not a reliable mediator. The findings supported media enjoyment and social identity theories, and highlighted how virtual character type and identification processes influence enjoyment.

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