scholarly journals I, Posthuman: A Deliberately Provocative Title

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 365-380
Author(s):  
Poppy Wilde
Keyword(s):  
Personal Experience ◽  
Human Subject ◽  
Life Story ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
World Of Warcraft ◽  
The Other ◽  
Critical Perspective ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
Role Playing Game ◽  
Theoretical Insight

In this paper, I explore the use of posthumanism as a theoretical framework for autoethnography and show the methodological tensions of combining these approaches. A posthuman subjectivity rejects notions of the liberal human subject and anthropocentrism by recognizing the entanglement of humanity. Acknowledging a posthuman subjectivity means taking account of our constantly intra-connected and transient relationship with our environment and others within it, both human and nonhuman . On the other hand, authoethnographic approaches to research propose self-reflection and personal experience as the basis on which new theoretical insight can be gained. From a critical perspective, Herbrechter argues that “[t]he very idea of autobiography relies on a subject (or a narrator) who is capable of remembering, interpreting and identifying with his or her life story”. Using a posthumanist framework through autoethnographic research means that the “I” is precarious at best; so how and why can we utilize it to explore such a phenomenon as the posthuman? This paper argues that such tensions provide insights into the formation of subjectivity, where “I” is both fallacy and necessity. It explores this methodological tension through an 18-month autoethnographic project that explores my own experiences of gameplay in the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft (WoW). Using fieldnotes collected during this period, I discuss what a posthuman perspective can bring to an account of my relationship with my avatar, Etyme.

scholarly journals Virtual Sense of Community in a World of Warcraft® Storytelling Open Forum Thread

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dean Anthony Fabi Gui
Keyword(s):  
Sense Of Community ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Virtual Community ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
World Of Warcraft ◽  
Online Forums ◽  
New Members ◽  
Alternative Communities ◽  
Ethnographic Data ◽  
Role Playing Game

World of Warcraft® (WoW), a massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) extends to its members a virtual landscape of live gaming opportunities through such platforms as “dice” rolled character stats, open-ended story development, and interactive AI. These affordances are underpinned by a kind of virtual sense of community bringing players together in order to develop relationships and the self, adventure together, build up wealth, and overcome obstacles in order to complete quests. In addition to live game-play (or “in-world”) communities, WoW residents create alternative communities through rich online forums—here, new members are recruited into guilds, disputes are spawned and slayed, and seasoned warriors reminisce over worlds and lives that once- were. However, a third type of community is also evident through particular threads crafted within forums specifically for collaborative storytelling (or roleplaying). This paper examines sense of community—a sense of “belonging to, importance of, and identification with a community”—through one particular thread, “The Darkening Grove Tavern” under the forum World’s End Tavern using an adaptation of McMillan and Chavis’ theory and Boellstorff, Nardi, Pearce & Taylor’s ethnographic data collection methodology for qualitative analysis of virtual worlds . Findings from players’ story text (or “turns”) suggest that online storytelling forum threads exhibit a linguistically and semiotically branded sense of virtual community. 

scholarly journals Transformative (h)activism: Breast cancer awareness and the World of Warcraft Running of the Gnomes

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren B. Collister
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
Civil Disobedience ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
World Of Warcraft ◽  
Cancer Awareness ◽  
Breast Cancer Awareness ◽  
Player Experience ◽  
Role Playing Game

Players of the massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft (WoW) are accustomed to a transformative culture that appropriates off-line events and personas into virtual-world representations inside of the game. Following this culture, players have transformed an off-line event—the Race for the Cure, to benefit breast cancer charities—into an online event called the Running of the Gnomes with parameters and participation properties appropriate for the virtual world. This transformative event is a disruptive form of civil disobedience including elements of hacktivism. Though the event conforms to the game's culture and rules, the mass collective action of the Running of the Gnomes disrupts the player experience by flooding the game's chat boxes with messages about an off-line concern (breast cancer) and also disrupts the game itself by crashing the server through the sheer volume of player participation. This disruption is embraced as an integral part of the event and is one of the primary causes for the event's success as a fundraising activity.

scholarly journals The Popularity of Faerlina US - World of Warcraft Classic Server: Game Study Using Qualitative Research Methods on the World of Warcraft Classic Game Server

MEDIASI ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-27
Author(s):  
Deddy Stevano H. Tobing
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Qualitative Research Methods ◽  
World Of Warcraft ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Virtual Currency ◽  
The World ◽  
Role Playing Game ◽  
Depth Interviews

This research discusses the popularity of Faerlina US which is one of the game server of the game World of Warcraft Classic (WoW Classic), a MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) game version which is one of the World of Warcraft game version released on 26 August 2019. This study uses several qualitative research methods, namely participatory observation, in-depth interviews, and studies of previous studies. The results of this study indicate that the popularity of Faerlina US tends to be driven by the popularity of twitch.tv streamers who play on these servers. This research also shows that Faerlina has also become popular because it is interesting to be a place to conduct economic activities such as selling virtual items and conducting gold-virtual currency transactions into real money.

World of Warcraft

2019 ◽  
pp. 266-290
Author(s):  
Diego Lourenço Sá Pinto ◽  
Cláudio Xavier
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Social Relationships ◽  
Online Communities ◽  
Screen Time ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
World Of Warcraft ◽  
Field Of Study ◽  
Communication Processes ◽  
Role Playing Game

World of Warcraft (WoW), a game of the genre MMORPG (massive multiplayer online role playing game), has proven to be a valuable field of study for researchers interested in understanding the functioning of online communities and social relationships in those communities. This chapter seeks, through literature review and interviews conducted within the game itself, from player/researcher immersion, to discuss the relationships of a group of players in a new context of relationship and (in)formation, considering the significant screen time, communication processes, identifications, and identity building.

Addiction in World of Warcraft

2011 ◽  
pp. 54-74
Author(s):  
Craig Pragnell ◽  
Christos Gatzidis
Keyword(s):  
High Risk ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
World Of Warcraft ◽  
Role Playing Game ◽  
Massively Multiplayer

This chapter presents an investigation in determining whether players are addicted, or show signs of addiction, to the Massively Multiplayer Role Playing Game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft. Criteria to ascertain addiction in World of Warcraft players were developed based on well-documented theories in the area. A questionnaire was used in order to obtain data for analysis. This was distributed to a population of World of Warcraft players by use of advertisement on guild websites and on the official game forum. The results of the questionnaire show that 11.86% (n=21) of respondents matched the developed criteria of addiction in World of Warcraft. These respondents are considered to be addicted or are at “High Risk” of being addicted. This figure is confirmed by other studies of addiction levels in MMORPGs undertaken by existing research.

scholarly journals World of Warcraft: A Family Therapist's Journey into Scapegoated Culture

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nickolas Jordan
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
News Media ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
The United States ◽  
World Of Warcraft ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Mass Shootings ◽  
Couple And Family Therapy ◽  
Role Playing Game ◽  
Online Video Games

Relational (online) video games are lucrative business. The extremely popular Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, World of Warcraft, boasts over eight million paying users. Video games are also a lightning rod for criticism and contempt by news media, parents and policy makers as the number of mass shootings increases in the United States. There is some research suggesting violent video games increase violent cognition and behavior. There is other research arguing no relationship exist between violent gaming and aggression. The same dichotomy of views exists within the discussion of how relational video games impact intimate partnerships. The purpose of this study is to continue conversation into the possibility of using games like World of Warcraft as interventions in individual, couple and family therapy. This autoethnorgraphic work examines researcher experience in World of Warcraft and its impact on violent thought, behavior and intimate relationships. In addition to researcher self-exploration, extensive interviews were conducted to provide additional context. Throughout the course of this work, three themes of World of Warcraft culture emerged: Work, Nostalgia and Connection. The theme of connection was most pervasive to the researcher and the participants. Video games like World of Warcraft may present supplemental opportunities for clients to practice healthy connection. Concerned parents should monitor their children’s online gaming relationships as they would any other. Future research in this area may benefit from an experimental design where video games like World of Warcraft are used in the treatment of PTSD and Social Anxiety Disorder.

Second Life and World of Warcraft

2011 ◽  
pp. 236-254 ◽  
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.

MMORPG Roles, Civic Participation and Leadership Among Generation Y

2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Hartshorne ◽  
Phillip J. VanFossen ◽  
Adam Friedman
Keyword(s):  
College Student ◽  
Civic Engagement ◽  
Civic Education ◽  
Generation Y ◽  
Civic Participation ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Potential Method ◽  
World Of Warcraft ◽  
Role Playing Game ◽  
Age Range

The notion of an ‘effective citizen’ is very complex and has very different meanings for varying individuals. However, the development of an effective citizenry is critical for a democratic society to thrive. One potential method of developing an effective citizenry is through the use of MMORPGs in civic education. In this paper, the authors report the results of a survey of the civic engagement and civic participation of college student players of the massively multi-player online role playing game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft (WoW). Findings indicate that respondents reported being more civically engaged than other segments of the population within the same age-range. Lastly, the authors explore the implications of the results and the potential of MMORPGs for developing an effective citizenry.

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