Being in the World (of Warcraft): Raiding, Realism, and Knowledge Production in a Massively Multiplayer Online Game

dc.contributor.author Golub, Alex
dc.date.accessioned 2010-10-27T22:59:35Z
dc.date.available 2010-10-27T22:59:35Z
dc.date.issued 2010
dc.description.abstract This paper discusses two main claims made about virtual worlds: first, that people become “immersed” in virtual worlds because of their sensorial realism, and second, because virtual worlds appear to be “places” they can be studied without reference to the lives that their inhabitants live in the actual world. This paper argues against both of these claims by using data from an ethnographic study of knowledge production in World of Warcraft. First, these data demonstrate that highly-committed (“immersed”) players of World of Warcraft make their interfaces less sensorially realistic (rather than more so) in order to obtain useable knowledge about the game world. In this case, immersion and sensorial realism may be inversely correlated. Second, their commitment to the game leads them to engage in knowledge-making activities outside of it. Drawing loosely on phenomenology and contemporary theorizations of Oceania, I argue that what makes games truly “real” for players is the extent to which they create collective projects of action that people care about, not their imitation of sensorial qualia. Additionally, I argue that while purely in- game research is methodologically legitimate, a full account of member’s lives must study the articulation of in-game and out-of-game worlds and trace people’s engagement with virtual worlds across multiple domains, some virtual and some actual.
dc.format.extent 20 pages
dc.identifier.citation Anthropological Quarterly 83(1):17-46
dc.identifier.issn 0003-5491
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/10524/2116
dc.language.iso en-US
dc.publisher Institute for Ethnographic Research
dc.relation.uri DOI: 10.1353/anq.0.0110
dc.subject knowledge production
dc.subject phenomenology
dc.subject virtual worlds
dc.subject World of Warcraft
dc.subject Second Life
dc.subject video games
dc.subject raiding
dc.subject.lcsh Ethnology
dc.title Being in the World (of Warcraft): Raiding, Realism, and Knowledge Production in a Massively Multiplayer Online Game
dc.type Article
dc.type.dcmi Text
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