Perspectives on Game Use in Three Populations An Ethnographic Study of the World of Warcraft

Date of Award

2008

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Vesperi, Maria

Keywords

MMORPG, Game Studies, Ethnography, Multisite, Virtual Worlds, Gaming

Area of Concentration

Anthropology

Abstract

Responding to literature on the effect of gaming on users� lives, this ethnography will explore how a selection of corporeal and virtual social networks in Sarasota, Florida, Atlanta, Georgia, and Portland, Oregon were affected by the practice of gaming between 2006 and 2008. At these sites, formal and informal interviews with individuals who play the massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) the World of Warcraft suggest that participation in some video game play demands rather than discourages behaviors such as organization, cooperation and positive feelings of self-worth. Corroborating game industry findings that the contemporary populations of the World of Warcraft are small, diverse groups of mostly male adults, it appears that the intensely social and highly gendered setting of the World of Warcraft is a space in which gamers create and are created by their desire for shared fantasy. In providing a space for the practice of social behaviors, the World of Warcraft allows players to form and maintain identities that can both enhance and endanger their corporeal social networks.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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