My own Experience with World of Warcraft

Reading the article about World of Warcraft last week was particularly interesting to me because I actually used to play the game back in high school and during my first two years of college. Although it has been sometime since I entered that digital domain, I found the major points of Taylor’s cross-cultural analysis truthful and relevant. For example, the whole issue of Chinese farmers is something that is referenced and talked about amongst most of the World of Warcraft players that I played with. Everybody supposedly knew how hordes of Chinese players (that didn’t speak English) would ‘farm gold’ (ceaselessly playing the game to collect in game money either by killing monsters or selling items in the in-game auction house) to sell online for real money. Not only was this process seen as dishonorable, since the point of the game is improving one’s character, but it also furthered a stereotype about Asians in general that is pretty prevalent amongst the online gaming community. Now, although gold ‘farming’ is a real thing (this can be seen by in-game inflation in the prices of items) I never fully realized how prejudiced this label was until I read Taylor’s article.

Another aspect of WoW (World of Warcraft) that Taylor discusses is the concept of age. Here, too, prejudice is widespread. For instance, players that are rather inexperienced or that have high-pitched voices are often referred to as 12-year old boys. While there are plenty of younger players that do play the game (my friend’s brother was only in 7th grade when he started), this age prejudice is employed to belittle any player that appears to be lacking in experience. While this concept of youth was a focus of Taylor’s piece, she does fail to mention how many players that appear to be old are also stereotyped in WoW. We have all heard of the stereotype of the ’40 year old-guy who lives in his parent’s basement’ that is really nerdy, immature, and that hasn’t quite grown up yet because he is so immersed in video games. Some WoW players are often attributed these qualities because they either sound really old or they are seen as taking the game way too seriously. Because these people are so gung-ho about getting new items and participating in 5 hour raids (basically group quests in special zones called dungeons) they are often made fun of and marginalized by the more casual, main stream player.

Another interesting aspect of WoW that I think is worth mentioning is the major in-game rivalry that exists within the game. The main, in-game rivalry that exists is a feature that is built into the very fabric of WoW on PvP servers (on these servers, players can attack each other). This rivalry is between the Alliance and the Horde. When one first starts the game and is creating one’s character, the very first decision one has to make is whether to join the Alliance or Horde. Once that decision has been made, for that particular server, one can not switch sides or create a character on the other side so that one is effectively put into one faction for the entire time that one plays. This fundamental shepherding of players into one camp or the other might not have been enough to create a rivalry if it were not also for the language barrier that exists between the two groups.

Alliance can not talk to Horde, or vice versa, in – game. When a player from a different side speaks, it just shows up as unintelligible speech. As one can imagine, this situation can create a lot of conflict when one actually encounters a player from a different side somewhere in game. Depending on one’s intentions, if one does not want to fight a person from another faction, then he or she might use several emotes (waving, etc.) to show one’s peaceful intentions. If the other person waves back, then often the two people have made a silent pact not to attack each other while they are doing quests or whatever that it is they are doing in that part of the world. Often, however, characters from two different sides are doing the same quest and thus have to kill the same monster, capture the same object, etc. This makes conflict more likely since both parties are seeking the same thing while neither wants to wait for the object to respawn. If the two people were on the same side, then they could form a group and do the quest together. Since that is not an option for people from opposing factions, violence often ensures.