Aside from slaying monsters and engaging in epic quests, Anthropology graduate student Caroline Whippey sees similarities between the mythical characters in the online role-playing game World of Warcraft and the lives of its 11.5-million player base
Whippey has played games – including online gaming in recent years – her entire life so it wasn’t a stretch when she decided to focus on the industry for her master’s degree. It was in November 2006, while Whippey was in her final year of undergrad, when she was introduced to the World of Warcraft and she was instantly hooked.
Finding little academic literature on the subject, she decided to use her anthropology background to examine how players bring their values, perceptions and experiences to the game when they are playing or interacting with others. More specifically, her research focuses on race, ethnicity and multinationalism, sexuality and gender.
“Absolutely people bring their values and perceptions of real life into the game and it affects how they interact,” she says.
In the game, players must choose which side to belong to – the Alliance or the Horde – which are battling each other for control of the world. Users can participate in a player versus player server, which allows them to fight players of the opposite faction, or player versus the environment server. They can also form guilds or groups of people with common interests, and have virtual conversations with other players.
In this world of fantasy, Whippey says a player’s real-life personality can play a significant role in how they play the game.
“Most people that I have spoken with or worked with, don’t play another persona. They have their character but they don’t necessarily role play with that. Most people, I find, there is a part of themselves that comes across very clearly.”
With online players hailing from all corners of the world, cultural differences sometimes make their way into the game.
“People do make negative comments geared to race,” she says, adding racial slurs have been used in general chat channels accessible by all players. “Usually at least one person will comment and say, ‘hey, that’s offensive.'”
Similarly, the term ‘gay’ has been used in a derogatory sense by players during online conversations.
Whippey says some players apply gender-based stereotypes to the male and female fictional characters.
“I had a couple of women tell me they preferred for their gender to be anonymous or play male characters because if people knew they were female, they would treat them like they didn’t have as much skill … that whole ‘girls aren’t as good at gaming’ thing.”
Players can target others by attacking a lower level or vulnerable character, which is called ‘ganking’ and because death isn’t permanent in the World of Warcraft, some players ‘camp’ out over the body of a fallen character to kill them when they come back to life. “That’s a process of harassment, it can get very annoying,” she says. “If you are choosing to be in that environment (player versus player) it is a part of the game play.”
Most social norms that exist in real life translate to the game and regulate what is deemed acceptable and unacceptable behaviour. But, Whippey says there are no significant consequences to breaking these rules other than for other players to rebuff them.
Players can feel a sense of bravado and act in a way that would otherwise be socially unacceptable because their true identity remains hidden behind their character.
“Part is anonymity because you are playing a character, that’s what people see and they don’t connect whoever is behind the screen to the character. There is no way to know who is playing that person.”
For some players, such as those with physical disabilities, anonymity can be empowering.
“Although there is some negativity, there are some positives about a virtual community and people being able to interact. It does cross geographical distances. It is a world where you are judged by what you say and do, not your physical appearance.”
As the World of Warcraft continues to expand, Whippey sees her research interests growing with it. She has applied to a PhD program, during which she hopes to further examine the gaming industry.
In spite of the similarities with real life, in the end, World of Warcraft “is a game,” she says. “It’s fun and I love it.”
World of Warcraft
Known as WoW. Falls within a classification called massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). Developed by California-based Blizzard Entertainment. The game, which follows three previous games from the same series, was released in late 2004 and is the world’s largest MMORPG in terms of monthly subscribers.