For my research paper I would like to write on the internet phenomenon World of Warcraft. World of Warcraft (WoW for short) is one of many of what are referred to as massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG). WoW was released on November 23, 2004 and was instantly praised by both game critics and game players alike, in fact, WoW holds the Guinness World Record for being the most popular MMORPG.
In my paper I will give a brief history of MMORPG’s and of WoW itself. Then I would like to investigate how gamers interact with this text and tackle the question that is most interesting to me: Why do gamers love this game so much? As a hypothesis I imagine that I will find that people enjoy WoW because it offers them the ability to be a part of a community and also to advance or better themselves more quickly in that community than they can in their day to day lives. I would also like to study the impact and effects of game play on the gamer, (what happens if someone plays too much? Can gamers become addicted?) but that may be too much to try and handle in this one paper. What do people think?
In Terms of research I think that interviews with actual gamers seem like the best way to go, as well as blogs dedicated to the game or other games of its kind. Also the books Dungeons and Desktops: The History of Computer Role Playing Games by Matt Barton and Gaming as Culture: Essays on Reality, Identity, and Experience in Fantasy Games. In addition to these two books the library has many more relevant to this topic.
Any feedback will be greatly appreciated. Thanks a lot.
That sounds really interesting.
You might also want to examine how it bleeds into such internet phenomenon as ebay (I know many WOW players sell characters, weapons, etc on ebay for real money).
good luck!
Yeah, that does sound interesting. A friend of mine is a big MMORPG player (though not WoW), and he traded a ton of in-game points for an Xbox 360, in real life. These games get pretty serious. This should be a really fascinating paper to write. Good luck!
Charlie,
Very cool choice. I like where you’re headed. Might you try and study how W.o.W. and the notion of user anonymity attract players so much that they become addicted (as seen in other internet phenomena like online gambling)?
Keep it up!
Jeremy
Hey Charlie,
I used to play MMOs pretty often (not really WoW, although I did try it) so I know a decent amount about them. One interesting thing that you might research is a “free shard” as an interesting paratext. A free shard is basically an unofficial, user-administrated and hosted game server that is public and, most importantly, free.
Charlie,
This is a good topic with a lot of potential. There’s a lot of research on gaming that you can draw from, as well as a newish book called Digital culture, play, and identity : a World of Warcraft reader (Cambridge, MA : MIT Press, c2008) that you could order via NExpress. As you do more research, you’ll really need to focus in on a specific question or two, as there’s so much to explore within such a virtual world. Do you think that primary research with players would be helpful? If so, I’m sure there are a number of locals who could be research subjects…
Good luck,
-JM