Servers

Like most MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games) WoW is played on servers, that is instances of the game world. With over nine million subscribers there are may WoW servers or as WoW calls them Realms. There are basically four different kinds of Realms: normal realms designed to be realms for players who are mostly interested in PvE play, Player versus Player realms designed for players interested in PvP play, RP realms designed for players interested in role playing and RPPVP servers for players interested both in RP and PvP.

for more information http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/basics/realmtypes.html

In reality, however, distinctions between realm type are much less evident than they may originally seem and the boundaries blur. Realm type does not restrict game play and players are free to RP, PvP and PvE in their realm of choice. I will be conducting my study of PvP on a non PvP server simply because that's where my characters or avatars are.

I'm not a player who PvPs much, I'm not particularly good and it and I've never found it all that enjoyable. To be honest there are moments when I look down on PvP and I don't always have nice things to say about players who enjoy PvP. Stereotypically players who PvP are immature jerks yet I have heard players that I respect and admire speak very eloquently about PvP. There is a very competitive edge to PvP that does bring out the worst in some but it also brings out an impressive degree of creativity. I was told more than once that to PvP effectively one had to know one's character well, and that the unpredictability of human opponents made the experience potentially more stimulating than PvE play. My goal is to get a better idea of what PvP play is like in order to get a better idea of what it can mean to players.

The project as I am currently thinking about it will be largely auto ethnographic, that is to say it will be about my experiences participating in a less familiar aspect of a world I am already more or less familiar with.