My presentation

These are the notes I based a presentation of my project on. My prof told me that while my idea and my method were interesting that I have to present more than some episodes I need a story line and I agree with him. My project is still a little bit unfinished but this should help illustrate what I wanted to get from it.

I started this project with the intention of studying player versus player (PvP) gaming in the MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) World of Warcraft (WoW) but the honest truth is that I don’t know more about that now than I did when I started. While I was thinking about how best to approach my subject I got distracted by my life in the virtual world. I realized that I did not understand the technical aspects of game play well enough to relate to my chosen subject and more importantly that the auto ethnographic method that I chose was not suited for the task at hand. That’s when I began to look for another subject. I debated studies of gaming practices, tanking on my paladin, spec and the effort that players put into perfecting their characters. I even contemplated talking about guilds as social units in WoW but I realize that while all of those subjects were interesting they were not what my project was about. And then it hit me: scholarship has a very poor idea of what people do in online games. This project is an attempt to provide some raw ethnographic data that could help fill in blank spaces.
My interest is not to represent what all WoW players do at all moments in the game, not is it even to represent the totality of my gaming experiences; instead my goal is to evoke the realities of the Azeroth, the virtual world that is the setting of WoW. Unlike much of the other work I have read on virtual worlds, I am not looking to define or explain, my goal is more modest than that; it is very simply to describe, to relate, to evoke another reality. While the work that I have read on virtual worlds is interesting and valuable it has been highly theoretical with ethnographic data there mostly to illustrate theoretical points. My project is an impressionist tale, stories that stand alone without needing elaborate theoretical framework. In order to facilitate comprehension I will focus more on the social aspects of gaming and less on the technical ones, that is to say my stories will be about the social networks and relationships that form in the game adding in more context specific elements as needed. My method is thus simply to tell stories as I remember them, World of Warcraft does not allow me to make chat logs so I do not have records to fall back on even if I wanted them; these stories are my memories retold so that they will make sense to somebody other than me.
This is a story that I have yet to put in my blog, it is a story that I have not really told to another person, a story about an encounter that I had with a fellow guild member. In World of Warcraft, guilds are stable organizations of players, in other words informal associations made up of and run by players. As a member of a guild you can turn to fellow members when in need of assistance or advice and are expected in turn to help others in need. While it is not expected that all guild members will become friends, they are generally expected to get along with each other and friendships between guildies is pretty standard, more so in a smaller guild than a larger guild. Because World of Warcraft is such a big game often joining a guild can be the easiest way to meet people; there is a chat channel for guild members to chat with each other in appropriately called guild chat and as a fellow member players will be more inclined to want to socialize with you, at least that’s how it’s been in my experience. In many ways Guilds are the basic social unit of WoW.
I was chatting with a guildie named Pegolas in guild chat about Death Knights, I had just had a negative encounter with a player whose character was one, and he said “Noob DKs are fags.” The term noob or newbie is a derogatory term, it refers to players who are not interested in making the effort to learn how to play the game and demand that other players assist them instead. The simple truth is that because there are more people playing Death Knights than any other class, there are more noobs playing them, so he was basically saying “noobs are fags.” Unhappy with what he said but at that point unwilling to get into an argument I pointed out that his choice of words was questionable. He justified his choice of words by claiming that they were accurate and that’s when I lost my temper and told him that as a gay man I found his choice of words offensive. He then got defensive and told me that if I was so easily offended then maybe I should rethink my choice of guild. At this point I was really insulted and seriously contemplating leaving the guild, but fortunately some of my friends in the guild spoke out in my defense. It’s then that Pegolas asserted that he was not using ‘the homo term’ and that where he came from calling a person a fag was like calling them stupid and then complained that I was making a fuss about nothing.
People use the term gay to mean stupid or unfair all the time without ever thinking about the other connotations of the word and Pegolas could not understand why I got so offended. A few other guild members agreed with him and I was encouraged to ‘move on and forget about it.’ In my time in World of Warcraft I have seen complete strangers randomly insult other for no real reason other than that they can and fag is the insult of choice. Playing the game I learned pretty quickly to tune out certain chat channels and to dismiss and ignore rude people out of hand, but when a fellow guild member used the term in guild chat I was unprepared to let it pass. When Pegolas claimed I was making a lot of fuss about something that was ‘just a word’, one of my friends, a guy named Jerac, pointed out that if he had not used the term there would not have been a problem in the first place. It is then that the guild leader stepped in; first she found out what happened and then she told the guild in no uncertain terms that using racist or homophobic remarks was unacceptable. She also asked that we not fight in guild chat but that if we had to argue that we should do so in whispers, that is private chat.
My guild leader’s intervention ended the discussion in guild chat but I whispered some of my friends to thank them for their support. I was having trouble with some of my quests so Jerac offered to come and help me. As we teamed we talked about what happened, I explained to my friend that if Pegolas had recognized what he did and apologized for it I would not have reacted the way I did. Jerac understood where I was coming from and he explained to me that he had a gay brother whom he was very protective of IRL and then we quested together. Later that day Pegolas messaged me to apologize and I accepted his apology. He told me that he was sorry that he had offended me; he made sure that I knew he had not meant to and I assured him that I did. It turns out that Jerac and Pegolas had a talk about our fight in guild chat and Jerac explained to Pegolas why I had gotten upset.
This is a story about misunderstandings and assumptions; both Pegolas and I imagined that our fellow guild members thought the same way we did. When I tried to justify my reaction to Jerac I told him that I should not have to tolerate insults or homophobic comments from fellow guild members and I’m willing to bet that Pegolas got defensive because he felt I should have understood what he meant. In both cases we imagined the guild to be made up of likeminded individuals and were shocked to find out that another person saw things differently. Pegolas is not the only person who ever used terms like fag or gay without thinking of what they are saying, but I bet if I spoke to other gay WoW players they would tell me that it’s remarkable that he apologized. My story, however, is just the account of a little argument I had with a guild member on an RP server of a game called World of Warcraft. I guess that’s my story, I have not spoken much with Pegolas since the incident though I see him in guild chat.

The Crossroads is under attack

Today I was wandering through the crossropads getting more moon festival coins (I got some in Azshara, Felwood and Wintersprings) when I found the crossroads under attack but two death knights. As a level 71 paladin (and a protection paladin to boot) I was understandably cautious but I decided to charge in (you only live once). I defeated one of the Death Knights easily the first time and then less easily the second. First time it was me and the level 73 DK, second time his level 60 buddy had joined in. The third time they killed be because Lay on Hands was still in cool down. There was something exhillerating about making those Allies eat dirt.

I spoke to some guildies about the incident and because of what they told be about the DK class I think that it's quite possible I would not die if I faced that guy again. I was also congratulated and it felt nice to be told "Way to go." by my guild members, as good as it felt to tear into that Death Knight like a hot knife through butter. =P

A BG, some Drama, and other guild news

This week I did a Warsong Gulch match as a my forsaken rogue and I discovered something, it;'s really difficult to play a rogue in a BG, or at least I had trouble doing it. Stealth made me too slow sometimes to be effective and when allies could see me they had a pretty easy time finishing me off. Still there was something satisfying about ambushing the nelf hunter who was tryign to gank my friend. Even more satisfying would have been to get the human warrior who I never managed to wipe. Horde won the Warsong Gulch match, but to be honest I always expect that to be the case, I have rarely seen alliance win a BG and then I was an Ally when I saw it. Don't go thinking that I'm some kind of PvP expert because I'm not, generally when I bring my toons onto a BG it's the first or second time they have been in one and I'm always surprised to find I'm not the most ganked noob on the field.

I also ran my gnome mage around collecting ancestor coins, I got the coin in the crossroads and a coin in Durotar. I'm a level 50 so I was not prepared to venture into Org, that would have been the funniest one shot evar though.

I had more guild drama this week. I've settled in my chosen guilds, at least for now when two guildies start going at it. These are fellow guild members I do not much like, mostly because they are generally very sarcastic, so it's possible they were not really fighting it's just impossible to know because they are rude and unpleasant all the time. One might claim it's for comic effect, but don't jokes have to be funny? Being aggressively sarcastic with no let up ever seems to me to be the mark of a jerk.

At any rate they got into it and they started calling each other gay. I know, I know, this is WoW and when it's boobs in trade chat I simply ignore it. Over 9 million players means that there are more than a few idiots playing WoW. Seeing guild members bandy the word gay around like it was a deadly insult really offended me. Honestly they might as well have called each other fag, we all know that's what they meant. My first response was something like "{guild member} can't be gay, gay people have taste." Not very mature I know but seeing these guys talk about my sexual orientation as if it was a disease really gets my goat.

The guildies ignored me and continued to squabble and I was struck by the absurdity of the situation so I asked "Did you seriously use the term gay as an insult?" Well, that's what I inteded to type but when I get nervous I typo so after I asked "Dis you serios;y ca';; {guildie}gay to insult them" . Meantime my guild leader had intervened and ordered everybody to stop saying the word gay. Then I typed out my question with no typos. My guild leader whispered me a message that said "STOP" I was so upset I logged off.

Thinking about it and talking to my mom about it I realized that my GL had probably asked me to stop because my GL knew I could be counted on to act resonably. When I logged back on I apologized to my guild leader for getting upset at a delicate moment and I explained why I had gotten offended. My GL told me that gay bashing was not tolerated in the guild and that this had been the reason that the offending parties had been asked to stop. I think there may have been a "it won't happen again" implied but none was said.

After I spoke with the guild leader again I alted to another toon because I was upset. I like my GL, we are friends and I have many friends in this guild, there are two members of this guild I simply cannot stand. These two members used homophobic insults against each other, insults that I found persoally offensive and it's not unreasonable for me to get upset. I would have liked it if my GL could have told me that it was reasonalble for me to get offended (it would be great if those morons could apologize too but I'm not holding out much hope) and maybe an expression of sympathy.

As things stand now I feel like an outsider in my guild, I feel like I don't belong. I feel like I got insulted and the people who did it got rapped on the fingers with a little "please try not do do that again kthnksbai! =)" This depresses me because when I joined this guild it was magical seeing all the people that I liked chatting with and now I feel vaguely angry and ill at ease with my guild. I hate confrontation and I feel like, I don't know, I feel like a couple of loudmouths are more important to the guild than I am. I feel really hearsick and I really have no idea what to do anymore I guess, I will stick with the guild and see how it works out.

In other guild news one of the other many guilds I am in got some fresh blood, two really exciting newish members. I knew them from when they were part of this big raiding guild and now they are part of my very small modest guild and I'm happy cause they RP and because I got some new armor... a matching set. I'm so gay, but what is it about WoW armor skins that conspire to make players look stupid? My warlock ran around with baby yellow and pink shoulder pads for the longest time, much to my shame.

Anyways that's it for now.... till my next post I guess

Moon Coins and meditation.

Today I spent an unproductive day traveling across Azeroth meeting ancestors and getting coins from them on my highest level avatar, a level 69 paladin. Yes I know if I were really an avid WoW player I would have an 80 buy now but I don't, I don't even have a Death Knight and I got the new expansion about a week or two ago. I had planned on spending the day doing academic things like reading for class and that other stuff but over this week end I only did readings for one of my classes so far. That is not to say I won't do the readings or the work but that but that I've been having motivation problems. As embarrassing as this is to admit I have been having trouble getting into the swing of things this semester and I'm not entirely sure why. My current theory is that I am putting too much pressure on myself to perform well and that I am kind of stalling myself in the process. Take this blog for instance I want it to be original and insightful but I also want everybody to be able to understand me so I take on a very formalistic tone and I probably lose my readers in the first few sentences. I know I did not enjoy writing it. So I've come to a decision I will simply relate my experiences and provide clarifications as I deem them necessary or as my readers ask for them.

In any event today I spent the day riding around on a Horde paladin visiting elders and collecting coins during the Lunar Festival. The festival like most WoW world events last about a week or two and during that time I have to accomplish as many event related goals as possible or wait a year to get to do them again. Fro the most part I tend to do a few of the easier event related goals and then go on questing but today I decided to really work on getting those ancestor coins. I was going for three achievements: to get all the coins on the continent of Kalimdor, to get all the coins in the Eastern Kingdoms and to get 50 coins. I got 30 coins so far (I spent 5 on a reward but they still count for the achievement) and I did not manage to get all the coins in either Continent but it was fun. Some of the coins were in Alliance controlled territory and that meant having to get flagged for PvP and coming into conflict with NPCs in the places I was. Whenever I could, however I skirted the town guards and NPCs so that I would avoid conflict, this was not always possible. One of the coins that I got was in Stormwind City, that is one of the Alliance capital cities, it's swarming with powerful guards, NPCs and players. Just entering the city flags me for PvP combat and so I am fair game for anybody who wants to attack me. My first few steps into the city I was cut down brutally by the level 75 city guards. I died a total of four or five times getting to the ancestor and I was not finished. I also wanted to get the coin in the Dwarven capital of Ironforge, yet another Aliiance capital city and the easiest way to do that was to use the tram connecting Stormwind and Ironforge. I can't remember if I died more than once getting to the tram but I had managed to find an effective way to travel through Stormwind while avoiding the guards, NPCs and other players. In Ironforge I died only once to the city guards while trying to get the coin (after I got the coin they killed me) but I chose to resurrect at the graveyard and spare myself the pain of being killed trying to escape Ironforge.

I got one more coin from an alliance town after that but was not flagged by it. Having played the game long enough I know what Ally players probably saw when I penetrated deep into the heart of their territory and wandered through their capital city. Their local defense channel was probably warning then that I was in their city (potentially attacking them). Even if this was not the case these messages can be something of an annoyance as they are repetitive and obnoxious. More annoying is that when high level players attack the towns and cities of the opposing faction they kill vendors and other useful NPCs that players of the faction need for various reasons e.g. completing quests, repairing their gear, buying items or new gear. In fact what I did is seen as a nuisance by players, even though I did not kill any NPCs causing the local defense channel to start spamming warnings is annoying but whether or not they approved of my actions I had fun. There is something amusing about riding through a dinky little Alliance town like Astranaar or Goldshire wearing no gear (all avatars wear default underwear) ignoring the guards wailing on me while I complete whatever quest I am on. There is even something exciting about trying to run through a capital like Stormwind attempting to avoid the city guards and higher level players while looking for the ancestor spirit with the coin I need.

Today I did not raid any settlements, that is attack and kill NPCs but I did set off a few Local Defense channels and I was attacked by several guards, NPCs and players. I also got the coins I wanted, the only big city I have not entered for a coin is Darnassus, I will have to try that one later. There is something exciting about the possibility of PvP, even if I am not specced for it and even if I am not a particularly good player something about the illicit nature of my activities made them seem more fun. I would not run around through Stormwind, Ironforge or Darnassus everyday because the repair bill would kill me but still it makes one think. I used to feel like people invaded the space of the opposite faction simply to be annoying but now I don;t think that way any more. When, on my one of my Alliance toons I heard somebody remark that the Horde did this stuff during events, I pointed out that they probably had their own agendas and that annoying us was rather low on their to do list. I know that I did not want to annoy peopel when I entered Stormwind as a member of the Horde.

parts of the beast

World of Warcraft is a game which actively encourages both PvE and PvP play and to that end it establishes systems of points and rewards specific to both kinds of play. Paricipating in PvP allows players to get in game achievements and gather tokens and points that can be redeemed for rewards. Players can get get titles, gear and rewards from PvP and that's not counting status inside player communities.

PvP occurs at several levels in the game. The most basic level of PvP is the duel, any player can challenge another to a duel, the duel lasts until one player brings the other almost to the point of dying. There is an achievement badge for winning a duel but dueling is largely outside of the honor points system which is one of the official mechanisms by which the game encourages PvP.

As I have said before players are members of on of two warring faction Horde or Alliance, players get honor for killing members of the opposite faction, players and certain NPCs (Non player characters). There are restrictions, one gets honor from killing appropriate level opponents. The honor points system is evident at the levels of instanced PvP and world PvP.

Instanced PvP happens in instances called battlegrounds, players compete in a game, capturing some sort of objective, that causes them to fight. Basically members of both factions work to kill each other while accomplishing a goal and the reward is honor and tokens that can can be redeemed for rewards. Each battle ground is different and each one has different level requirements but the premise is the same, in order to win the BG (battle ground) one has to fight with and defeat members of the opposing faction.

Killing a player of the appropriate level gives one honor, this honor can be redeemed for rewards (I believe) and players also gain reputation with PvP factions fo NPCs. The better one's relationship is with a faction the better items they can trade to you will be, so gaining reputation (rep) is an interesting proposition. In a BG all players are flagged for PvP, but outside of PvP servers one can choose to be flagged or not flag, being flagged for PvP means that members of the opposing faction are free to attack you. Outside of PvP servers where one is automatically flagged one can choose whether or not to participate in PvP.

World PvP happens in the world in general, unlike BGs which are instanced world PvP can happen anywhere. There are zones with world PvP objectives and in the capital cities of the opposing faction are NPCs that are worth a lot of honor. Killing the leaders of the opposite faction by rading their capital cities is an example of world PvP, another example of world PvP is capturing towers in the Plaguelands.

Outside of these more official forms of world PvP there is a less appreciated form or raid where members of one faction attack settlements of the other faction, almost all NPCs are flagged for PvP, those of neutral factions are hostile only if you are at war with them, those of the main player factions are hostile to members of the opposite faction and there are some factions that are hostile to nobody. While NPCs won't randomly attack each other hostile ones will attack players on sight but they don't generally provide honor.

Last but not least there is the arena, the Arena is a place where there are more organized forms of combat, players form teams and compete against each other, players can also engage in free for all battles, winning means getting arena points, which can then be exchanged for gear and other items, and the best ranked arena teams can get rewards for their performance.

Touch my PvPness!

Waiting on a queue for a battleground I wonder why I am even bothering, my avatar is too low level to perform correctly, I don't know my class well enough, I will be a burden for the other players, and I HATE waiting. Eventually an instance of the Warsong Gulch battleground becomes available, I enter; much of the time I get killed by other players when I fight , in fact, because of my low level players go out of their way to attack me, but when the Horde wins Warsong Gulch yet again it feels like a victory.

Setting: World of Warcraft http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/index.xml


For those of you who have never heard of it World of Warcraft is an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game), that is a computer game that people all over the world play on the internet. Perhaps the easiest way for me to describe it would be a computer game with a complex chat room attached. Though these are virtual worlds they host complex social realities that users navigate through as they play the game.

My project: to get an insider's perspective on what it means to play WoW, more precicely to better understand Player versus Player (PvP) practices in World of Warcraft.