Sunday, February 19, 2012
Oddity, Week 5
MMO stands for massively multi-player online game. World of Warcraft is, and has been for many years, the biggest of these games and I play a Draenei arcane mage. The world of WoW, Azeroth, consists of three continents, the Eastern Kingdoms, Kalimdor, and Northrend. On these continents are two factions, the Alliance and the Horde. Players can choose to make either an Alliance or a Horde character and by this choice limit themselves to a certain number of races for that character. The Alliance is home to Night Elves, Humans, Gnomes, Dwarfs, Draenei, and Worgen. The Horde is home to Forsaken, Trolls, Tauren, Orcs, Blood Elves, and Goblins. Each of these races can then be customized into various classes: warriors, paladin, hunters, rogues, priests, shaman, magi, warlocks, druids, and death knights. Each class has three talent trees which allow even the classes to be customized. Currently, there are about 10.3 million people in the world who subscribe to the game and these numbers are down from where they used to be. As has already been said, I am one of these subscribers. It's Chips fault. Chip, like many of these 10.3 million people have played WoW since it was introduced, but I would be classified as a "wrath baby," meaning I didn't start playing until the second expansion "The Wrath of the Lich King" was already released. It started as a free month's subscription as Chip said "just to see if you like it." At the time, it was supposed to be something Chip and I could do together. Now, I genuinely enjoy running around Azeroth "pewing" things with swirly, glowing magic. I, however, would be classified as the casual player. I get on when I want to, do what I want to, get off when I want to, and sometimes go weeks, even months, without logging on. Most players, however, belong to a guild with which they raid. Chip's guild raids three nights a week, for a couple of hours. There are some guilds, however, who make WoW their life. Literally, their people spend every spare moment they can muster on-line. The WoW programing team even occasionally puts a reminder to "go outside of Azeroth" with your friends on their loading screen. Now, while I do enjoy what many would classify as a rather dorky pastime, I must admit, I have no idea why these people forgo their real everyday lives for this on-line fantasy.
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Melissa,
ReplyDeleteI noticed that you used something from your junkyard in this piece, the admonition to "'go outside of Azeroth' with your friends." I thought that was a loaded quote and was glad to see you use it. That on-screen reminder to embrace life outside of the game speaks to the obsession-like interactive gaming trend, but also makes me think of manufacturer responsibility.
It reminds me of the warnings on alcohol and tobacco labels, or the notices at Six Flags about how pregnant people or those with back problems should avoid a particular ride. Certain warnings are required by law, others are there as a kind of voluntary disclaimer that might offer protection (to the company) of some sort in case of a lawsuit. I wonder if Azeroth's on-screen prompt hints at something similar or if it's meant only as a cute reference to its own addictiveness, one that holds no seriously intended meaning or concern. You could use that angle as a jumping-off point to expand your essay, I think.
Since warnings or suggestions such as this one are typically there for our protection (or to suggest that the manufacturer must think for us in order to protect itself), you could even bring in your junkyard quote about the squigly words meant to "prove you're not a robot." I guess it prevents spam? The same kind of screening process works when you're buying tickets for a concert or something, maybe to prevent ticket scalpers from scooping up all the good seats first. I would love to read a piece about these warnings and what they accomplish or don't.
Also, the details in this entry are fabulous. You give us the population groups I remember from "Lord of the Rings," and sprinkle in those I don't know, like Draenei and Worgen. The idea that you're "pewing" things is fun to think about. I think your prose might benefit in a few places (as would my own) by switching out some of your "is," "was," and "are" verbs for some beefed up verbs. But that's an easy fix. This piece, I think, holds a lot of opportunity for a longer, quite fascinating tale of "Warcraft" and "warnings."
Pam, thank you so much! One thing I've noticed about your comments here and on my workshop piece is that you have a wonderful way of seeing somewhat strange connections that could blow a small piece like this wide open to the more nuanced and reflective expansions we've been trying to work toward in class. I, of course, began with the game itself and moved slightly off-subject to the obsessive culture that has grown up around it, but had little idea of how to expand this further or add in a more nuanced "reflection." I never even thought about the implications surrounding why the company would include such a warning. Granted, I feel, knowing the game and the rampant jokes written into it, that the programmers are probably just being tongue-in-cheek here, but you bet that if someone tried to sue the company because they lost their job, and I've known such people (he lost his girlfriend too, but that's another story), because they played too much WoW, the company would use any means necessary to absolve itself of culpability, including this little quip. I think suggestions like this will be the most beneficial uses of this journal because, at least to me and in my writing, I can easily generate small posts, my problem is finding the connections that expand that piece and actually make it into an essay worth writing. Again, thank you so much!
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