I have once again decided to tread in familiar territory. Even though I do not play World of Warcraft anymore, I cannot help but be reminded of how well this game relates to nearly everything we talk about in class. The relationships I formed in World of Warcraft are vast in number, and there are even some people I met randomly while playing the game that I still chat with to this day.
The relationship I want to discuss is with one player from my guild, whose online name I won't include, but only because it is an inappropriate word. So instead, I'll just call him "wow_player." Wow_player is an interesting human specimen, mostly because he has the demeanor of a starving grizzly bear and a vocabulary that makes George Carlin seem mild. To be completely honest, this is not all that rare in the world of online video games, but wow_player has unfriendliness down to a science.
In my relationship with wow_player, I believe my experience can best be explained by the removal of gating features, one of McKenna's relationship facilitation factors. What this means is that certain features that will facilitate or inhibit relationships in face-to-face interactions (such as physical attractiveness, social adeptness, gender, race, etc.) play either a reduced role or no role at all in CMC interations. Although I agree with this idea, it is somewhat incomplete, because for World of Warcraft, the FtF gating features are removed, but there exists a seperate set of gating factors for the game. In World of Warcraft, and video games in general, what matters is not your demeanor or attractiveness, but rather how skilled you are. Those who excel at "owning newbs" will quickly rise to the top of the social ladder, but those who are unskilled will find themselves ostracized and ridiculed. Wow_player, despite being an unbelievable jerk (and quite unattractive, from his picture), was probably one of the most skilled players I have ever met, and this is the reason why everyone (including myself) sought to be his friend. Conversely, he was very kind to me and sought out my opinion often simply because I was a skilled player as well.
Having common ground, one of Wallace's attraction factors, also played a key role in the relationship wow_player and I had. Having common ground simply means that one tends to form stronger relationships with others who share common beliefs or values. Obviously, wow_player and I shared an affinity for World of Warcraft, but there is more to it. We also shared beliefs on how skilled players should be, as well as the preference for what kind of gaming we enjoyed. Despite being a jerk to everyone else, he was civil with me because we agreed on our expectation of others and the game itself.
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3 comments:
I must admit, I always enjoy reading posts on WOW. Having dabbled in it myself, I understand many of the things of which bloggers post about. Having said this, I really enjoyed your post. I think you did an excellent job of explaining the theories and how they relate to your experiences.
I find WOW relationships to be very interesting. It's amazing how close people can become through online gaming. I think a lot of it has to do with shared experiences. For example, being in a guild with someone in WOW is akin to being in a club with someone in reality. You share so many experiences with them, go through the same rigorous initiation process, and the same difficult boss fights. All of these common endeavors are what, I think, really facilitate many of the excellent relationships that develop through online gaming.
Hi Brendan,
Although I've never played World Of Warcraft before, much less heard of it until I learned about during this course, I find the whole dynamics of the games fascinating. I couldn't help but laugh at your post when you talked about wow_player's unfriendliness in being an "unbelievable jerk" and "owning newbs". I have had some experience in asynchronous message board forums, and I have found many similarities. The term "newbie" was used quite often to describe those that no one recognized that had recently joined the forum.
You did a good job of explaining the 2 attraction and relationship facilitation factors, and I can agree that it seems in WOW the gating feature is your gaming skills. This is interesting in looking at the WOW hierarchy system.
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