Blood Scythes, Festivals, Quests, and Backstories

Abstract

One of the pleasures of playing in the “World” of Warcraft is becoming part of its pervasive mythology. This article argues that to understand the game’s formal, aesthetic, and structural specificity, its pleasures and potential meanings, it is essential to investigate how the mythic functions. The author shows that the mythic plays a primary role in making a consistent fantasy world in terms of game play, morality, culture, time, and environment. It provides a rationale for players’ actions, as well as the logic that under- pins the stylistic profile of the game, its objects, tasks, and characters. In terms of the “cultural” environments of the game, the presence of a coherent and extensive myth scheme is core to the way differences and conflicts between races are organized. And, as a form of intertextual resonance, its mythology furnishes the game with a “thickness” of meaning that promotes, for players, a sense of mythological being as well as encouraging an in-depth textual engagement.

The Phenomenology of the “Other” in Computer Game Worlds

“…It is the primary physical mode of interaction the player has with the game but is something that for the time being is consistent among all games until some sort of interface is developed that can highjack our brain (think The Matrix). Second, the design and purpose of the game, or its ''worldliness'' (Krzywinska, 2006), influences the overall context of meaning. Is it a fantasy game?…”

The Aspatial Economics of Virtual Worlds

“…On a certain level of geographic analysis, one can emphasize the immersive nature of the richly developed landscapes. Krzywinska (2006) took this approach to the study of the world. In her article, WoW is framed in terms of a spatial narrative set in a beautifully rendered environment that uses distinctive landscapes to create a strong sense of place as the players' characters travel from location to location.…”

“…But, at least in the case of WoW, distance and time can shrink to zero (or very nearly so), but this does not correspond to the annihilation of place. Not only do places such as the Auction House remain important, but also Blizzard goes to great effort to emphasize place through the creation of unique and dramatic landscapes for users to experience, which was the focus of Krzywinska's (2006) article. Users may experience different places, but the space between places is not intended to be a major obstacle, especially as a user's character progresses in power.…”

“…The purpose of this article is to show that although virtual worlds are not immune to aspatial economic laws, geographic constraints on economic interaction in virtual worlds are optional inclusions. The Diablo game series has attracted little academic attention, but WoW has been studied academically in Krzywinska (2006), Bainbridge (2007), Lastowka (2009), Nakamura (2009), Barnett and Achambault (2010), Gilmore (2010), Golub (2010), Kosminsky (2010), and Bainbridge (2011). WoW was even the subject of epidemiological research in Balicer (2007) and Lofgren and Fefferman (2007), when the "Corrupted Blood" disease spread rapidly though the world's population in 2005.…”

“…medieval fantasy world with the player's experience centered on a journey. On this subject,Krzywinska (2006) writes,The nature of World of Warcraft's quest system forces players to be nomadic, traveling widely in the world to undertake the tasks required to progress. There is therefore a strong and highly recognizable sense of a journey structure in the game, working on the lines of the archetypal hero quest structure found in Homer's The Odyssey(c. 750 B.C.).(p.…”