World of Worry: Examining the dark side of World of Warcraft

Virtual Sense of Community in a World of Warcraft® Storytelling Open Forum Thread

“…This particular player enters the story only once in order to disrupt the psychological rules of engagement within the neutral setting of the text-based story -a task which would not have been so easily executed in the live gaming world -and inadvertently establishes the storytelling boundaries (McMillan & Chavis, 1986). Turn 9 is the only direct reaction to the interruption in storytelling in turn 8, in the form of an out-of-character response noting that it is the nature of someone disruptive -a troll -to bring negativity to the community (Brown, 2017), highlighting players who belong and players who do not (McMillan & Chavis, 1986). This response emphasizes a supportive forum roleplaying community (Pretty, Bishop, Fisher & Sonn, 2007) and also acts as an indirect reinforcement of community boundaries.…”

“…In several instances of the examples from this study's Findings and Discussion, WoW players participate with the storytelling community through out-of-character comments and direct and indirect reminders to each other (through storytelling dialogue) about the "neutral" nature of the tavern setting. However, virtual gaming environments seem to have also inadvertently conceived communities steeped in damaging and destructive inclinations (Brown, 2017), and WoW's complicated virtual gaming community has pushed players to communicate outside of the game, through game-related blogs, forums and websites (Brown, 2017).…”

“…An out-of-character comment is made from one player (who is of a lower level) to another player (who is of a higher level, seems to have a reputation amongst some other players, and is perceived to be someone to be reckoned with) -a request for permission to hunt another player -perhaps a consideration that might not have been made for another character or even during live gaming. The communities formed are empowering individuals and players to become part of something exciting while making friends with like-minded individuals (Brown, 2017). The collaboration in story development may work as a deterrent against violent behavior and as an enactment of self-preservation; encouraging the idea that within the confines of a building structure (in this case the inn) is "neutral territory," a safe space (Brodsky & Marx, 2001) or even a "gated community" (Zhang & Lin, 2012) for players to build up a community.…”

“…World of Warcraft® (WoW) is a unique online storytelling community in that not only does it afford live, massively multiplayer, virtual gaming, and face-to-face interaction (Crenshaw, LaMorte & Nardi, 2017), but it also boasts a robust online forum community consisting of general, guild, technical, game world, special interest, and storytelling threads (Poor, 2014;and Brown, 2017), amongst many others. It is a subscription-based, multilingual, massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG) which was launched in 2004 (Wright, 2004;and McMillan, 1996) by Blizzard Entertainment, and -at the time of this writing -with over 4,000,000 players (Brown, 2017). Part of a player's worth and ability to move forward in the game depends on the joining of a guild (Mancini, Caricati, Balestrieri & Sibilla, 2018) -in other words, the willingness of a player to become part of a social community (Hsiao & Chiou, 2012).…”

“…A literature review commences, followed by methodology, findings and discussion, and finally a conclusion where implications for real world applications regarding interaction amongst multicultural communities will also be considered. It is not the intention of this present study to comment on the current state of WoW (Brown, 2017;and Crenshaw, LaMorte & Nardi, 2017), but rather to reinvigorate a storytelling forum thread that inhabits the diverse characteristic senses of an online community, which -if nurtured and cultivated properly -could yield opportunities for further research and offer a "fuller understanding of the variety of communities in our society" (McMillan & Chavis, 1986, p. 19).…”