The World of Warcraft as a Social Community

By Ian Alejandro Hunter for Sociology 167, Virtual Communities and Social Media

I've always been fascinated by the video game industry and its massive growth over the years. From the days of arcades to the introduction of the first home consoles, game designers have always sought ways to extend their reach to a larger audience. One of the most revolutionary games of all time is World of Warcraft, a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) developed by Blizzard Entertainment and released in 2004. Its vast and diverse gaming world, unlimited potential for exploration, character creation, and gameplay has revolutionized the video game industry and the way we engage in social spaces with like-minded individuals.

Screenshot captured from the King Rastakhan boss battle in the Battle of Dazar'alor raid, released during the Battle for Azeroth expansion in 2019.

Introduction to WoW as a Social Community

I'm particularly interested in the social community aspect of World of Warcraft and how it's important for various fields of social study. We can explore the nature of this third world and how it operates similarly to a fully fleshed-out real-world community, with interactivity, communication strategies, and most importantly, adaptability or fluidity. We will focus on three primary aspects within the game: the design and implementation of a "living" world (interactivity), the operation of guilds and their members (communication), and the presentation of new content and how it incorporates both old and new members (adaptability/fluidity).

World of Warcraft provides players with several ways to communicate and interact with one another, such as in-game chat or outside communication forums like Discord servers, Reddit threads, or game-centered blogs. However, the primary source for interactivity is the expansive guild system built into the game, allowing for a maximum of 1,000 players to connect and coordinate with each other. I joined one of these guilds, which had a more manageable number of members (200), and used my experiences during this project to formulate the basis of my argument. I played and chatted with guild members in-game regularly, and interacted with them through personalized discussions, curated Twitch streams, and various posts on forums like Reddit and Facebook. Some of these players have become close friends because of these interactions, and I wanted to explore as much as I could given the vast scale of community interaction that Blizzard has fostered within World of Warcraft.

World of Warcraft's "Living" World

In this first section, we detail the mechanics surrounding the implementation of the game's "living" world and how its design processes have allowed for social development in-game. We will primarily look to Steinkuehler and Williams' "Where Everybody Knows Your (Screen) Name: Online Games as 'Third Places'" (2006) to showcase how the environments and interactivity within the realm of Azeroth create a space that operates similarly to any real-world social gathering.

The success of World of Warcraft's fictional realm of Azeroth stems from its ability to feel like a living and breathing world, much like our own, but filled with fantastical creatures and imaginative areas ripe for exploration. The game has been consistently updated, with new expansions to the game's world releasing around every two years since release. As such, the world has been developed to include 10 major zones, each with around 20-40 unique regions within them. The sheer volume of regions in the game allows for a plethora of interactive quests and tasks for players to complete and be a part of. But even looking at the basis for each quest, we find that there are a multitude of Non-playable characters (NPCs), each with their own unique set of dialogue that tells the various stories that make up the seemingly infinite lore that is a focal point of the game. It is in these places and through these diverse encounters that we can begin to see just how well World of Warcraft operates as a "living" world. Steinkuelher and Williams bring this notion to light in their pieces when discussing the relative increase in popularity of what they deem as digital “third worlds” when they sate:

By providing spaces for social interaction and relationships beyond the workplace (or school) and home, such virtual environments have the potential to function as new (albeit digitally mediated) third places similar to pubs, coffee shops, and other hangouts. MMOs are social environments in that successful play often requires collaboration… (Steinkuelher and Williams 889)

I experienced two novel social interactions within the game of World of Warcraft that exemplify how its virtual environments closely mimic real-world social environments. The game's Auction House is a functional economy system where players can buy and sell armor and weapons in a manner similar to an actual auction house, and the prices fluctuate based on server population. Researching prices on external sites such as wowauction.us is common practice, just like real-world market analysis. This fluid economy system has been going strong for over 16 years and showcases how Blizzard's development has made the game's world function similarly to, and even at times better than, real-world environments.

Communication Within World of Warcraft

In this section, we will examine communication in World of Warcraft based on the experiences with my guild and interactions with players from around the world. I will use William A. Hamilton’s “Streaming on Twitch” and Steinkuelher and Williams’ (2006) piece to examine the communication of the WoW community as a whole and within my guild specifically.

I found having access to experienced players in my guild to be crucial in improving my World of Warcraft gameplay. With almost 200 members, the guild provided guidance and support for new players like myself. This dynamic created a path for improvement focused on fun and leveling, which aligned with my own priorities. Additionally, this allowed other members to pursue their desired roles within the guild and in-game. Steinkuelher and Williams offer great insight into an understanding of this phenomena and how it relates to the real world (Figure 1.0 illustrates the aforementioned conversation):

A second and related criterion for third places is that an individual’s rank and status in the home, workplace, or society are of no importance (Oldenburg, 1999). Again, much like the world of sport (Huizenga, 1949), the boundary of the game world creates a sense of moratorium from everyday roles… Here, a renowned guild leader in Lineage I explains how avatar-mediated social interaction enables her to play a leader in the virtual world in ways she is typically unable (or, more accurately, not allowed) to in ‘‘real life.’’ (Steinkuelher and Williams 891-892)

Figure 1.0, depicting a unique social interaction in-game.

We find from this quote that there is a sense of freedom that takes place within these virtual in-game communities that allows for players to not only assume desired roles for themselves, but also subsequently extend their services to other members of the community. Especially in today’s current state where sociability is at a low, it is crucially important that we bring awareness to the potential that this virtual world can have in expressing some of the best features that we as social beings can express.

Adaptability in WoW's Changing Environment

Throughout my time spent playing and analyzing World of Warcraft, I have been struck by the game's unique adaptability, particularly when it comes to new content and its ability to create an inclusive environment for both old and new players. The release of the game's eighth expansion, Shadowlands, on November 23rd, 2020, was a perfect example of this.

Shadowlands offered a complete overhaul to the game's design, with many improvements to its social aspects as well. One of the most prominent features of this new expansion was the "New Game+ experience," where newly created characters begin their WoW journey by exploring the central region called "Exile's Reach." This area serves to introduce players to their character's mechanics as well as the game's mechanics. I only had a week to experience this new content, but I was enamored with the level of accessibility it afforded both new and old players alike.

In discussions with multiple members of my guild, we agreed that the "New Game+ experience" was a great way for new players to experience the complexity of the game in a safe space while allowing older players to hone their skills and prepare themselves quickly and efficiently.

Overall, this new content and the game's unique adaptability serve as a testament to the accessibility and range that World of Warcraft has presented on a consistent basis. It also serves as one of the best examples in describing the potential for this virtual community to outperform the social communities that we see in our own world.

Screen capture taken from the Castle Nathria raid released during WoW's Shadowlands expansion in 2020.

Conclusion

Through its interactive world, diverse communication avenues, and ever-growing accessibility, World of Warcraft has revolutionized the way we engage in social interactions. As someone who is passionate about video games and respects the industry, this project was the perfect opportunity to express my opinions on the importance of virtual communities and their potential for social commentary and sociology. With the industry continuing to grow and the potential for virtual reality, the possibilities for research and discovery in this digital world are seemingly endless. I am excited to see where the future of video games and virtual communities will take us.

This blog post was adapted from a full-length essay written for Sociology 167: Virtual Communities and Social Media, taken at the University of California, Berkeley. The full paper can be found under the "File Share" section of this portfolio. This is Part 1 of 3 in a blog series on the social sciences as depicted in video games.

A Final Retrospective on World of Warcraft Identities

By Ian Alejandro Hunter for Sociology 150, Social Psychology

Introduction

The field of social psychology heavily focuses on studying human interaction in the present world setting. However, as technology becomes increasingly prevalent in our lives, it is important to also consider how humans present themselves in a digital setting. I believe there is much to learn from virtual "third worlds" where people engage with each other in fascinating ways that offer insight into social dichotomy, human social presentation, and the development and expression of identities similar to those found in modern venues. World of Warcraft is a MMORPG that creates a socially rich environment for players to develop unique digital identities. The choice between the game's two main factions, the Horde and the Alliance, allows for players to adopt distinct identities that guide their social interactions within the game. Through analysis of player data, interviews, and personal involvement in-game, I will explore how identities are developed and internalized in virtual worlds similar to real-world identities.

Art from World of Warcraft's seventh expansion, Battle for Azeroth, where the battle between Horde and Alliance comes to a head. Art credit to Blizzard.

Study Design, Study Site, and Procedures

When I was designing my research project, I knew that the current pandemic would make studying social identities challenging. But the pandemic also pushed me to think creatively and find a topic that was more impactful in terms of insights on virtual communities in video games. I had always been interested in studying identities within the realm of video games and the people who play them. However, the circumstances of the pandemic would have prevented many of the in-person interactions that I had planned. So, I decided to shift my focus to the digital landscapes that gamers occupy, where they can safely interact with one another. This led me to take a dynamic approach to the way we interpret social identity.

The virtual landscape of the World of Warcraft became the venue at the center of my study. It is home to millions of players and houses one of the largest and most diverse communities in the industry currently. As a video game, much of the focus lies in how players interact with the various quests and challenges in-game, as well as with other players. Within the virtual land of Azeroth, players have been subject to an almost infinite number of tasks and world events that have allowed for a consistent development of what is now a vast, expansive world that is teeming with life and opportunity.

The players themselves present a wide range of socially significant traits that have allowed for a detailed study that is able to encompass a set of data that would rival real-world studies on social interaction. I believe that the focus on characteristics offers more importance when it comes to the personalities and identities that our subjects develop in-game in comparison to their real-world identities.

As an avid gamer myself and a long-time fan of the World of Warcraft, I had a foundation that would give me easy access to the research venue. However, I chose to approach the community from the perspective of a beginner. I felt that this would prevent previous biases from conflicting with my study, and I would have the potential to discover a much wider range of social interaction from the community when it came time for our research through interaction and activity. While there was still much insight to be gained from long-time friends within the game itself, I did not want to neglect any fresh faces that came forward in my experiences with either the Horde or the Alliance.

I came across a piece by Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann in Jodi O’Brien’s The Production of Reality titled “The Internalization of Society.” What struck me the most was the quote, “In primary socialization, then, the individual’s first world is constructed. Its peculiar quality of firmness is to be accounted for, at least in part, by the inevitability of the individual’s relationship to his very first significant others…” (Berger and Luckmann 160). This is insightful not only in regards to my understanding of others' social foundations, but also in its potential application to the concept of a virtual "third world." While the authors were discussing one's social development in their first world, I believe this concept can be extended to virtual worlds and the social interactions that occur within them. As such, I am interested in exploring the insights that come from investigating virtual communities and the social dynamics that exist within them.

Findings

During my preliminary field visit to World of Warcraft (WoW) on September 19th, my main objective was to establish a foundation for consistent data acquisition for my research project. I spent about 6-8 hours playing the game and found that involvement in guilds, one of WoW's primary social features, was essential to understanding the social experiences of players in-game. I was able to join a guild and a few members even offered their time to assist with my project. However, I noticed a bias and hesitation from some members towards my project, possibly due to stereotypes surrounding video games in society. This reminded me of Claude M. Steele's "Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do," where she explains the damage stereotypes can have on our identities and social relations:

…identity threats—and the damage they can do to our functioning—play an important role in some of society’s most important social problems…that persistently plague and distort our society to the equally persistent intergroup tensions that often trouble our social relations. (Steele 15)

I believe that these virtual communities and identities developed within video games are just as important as real-world relationships. The fact that these players welcomed me based solely on a mutual interest in WoW's social dynamic and the Horde faction showed that they value social development above all else.

During my research, I conducted two in-depth interviews with members of my personal guild named "Ryan" and "Luke". In my interview with Ryan, we discussed his initial formation of his identity in the game as either Horde or Alliance. He shared that while his intention was to align himself with one faction, he found that the potential for gameplay opportunities was a crucial aspect of the way he wanted to play the game. As a result, he developed his identity to flex between both factions while still being deeply immersed in the culture of each. This approach showed me how World of Warcraft offers a unique freedom of expression in one's identity, allowing individuals to shift between personalities, unlike the real world where it may be seen as negative.

In my second interview with Luke, I discovered a completely different personality from Ryan's, which showcased the dynamic differences that can stem from the two identities. Luke took a more serious approach to his objectives in-game and was aligned strictly with the Horde faction based on skill advantages and overall look and feel. His virtual personality reflected his competitive nature and his choices were dictated by the rewards he would receive. What fascinated me was that he was at the forefront of leadership in our guild and strove to make a name within the WoW community as a whole. When asked about this approach, he stated that he intended to encourage those around him to activate their fullest potential in a competitive sense. It was interesting to see how his in-game identity related to his real-world identity, as he felt held back in his average life and saw WoW as an opportunity to express his true nature.

Image captured from World of Warcraft's eighth expansion, Shadowlands, released in 2020. Art credit to Blizzard.

Discussion, Analysis, and Interpretation

My argument is that the dynamic nature of this virtual "third world" allows individuals to express a personality that they may not be able to in reality. This concept tends to bring out many individuals' desired or true natures and identities. The instances of Ryan and Luke demonstrate the unique level of social development that can take place in a digital forum. Cooley's piece, "Looking-Glass Self," resonates with our interviewees, showing how they have developed their "alternative" identities in the freedom of WoW's open virtual world. His ideas help to discern the reality that comes about when looking at the development cycles that we can then apply to our digital "third worlds."

As for my last two visits to WoW, they were particularly significant given their dates, November 23rd and 24th. On the 23rd, the game released its eighth expansion, Shadowlands, and with it came a plethora of new content for players. During my two visits, I focused on analyzing the newfound and potential future interactions that could occur with the influx of new and returning players flooding the servers.

Through my brief observations, I gained great insight into the adaptability of identities and how their distinct alterations shaped the dynamic of players' own identities. I found that many players used the new content as an opportunity to reform their core values and their approach to the game, which was no surprise given the new elements introduced in the expansion. There were four new side-factions that players could pledge themselves to, each with their own unique style and set of goals within the game's newest campaign. As a result, I saw many players embracing these new sub-factions and shifting their alignments towards the aesthetics of said factions. While many still held an allegiance to either the Horde or the Alliance, they also saw the merit that comes from embracing the newest additions to the game's series of identities.

In my further analysis of these final findings, I referenced Jodi O'Brien's piece, The Production of Reality, and specifically her section, "Who Am I? Developing Character." O'Brien encapsulates the mentality of the players when she describes her notion of "possible selves" and particularly when she states, "However, it’s not enough to have a general idea of the social position that you would like to occupy; rather, you need to be able to imagine the actual process of getting into that position." (O’Brien 240) This quote highlights the novelty and importance of our conception of social image. In the new factions introduced in the expansion, players underwent a necessary development and understanding of their identity, which allowed for such a shift. Making the drastic change in-game involved players not necessarily abandoning their previous identities, but rather putting an enhanced emphasis on their new sub-faction, with many of their in-game goals and quests centered around bringing their faction to its highest potential and embracing a high-standing role within said faction.

The symbols of both warring factions in World of Warcraft, the Alliance on the left and the Horde on the right. Art credit to FaithShifter on DeviantArt.

Conclusion

I feel that my main overall goal with this paper was to look at the importance of a virtual world and the identities associated with them, with heavy emphasis on World of Warcraft and video games as a “third world.” I wanted to showcase how the social elements that make up these diverse worlds and the players that inhabit them allow for a social development cycle that rivals that seen in our real-world setting. As a whole I feel that I have done so, whether it was through a detailed overview of the background of WoW and its design, or through the curated examples of my experiences in-game that allowed for a spotlight to be shed on important social factors that have caused a significant growth in this community.

As someone who took great care with this project based on my passion for video games and my respect for the industry as a whole, this was a perfect opportunity to express my opinions on why these identities matter and just how effective they can be in the grand scope of sociology and the study of social interaction. And in an industry that does not seem to be stopping its growth anytime soon, I look forward to the future potential that video games have when it comes to concepts such as virtual reality and the extension of our current social spaces into a more digital world with a seemingly endless number of possibilities for research and discovery.

This blog post was adapted from a full-length essay written for Sociology 150: Social Psychology, taken at the University of California, Berkeley. The full paper can be found under the "File Share" section of this portfolio. This is Part 2 of 3 in a blog series on the social sciences as depicted in video games.

Anamorphic Illusions in Video Games

By Ian Alejandro Hunter for Cognitive Science C126, Perception

Introduction

When I am asked what some of my favorite hobbies or specific interests are, I will always tell those interested about my unyielding passion for video games. Video games have been a core and consistent interest that extends past casually playing video games to studying them and working towards an eventual career in the game development industry. As I grew older and began to legitimize video games as a viable career option, my outlook shifted to now observing and exploring video games on a deeper and more educational level. Ever since, I have been enthralled by the complexity that goes into the development of most video games, but from all of the various games and genres that I have taken a deeper look into, never has one genre captivated me more than isometric video games.

For those that are unfamiliar with specific video game genres, an isometric video game is one where the player’s viewpoint is shifted and angled in order to reveal areas of the game that would not be normally seen in a typical top-down or side view camera orientation which in turn, allows for a two-dimensional world to appear as if it is three-dimensional. Herein lies one of the most unique visual illusions in video games and will be the focus of this observation paper. What players see when they dive into games such as Pillars of Eternity, Diablo 3, Grim Dawn, and Sid Meier’s Civilization is a vast series of 3-D worlds to explore, but unbeknownst to them, their eyes and visual system are falling victim to an elaborate optical illusion.

Screen capture taken from Pillars of Eternity, developed by Obsidian Entertainment. The image shows these anamorphic illusions in play, the background looks 3-dimensional but is just a 2-dimensional image stretched.

The designers behind these games have taken the beautiful foregrounds and backgrounds in their worlds and have presented them as 3-D spaces, when in actuality, they are simple 2-D images that have been stretched and distorted in such a way that when the camera is fixed at the right angles (x, y, and z), the world appears vibrant and three-dimensional. In the study of perception, this phenomenon is categorized as an anamorphic illusion, or an image that requires a viewing from a certain angle in order to perceive the image in its undistorted entirety. When executed correctly, it can be virtually impossible for players to discern that the background is a 2-D image, which expertly aides in their overall immersion with the worlds and stories that these games present. It’s a unique observation that serves to legitimize video games as a complex art form with various techniques that help take each new game to new heights.

Developer Acknowledgement

When looking to verify this observation, the one true verification comes in the form of knowledgeable developers showcasing the reality behind this illusion. Pillars of Eternity is a fantasy role-playing game that expertly employs this illusion and is also one of the few games in this genre wherein the developers showcase the development cycle in-depth. In a series of developer updates from Obsidian Studios, the creators of Pillars of Eternity, they have given their players a deep dive into the making of the game. In one particular update entitled, “Project Eternity Update #49: Water, Trees, Day/Night, Lighting... All That Jazz,” a lead developer explores the progress of in-game environment rendering and reveals the full render of an environment running in real-time within the game engine known as Unity. This showcase simultaneously reveals and verifies the anamorphic illusion presented in not just Pillars of Eternity, but most isometric video games released or in development currently.

While this illusion may seem straightforward in its verification, the interpretation of anamorphic illusions in these isometric video games is a bit more complex. Looking to the visual cortex of the human brain, we see a complicated and diverse system that bends to the will of this unique illusion. I feel that I cannot simply say that this illusion occurs because that is how the developers designed the game, because that logic doesn’t serve to explain anything. Rather, I believe that this illusion occurs due to our visual cortex being purposely fed information in one light, and then said information is interpreted in our prefrontal cortex in a different light. I believe that through a complex process of visual feedback moving through multiple stages in our mind, this optical illusion gains the ability to succeed and be a fully-processed and normal image. In an article from Neuroscience News.com entitled, “Explaining the Mechanism Behind Optical Illusions,” when discussing a study from Carnegie Mellon neuroscientists, the author details the results of the experiment and states, in response to neurons in mice being halted at certain points of primary and secondary feedback:

Twenty percent of the neuronal activity in the visual cortex was the result of feedback, a concept Kuhlman calls reciprocal connectivity. This indicates that some of the information coming from the visual cortex is not a direct response to a visual stimuli, but is a response to how the stimuli was perceived by higher cortical areas. (Neuroscience News)

From this, we can possibly interpret that these anamorphic illusions are the result of images being perceived in a different manner in what the article describes as, “…higher cortical areas.”

Screen capture taken in-game from StarCraft 2, developed by Blizzard Entertainment.

Analysis and Understanding

One of the most significant topics that we have studied in this class as it pertains to this unique observation, is depth perception and more specifically, scene depth. Professor Whitney went into detail on this topic in Lecture 6B, and what was presented in that lecture fully encapsulates this idea of anamorphic illusions in isometric games. The whole point of this illusion is to present a false sense of depth; to present a 2-D image as if it were 3-D. I have interpreted Professor Whitney’s presentation on pictorial cues as an outline for legitimizing anamorphic illusions, and whether or not they are capable of tricking the mind. Each aspect: occlusion, linear perspective, known size, gradients, height in field, atmospheric perspective, and shadows, all lend a hand in designing these intricate illusions, and each one works in it’s own way within our visual system’s perception of these illusions in order to create a full “3-D” render of these 2-D images.

The follow-up for this observation is actually one of the most unique aspects of the full interpretation of this illusion as it implores physical and live interaction with these isometric games. As a simple test, I would present to a group of participants a few different gameplay demos from a variety of isometric games, anything from Pillars of Eternity to StarCraft, and see if they are able to discern whether or not the background is a full 3-D render or a simple 2-D image. But what is important to note here is that I would ask them to play through one demo from multiple isometric games. From this we can not only explore whether or not a game is able to utilize anamorphic illusions correctly, but we can also cross-reference the different game interactions in order to explore if one game is actually able to create a “better” anamorphic illusion. This experiment would open up several doors for both the exploration of game design and the exploration of how different factors could affect our visual system. I would like to know if different sceneries allow for different interpretations of this illusion. Would a scenery that is more organic, that is containing trees, rivers, and wooden houses, as found in games such as Pillars of Eternity, fare better than more fictional backdrops that depict alien landscapes and space stations, as found in games such as StarCraft?

Conclusion

From this observation, I have had the opportunity to explore how anamorphic illusions in isometric video games allow for the mind to perceive 2-D images as 3-D spaces and further explore the implications that result from such an insight. I feel that overall, this illusion serves to showcase how various feedback systems within the visual cortex and prefrontal cortex work in different ways, therefore resulting in images being perceived in a different light in its journey from the retina to perception within our mind. I know that from observations such as this, our knowledge of perception can expand to various art forms and potentially give new insight into this complex and interesting facet of Cognitive Science and Psychology.

This blog post was adapted from a full-length essay written for Cognitive Science C126: Perception, taken at the University of California, Berkeley. The full paper can be found under the "File Share" section of this portfolio. This is Part 3 of 3 in a blog series on the social sciences as depicted in video games.