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.