World of Warcraft: Nardi, Part 3

                Throughout the beginning sections of her book, Nardi focused on what World of Warcraft was—what made it a popular game, who played it, and how it worked as an aesthetic experience, but in the last part of her book, labeled “Cultural Logics of World of Warcraft,” Nardie delves into the people—not just who plays, but how they play, what matters to them, and how the WoW culture differs in America and China.

                In the first chapter of this section, Nardi deals with addiction—a term associated with WoW that most people, whether they play or not, are associated with.  We know WoW through the stories of friends, though random blogs on the internet, through popular websites such as FML.  We know the addiction stories.  Nardi, however, seeks to wrest it from it’s bad name.  She adopts the terminology of researchers Seay and Kraut, calling addiction “problematic use” instead of addiction—a term which acknowledges the complications involved with addiction.  But, addiction is used two ways, according to Nardi.  Players will often utilize the term addiction to be positive.  Nardi writes that “a gamer could claim to be an addict, deliberately choosing a strong term to connote enjoyment of the game and its separation from ordinary activities (126).”  Players will use it in slang when speaking about how dedicated they are to the game.  But, others outside of the game see this addiction as a bad thing.  Players need to self-regulate in order to break the cycle of problematic use.  For instance, players who see that their grades are falling will suspend their accounts.  This self regulation often far outreaches the individual.  Players will reach out to other members of their guilds who help support the need to step away from the game awhile before problematic use becomes an issue.

                Another large point Nardi brings us deals with the science and theory of WoW.  Stretching out past the preconceived notions of video games, WoW allows for modding and theorycrafting, two activities which require players to delve into the game and work through it to reach new outcomes—very similar to James Paul Gee’s theories on critical learning via video games.  Blizzard Entertainment provided players with very little documentation, allowing players to play through the game largely unaided.  And, as they played, they began to develop—creating add-ons and theories.  Players used science and mathematics to help figure out the best armor states for specific classes and pet damage dealt.  Players also used coding skills to develop better maps and other modifications which allow for easier game play and a healthy advantage.  These games allow for the players to engaged critically with the game.

                The other interesting thing Nardi focuses on the boys club of WoW, positing the game somewhere between a boys club and a girl’s club.  The game is not a feminist space, as it could be argued, but rather it is still masculine with a separate space for a female population.  The game’s environment is almost decidedly feminine with rich color palettes and pets and music and tasks.  Traditionally female tasks such as mending, tailoring, and cooking are rampant throughout the game, and often women are seen accomplishing  tasks which are often traditionally masculine. And, aside from the environment being predominantly feminine, the language is often mostly masculine. When not surrounded by women, the men of the game will often engage in homophobic and crude language.  However, when women are present, they will often tone down their word choices and women will often not participate in it at all.  The idea of masculine and feminine spaces within WoW is definitely interesting, even though Nardi does not spend a long time on it other than to say that it is still a boy’s world, which could have something to do with the fact that women make up less than half of the players on WoW.

                Nardi also focuses on players in China who play very communally as compared to players in the United States.  They play with others in Internet cafés, or Wang ba, sitting next to each other, meeting with their guilds, and making friends—a true communal activity.  This, however, may have a lot to do with limited space and poor hardware in their own homes or dorms and by going to an Internet café, players are able to player in more room with better equipment.  It also has something to do with the social aspects of the game.  Here, players are able to connect with one another in a way they cannot when playing in their homes.

Questions:

1) Couldn’t it be said that Nardi, while putting together this book, was working, and thus her play experience was not the same as someone who picked up the game for fun.

2) Do you think online gaming and console gaming should be separated into separate categories when speaking of gaming in general—especially in a scholarly sense?

3) Why China?  How come Nardi did not focus on Korea or any other local?  Would that have made it better?  Or, was focusing on China in this book extraneous?