Date of Award
2009
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Program
Anthropology
Supervisor
Dr. Karl Hele
Second Advisor
Dr. Mike Katchabaw
Third Advisor
Dr. Andrew Walsh
Abstract
World ofWarcraft, a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, is a rich, complex virtual world where people play and interact without leaving their physical space. This thesis examines the ways in which World of Warcraft players bring their values, perceptions, and experiences into the game space through several different avenues: gender, sexuality, sex, race, ethnicity, and multinationalism. I discuss how this affects players experience of the game and community, as well as how it influences player identity. Through their behavioural assumptions and actions, players bring aspects of each of the listed avenues into the game, which changes the way interactions occur, and how identity is experienced.
Recommended Citation
Whippey, Caroline, "When Actual Meets Virtual: Values, Perceptions and Experiences in World of Warcraft" (2009). Digitized Theses. 4272.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/digitizedtheses/4272