Presentation Year

2018

Depreciated Participant

Rachael HellerAnthropologyUndergraduate Student

College or Department

Short Description of your Research or Creative Project (700 characters or less)

World of Warcraft is a story-based fantasy adventure massively multiplayer online role-playing game in which players customize characters and play through game content individually or in a group. Guilds in WoW are semi-permanent groups of players that come together with a common in-game agenda. Through participant observation and interviews, this project studies one guild within WoW, focusing on personal and group identity formation, and the relationship between perceived value and monetary/time investment. Examination of these topics builds reality within a fictional, virtual setting, and seeks to provide insight into the formation of structured subgroups within a larger society.

Permission to Publish Work

Yes

Node ID

493

Page Classification