My Life as a Night Elf Priest technologies of the imagination new media in everyday life Ellen Seiter and Mimi Ito, Series Editors This book series showcases the best ethnographic research today on engagement with digital and convergent media. Taking up in-depth portraits of different aspects of living and growing up in a media-saturated era, the series takes an innovative approach to the genre of the ethnographic monograph. Through detailed case studies, the books explore practices at the forefront of media change through vivid description analyzed in relation to social, cultural, and historical context. New media practice is embedded in the routines, rituals, and institutions—both public and domes- tic—of everyday life. The books portray both average and exceptional practices but all grounded in a descriptive frame that renders even exotic practices understandable. Rather than taking media content or technology as determining, the books focus on the productive dimensions of everyday media practice, particularly of children and youth. The emphasis is on how specific communities make meanings in their engagement with convergent media in the context of everyday life, focus- ing on how media is a site of agency rather than passivity. This ethnographic approach means that the subject matter is accessible and engaging for a curious layperson, as well as providing rich empirical material for an interdisciplinary scholarly community examining new media. Ellen Seiter is Professor of Critical Studies and Stephen K. Nenno Chair in Television Studies, School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California. Her many publications include The Internet Playground: Children’s Access, Entertainment, and Mis-Education; Television and New Media Audiences; and Sold Separately: Children and Parents in Consumer Culture. Mimi Ito is Research Scientist, Department of Informatics, University of California, Irvine, and Visiting Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Media and Governance of Keio University, Kanagawa, Japan. She has published widely on new media and youth and led a recently completed three-year project, Kids’ Informal Learning with Digital Media, an ethnographic study of digital youth funded by the MacArthur Foundation. Titles in the Series Skate Life: Re-Imagining White Masculinity by Emily Chivers Yochim My Life as a Night Elf Priest: An Anthropological Account of World of Warcraft by Bonnie A. Nardi DIGITALCULTUREBOOKS is an imprint of the University of Michigan Press and the Scholarly Publishing Office of the University of Michigan Library dedicated to publishing innovative and accessible work exploring new media and their impact on society, culture, and scholarly communication. MY LIFE AS A NIGHT ELF PRIEST An Anthropological Account of World of Warcraft Bonnie A. Nardi the university of michigan press and the university of michigan library Ann Arbor Copyright © by the University of Michigan 2010 All rights reserved Published in the United States of America by The University of Michigan Press and The University of Michigan Library Manufactured in the United States of America Printed on acid-free paper 2013 2012 2011 2010 4 3 2 1 No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher. A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Nardi, Bonnie A. My life as a night elf priest : an anthropological account of world of warcraft / Bonnie A. Nardi. p. cm. — (Technologies of the imagination and digital culture) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-472-07098-5 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-472-05098-7 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. World of Warcraft. 2. Computer games — Social aspects. 3. Korea (South) — Social aspects. 4. Virtual reality — Social aspects. 5. Visual anthropology. I. Title. GV1469.25.W64N37 2010 793.93—dc22 2010007914 ISBN 978-0-472-02671-5 (e-book) Acknowledgments Although writing is a solitary pursuit, the influences of others are con- stantly present. I was fortunate in the guidance, advice, and encouragement generously extended by colleagues, friends, and family. At the University of Michigan Press, I am grateful to Tom Dwyer, who helped shaped the manuscript from our earliest conversations. Series edi- tor Mimi Ito suggested useful means of restructuring the flow of the book and provided sound advice about what to leave out as well as in. Heather Newman and Christopher Lehr produced images used in the book. Anonymous reviewers made invaluable suggestions on reworking criti- cal arguments and improving the prose. Many, many thanks—you know who you are. I very much appreciate the feedback on various chapters provided by Trina Choontanom, Russell Crispin, Christopher Darrouzet-Nardi, Jeanette Darrouzet-Nardi, Scott Ditch, Alison Fish, He Jing, Yong Ming Kow, Wenjing Liang, Thomas Malaby, Linda Polin, and Celia Pearce. Participants at the Productive Play Workshop hosted by Jason Ellis, Celia Pearce, and me at the University of California, Irvine, in May 2008, engaged in lively debate and discussion from which I profited. I thank the Intel Corporation, which, at the behest of Eleanor Wynn, provided funding for the research I conducted in China. The National Science Foundation funded a separate study in China conducted by my student Yong Ming Kow (grant no. 446680-21260), as well as sponsoring the Productive Play Workshop. I have many guildmates to thank—for good times as well as insights about game play. The guilds in which I conducted research must remain anonymous, but Terror Nova, a guild of colleagues with whom I play, was a source of scholarly input as well as friendly mayhem. My family guild, the Hoodoos, blasted through Azeroth with the tight coordination of people who know each other very well. I would like to thank the players who agreed to be interviewed. They offered thoughtful commentary on their play experiences and called my attention to important matters that I did not pick up on from observations of game play. Many undergraduate students at the University of California, Irvine, where I teach, talked to me informally about their play, and I learned from, and very much enjoyed, those conversations. Throughout my career, nearly all of my research has been about the use of technology at work. Moving to play, with its elements of whimsy, fan- tasy, freedom, and fun, was a pleasing turn to a novel arena of activity. But it entailed facing an unfamiliar literature going back 80 years. Surprisingly, very little of what I read was trite or uninteresting. I acknowledge with appreciation the analysis and theorizing of scholars from older traditions whose work remains fresh and pertinent, as well as those on the contem- porary scene who are picking up and extending foundational work and moving ahead to lay out new paths of investigation. At the present moment, we may well be in a golden age of games schol- arship. Some amazing social scientists, computer scientists, educators, phi- losophers, media scholars, legal scholars, and journalists, many of whom you will meet in the pages of this book, have turned their attention to elucidating the import and meanings of play and games. I appreciate the quality of the work they have produced and their remarkable efforts to shape concerns about play and games into a rich multidisciplinary stream of scholarship. Finally, I am grateful to the complex assemblage that is the World of Warcraft—players, designers, corporate purveyors, software artifacts— which has proved an endlessly fascinating object of discovery and inquiry. Contents part one. Introduction to World of Warcraft Prologue / 3 chapter one. What Is World of Warcraft and Who Plays It? / 8 chapter two. An Ethnographic Investigation of World of Warcraft / 27 part two. Active Aesthetic Experience chapter three. Play as Aesthetic Experience / 39 chapter four. A New Medium / 52 chapter five. Work, Play, and the Magic Circle / 94 part three. Cultural Logics of World of Warcraft chapter six. Addiction / 123 chapter seven. Theorycraft and Mods / 137 chapter eight. Gender / 152 chapter nine. Culture: WoW in China . and North America / 176 Coda / 197 Notes / 205 References / 213 Index / 227 part one Introduction to World of Warcraft Prologue 0/12 19:36:38.533 [Raid] Loro: Now Slams and I have been talk- ing about a lot of events regarding our guild and how it can be improved. 0/12 19:37:14.349 [Raid] Robertoh: rofl why is everyone on tables 0/12 19:38:13.848 [Raid] Slams: I have always found that 0/12 19:38:23.224 Robertoh yells: I will be the right hand of loro. :) 0/12 19:38:47.301 [Raid] Slams: a guild that melds together as friends is one that essentially succeeds. 0/12 19:38:55.099 Noth kneels before Slams. 0/12 19:38:58.342 [Raid] Loro: Exactly slams. 0/12 19:39:15.218 [Raid] Leanallah: i agree 0/12 19:39:18.516 [Raid] Slams: you could essentially play this game alone 0/12 19:39:18.341 Robertoh bursts into dance. 0/12 19:39:34.315 [Raid] Aziki: cant to endgame alone tho :/ 0/12 19:39:35.935 [Raid] Eleanor: uhh, Robertoh, did you forget your valium? 0/12 19:39:40.552 Sabina applauds at Robertoh. Bravo! 0/12 19:39:42.314 [Raid] Loro: Robertoh please settle down. 0/12 19:39:57.593 [Raid] Robertoh: :) 0/12 19:40:05.021 [Raid] Slams: While leveling up to get to higher level content is crucical—a strong sense of community is crucial as well. 0/12 19:40:11.816 [Raid] Loro: I find that by partying and questing together, we make the game a little more fun. 3 4 my life as a night elf priest 0/12 19:41:34.032 [Raid] Loro: social events tend to be successful in attracting other members.