Durham E-Theses The Reality of Virtual Realities: An in Depth Glimpse at the Interactions That Occur Within the Online Gaming Communities of World of Warcraft and Continuum SONSTROEM, PATRICK,JED How to cite: SONSTROEM, PATRICK,JED (2012) The Reality of Virtual Realities: An in Depth Glimpse at the Interactions That Occur Within the Online Gaming Communities of World of Warcraft and Continuum , Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/6956/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail:
[email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 Abstract: The Reality of Virtual Realities: An in Depth Glimpse at the Interactions That Occur Within the Online Gaming Communities of World of Warcraft and Continuum By: Patrick Sonstroem Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs or MMOs), now have over 22.5 million active subscriptions, and have become a considerable medium for entertainment and social communities.1 While a large amount of research has already been done relating to online communities (Turkle 1995; Wilson 2006; Isabella 2007; Meadows 2007; Boellstorff 2008; Williams 2011), this thesis hopes to add new insights into in-game interactions via the use of participant observation through a creative narrative.