Identity in World of Warcraft

I am an avid player of World of Warcraft, though my participation has dwindled lately.  I have been playing WoW for about three years now.  I was given the game by my brother for my birthday.  Soon thereafter, we bought the game for my mother, who beforehand had been playing Final Fantasy XI for years.  The game has always first and foremost been a social experience for me.  Since coming to Georgia Tech, I have recruited all of my real life friends into the game, as women are often found to do as mentioned in Taylor’s article. WoW is an easy way to stay in touch with my family and friends.  Whenever my friends and I are at a lack of what to do on the weekend, there is always WoW.  Our guild also raids two days during the week, and we have an arena team with my mom and brother.  If I did not play with my friends and family, I would not play WoW at all because the social aspect is what is most important to me.  Secondly, I also play for achievement within the game.  I especially love the PvP aspect of WoW, and have been pvping in it since I discovered what a battleground was.  Achieving PvP ranks is one of the most satisfying achievements in WoW in my opinion.  Even though I enjoy PvP, I would not call myself a killer.  I do not usually run around killing people, but I am always up for revenge if someone kills one of my lower level characters.  I enjoy being on a PvP server because it gives so much more meaning to, “For the Horde!”  The randomness of never knowing when one might be attacked makes the game more exciting for me.  Also, the random ally who is willing to help a horde member makes the game so much more interesting. 

    I think Blizzard did an excellent job of appealing to all forms of gamers, whether they be achievers, socializers, explorers, or killers.  The world of Azeroth has something for everyone, and Blizzard definitely caters to please everyone.  That is why they have so many subscribers.  The world of Azeroth is huge and offers tons of quests and reputation factions for achievers.  Outlands offers flying mounts so that explorers can truly explore every nook and cranny, and the upcoming achievements offer achievements for discovering the entire world of Azeroth.  PvP realms cater to the killers, and guilds, in-game chat, and chat channels allow socializers to talk to whomever they please.  As far as avatar identity within WoW, certain types of game play are often tied with certain types of classes.  The rogue for example is often found on a PvP server, and the sneaky game play of the character seems to instigate player killing. Due to being stealth characters, they can control their fights by starting and ending them at their discretion, which makes them perfect for player killing. My friend recently leveled a rogue as his fifth 70 and found himself player killing when never did with his other characters.  Hunters are probably the second best class known for player killing.  Since I play Horde, I am not sure what biases the Alliance have towards us, but Horde especially hate night elves.  Again, their ability to stealth probably makes them so desired by PvP lovers, but night elves are well known and hated for killing Horde. 

Taylor is correct in that little parts of personalities can be seen through avatars, and one can find an identity within the Horde or Alliance, a race, and a class.  I personally love animals, and thus, my main character is a druid who can shape-shift.  My PvP character is a hunter.  Also, as far as my experience, almost all of the women I know level hunters, druids, or shamans as their first characters.  These classes all have a tie with nature and animals, which must be appealing to women.  Women also tend to heal or be raid helping at 70, while guys tend to either tank or play pure damage classes, enjoying the control of tanking or the competition of whomever had the most damage per second.  Another interesting aspect of the social interaction within WoW is racial bigotry.  Most of the guys that I know within WoW all love either Taurens or Trolls, and even within Horde, everyone will argue for their race to the death.

As mentioned before, my mom used to play Final Fantasy XI.  When we moved to World of Warcraft, her friends within FFXI eventually moved with us.  My friends and I, who are 21 are the youngest people within our guild.  As mentioned in Pearce’s article, these older gamers enjoy playing with other mature players and this social group has moved from MMOG to MMOG.   I do not know if this fact is true anymore or not, but in the beginning of WoW, all of the older players played on the Horde side, and the Alliance side is always considered the side for immature thirteen year olds.  With the game becoming so incredibly popular however, I do not know if there are more older players in Horde or not, but I like to think that Horde are the more mature.

As WoW has gotten older, Blizzard has made many key changes that have made the game much more casual.  The PvP system used to be very “hardcore” in that in order to get a higher rank, one had to PvP the entire time they were playing WoW.  Now one can PvP when they like and eventually can earn enough honor to buy gear.  Before Burning Crusade, less than 10% of players ever reached the final raid, Naxxramus, while now before Wrath of the Lich King comes out, Blizzard is doing an across the board “nerf” of raids in order to allow everyone to see Burning Crusade content before the new expansion.  Also, a new add-on for WoW is Bejeweled, which pops up whenever one is simply sitting in Azeroth chatting.  Blizzard caters to casual and hardcore players alike in order to increase their number of subscribers.  One can create a unique character and play WoW in whichever way suits their personal tastes as Blizzard offers something for everyone.
~Tatum Clanton, gth760n