Gendered play in WoW

                Similar to a virtualized version of Disney World, World of Warcraft offers its spaces as a kingdom of fantasy to be explored (initially on foot) at the players behest. Warcraft offers players a multitude of settings and unique areas to explore and even though the experience translated through a computer screen does not equal a stroll through the grand passageways of the original Magical Kingdom it can be said that Warcraft offers a similar context to exploration within the confines of one’s own home. Pearce described in her publication “Narrative Environments” that the introduction of real time 3D environments in games created a realm of highly spatialized story telling. Games of the real-time 3D era have their ancestry in MUDs, MOOs, and in visually illustrated series such as Myst and Monkey Island on a mainly presentation based scale, where as many MMOGs tend to take a note from Dungeons & Dragons for a majority of their gameplay mechanics. Warcraft also follows this theme of Dungeons & Dragons allowing players an immersive world to explore the lore of the Warcraft universe and interact with each other in manners similar to those dictated in the pen and paper game such as races having unique cultures and languages.

                Henry Jenkins’ exploration of gendered spaces reveals many things about Warcraft that entices players of both genders and also exposes some of road blocks that bar certain possible users from playing. Given the large scope of the world that Warcraft portrays it offers a space to be explored by people who may not be able to fully explore the surroundings that they naturally inhabit every day.  The multitude of spaces offered in Warcraft scale from wide exotic jungles and desolate wastelands to populated cities of magic and wonder that have their own secret spaces built into them. Not every space is used for some objective quest point or merchant abode but it is in these spaces of undefined game value that players can find their own secret spaces to use and appropriate for their own private needs. The embedded private chatting system helps provide a system of secure communication which can lead to the creation of gossip or personal exposition on a level far reduced from projecting your voice to the entire surrounding area as such the game has been made to accomplish through normal /say functions. Jenkins explains that attributes such as privacy and secret domains nurture a more feminine audience; this can explain a portion of the population that currently resides in the realm of Azeroth. The Ludica essay also explores this conception of gender-neutral spaces versus male/female oriented spaces.  Warcraft’s gameplay mechanics focus mainly on the combat that players engage in nearly all aspects of gameplay.  The economy and character improvement are all based on combat as well as gaining access to all areas of the game is based mainly on accomplishing a certain amount of skill in combat. This in some senses can turn off many a female user for the forced violence against other beings in the game world. One way around this would be to be continually paired with a friend as a healer, but then a player would only be supporting such violent behavior. Considering this extreme in gameplay mechanic I would classify World of Warcraft as a game that offers itself in some manner to a gender neutral game but over all continues the strain of male oriented gameplay.

~Cameron Jansen