Because there has been a real danger of having this blog mistaken for the Unofficial Yahoo Weblog of late, I've got to change the subject. That subject, and my new obsession in my thin margin of "spare" time (when does time become "spare"? It's like an "extra" cigarette... do they really exist?), is World of Warcraft. Yes, I went in with the noblest of intentions - research, pure, research - but I've been sucked in because you know what? This is what I've been craving from social software. WoW is a vast and startlingly real social metaverse I am exceedingly eager to spend time in. You can choose primarily solo play and certainly many do, but there are a number of quests and aspects of the game than can only be experienced socially, in groups with other players. And the most fun I've had is in banding together with guildmates and randomly encountered players, many of whom are more than eager to trade help on your quests for help with theirs (or who think nothing of offering no strings attached help).

There is always something deliciously unexpected going on around every turn, from spontaneous offerings of help from very high-level players who have almost nothing to gain in terms of game stats from helping you out, to curious and bizarre creatures (the trippy multi-colored Murlocs on the coast of Westfall I encountered last night come to mind), to middle of night %uFFFDcatch%uFFFD games instigated for no other reason than someone bought some throwing balls and wanted to infect other players with fun.

I was delighted by this thread on WoW Insider about families and extended friend families who play WoW together. And I%uFFFDve been psyched to start to share WoW lore and game discussions with some of my fellow WIN bloggers who play. The game captures the essence of something I%uFFFDve been craving more of from SocialSoftwareLandia %uFFFD actual shared experience, and the ability to really work together from within the software %uFFFD not merely using the software as a means to organize work that actually gets done elsewhere (groupware comes to mind). The realtime aspect is also extremely powerful. Nor is something like WoW any longer limited in appeal to mostly geeks or experienced gamers %uFFFD the interface is incredibly easy to use, and there are diverse aspects to the game that will appeal to anyone seeking engaging entertainment. It%uFFFDs also incredibly viral, as evidenced by some of the comments in the thread. MMOs are already huge in gaming circles (and huge in Asia to an extent they%uFFFDre not yet huge here), but I have no doubt they%uFFFDre poised to bust right on out over here in WesternLandia. And if you%uFFFDre a player, say hello to a gnome rogue named Brogotheum if you see him. :)

So I'm echoing C.K.'s jealousy regarding why I didn't have classes as cool as "Games for the Web: Ethnography of Massively Multiplayer On-line Games" when I went to college (biochemistry seemed practical at the time... who knew?), and pointing you to a collection of student blogs (mostly LiveJournal) from this course. Undergrads at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas conducted ethnographic studies from inside the World of Warcraft virtual world for four months, and kept blogs on the progress of their research. They look at things like gender and sexism inside the game, colonial themes, sociological and psychological factors of play, real world transactions of digital items, etc.

I was wondering earlier about the long-term trajectory for these kinds of virtual worlds, and I think that sooner that we realize there will come a point where it's more unusual not to have a presence in one (for those of us privileged enough to live in the developed world). More game companies developing MMOs need to break out of the "let's band together to kill stuff" archetype (Second Life being a prime example of one that breaks this mold) and start brainstorming ways to appeal to non-gamers, which is the approach Nintendo is taking with its next-generation Revolution console. The gaming industry currently appeals to its large yet still relatively narrow market - but everybody loves to play. And there is something inherently fascinating about the realtime simulation and simulacra of a virtual world. Smart companies would be wise to tap into the concept of "life as play" (as the Flickr ludologists clearly grok) and work towards breaking down the distinctions between computing, gaming, and living.

[Via WoW Insider]