New book showcases the sociology of WoW
by Shawn Schuster 
May 21st 2008 at 1:00PM
Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Game mechanics, Reviews, Opinion, Academic, Education
With over 10 million players strong (and growing), it seems that anything associated with World of Warcraft would be an instant success. We're talking movies, merchandise, novels and anything else Blizzard decides to license. But what about a book detailing WoW from several different sociological and psychological standpoints? Would it be directed at the correct target audience?In the recently published Digital Culture, Play, and Identify: A World of Warcraft Reader, we see an amazing collaboration among several authors giving their own views of the game, separated by their own chapters of the book. There's one on the economic model of WoW, one on the concept of virtual death and even one on how WoW could be considered a playground for feminism. So if you're into more than just teh phat lootz in your MMO of choice (WoW or not), and the actual sociology of the game is of interest to you, take a look at this book available now on Amazon.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
netwurker said on 8:17PM 5-21-2008
I have read a small extract from the book and while it is interesting in terms of what it attempts to theoretically tackle, what I find curious [and - let's face it - frustrating] is *why* such a dead-tree reader discussing WoW is presented in such a traditional medium? I run a blog [augmentology.com] that attempts to document and discuss similar issues from a ground-roots perspective that's [obviously] presented in an online area. In part I started the project in an attempt at creating a contemporary discipline [augmentology = an update of psychological and sociological synthetic environmental theories/observations] to counter such academic and institutionalised perspectives/presentation/formats?
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