UC Irvine to compare WoW players from America, China

by Samuel Axon Sep 13th 2008 at 1:00PM

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Culture, News items, Academic

The University of California at Irvine has been granted $100,000 to study the differences between Chinese and American World of Warcraft players, according to the Orange County Register. The study will mostly focus on explaining why American players are much more likely to employ modifications such as Cosmos than Chinese players are, but project lead Bonnie Nardi made some interesting observations outside the scope of this particular endeavor.

For example, she noted that Chinese players are for some reason more likely to talk about the aesthetic appearance of the game than are Americans. Whereas American players often play with their children, parents, or siblings, Chinese players are unlikely to do that. "The older generation dislikes video games," she said, and playing with siblings is obviously rare since most Chinese of the gaming generation have none.

"The vast majority of Chinese players are not gold farmers," she said. "They're ordinary players like anyone. The media has blown that story out of all proportion. Many people think Chinese play for a job. They play for fun." Enlightening stuff. We're looking forward to seeing what else comes out of her research.

[Via Ten Ton Hammer]

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Tags: academic, asia, blizzard, bonnie-nardi, cosmos, culture, family, modifications, mods, one-child-policy, orange-county, parents, research, siblings, study, uc-irvine, uci, ucirvine, ui, university-of-california, world-of-warcraft, wow