Warcraft Community Group
From Mod Mania
In this report, I want to talk about the community group of Warcraft. Many people, especially young people, play online games. There are many kinds of online games and once the online gamers are into a game, they often become very engaged in it. It is just like a drug as many of them can not let go of the game easily. They can spend all their time in their rooms playing the game without communicating with the outside world.
Warcraft is an online battle game played by an individual with a computer or to team up for a battle game that one does not have to pay or buy weapons to upgrade their level. Once you enter the game, you will enter a battle net to choose either an original game or a custom game which is the modified game created by individuals. The battle net has four gates to enter which are linked to four different countries - Europe, Asia, US West and US East. Gamers just have to enter one of the gates - the game world, to meet different people from all over the world.
Most players prefer customised games to the original game. This is because gamers can participate in a different way and at different levels. The picture below (Figure 1: Battlenet Message) is a screen-dump that shows us that there were 82,415 players playing 2075 original games and 189,771 players playing 4427 custom games at that time. The numbers change every second as people around the world join the game. There is always an upcoming tournament time on the page. The gamers will all join the game on time or an hour earlier to find someone to join the team. This is the time they have to join the chat room, to talk or ‘whisper’ to strangers; or to find someone they know from the game world, (Figure 2: Channel). There will be no response if the gamers are still in the game or when you are in a low level. People will always try to talk to the high level people, to get tips or to make friends with them so that they can show off to others.
Figure 1: Battlenet Message
Figure 2: Channel
The game world itself seems to be some gamers’ reality. They have their own community group in the game world. They can communicate with each other through the game. For an example, I have a friend who only can communicate with his younger brother while they are playing the online games. The brother dislikes talking or sharing his own thoughts or information with his family. So the only interaction is in this way, when he and his brother ‘talk’ while they are playing the game. The virtual relationships are the brother’s real relationships.
It appears the gamers have only two types of emotions after finishing the game, positive or negative. They will be really happy if they win the game; or really angry if they lose the game. Once they finish the game, they go to a gaming network called “http://pvpgn.boredaussie.com/ ”, (Figure 3: Bored Aussie) to enter a forum to express their feelings with other gamers. It is the place where they can talk anything about the game. There is also a general area for the gamer to discuss their lifestyle and sport, homework, TV, movies, art and music. There are plenty of topics in there. They can talk about why they had been banned from other players or begged the host for forgiveness to unban them.
Figure 3: Bored Aussie
Every topic in the forum will have supporters and antagonists. The topic is not always repeated, so there are lots of new things to talk about each time. The high level gamer can even create an animated video on YouTube “http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWTiuAhbYaE ”, to teach the new gamers how to play tricks or give tips to the game, so that the new gamers will admire and really appreciate them. Somehow the high level gamer can only find pride from the game that they could not get from the real world, so that they keep sticking at the game. Whilst they get familiar with the game, they can even play tricks or bully a particular gamer if they dislike and ban him during the game. Once a gamer has been banned three times, the account will be automatically banned and they have to start over everything again as a new gamer.
There is an issue called “request for an invite (new)”. Some non members use tricks and some of them kindly ask, but in a persuasive way, for an invitation to join the group. You can see there is always a low level person trying to make friends or ask for help and questioning the higher level people. It is just like looking up to their authority. Some of them are full time gamers; they are unemployed and get their income from the government every week. Somehow this creates a bad habit that they still can get money even though they do not have to work and it is kind like supporting them to be unemployed. Moreover, there is always junk food all around the computer desk, the keyboard and mouse are always in a comfortable position and there is usually a really comfortable office chair in the room, for preparation of a long battle. Due to their laziness and craziness, some of them can even create a small toilet for themselves in the room as once they get into the game; they have no time to do other things. Sometimes they will play Skype while choosing a team mate or during the battle so that they can talk to each other rather than typing in the chat room. But sometimes they will use a mobile phone if they do not want to show their face. This is the time that the gamers can ask for a date. Also, they can communicate with their enemies during the game.
In conclusion, the Warcraft community group has their own rules, behaviours and memberships. One’s interest would occur in their daily life by spending too much time with it and starting to live in a fantasy world without communicating with the real world.
References
