Battlefields of Negotiation : Control, Agency, and Ownership in World of Warcraft

Abstract

The massively multiplayer online role-playing game 'World of Warcraft' has become one of the most popular computer games of the past decade, introducing millions around the world to community-based play. Within the boundaries set by its design, the game encourages players to appropriate and shape the game to their own wishes, resulting in highly diverse forms of play and participation. This illuminating study frames 'World of Warcraft' as a complex socio-cultural phenomenon defined by and evolving as a result of the negotiations between groups of players as well as the game's owners, throwing new light on complex consumer- producer relationships in the increasingly participatory but still tightly controlled media of online games. Part I: Framing the Game. 1. The Definition Game -- Games without end? -- Tracing the MMORPG genre's roots -- 2. The Many Faces of Play -- The movement of play -- Ludic vs. representational role-playing -- Problematizing social play -- 3. The Contracts of Play -- Social codes, norms, and boundaries -- Playing on a licence -- 4. Play and/as Participation -- Every player plays its part -- Participation as exploitation? -- 5. Battlefields of Negotiation -- Part II: Controlling the Game. 6. The Setup of Play -- Network play -- Playing machines -- Configuring play -- 7. The Rules of Play -- Designing play -- Designing cooperation -- Facing the other -- 8. Playing with Fiction -- Representing Azeroth -- The space of play -- Stuck in time -- Part III: Gaming the Game. 9. It's About Time -- Paratexts as cheating tools -- From emergence to progression -- Hyperproductive demystification -- 10. Twinking, or Playing Another Game -- The luxury of twinking -- Going for the easy kill -- A game within a game -- 11. Playing the Interface -- Mods as social surveillance tools -- Controlling code through theorycrafting -- Exposing the inside -- Part IV: Claiming the Game -- 12. Virtual Thievery -- Play, work or crime -- The power of small print -- Part of the game? -- 13. Performing on the Edge of Rules and Fiction -- Our story, your story -- Looking the other way -- Exploration or exploitation -- 14. The Fragmented and the Multiple -- Community control, controlling community -- With great power comes great responsibility -- Playing identity and community -- Conclusion.