[...]MMORPG Anthropology: Video Games and Morphing Our Discipline « Neuroanthropology[...]…

[...]MMORPG Anthropology: Video Games and Morphing Our Discipline « Neuroanthropology[...]…

I’d argue confidently that this wasn’t an accident, It was announced on global WoW forums for that particular server, so there was definately public awareness of the event.

The attack was organised, and carried out by a high end raiding guild, these are “persistent” (original authors terminology) or hardcore players. These are the players who (usually) spent upwards of 5 hours a day, at least 6 days a weak, in 40 man groups, conquering dungeons. Getting all of these players together for this would have required planning, so it would have either been announced on their own guild forums, or they would have ended their raid early or started late, in order to do this.

40 people with that gear, which is indicative of hundreds of invested hours, don’t just find themselves serendipitously in Winterspring (One of the most remote places in World of Warcraft, at the time of the event).

The Motives for the attack:

There is firstly an emotional disconnect between these two parties (the people attacking as the first, the people getting attacked as the second), only the guild-mates of the deceased player would feel anything for her. After spending the aforementioned time (the mourning guild were also a raiding guild) working together and speaking over ventrilo (similar to Skype), it’s very easy to develop a deep emotional connection so someone you have never met in real life. I’m aware (was a girl from my guild, I know the guy in real life, and now the girl) of a woman who has flown from America to Australia, to live with/ have an intimate relationship with a man she met over WoW.

There is secondly no risk(unaccountability). Each player on the attacking guild would unlikely go and crash a funeral in real life, but in their alter egos, because there is 40 of them, because there are no rules forbidding it, it became totally permissible in the virtual world. From the concluding remark in the video, it’s clear they knew what they were doing was at least, somewhat disrespectful “Yes we know we are assholes ”. They were, to use internet terminology “trolling”, or gaming terminology “griefing”. They acknowledge their behaviour is indecent, but they do it in part to antagonise, in part because they are bored, and in part because they enjoy it.

Thirdly, this behaviour yields reward (besides enjoyment). If you watch the video carefully or are already familiar with WoW, you will see golden emblems appear which mimic to some degree, symbols denoting U.S army ranks. Like “private” or “corporal”, these were Player versus Player rankings, and the higher the ranking, the more honour was yielded, and the more honour you accumulate, the higher your rank gets, there are particular milestones in rank that give you access to special gear, in game. And, to put it simply, they would have gotten a lot of honour for this.

The seriousness of this attack was only felt by the grieving guild, as they were the ones who were deeply emotionally attached to the event. For the attacking guild it was a humorous anecdote to tell, a video to post on youtube, and a whole lot of honour.

The choice for the contested zone was explained in the video description. Funerals have also happened in other places like the Stormwind church (not contested zones).

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“Though this could go into the metaphysical, I would point out that the virtual economies are not the preserve of online gaming. Huge sections of our own economy exist in some hyperspace. Think about the concept of value, perception of value and of money, credit, and capital. After all, it is the relationship between the individuals that confers the value on the money, commodity, and the validity of the credit. So if it is the relationship that creates the idea of reality, then it shouldn’t matter where the relationship exists, online or off.”

To contribute to this line of though, as mentioned in the original article, there exists “gold farmers” (people who will farm virtual gold, and sell it for real money). So WoW (and other mmorpg) gold, have relative benchmarks in real life money; Which people might use to rationalize spending a lot of gold as an item, thinking of it as a micro-transaction. I.e. (this item costs 2000 gold, that’s esentially 10 US Dollars, am I willing to spend 10 US dollars on this item). WoW accounts can also be sold, depending on the amount of characters, their progress, their gear, and their achievements, they can fetch thousands of dollars. ALSO power-leveling (paying someone else to level your character) is another service you can pay for. (all of these things are illegal under blizzards terms and conditions though). So It’s not necessarily all arbitrarily conferred value. Most of these things apply universally for pay to play mmorpgs.

Similar things to this happen in LOTRO when players want to 1v1 in the PvP zone. The main mistake they make is not going somewhere remote enough and the 1v1 gets broken up by a raid that comes in and rolls the enemy to be safe. Later the players involved in the 1v1 hop on the forums to voice their opinions about the ethics (or lack thereof) of what transpired. Generally the argument forms two sides like the one above, the “Have you no honor?” side and the “Its a PvP zone. Its kill or be killed” mentality. However, a 1v1 does not hold as much emotional investment as a funeral in my opinion. Perhaps we should ask Renato Rosaldo how he would have felt if a group of people stormed into his wife’s funeral and made a mockery of it.

Perhaps it’s easier on an MMO than with some other media because there’s a visual element there, too. You can “see” the people you’re interacting with. That makes it a good example of what’s going on, but you can see it in instant messenger conversations, too. People often do their best to simulate face-to-face interactions, and it’s spawned some new ways of narrating.

When I message people over the MSN or AIM, I try to replicate some of the experience of conversing in person, inserting narration describing reactions such as laughter or textual symbols that mimic the appearance of facial expressions (such as for a smile).

User One: *waves* Morning! Did you get a chance to read my post?
User Two: *shakes his head* Did you post it last night?
User One: Yup.
User Two: Oh, okay. I’ll try to get up a reply for you tonight.
User One: *thumbs up* Thanks!

This casualness of interaction is not a sign of sloppiness as much a sign that people are oralizing in their minds. People don’t even do that on the phone, saying things like, “I’m smiling right now.”

That’s what I always get thinking of when I hear/read mention of how much like “real life” the internet and associated programs have become. Even looking beyond broader cultural phenomena like the introduction of funerary services (into an environment in which not everyone shared the expectation of solemnity at such an occasion), the way that people talk to each other is starting to look more and more like something you wouldn’t read but hear.

The place to start: “The cultural and behavioral norms of virtual worlds and gaming are generally unstudied. Therefore, Reynard will seek to identify the emerging social, behavioral and cultural norms in virtual worlds and gaming environments. The project would then apply the lessons learned to determine the feasibility of automatically detecting suspicious behavior and actions in the virtual world.”

Strange and scary all at once…

Here’s the link: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/02/nations-spies-w.html

I would also point out since the video game is not a structured system but as it “transcends the game-developers control” and any “pre-programming,” is really an open-ended forum where agents’ desires, decisions, and responses will affect the outcome at every iteration. It is thus no different from what we see as culture. And why should it be? The players might also live in “that world” but they are still using what they have learned in “this one” including ideas of morality, law, customs, “that complex whole.” The interesting point will come if the multitudes of people playing the game, in a world which seems to be (for lack of a better term) tribal, would apply those “learned” behaviors in our own societies? But then again, it could be that the reason tribal-like organizations such as “guilds” emerge in that world is because we still organize ourselves in such groups in this one, within the embrace of the nation-state.

As MikeT has recounted, some social groups on MMORPG have postulate rules legislating against “lawless” behavior, and even called for some legal authority to enforce these rules, and others have oppose such centralization. What we are seeing here mirrors the complexities of such struggles in our own world, probably through time, as those who would consolidate under some authority fight those would rather stay autonomous.

I would suggest that if the level of investment in the MMORPG economy intensifies, we will see increased calls for some standardization, social and legal protection, and for some recourse from those who would “break” the rules, either as bands or “guilds” or as corporations. If the economy organizes itself so that shocks it through the actions of the lawbreakers would damage holdings, I can easily such a process transpiring. This could happen even in a world where the human player can “die” and be “reborn” a million times as a completely different entity or have a thousand different entities alive at the same time in many different MMORPGs, but with the same core, the human player.

OMG, I just realized that MMORPG are akin to Hinduism. The body comes and goes, through countless lifetimes and multiverses but the core soul stays eternal and untouched. No wonder Hindus say that all we perceive is illusion and that this world is no more or less real than any other.

A question about socio-economic relationships. I know that there is an exchange between “real” and “virtual” currency/money and that often, money from this world is invested in a scheme in that, and vice versa. Furthermore, such schemes are the results of maintained relations. So if one entity in a particular social group in a MMORPG is heavily invested in some “virtual” economic activity and s/he “dies” or “defaults,” is there any process by which her/his co-investors can recoup their losses? Can the social group to which the entity belonged be obliged to takeover the commitment or debt?