It is undeniable that the community of gaming has grown exponentially within the past couple years but there has been one community that has stood out from the crowd and IGN.com for about twelve years. World of Warcraft (WoW) is a major community that may not be thought of when thinking about gaming. The WoW community meets and exceeds the six characteristics that Swales described that are needed for a discourse community. The thought that gaming’s true form is only in first person shooters (FPS) is a common misconception that many outside the WoW gaming community think. The community numbers may have dropped from its peak numbers but the amount of players that are continuously playing and return are still massive. Even when players quit or
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Players who still play or have left WoW understand that Swales six characteristics very well even if they do not realize it. First characteristic is that there is an agreed set of common goals. These goals can range drastically from how people decide play the game but there is an overarching goal to have fun. You can play player vs. environment, player vs. player, and role play. These three ways of playing are genres inside the game that you can focus on. To stick to the one I know most is PvE. The common goal of PvE is to get your character strong enough to be able to defeat bosses with at least four other players. This strengthening process is called gearing. So the main goal is to gear your character up to defeat bosses. To defeat these bosses you need a mechanism of communication; which is another characteristic of Swales. A main form of communication is via cell phones to make sure people are online and when they are online use a program called Ventrilo. Ventrilo allows everyone in the group to talk, listen, and …show more content…
Friendships can be made through online gaming which some people looking in on the community may not say is real friendship because you do not see them face to face. Even if you do need see a person face to face does not mean they cannot have a major impact on how you feel. According to an article in Computers in Human Behavior, it was shown that players experience less social anxiety and loneliness in the game than in the real world. Even in the game grouping up with friends and creating a “guild” aids in that even more. Players who are in guilds experience less online loneliness than those not in one. Because of this major impact of not feeling lonely strong friendships are made that surpass the game even if a person leaves. When players leave the ties that are made are hard to compete with when talking to other people while playing other games (Martončik, et al. 127-134). This may be because the other game types you do not spend as much time together as you would in WoW or it may be that WoW players are more welcoming because we are all doing what we consider fun together. Overall other game types, other games in general do not seem to have a last impact on how a player feels when they leave like when a player leaves
Players who still play or have left WoW understand that Swales six characteristics very well even if they do not realize it. First characteristic is that there is an agreed set of common goals. These goals can range drastically from how people decide play the game but there is an overarching goal to have fun. You can play player vs. environment, player vs. player, and role play. These three ways of playing are genres inside the game that you can focus on. To stick to the one I know most is PvE. The common goal of PvE is to get your character strong enough to be able to defeat bosses with at least four other players. This strengthening process is called gearing. So the main goal is to gear your character up to defeat bosses. To defeat these bosses you need a mechanism of communication; which is another characteristic of Swales. A main form of communication is via cell phones to make sure people are online and when they are online use a program called Ventrilo. Ventrilo allows everyone in the group to talk, listen, and …show more content…
Friendships can be made through online gaming which some people looking in on the community may not say is real friendship because you do not see them face to face. Even if you do need see a person face to face does not mean they cannot have a major impact on how you feel. According to an article in Computers in Human Behavior, it was shown that players experience less social anxiety and loneliness in the game than in the real world. Even in the game grouping up with friends and creating a “guild” aids in that even more. Players who are in guilds experience less online loneliness than those not in one. Because of this major impact of not feeling lonely strong friendships are made that surpass the game even if a person leaves. When players leave the ties that are made are hard to compete with when talking to other people while playing other games (Martončik, et al. 127-134). This may be because the other game types you do not spend as much time together as you would in WoW or it may be that WoW players are more welcoming because we are all doing what we consider fun together. Overall other game types, other games in general do not seem to have a last impact on how a player feels when they leave like when a player leaves