Thursday, July 15, 2010
World of Warcraft
While I'm sure there is racism and sexism in World of Warcraft, most of what I observed seemed to be related to class if you define class as how far advanced different players are. There was not too much going on when I was in the city, but there was some trash talk, and overall people don't seem to be very nice to new players. If you ask a question, you'll probably get an answer but you might have to take a lot of shit in the process. I feel like racism becomes present as you get further into the game then I did from one day because I'm sure there are different characters that are considered better than others in one way or another and the game is pretty much set up to encourage some sort of racism by making two sides. It's interesting because you'd think online games would have the option to make something that wasn't racist or sexist, but it seems like World of Warcraft does the opposite between the sexualization of female characters and the two different sides and the different characters.
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I believe that your last sentence is what is being focused on primarily by those who would like to see synthetic or virtual spaces become incubators for social change.
ReplyDeleteThe snag is that the generators of these spaces are performing the act for profit. Thus they are bound to accessing the cultural constructs that are not only familiar but optimal for exploitation through romanticism. In my discussions with those in the game industry, they are working to complicate the synthetic worlds that they create but their hands are tied by their employers as well as their audience.
~S~