Freefrom notes from GamesInAction Conference in Gothenburg 14th of May.
Luca Rossi: Property Practices in World of Warcraft.
WoW as a society. Sociology background.
World as a stage. Goffman.
Need to be coherent.
How items are described.
- req. skills
- quality
- type of bound.
In parallel Consumus in running around on the other screen, Nez waving. Icefalcon online too, grouped.
Schema slide. Adaptation of Juul’s schema from half-real.
Discussion of bourgeois stuff, ninja looting, twinkling. Torrill: Twinked chars not so popular, but it’s a desirable thing to be able to twink someone. Some guilds having it as their play. But difficult for other players.
See slides from Luca's speech (photos at Flickr)
Jessica Enevold: Mobility in World of Warcraft.
Sustainable mobility.
Freedom, empowerment. Away to empower women, but problematic from the point of sustainability, from an environmental perspective. Not everyone have mobility.
Traditional dichotomies.
I’d add indoor/outdoor.
Set of games with interesting ways of transportation, comparative space.
Mobility increases with level, thus status. Treasured notion of speed and mobility.
Assumption of equality. All can level.
Gamers producers of the social norms.
JE will start environmental movement in wow.
Hilde: who’s gender are you talking about, characters or players?
JE: Interesting, since it is so traditional. Tends to be stereotypical when gender-bending since we reproduce traditions. JE looking for innovative ways to travel. To use mobility. In a study this would be important info, the gender of pc and p.
Rene; some of the games you will study does not even feature gender in the avatar. ..?
JE: different games. Would assume… a game called transport tycoon, build until you bust. Environmental cost? Congestion? More roads to solve that? Less transportation?
Q/C: feminine/masculine play style? Males often more aggressive in style, get mounts faster. Males parading their mounts. Trophies offered to female players.
Luca: after burning crusade mount became mandatory for certain areas.
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René Glas: Playing Another Game: Twinking in World of Warcraft.
Truants screen – I logged in so sparse notes here.
… common to start out as a killer, test boundaries.
Playing alone together.
The extreme expenses of twinking.
Domination in battle grounds.
Twinking as transformative play.
Difficult to find the time to achieve the props given in twinking.
Luxury – dominance – transformative – standardised.
Limited play style to do the twinking ( – but important to consider the amount of new end game content blizzard puts in – ) and they DO play another game.
Comment: twinking coming for the expression of older gay men proving for young lovers. A certain envy of that, of being twinked in a game. Book “male colours” .
..And instituionalised in Anarchy online.
Comment: but not only items, right.
TL: legitimate play? Would be interesting to broaden the discussion.
Slides from René's speech (photos on Flickr)
