Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.14/126211
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- Title
- World of Warcraft : service or space?
- Related
- Game studies : the international journal of computer game research, Vol. 9, Issue 2 (2009), p.1-1
- Related
- http://gamestudies.org/0902/articles/ruch
- Publisher
- Game Studies
- Date
- 2009
- FoR/RFCD Code(s)
-
200100 Communication and Media Studies
190200 Film, Television and Digital Media
- Author/Creator
- Ruch, Adam
- Description
- This article seeks to explore the relationship between the concept of Blizzard's World of Warcraft in legal terms, in Blizzard's End-User License Agreement (EULA) and the Terms of Use (TOU), and the concept of the game as conceived by the players of the game. Blizzard present their product as a service, and themselves as a service provider, in the EULA/TOU. Meanwhile, the product itself seems to be more akin to a space or place, which subjective players move about in. This conflict is essentially a difference between a passive viewer accessing certain content within a range available to him, and an individual who inhabits a space and acts within that space as an agent. The meaning of this subjectivity-in-space (or denial of the same) problematizes the relationship Blizzard has with its customers, and the relationships between those customers and Blizzard's product. An evolution of the governance of these spaces is inevitable. Where Castronova and Lessig's answers differ, their basic assertion that the virtual political landscape can and will change seems clear. These changes will be influenced by the values placed on the social capital generated within the spaces themselves. The identities as per Turkle, Koster, and Dibble are human identities. Arguments as to why we should pay attention to synthetic worlds have been made by these authors already, so this article seeks to actually pay that attention. This is one practical example of the work that must be done around synthetic/virtual worlds, which directly affects tens of millions of people.
- Description
- 1 page(s)
- Subject Keyword
- 200100 Communication and Media Studies
- Subject Keyword
- 190200 Film, Television and Digital Media
- Subject Keyword
- World of Warcraft
- Subject Keyword
- identity construction
- Subject Keyword
- governance
- Subject Keyword
- regulation
- Subject Keyword
- synthetic worlds
- Subject Keyword
- cyberculture
- Subject Keyword
- video games
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Organisation
- Macquarie University. Dept. of Media, Music, and Cultural Studies
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.14/126211
- Identifier
- ISSN:1604-7982
- Identifier
- mq-rm-2010003036
- Language
- eng
- Reviewed
