Reality in World of Warcraft
In her article “Don’t Hate the Player, Hate the Game: The Racialization of Labor in World of Warcraft,” Lisa Nakamura talks about how ‘worker players’ within the game WoW are becoming discriminated against in terms of race. Her focus is not on the game itself, but rather on the racializations players bring to the game, breaking the players into two distinct groups: leisure-players and worker-players. Worker-players, “produce and sell virtual goods such as weapons, garments, animals, and even their own leveled-up avatars or ‘virtual bodies’ to other players for ‘real world’ money,” (130) this resentment against these worker-players aka famers has led to many being targeted and even killed online. Now while it is interesting to notice the parallels between reality and the online medium, the main focus of this blog is going to be the use of machinima by players of WoW. Before I go into detail with my conclusion of the piece I think it is important that you know I know nothing about WoW, except that Chuck Norris plays it and that if he plays it then it must be awesome.
I wanted to touch briefly how the racism against WoW ‘Chinese farmers’ have parallels in recent history. When I first heard Nakamura use the term ‘Chinese famers’ I was immediately drawn to the American Gold Rush and the surge of Asian immigrants to the West coast, these immigrants were essential to the construction of the railway system connecting the East coast to the West coast, by performing manual labor, laying the foundation for America. The other parallel I saw when reading this article was how the individuals who have come to represent the ‘Chinese farmers’ are actually working in sweatshop conditions, working in twelve hour shifts before going to sleep on a pallet in the other room before they get back on WoW and start all over again. It is also interesting to note that leisure-players are disgusted at the idea of worker-players selling their virtual goods; however, they are not above paying for these good because they themselves do not have the time to obtain these goods on their own.
The main focus on Nakamura’s article was how WoW players are using WoW to create racist rhetoric through machinima. Machinima, according to Wikipedia, can be defined as: “the use of real-time 3D computer graphics rendering engines to create a cinematic production. Most often, video games are used to generate the computer animation. Machinima-based artists, sometimes called machinimists or machinimators, are often fan laborers, by virtue of their re-use of copyrighted materials.” Users of WoW have taken the game and used it to create their own rhetoric expressing their personal views about the game. According to Warnick, the players of are consciously using rhetoric to persuade other players to identify with their viewpoints and concerns (97). While some of these productions are adopted by the developer of WoW and end up becoming part of the official game, other productions are rejected by the developer and a key part of their content winds up dealing with race.
This appears to be the official website of WoW machinima, within this website there are different categories depending on the user’s interest. When I went to the website I was able to access the underground machinima and good number of the postings dealt with the worker-player and how they are corrupting the game of WoW. By taking aspects of the game WoW these users are able to create their own digital rhetoric which they then post online creating a forum for other who have the same opinion to come together in agreement without fear of prejudice. It is interesting to see how the internet has become an extension of us; we take the information we have at our fingertips to create rhetoric that represents us or our causes.
Creating this rhetoric has its consequences, however, and for gamers playing the WoW it has created a racist environment in certain players have to contend with ridicule and persecution. While many of the users who share anger on how the worker-players are corrupting WoW they would not consider their viewpoints to be racist but rather a legitimate claim. It is interesting to note here that Nakamura distinguishes between ethnic and cultural racism, many of the WoW players who are angry at the worker-players feel the way they do because the worker-players do not act American, instead, they act ‘Chinese.’ From this perspective economics comes into play, leisure-players are taking a consumer perspective, while worker-players are the producer. Therefore, without these ‘Chinese farmers,’ leisure-players would be forced to produce for themselves and the joy would be taken out of the game.
~Olivia Emry
Good summary of the article Olivia and thanks for posting the link to the Machinima site. I was completely oblivious to this whole phenomenon until I read this article. In fact, this article was an eye-opener on many levels. I had no idea what the term "Chinese farmer" meant in the WoW universe, let alone that there are sweatshops where workers are made to play these video games all day long just to collect virtual property like weapons and garments and to sell for real world profit. It shows you that there is a market for everything and even the world of online gaming is divided into haves and have-nots, buyers and laborers. I agree that it seems a little hypocritical for leisure players to denounce these worker-players for corrupting the game, when it's the leisure players who are driving the demand and creating this economy. What's even more puzzling is that these players who harbor negative feelings toward Chinese farmers do not believe that these feelings imply racial discrimination. Really, calling people a "Chinese farmer" is not a racist remark? Never mind that most Asian players are leisure players. Or that players who are not even worker-players or Chinese are being branded as such based on typecasting in the game. The fact that some WoW players are documenting their farmer-killing expeditions on YouTube and machinima sites without a hint of shame shows you how pervasive this racialization has become.
ReplyDeleteI saw a lot of parallels in the discourse about Chinese farmers with what is happening now in the Trayvon Martin case. Some people are saying Martin was profiled by a neighborhood watch volunteer simply because of the color of his skin, while others are saying it didn't wasn't so much about race as it was about culture. Geraldo Rivera even suggested that wearing a hoodie was what got Martin killed. You will see the same kind of rhetoric in response to crime stories here in Fort Wayne, depending on what side of town it occurs. Check out some of the posts on Wane.com if you want to see what I'm talking about.
I think the whole study of online role playing games or mmos is a really interesting field of study, but in the realm communication of how relevant is it? How does this tension or racism really translate into the real world. Is racism among the gaming community as big of an issue as it is in the professional or social spheres of society? As we have already brought to light the glaring hypocrisy of the character farming industry. It makes me believe that this could be a subculture issue that will inevitability work it's self out. It will most likely be fixed when Blizzard finds that the rise of capitalism in the world of Warcraft has made it less enjoyable for it's consumers.
ReplyDeleteWOW really proves how far games have come. Games used to be simply trying to imitate the social sphere of society, but with the rise of MMORPGs the become the social sphere of a society. For people who play MMORPGs you have an entire network of people who you are friends with. You may even have a network of people you are enemies with. The fact that MMORPGs now have a thriving economy withing them that deals with real world money makes this argument all the more relevant. Blizzard is one of the smartest gaming companies out there. They have taken this controversial element of WOW (farming for real money) and made it a real gaming element of their upcoming Diablo 3. In Diablo 3 players will have to have a paypal account attached to their Diablo 3 account. When you loot throughout the game play you may run across a rare weapon or valuable item that you can then sell right there in the game. Because of Chinese farming I believe racism will always exist in MMORPGs to a degree, but do you think racism will diminish if the developers themselves are encouraging it as they are in their upcoming game?
DeleteCheck out a more in depth article about it here. The responses are amusing as well... http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/01/diablo-3-will-let-players-buy-and-sell-items-for-real-money/