A few questions for a paper I'm writing

[Tethrys]

Hey everyone, I'm currently taking an anthropology class and we needed to study a sub-culture. I chose MMO players, specifically, those who play WoW. If you wouldn't mind answering a few questions for me to help me out, I'd greatly appreciate it!

• When did you begin playing this game, and what initially attracted you to it?
• What is your least favorite part about the game? (try and keep it more general, like how it takes up too much time, isn't social enough anymore, etc. rather than that you don't like the newest patch)
• What is the most compelling part about the game that keeps you playing?
• Are there any noticeable effects, either positive or negative, that playing this game has had on your life? (can include knowledge gained about economics, leadership, social life degradation, etc)
• Have you taken any breaks from the game? If so, why and for how long?

If you want to share your location in the world, age, or gender, that could help too, but definitely isn't necessary. Again, thanks guys. Also, if this isn't allowed to be here, I apologize to the mods in advance.

[Seirith]

I'm 30, female, live in NY and married.

When did you begin playing this game, and what initially attracted you to it?
I started playing in beta. I liked Blizzard, Warcraft and I was bored with Dark Age of Camelot. I also liked that it was something inside that my husband and I could do together.

What is your least favorite part about the game?
The immaturity/rudeness shown in much of community, daily quests, lack of content that is not raid/daily quest related.

Are there any noticeable effects, either positive or negative, that playing this game has had on your life? (can include knowledge gained about economics, leadership, social life degradation, etc)
-I have made some good online friends to play with and I am not as bored in the winter when we get a lot of snow and don't like to be outside.

What is the most compelling part about the game that keeps you playing?/Have you taken any breaks from the game? If so, why and for how long?
I am not currently playing so these two questions go to together for me. I am not playing because I found myself getting bored and not having anything new to do that I find fun. Also, due to my early morning work schedule I cannot be up until midnight or later to raid with my guild. I have taken many breaks but usually go back when there is new content. I am sure I will go back when the next expansion is out.

[Annoying]

When did you begin playing this game, and what initially attracted you to it?
February 2004-ish: I got invited to the closed beta. I have a long history of MMOs that I've playtested and actively enjoyed, so getting in wasn't tough. I was a huge fan of starcraft, warcraft, and diablo, so it was natural to be excited about a new Blizzard game.

What is your least favorite part about the game?
The slow descent away from the standard MMO tropes. Raiding used to be an all-encompassing ordeal. You had to farm mats and reps and resist gear, all the while actually practicing boss fights. There were elite quests that required grouping. Tons of non-raid activities required actually interacting with people and building a friends list. Now it's just "queue for X instance to gear up a character!". This doesn't even touch the removal of prestige from high-end accomplishments. Killing a raid boss used to mean that you and your guildies had put a ton of effort into doing so. Now it's "I queued for LFR and killed all this tier's raid bosses!"

What is the most compelling part about the game that keeps you playing?
Obligation to my friends I raid with, and unique/fun heroic boss encounters.

Are there any noticeable effects, either positive or negative, that playing this game has had on your life?
Well, it did delay my undergraduate by something crazy like a year and a half. I have two degrees and a good job now, so it was just temporary.

Have you taken any breaks from the game? If so, why and for how long?
Basically all of cataclysm. Months of ICC kinda burned me out a little bit, and then when firelands came out, I just didn't feel that challenged anymore. Didn't come back until midway through the first tier of Pandaria, and left after clearing all the heroic modes until right before ToT was done.

If you want to share your location in the world, age, or gender, that could help too, but definitely isn't necessary.

Socorro, New Mexico, USA. 29, male.

[Xeones]

Hey everyone, I'm currently taking an anthropology class and we needed to study a sub-culture. I chose MMO players, specifically, those who play WoW. If you wouldn't mind answering a few questions for me to help me out, I'd greatly appreciate it!

• When did you begin playing this game, and what initially attracted you to it?
• What is your least favorite part about the game? (try and keep it more general, like how it takes up too much time, isn't social enough anymore, etc. rather than that you don't like the newest patch)
• What is the most compelling part about the game that keeps you playing?
• Are there any noticeable effects, either positive or negative, that playing this game has had on your life? (can include knowledge gained about economics, leadership, social life degradation, etc)
• Have you taken any breaks from the game? If so, why and for how long?

If you want to share your location in the world, age, or gender, that could help too, but definitely isn't necessary. Again, thanks guys. Also, if this isn't allowed to be here, I apologize to the mods in advance.

Had a buddy get me into it when I was in 11th grade this was early in 05 right around the time BG's were added.

My least favorite aspect is the community, when I first started it was pretty friendly and social. Now it almost seems like people are in contests to out do each other in being jerks.

Honestly, I don't know why I keep playing. The answer could just downright be that I have done it for so long it's something comfortable to come back to after the breaks I take.

I was never social so I don't think I've noticed a big effect on me due to the game.

I've taken several breaks. The first was in BC, after having multiple guilds stonewall and destruct on Kaelthas I got fed up with blizzard putting out poorly tuned content and didn't come back for 1.5 years or so when wrath came out. Took a break during the long stretch of ICC out of boredom. Quit two months in to Cata because blizzard completely failed with the expansion, came back for Dragon Soul and then quit again until MOP. Took a break in the middle of MOP and came back around the time SoO came out. Been playing since, just not as much as I usually do.

US, second half of the 20's, male.

[PuppetShowJustice]

• When did you begin playing this game, and what initially attracted you to it?

I fell in love with EverQuest when I was in high school and when my guild in that game disbanded I felt bored and lost my motivation to keep playing. One of my good friends suggested we move to World of Warcraft in 2004 and so I did. I also picked up Final Fantasy XI and while I also greatly enjoyed that game, WoW has kept me longer. My friend that brought me into the game no longer plays but I still do.

• What is your least favorite part about the game? (try and keep it more general, like how it takes up too much time, isn't social enough anymore, etc. rather than that you don't like the newest patch)

I don't like how pushed aside social elements have become. I used to do Heroics with people and make friends that way. Now nobody talks and it's all about pulling and clearing fast. Having the game organize the party for you in an automated queue might make the progression part of the game happen faster but the feeling of comradery has diminished greatly.

• What is the most compelling part about the game that keeps you playing?

My friends that I have made online. That sounds super cheesy and perhaps unhealthy but they consider me to be a real friend (I have been in the same guild since 2004). At one point, when money was tight and my guildmates found out that I was skipping meals to make ends meet, my guild leader ordered food to be sent to my house. I still keep the receipt. We raid, but we aren't the most progressive guild out there by a long shot. Raiding with my dear friends is more important than getting that last heroic raid kill in a tier by a huge margin, though. I wouldn't trade them for the world.

• Are there any noticeable effects, either positive or negative, that playing this game has had on your life? (can include knowledge gained about economics, leadership, social life degradation, etc)

I tend to stay at home a lot no matter what, so I can't blame WoW for my being an introvert. To be honest, I don't play much beyond raid hours anymore but I do still consider the hobby to be important to me. I will say this, my sleep schedule is abnormal and so over the years it has led me to play with people on the opposite end of the globe and that has exposed me to other cultures. I raided with a bunch of Australian friends during parts of The Burning Crusade and it was a lot of fun to learn their lingo and hear about their part of the world. On a less positive note, I had a buddy in Israel who I talked to in-game regularly and then one day they just vanished without a word. I hope that they just quit the game and that nothing horrible happened to them but I know how bad the Israel / Palestine conflict is and I really hate to think that something awful happened to my friend.

• Have you taken any breaks from the game? If so, why and for how long?

Yeah, I quit for something like a year during Cataclysm. I was busy and I remember Rated Battlegrounds were a new feature that had 2 distinct brackets. A 10 man mode and a 25 player mode. When Blizzard scrapped the 25 player bracket we had to make some very difficult decisions on which friends to cut from the group and the frustration of having my favorite game activity ruined led me to give up my spot and take a break from the game.

[Aurimas]

Really curious on how you are going to turn this into a paper. Topics and points and whatnot. There have been a number of times when I thought that the community would make an interesting psychological or sociological paper...

I guess that anthropology has socio-cultural context. I'm just curious about the subtext of said paper.

[hyperionas]

1) I began around July 2006, my close friend kept telling me about coming to play WoW but I played a lot of RuneScape at the time and didn't want to abandon my character to go play something else.
2) The last two expansions although I haven't played them, the lore wasn't there for me and wasn't what I had pictured in my head about what Azeroth was about. Plus they destroyed Auberdine, I was phsyically and mentally crushed by that. (Apparently still not over it).
3) The world, I remember first logging into my night elf druid and being taken aback. killing gnomes. Riding my swiftsaber.
4) To go into detail about how WoW has effected my both emotionally and physically would be ... Social skills, leadership through the use of the right language, added to my character and personality, allowed me to focus, taught me to look after those around you. how to kill gnomes, to teach people skills they might not otherwise be able to comprehend, to understand the less fortunate, to pity people and acknowledge there are some people just not worth helping, economy (slightly), faster reflexes, improved my problem solving. to face failure and to come back stronger and better, well equipped to the challenge at hand. etc. Even being slightly more imaginative.
4) Yep 2 years now, waiting out my Degree and then back for WoD with a more powerful computer!

I am doing a similar study but on the positive effects of Video games (can you tell) I scratch your back, you scatch mine. O! one more lesson, nothing in life is free. Everything comes at a price, even if that price is energy Lok'Tar Ogar Friend.

[Tethrys]

Hey, thanks for the replies everyone! They're all really interesting and will definitely help me out.

Really curious on how you are going to turn this into a paper. Topics and points and whatnot. There have been a number of times when I thought that the community would make an interesting psychological or sociological paper...

I guess that anthropology has socio-cultural context. I'm just curious about the subtext of said paper.

The main question for my paper is: What keeps people playing? Being a 9 year old MMO that still attracts people is quite a feat (only Everquest is really close and nowhere near in terms of active players after 9 years). Other people are studying sub-cultures like tattoos, baseball players, etc. Pretty much anything can be a sub-culture. Since it's a game though, a form of interactive media have such a strong following and userbase after all this time makes for an interesting group that has existed for, essentially, the first time ever. Obviously people still play games from 2004, but since the game is focused on interaction and working with other people (at least to some extent), it creates a whole new aspect.

The rubric for grading involves "observing the sub-culture" - basically just playing the game and witness interactions, significance of the sub-culture to me and how it plays a role in society, shared themes between my chosen sub-culture and others, as well as between members of the chosen sub-culture, and how this all relates to Anthropology, as well as how I could expand in the future on this sub-culture with more research.

[Invictus9001]

• When did you begin playing this game, and what initially attracted you to it?
My wife made a trial account back in early 2008 (Jan or Feb that year). She seemed to enjoy it, and I decided to jump in and play along with her after her trial expired/she made a full account (and I did the same.) I had gotten into RPG games on home and portable consoles prior to WoW, so I figured.. why not give it a shot?

• What is your least favorite part about the game? (try and keep it more general, like how it takes up too much time, isn't social enough anymore, etc. rather than that you don't like the newest patch)
For me, it's the insane/fickle nature of the RNG. When seeking a particular piece of gear, and having the personal loot system manage to give me everything OTHER THAN what I am seeking.. in addition to multiple copies of the same item that I didn't want or already have.. BLARGH! Yeah. That takes the cake for me.

• What is the most compelling part about the game that keeps you playing?
The various classes in the game, especially mages, offer me that intangible.. super-hero-style of feeling without having to get bitten by any radioactive spiders.

• Are there any noticeable effects, either positive or negative, that playing this game has had on your life? (can include knowledge gained about economics, leadership, social life degradation, etc)
Positive: More patience. Nothing in the game comes easily, and being able to push my way through the grindy feel of a lot of the things in game is something I could not have managed very well, if at all, when I first began playing World of Warcraft.

Negative: Nothing worse than I deal with in real life, so mention of specifics isn't worth yammering on about.

• Have you taken any breaks from the game? If so, why and for how long?
If, by break(s), you mean unsubbing, I never have. I've been continually subbed since.. Feb or Mar 2008, VERY late in the TBC cycle - just a few months before Wrath of the Lich King expansion was to be released. I do, given my work schedule and/or want to do something else in my off-time aside from Warcraft, manage some time for console/portable gaming, even a night of having a few drinks and binge-watching certain TV shows.

• If you want to share your location in the world, age, or gender, that could help too, but definitely isn't necessary.
Male, 38, living in AL (but not from AL). Married, no children.