The purpose of this blog is to function as a communal sphere where others can input and criticize my ideas on the virtual communities that are seen within World of Warcraft. I argue that the World of Warcraft world has created small societies that began as simple subcultures. These subcultures emerged to form realms that have multiple aspects of a fully functioning society. In order to see prove these points I will analyze various aspects of a common society such as economic, social, communal and political factors. I hope some of you find this insightful.
Many will have never considered the intense development that created these societies since World of Warcraft's launch in 2004. Within 8 years we have seen a virtual world become more than anything ever expected: cultural norms, language and even lifestyles have been a major by-product of one of the best selling computer games of all time. My eventual goal is to publish a book on my ideas after I can find the time to study and collect the proper research.
Until then, this blog will serve as a functioning tool of documenting my beliefs and ideas on the formulated Warcraft Society. As of yet, I am unsure of the format I am going to post in, so expect updates to either consist of small, direct points or large wall of texts. If long, I will try to provide a TL;DR (too long; didn't read) at the end of the post.
For those of you who are not familiar with just how vast the Warcraft Society spans, here is a diagram of current and past subscribers:
As can be seen at the height of Warcraft's popularity there were about 12 million subscribers. To put this into context, the population of Ontario is currently 13 million (Ontario Fact Sheet October 2012). What we are dealing with is a virtual community that almost equaled Canada's most populated province. Clearly, there are multiple implications that can be seen inside this world.
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