Celebrity Status in A Virtual World

In our society each of us have favourite actors, athletes and comedians.  Believe it or not, World of Warcraft has many players within its society that would be considered celebrities.  Many are high-end raiders, who are some of the best players in the world at the PVE (player versus enemy) aspect of the game.  Others who focus more on PVP (player versus player) are great WoW-athletes and many compete for titles, mounts and realm glory.  Some players are simply famous for their comic routines.  What we see developing is a difference between your average player, and those that would be considered the higher class.  In this way, there is very much a hierarchy in WoW as there is in the real world.  I will not dive into specifics on the hierarchy yet, as that topic will be covered more thoroughly, but what is important to understand is players with charismatic personalities and amazing abilities are recognized within the Warcraft Society similarly to any real world celebrity.

If you are a Warcraft player then you have likely heard the name Kungen before.  To those WoW players who have been living under a rock for the past 6 years or those of you who don't play WoW, Kungen was the main tank of Nihilum, and for a while, Ensidia.  Main tanks play a pivotal role in WoW because they are often what make or break a raid.  Tanks take all the damage from bosses, and are critical in making sure both bosses and creatures don't kill other players.  Even minor slip ups often prove fatal and kill a raid.  But what makes Kungen famous?  Well besides being one of the best warrior tanks on the planet, Kungen gained multiple world firsts (being apart of the raid that kills a boss before anyone else in the world) from Classic WoW all the way up to Cataclysm expansion pack.  Kungen is so popular, Blizzard even made a tribute to him in their trading card game:

In this sense, Kungen can be compared to many real world athletes, yet he is a player in a virtual world.  Much like a baseball card, Kungen's image is now immortalized in Blizzard's card game like that of Babe Ruth or a Sidney Crosby rookie card.  It may not have the same value, but the symbolic power is there.  If one was to search youtube you will come across multiple videos of players huddling around Kungen because he always had the latest and greatest gear, much like celebrities are often found in public with some of the newest clothes in fashion.  Kungen has competed in multiple competitions for top-ranking players around the world.  If interested, here is an interview with Kungen from a previous PVE tournament challenge (english starts about a minute in):

Moving on from the athlete aspect of society, we can see that other players have pushed the boundaries through not only skill, but humour.  Another famous player in the virtual world is Athene, dubbed "greatest paladin in the world."  Since his debut a few years back, Athene has become a celebrity of the Warcraft Society.  Athene began his career showing off his PVP prowess in a series of youtube videos which gave him a large cult following among many players.  Athene emphasized humour, and used many subcultural norms to his advantage when speaking to the player population, often talking of "pwning noobs."  Since then, Athene has been a host for many in-game events and is renowned in the world for his speed-leveling skills (getting a character to max level in the fastest time possible).  Athene is now an embodiment of what we as a society would call a celebrity.  He is a humorous, colourful, and a talented individual who has many fans.  Here is one of his original videos:

What we can conclude from this is that just like our real world we live in, Warcraft players in their society have formed followings under their favourite celebrities.  Just as someone would be cheering on their favourite hockey player while watching a game, there is a gamer in this Warcraft Society who is cheering on their favourite Arena-PVPer.  Whether in the flesh or pixelated, the virtual worlds have the formation of celebrities, athletes and personalities that the populous loves.

TL;DR - Just like our real, physical world, the Warcraft Society has gone from players having fun to capitalizing on their personalities and skill to become celebrities.  Once again this shows the shifting of the subculture into a society.