College Course in Everquest
Wow! At the University of Washington you can now take a course in Everquest!
Officially it’s called COM 480 – Ethnography of On-line Role-playing Games. Pretty fascinating stuff. From the site:
Course Description
A staple of nerd subculture for almost three decades, fantasy role-playing games have taken on new life in the era of networked computing. High-speed connections, sophisticated graphics and powerful microprocessors have paved the way for massively multiplayer on-line role-playing games (MMORPG?s) such as Everquest, Anarchy Online, and Asheron?s Call.
The popularity of these on-line environments is staggering. At this very moment, more than 90,000 players are interacting with one another in Norrath — the fictional world of Everquest. According to one recent study, this virtual world is the 77th richest ?nation? on the planet with a per-capita GNP that outstrips China and India (Castranova, 2002).
It may seem far-fetched to apply economic indicators to an abstract game-world. However, a growing number of theorists are using social science research methods to investigate MMORPG?s (Turkle, 1995; Yee, 2002; Schaap, 2002; Griffiths, 2003). Such theorists believe that these cultural objects raise important questions about identity, community, and the influence of technology in our daily lives.
In this course, we will conduct an ethnographic study of the behaviors, cultural practices, and motivations of MMORPG players. The course packet will include readings that explore role-playing games, virtual community, and the construction of identity on-line. Extensive attention will also be given to methods for conducting research on-line.
