Abstract:
This thesis seeks to articulate the diverse nature of experience, expression, and
interpretation found amongst participants in Virtual Worlds by exploring the impact of
technology on their production. Using World of Warcraft as an example, I draw upon
theories that examine the implication of incorporating technology into society and link
them to other theories that explore the intersection of disparate cultural structures. By
bridging these perspectives and routing them through a brief historical account of
communication technologies situated as sine qua non to the evolution of games as
complex sites of study, I expose technology’s influence as necessitating an expansion of
the tactics of ethnographic inquiry and propose a reworking of the depth and breadth of
both their exploration and analysis. Through an implementation of these new techniques,
this study utilizes interviews, surveys, and participant observation to explore the potential for this approach to more thickly describe World of Warcraft and validate technology’s
role in shaping/directing agency, mediating experience, and facilitating depth.
