Detailansicht
Der Stellenwert von Kommunikation im MMORPG World of Warcraft
Kerstin Himmelbauer
Art der Arbeit
Magisterarbeit
Universität
Universität Wien
Fakultät
Fakultät für Sozialwissenschaften
Betreuer*in
Gerit Götzenbrucker
DOI
10.25365/thesis.16136
URN
urn:nbn:at:at-ubw:1-29227.13921.403164-5
Link zu u:search
(Print-Exemplar eventuell in Bibliothek verfügbar)
Abstracts
Abstract
(Englisch)
This thesis analyses the communication behaviour of players in the online role-playing game World of Warcraft. The aim of the study was to determine the significance of communication for the players in this special case.
The data acquisition was carried out by means of a self-created questionnaire in two World of Warcraft forums and through interviewing players who are members of a guild. All in all, 154 questionnaires were collected from April to May 2010.
The study has shown that not only students and teenagers are playing World of War-craft, but that all occupational groups are more or less represented. Of the 154 inter-viewees, employees account for the biggest part of players. Students and unemployed only come third in the ranking.
It is very interesting to note that men are still dominant in the online role-playing game World of Warcraft. More than half of the interviewees were male. Most people who took place in the survey were members of a guild.
The study has shown that for the bigger part of the players communication is an essen-tial element of the game. Members of a guild communicate due to different reasons than stand-alone players. For players who complete most of the game alone communication is only interesting if they need other players to achieve certain challenges. Stand-alone players also form groups to accomplish „Raids“, where a lot of players are needed to achieve a challenge.
Many guild members stated that they also met with their colleagues in real life, if the were living in the neighbourhood. It can be assumed that players of World of Warcraft have social contacts in their real life instead of growing lonely at home in front of their computer. Quite the contrary the study has shown that for a lot of players the social con-tacts in the game have the same significance as the social contacts in real life. If players, who in this case usually are members of a guild, spend a lot of time together, the con-versation topics are changing from talks about the game towards more private topics.
The study has shown that people who play World of Warcraft have social contacts both in the game and their real life. Thus funny coincidences, like players realizing after months that a member of their guild turns out to be living next door, have also been reported.
World of Warcraft is an online role-playing game which is never going to end other than the producer Blizzard-Entertainment shutting down the server. There is no denying of a certain risk of addiction for weak-minded people but the majority of players have a normal and balanced relationship between the game and their lives.
Schlagwörter
Schlagwörter
(Deutsch)
MMORPG Kommunikation online World of Warcraft
Autor*innen
Kerstin Himmelbauer
Haupttitel (Deutsch)
Der Stellenwert von Kommunikation im MMORPG World of Warcraft
Publikationsjahr
2011
Umfangsangabe
167 S. : Ill., graf. Darst.
Sprache
Deutsch
Beurteiler*in
Gerit Götzenbrucker
Klassifikation
05 Kommunikationswissenschaft > 05.12 Kommunikationsprozesse
AC Nummer
AC08744026
Utheses ID
14476
Studienkennzahl
UA | 066 | 841 | |