Gamers have a pretty fair sense of humour, especially when it comes to making fun of themselves. Here’s a little something I found while searching for some WoW related videos.
Can you find any particular references?
With all the negativity that gamers get, especially WoW players (thanks to the game’s popularity), it’s sometimes difficult to explain to non-gamers the intense dependency on community that players have. If I haven’t pushed home the fact that the social aspects of the game are what drive it, then I guess this blog has ultimately failed. But assuming it hasn’t, let’s take a bit of a serious turn and look at what happens when the real, flesh and blood person behind the character passes on.
Yes, it is, but it happens. Anyone who plays the game for a significant amount of time will probably make some kind of acquaintance in the land of Azeroth. Whether they can claim actual friendship or not varies from person to person, but pockets of players do form bonds with each other. That’s the marvelousness of the internet, isn’t it? The scope and reach that personal networking or connections can take. WoW, being no different, can be a tool to forge said bonds.
The same way you probably had your High School friends, College friends, Work friends, Football buds, Arcade crew, etc, some people have WoW friends. And when we lose a friend, we have a natural desire to commemorate their existence. Of course, with Warcraft, most of these groups of pals have never actually met in the physical realm, or don’t live anywhere near each other. Much like the WoW wedding, a virtual funeral allows Guildies or in-game acquaintances to say farewell when they otherwise might not have been able to.
Unfortunately, sometimes even other players neglect to understand the gravity of a player organized, in-game “event”. Take the following video, for instance. A funeral service was organized in-game for one of the players who had passed away, but the area they decided to hold it in was contested, enabling them all for PvP combat. Some other guild, then, decided to crash and burn the service. I’ll let you formulate your own opinion about whether or not this was in good taste.
They certainly do! And despite all the complaints that their player base might have with certain game aspects, there is no doubt that the company cares about the community its built around Warcraft. It doesn’t happen for everyone, but there are a few instances that guilds have petitioned for permanent, in-game memorials for deceased guild mates. A notable example of this is the quest for Alicia’s poem.
Warcraft may be a virtual fantasy game, but real people play it, and real people need ways to deal with real life tragedy. The medium or method for which shouldn’t be held under constant scrutiny.
Now that you have a basic idea of the who/what/why when it comes to Leeroy Jenkins, I think it’s about time I expanded on the implications this phenomenon had outside of Azeroth.
Here are some Leeroy-themed ads for the 2006 Video Game Awards:
A Leeroy-themed question featured on College Jeopardy:
Note: I find it rather odd that none of the contestants had any idea of what the answer could be, but… Ah well.
It seems Leeroy Jenkins continues to make the rounds outside of his cyberspace origins. Most recently, the television sitcom How I Met Your Mother alluded to the WoW celeb.
It’s always interesting to see where poor Leeroy will turn up next.
Computer games continue to be dominated by male players, but slowly and steadily the number of female gamers are rising. Oh yes, you heard me, girls play computer games. And I don’t mean The Sims or Rollercoaster Tycoon.
While Warcraft does sort of fall under the stereotypical “girl” game, mainly because it’s a fantasy RPG, the female community of WoWers is still fairly limited, especially considering the large player base. As a member of the female gender and WoW community, some may find it surprising that oftentimes, gender does not seem to signify very much. At least, not in the casual way I play the game. It probably has something to do with the anonymity and assumptions people make while playing.
Some female players have discussed their reasons for playing, but when it comes to WoW and women, the dominant topic of exploration is: How do you know you’re playing with a girl?
Truth time? You don’t. I used to get so frustrated every time new members of my guild would refer to me as ‘He’, I would instantly correct them and fume about the assumptions they made. After a while though, you remember that old rule of thumb of internet chat: People are not what they seem. Throwing an avatar and gaming context into the mix, things don’t change. Just because the character I play is female, doesn’t mean diddly (squat) about who I really am, except to me.
Sure, female WoW players find other female WoW players, but the nature of role playing games renders your reality veritably unimportant while immersed in the fiction. We don’t play to be girls who play games, we play for the same reason that males, minerals and vegetables might: fun! Or competition. Or… The reasons are many.
The fact that real females do, in fact, play the game, make this idea even more entertaining:
Also, you might want to check Alexis from Project Lore out. She’s got the lingo down, and if you read the comments on the post you might get a sense of how impressive her game play is. Really, it shouldn’t matter that she’s a girl and I’m pretty sure the other players she’s encountering in-game assume that she isn’t.
Uh oh. We’re going there. Video game addiction can often be a touchy subject for gamers, and not because they all fall under that stereotype. There is no doubt that some people become so involved and immersed in the world of the game that they do, indeed, lose track of goings on in their real lives. A couple of intrigued filmmakers decided to make a documentary about some of the obsessive personalities who play Warcraft. As fascinating, and perhaps sad, as it may be (I haven’t yet seen it, but look forward to it assuming it gets a wide release), it clearly doesn’t speak to every Warcraft player.
With over 10 million active users, it would be pretty ballsy to claim that every single one of them is addicted. There would be quite a bit more complaints about broken up families or marriages. And, like most things in the real world, moderation is key. The reasons why the game is addictive vary from individual to individual. Sometimes its the need for the social contact paired with anonymity (or the ability to pretend you’re someone else). Sometimes its the drive for the end game content; to be the best with the best. But this is no different from other addictions. MMOs are still fairly new to the general populace, so I imagine that has more to do with their “sinister” portrayal than anything else.
Let me leave you off with something that any WoW addict would have wet dreams about:
‘Warcraft’ Sequel Lets Gamers Play A Character Playing ‘Warcraft’
Evidence that the Warcraft franchise is a monster of an entity exists in the amount of branding that Blizzard has done to further the game’s popularity in the realms of real life. As borderline unnerving as that sounds, branding is currently the most effective advertising model out there. Blizzard, however, does seem to do it in some really interesting ways.
Action figures are typical of most fantasy or science fiction franchises. Either for play or collection, action figures have been around long enough to be the obvious first step. But how do you make an action figure of a whole bunch of user created characters? Obviously, the key figures in WoW Lore can be featured, but in a game based on player character involvement, how does a company maximize on merch opportunity?
Easy! You offer a way for players to create their own character figurines. Who wouldn’t want an action figure of themselves? Or, sort of themselves. A version of themselves.
Above is a Warcraft collector’s stein, perhaps a bit of an atypical piece of merch, but probably Blizzard’s answer to the souvenir shot glass. Kind of expensive, but that’s the price you pay to drink in style–in Azeroth.
Blizzard’s branding extends to the tools that are required to play their game. No longer are your run-of-the-mill mouse and keyboard good enough. When completing quests and slaying monsters, you better be on your game and luckily Blizzard can help there, too. Two buttons? Fie! How about fifteen-button mouse? Now you are ready.
Or are you?
Sometimes you just need to be in possession of an epic blade; a perfect replica of Frostmourne, with which you can… Well, I’d prefer not to think about what someone might want to do with this in the real world (aside from collect it, of course).
The newest member of Blizzard’s Warcraft brand-wagon takes the form of something drinkable. Teaming up with Mountain Dew, Blizzard has Warcraft-ified a blue and red version of the drink, marketing it as Gamer Fuel. As far as sodas go, I never much enjoyed Mountain Dew, but you have to hand it to Blizzard for branching out. After all, World of Warcraft came out almost five years ago, and the fact that they keep finding ways to strengthen the brand, elaborate the game and make sure it stays the most played MMORPG… You have to admit, is pretty impressive.
The bulk of WoW game play involves completing quests to gain experience, gold and armor in order to advance not only to the next level, but to be able to explore other sections of the world. Some quests require players to adventure into secret dungeons or “instances”. Inside these sectioned pockets of the world, exist monsters and other creatures that are a lot more difficult to defeat, especially by one’s lonesome.
Groups are small, limited to five people, and they allow each type of player a chance to show their stuff in battle. To illustrate this a little better, I decided to interview a friend of mine, also a casual WoW player, and take some in-game video. So! Without further ado…
Note: LFG is WoW lingo used in chat which means “Looking for Group”.
Now I can’t properly blog about WoW without mentioning a web series that brings all the social elements (or most of them) of MMORPGs together. Obviously, I’m talking about Felicia Day’s The Guild. An endearing show about the eccentricities of ordinary people who happen to play a Warcraft-like game.
The best part about Day’s show, from a casual WoWers perspective, is the idea that the game plays a background to the people. Like I’ve been saying, a lot of people who aren’t too familiar with it continuously harp on the game-this and the game-that, but a lot of players get attracted to it because of the connection with people. In a very, very, very, I might add, different setting. Although the game does play second fiddle in importance to the characters, it pretty much frames the whole show. So whether or not you play the game, you will find humour regardless.
The characters in the show belong to a local guild, which isn’t the norm for most guilds, but an interesting idea none the less. In any even… Let me introduce you to the show, and possibly create a fan out of you yet.
You did read correctly. Weddings in WoW. A strange concept for any gamer who has never dabbled in roleplaying or storytelling, an even stranger one for anyone who is just being introduced to all this “stuff”.
Lots of role playing guilds hold scheduled events, organized by members, to keep the community vibe going and for players to unwind. These can be a whole variety of things like in-character dungeon runs, Christmas parties, guild vs. guild feuds, etc. They’re fun, harmless, and allow players to be creative when interacting with each other.
Similar to most adventure or fantasy fiction, romantic subplots sometimes evolve into the story line within a role playing context. Let me be firm though here: This doesn’t mean that the people writing the characters are looking for an online dating service (I’ll get into that later). Romance plots take a lot of collective planning between both parties and can be a lot of fun to play out. C’mon! Who doesn’t enjoy a good romantic comedy? On occasion, two players will organize a guild event based on the romance of their characters and so… What better way to do that than a World of Warcraft wedding.
They do! Well, sort of. Online dating is not so strange a notion anymore. WoW is an online environment with a thriving community, it shouldn’t be too shocking to hear about forged friendships or even relationships. Finding love in Warcraft (pardon the pun) is indeed a rarity, but it isn’t unheard of. Significant others also play the game together and decide to have a Warcraft wedding because it’s easiest for their guests to participate without having to travel great distances (which can be inconvenient).
I imagine everyone has participated once or twice in the creation or propagation of an inside joke. Gamers are no different (obviously, they’re people too, you know), and sometimes inside jokes reach the outside. World of Warcraft players have their own lexicon, as most niche things tend to, so it serves as no surprise that they would also have their own brand of humour.
What’s Happening? This is a screen capture video taken in-game. It features a group in the process of completing one of the many raid dungeons. What you’re hearing is audio taken live from the game, it isn’t a voice over done in post-production. The group was using a program like TeamSpeak to voice chat (sometimes it’s more efficient than typing). At the start of the video, the group is discussing their game plan for what lies ahead in the next room: a dungeon full of dangerous dragon eggs that will break open on contact. Obviously, they want to avoid touching the eggs to protect themselves from, well, harm.
Why Is This Funny? It’s common knowledge (in-game, of course) that touching the eggs is the last thing you want to do. It’s also common knowledge that entry into the room is not completely necessary to finish the last dungeon boss, so before this group goes in, they’re deciding whether or not its a necessity. It seems that only one of their number needs a piece of loot from someone on the other side of the room, that group member being Leeroy (who is AFK — Away From Keyboard). When Leeroy comes back to the game, he’s obviously unaware of the plan his group just went over, and decides to take their fates into his own hands by running madly into the room over every single egg. The result? A total wipe. The humour lies in Leeroy’s blatant stupidity, and the dialogue that follows while Leeroy and his group mates run madly around trying to remedy the situation.
Obviously, it’s funnier if you’re familiar with the game, but the call of “Leeeeeeeeroy Jeeeeeeeenkins!” and the eye-rolling it inspires is easily relatable to other gamers. I mean, who can’t relate to knowing the moron who always seems to do something stupid?