Imagine a New

World of Warcraft Ashmere Prasad

Olivia Andrus

Iris Tian

Grant Templeton

Intro: Interactions within the game

• We addressed issues within the game regarding representation of avatars. Thesis: The representations of avatars in the online digital space of the World of Warcraft motivate dominant understandings of race, which is indicative of offline dominant discourse embedded within society.

In game focus through visual lense

We focused on an in game level of play and primarily used theorist Nakamura and Hall to unpack the organization and representation of avatars. • Organization: vertical hierarchy. Lineage of how game establishes boundaries for race, nationality and class.•Representation: Issues regarding representation of race, nationality and class work in intersectional ways. Racial dark features being aggressive, nationality being stereotypical language, and class reflecting offline world.

Examples

• Character explanations: Panda, Tauren, Troll, Goblins

• Have implications of material racism

• Darker skinned attributes

• Chinese Gold Farming representing in game labor that replicates offline racist practices

Intervention:

• Our intervention is to create a better World of Warcraft.• Created new avatars • Gave them different options of how to create avatar

- Race - Class - Gender -Location

Intervention

•Our Intervention allows for players to intervene by deciding their own attributes. • Allows for a safe, diverse space.• Author Roger Stahl idea *

@WoWinteractivee

Media Artifact