The Warcraft Civilization: Social Science in a Virtual World by William Sims BainbridgeMy rating: 1 of 5 stars
I had such high hopes for this book. I heard about it through the hive of the social media universe and couldn't wait to get my hands on it. When I received it from Amazon I dove right in thinking I would devour it's content in just a few sittings; I have been craving a book like this and would devour it's words like a hungry person...or so I thought.
I soon found myself reading in snips and junks because I was drowning in the foolishness of it all. It didn't take long to realize this book was written by someone who doesn't clearly have a firm grasp of video games or what they mean realistically to those who play them. I couldn't help but think I was reading the work of a madman. I kept waiting for the final chapter that said, "Ha! Gotcha! This entire book was a joke... a grand social experiment to see if people would finish it". But alas, that wasn't to happen.
It became more clear as you moved through his book that he just didn't understand the game. A game is made of more than just the AI and backstory. Designers, story, game mechanics and players all work in a strange discordant harmony to produce the final outcome, especially in a fluid game like World of Warcraft. His understanding of the game (holistically) was so limited that he has mad moments of brilliant insight that disappeared as fast as they appeared, like lighting. Don't get me wrong, his observations of the game story was so expansive it was indeed impressive. I learned more about the Warcraft story in his book than the years of playing it since beta came out. He payed attention to certain things with a sharp observant eye. I won't deny him this. What Bainbridge missed though was the players and what this game means with that sort of interaction. Without the players there is no game so unless this was research about design mechanics it needed to have that spark. This book has "social science" in it's title!
World of Warcraft really consists of layers of "game". I have yet to see a researcher give a really detailed account of it from a player perspective especially as it concerns the end game. The game begins as a player goes from level 1 to level 80. But a different game emerges once you hit level 80 and it's like the previous levels were just a warm up to come. Bainbridge was so focused on those early few levels that he really misses the mark of what the game holds later on.
Bianbridge focused far too much on the Role-playing servers. It was like he himself had built an entire world in his mind and then wrote the entire strange story down on paper and called it research. I was disturbed by the dual boxing events and conversations with himself. My mind reasoned that his "research assistants" had to be actual, living, honest to god people but no...they were just more inhabitants of the game world manifest through Bainbridge's play and eventual writing.
You could strip the actual insights down to a nice paper or conference topic. This book should be read with trepidation. If video game scholars want to be viewed seriously then we need to steer clear of this sort of writing. Be warned, if you read it, you're peering into the abysmal maw of one strange mind.
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