Research Article
The Managed Hearthstone: Labor and Emotional Work in the Online Community of World of Warcraft
@INPROCEEDINGS{10.1007/978-3-642-11743-5_13, author={Andras Lukacs and David Embrick and Talmadge Wright}, title={The Managed Hearthstone: Labor and Emotional Work in the Online Community of World of Warcraft}, proceedings={Facets of Virtual Environments. First International Conference, FaVE 2009, Berlin, Germany, July 27-29, 2009, Revised Selected Papers}, proceedings_a={FAVE}, year={2012}, month={5}, keywords={emotional labor work video games sociability MMORPG interaction patterns social dynamics}, doi={10.1007/978-3-642-11743-5_13} }- Andras Lukacs
David Embrick
Talmadge Wright
Year: 2012
The Managed Hearthstone: Labor and Emotional Work in the Online Community of World of Warcraft
FAVE
Springer
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-11743-5_13
Abstract
Prior analyses of player interactions within massive multi-player online environments (MMOs) rely predominantly on understanding the environments as spheres of leisure—places to “escape” the stress of the “real world.” We find in our research on the a popular online role-playing game suggests that, in fact, social interaction within the game more closely resembles work. Successful play requires dedicated participants who choose to engage in a highly structured and time-consuming “process” of game progression. Simultaneously, players must also actively engage in the “emotional labor” of acceptably maintaining standards of sociability and guild membership constructed by their gaming peers. We posit that these expectations of both structured progression work and emotional maintenance work significantly blur the existing lines between categorizing work and leisure. While the assumption of leisure shrouds the general expectation of gaming interaction, we suggest a “play as work” paradigm more clearly captures the reality of the demands of The World of Warcraft.