Cultural Guildaramous

Most of the communities that I have become involved with have tended to be of virtual nature. Whether it be on World of Warcraft, Xbox Live, or Facebook, you form communities virtually to other people. In Bell’s article he argues that virtual communities are shall I say “real” and substantial communities. This goes against what Bauman says, as he disagrees with that brings to question the legitimacy of virtual relationships and communities. Bell just seems the have the urge to yell “get over it” because all of the these virtual communities are here to stay and there isn't much you can do about it.(Bell, 261)

I am still kind of on the fence about this entire debate. As I am sure you have figured out, I am I huge World of Warcraft fan and I tend to use it a lot as an example, one, because and I know it well, and two, It fits in so many ways to these discussions. So In World of Warcraft you have a guild system where a group of people can band together and do things as a group, whether it be through raiding instances, pvp (player vs player), or just hanging out together and chatting. All of these a perfect definition of community. In class we defined community as “A group of people who share ideas or have a similar understanding of ideology as it pertains to technology and literacy. Those in the community do not have to have the same access or interest, but need to have some sort of common thread that links them into the community itself as well as some level of common sense.” So the people in a guild have similar access or interests and have some sort of common thread or goal. This could be going to win a battleground or to defeat a boss in a raid. So as you are part of a guild you join the “community” which is virtual and you gain new friends and acquaintances along the way.

Now the million dollar question, do you not do similar things in meat space? For example, I have just started a internship for the city of Kennewick. I am interning as a recreational coordinator, where I help plan and run different programs throughout the year. Right now we are working on Flag Football. We as a community of people working together, have a common interest to get the job done and have a successful program for the year. We have a similar understanding of what needs to be done to accomplish this task.

Now again I ask how is this different from an online virtual community? I don’t have the answer to that other than that I think it is not. I think both communities are part of life and both build relationships, whether good or bad, with the people involved. So by saying one is more real or legitimate than the other is false, they both play a role in who we are. But in that statement there is an ideology that who we are is based on what we do in our communities.


The 3 that i would like to study would be

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/index.xml
-because i play this game and find it fascinating how people
communicate and act

http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/
-a good community for forums about WoW and upcoming content to WoW

http://www.bungie.net/stats/Reach/online.aspx
-the new and last Halo from bungie, and how people are on xbox live as well
how you can track stats




Works Cited

Bell, David, and Barbara M. Kennedy. eds. The Cybercultures Reader. 2nd Ed. London: Routledge. 254-264. Print.