Race and Identity in Games

Race and Identity in Digital Media written by Professor Nakamura discussed the impact of virtual communities such as games have on our social life. One of the questions brought up in the article: “How is race being managed within the anonymity of avatar space?” World of Warcraft was the game analyzed in the article. Players in WOW have a general resentment towards “player workers” because their goal is to accumulate wealth in the game and trade it for real money with potential buyers in the game. This practice disturbs the financial well-being and stability of the in-game market as often creates hyperinflation. Not only that, it gives players who buy these wealth an advantage in the game. These player workers are often called “Chinese gold farmers” and classes in the game such as rogues and hunters are often associated with this derogatory term. Given the established stereotype of the Chinese, those who speak a different language other than English are often ostracized, frowned upon, and neglected by the community. As a Chinese WoW player in an American server, I can say that this is true and in some cases, players would verbally abuse you in general chat in which every player in the area can see.

Professor Nakamura mentioned about the “unplayable” class, female dwarfs, because it has been radicalized as Chinese because gold farmers often choose this race to play. I would like to note that there are other “inherent” stereotypes that are established by the game developers themselves. Trolls is one of the selectable Horde race in WoW. The voice over for Trolls is commonly associated with Jamaicans because of the accent. Though this has not been a problem for the community, it is apparent that players associated a mystical figure with a real race in real life: Jamaicans.

The Alliance faction has humans as one of the selectable race. Players can customize their skin tone to their liking. With careful observation, I realized that the majority of the human players I encountered had white or light skin pigmentation. This then raises the question, why do players choose to be white in the game? I am sure that there are other races and ethnicity playing the game as well. In the Taiwan WoW server, the same phenomenon is observed. Human players are mostly white. Players choose not to represent their avatars the way they are in real life. Could this be some sort of social pressure that players are deterred to represent themselves in the game?

Other than racial issues, identity issues have risen in WoW as well. Game developers of WoW are a creative group. They have implemented innuendos of social material within the game. Though some of them may seem funny but by analyzing the matter in another angle, it may seem offensive. At one point, to offset the inflation taking place in the game. Game developers included a blonde female blood elf character called Paris Hilton. Players can interact with the NPC and buy things from her; all of which are inferences to her real self and are all very expensive (just like what people would expect). Though poking fun at the female celebrity is fun, it has established another common stereotype of the blonde stereotype. When the patch came out in my server, Kil’Jaeden, my friends who were blood elves were often poked fun at in game when they made a mistake in a group setting. Friends would make jokes around his female blonde character even though he is an Asian male in real life.

Speaking of celebrity stereotypes, Blizzard entertainment had an entire advertising campaign built around the idea of celebrity image inside the game. Verne Troyer was associated with a white bald gnome mage. Mr. T was a night elf with a Mohawk, and Ozzy Osbourne was an undead character referred to as the Prince of Darkness. There are many symbolisms in each of these “connections”. But my question will be: Why do you think these connections are made? How are they selected? And do you think these inferences has changed the way we perceive these avatars?