Session 2: Relationships between WoW and the "Real World."

Chair: Dmitri Williams

Session Logistics 

This session would include contributions on such topics as: the relationship of the WoW economic system to the economy of the surrounding world; interesting comparisons between WoW and other games or virtual worlds; allegorical features of WoW in such areas as colonialism and state corruption; the importation of real-world social movements into WoW like environmentalism; this virtual world as an arena for players who want to explore alternative personalities and roles; the impact of WoW on players, whether educational or possibly harmful.

The pictures below illustrate possible connections between WoW and the outside world:

Anti-capitalist, pro-environmental values in the picture of a priest fighting a deforestation machine.

Auction of the legendary Hanzo Sword for 111 gold 11 silver 11 copper, representing real wealth.