I have members in my family who have been playing WoW since it's release. I've always been reluctant to hear anything about it (and at times poked fun at them because they're so passionate when WoW becomes a topic of conversation), but since this Anthropology class, I've come to a cultural relativity type of understanding with them.
The first occurrance of my WoW culture shock was when I was in a serious conversation with my family member. He was sitting in front of his two laptops (he plays two twin gnomes who ride "robot chicken horses" at the same time), but his eyes were attentively at me. So we're in conversation until he hears a "ding" sound and he immediately reacts, "Omgosh, I'm going to die!" and disregards the conversation we were having. I retort back, "Well, you're going to live anyways, so what's the point?" He tried to explain to me why it is such a big deal when he dies, but I just couldn't get it. He even told me when he and my other family member who plays WoW hear dings and beeps, WoW is the first thing they think of, and sometimes they react strongly to it!
All I can say is....Wow.
It's fun to see this in an "etic" perspective. I just wonder sometimes how different it will be emically.
The second occurance was when another family member came to me flustered. She explained that she just did the most embarrasing thing on WoW (spamming accidentally on the public's text view?) and did not want to sign back on because of it. She spent ten minutes groaning about her recent action and it amazed me to see what a strong emotional effect it had on her. She felt embarrassment, even though she was just typing to people who weren't (technically) in front of her! She even had me sit with her when she decided that she would sign back on. Again, Wow.
Just, wow. Culture shock, indeed.
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