The research question, argument, and data will be discussed about “Don’t Hate the Player, Hate the Game: The Racialization of Labor in World of Warcraft” by Lisa Nakamura.

When playing an MMO most people would not expect to deal with real world problems such as racism. But communities find ways to racialize certain behavior, specifically they find ways to add negative racial connotation to behavior that is negatively viewed by the community.

RQ: How are the racial views of the World of Warcraft community reflected in their community behavior and artist expression such as in machinima?

Argument:

1) Gold farmers are refereed to players who farm valuable goods in game and then sell the goods for real life money. The term gold farmer is being racialized by adding Chinese in front of a term for a certain type of player.

Evidence: When players refer to gold farmer they include Chinese in front of it.

2) The community machinima and other creative outlets show racism towards Chinese.

Evidence: The most popular machinima site have a lot of videos about Chinese gold farmers. The videos have negative connotation and there are no videos that are positive about Chinese gold farmers. The machinima adds imagery to suggest that they are Chinese, such as adding a Chinese flag or by adding the word “Ni Hao.” This shows how players are actively adding and racializing gold farmers to be Chinese.

3) Certain behavior in game is being associated with a race and then it is meet with negative expression by the community.

Evidence: Certain behavior is being stereotyped to be a Chinese player. Like players who play hunter or rogue, don’t speak or speak broken English. Once a player is identified by their behavior as a Chinese player they can be treated poorly or have negative game action against them.

4) People believe that they are not being racist when referring to Chinese gold farmers.

Evidence: People believe that they are referring to poorly integrated players into the MMO world. They say that they don’t dislike the Chinese but they dislike when people act Chinese, which would still be judging someone by the color of their skin.

Data: Some of the data is well supported with credible sources. But there are some statements which are just opinion with no evidence. Such as how most players think gold farmers are Chinese but they don’t know their computer parts are made in China.

References:

Nakamura, Lisa. 2009. “Don’t Hate the Player, Hate the Game: The Racialization of Labor in World of Warcraft.” Critical Studies in Media Communication 26 (2): 128–44. doi:10.1080/15295030902860252.