Anthropologist Studies WoW, “Nerd Rage,” and Guild Friendships

Alex Golub has a leg (and probably a whip or two) up on Indiana Jones.

Sure, everybody’s favorite fedora-donning archeologist has bested treacherous locales like the Temple of Doom and retrieved priceless historical artifacts from the clutches of madmen, but he’s only done it four times. (And the world would be a better place without his last excursion.) Golub, on the other hand, tests his mettle against the denizens of the Black Temple and Tempest Keep four times a week, in search of the Orb of the Sin’dorei and other fat loots. Plus, you know… Golub’s a real person.

Golub, an anthropology professor from the University of Hawaii, is studying World of Warcraft, and what he describes as “the culture of raiding.” Certain in-game dungeons — or raids — require the coordinated efforts of 10, 25, or even 45 WoW players, organized into teams called guilds. Naturally, Golub’s extensive field research, which includes interviewing every member of his guild and keeping track of all the characters they play, requires him to play four hours a day, four days a week.

“You can’t do anthropology if you treat people as objects,” Golub said in a recent interview with WoW Insider. “You have to share your life with them first, before you can expect them to share theirs with you.” Golub’s social experiment sheds light on different aspects of WoW culture, including the tirades of insults screamed into microphones when players die — a phenomenon better known as “Nerd Rage.”

(For those who’ve never experienced this outrageous — and probably out-of-shape — wrath first hand, here’s a little sample. This is a recording of a guild leader flipping out when his party fights a raid boss named Onyxia and epically fails.)
WARNING: The following video is NSFW, but hilarity will ensue!

via videosift.com

For people willing to invest hours of their time into the game, the stakes of each raid battle are extremely high, Golub explained. And the tools players use to communicate — online voice chatting and programs that display additional data, such as what allies are hitting which enemies — aren’t as elegant as face-to-face interaction.

“Add to that that this is a volunteer activity, and you don’t have a boss standing over you threatening to fire you unless you smile the next time you ask people if they want fries with that,” Golub said. “So, people get frustrated and blow up.”

But there’s more to WoW than getting angry and getting even. Golub is more interested in studying the social component of the game and who actually plays it. His guild has welcomed people from all walks of life, from factory workers to college students, single men to grandparents. And then there’s the question of whether or not any of these people can truly be considered friends, a term usually reserved for people you know in “RL.”

“There is a guy in my guild who works in a cheese factory, turning over 90-pound blocks of cheese all day,” Golub said. “I bet I know him better than he knows the guys in the control room measuring cheese temperatures or whatever, even if he sees them every day.”

The Hawaiian anthropologist is planning to compile his work into a book, due out in the summer of 2010.