My Life as a Night Elf Priest: An Anthropological Account of World of Warcraft (Technologies of the Imagination: New Media in Everyday Life)

As a World of Warcraft player for many years, I found this book both entertaining and accurate. As a sociologist, I can truly say that this is a valid academic source for information on the inner workings of a fantasy subculture. As new technologies send more and more of communications and social interactions into a virtual realm, studies of this nature will grow increasingly important, to both the academic community and to society as a whole. I would recommend this to my students!

I want to say this is a great book. I can think of a more nuanced review, but I just felt like neglecting to comment on this went on long enough. :-)

I found this book greatly enjoyable and interesting as both an avid WoW player and a theory aficionada. Besides being accurate in the details of the game (which is in itself wonderful), Nardi provides thought-provoking insight into other similar experiences. I really really recommend this book to anyone with minimal interest in gaming experience and virtual worlds.

This was the literature for an advanced English class for me, I read it cause I had to but it was intresting all the same.

This is not what I expected I thought it would be more from the point of view of the character and not from the player of the character

Estaba interesado en jugar esta raza y pude ver que es muy entretenida, sobretodo por su habilidad racial. Cree un druida y fue muy divertido subir de nivel con el.

This is a very clearly put book. It describes the online MMORPG World of Warcraft and the research processes and approaches the author used to gain insights into the ways players develop online pathways through the game world and interact with one another along the way. It's based on a deep familiarity with the game and significant effort to get to know a broad range of other players and discover what makes them tick. It thus feels authoritative and representative of its topic. The later chapters home in on issues like guild organization, gender (a really outstanding chapter) or worries (myths?) over gaming addiction, and there's welcome attention to the large player-base in China, not just to US players. The book was completed some years ago, and so the target game and its surrounding cultural networks and affordances will have moved on in certain detailed respects since then, but the analysis reveals points that seem enduring, as well as very likely not specific to this game alone, so the book has aged well and certainly remains relevant.The book would work in a number of ways: players might read it to see what an anthropologist makes of their gaming culture, perhaps then using those insights as ways to rethink their own online play in order to get even more out of it; game designers could pick up valuable thoughts on what happens when large, diverse groups of people progress, compete, and collaborate within a virtual world; researchers planning online, virtual world studies might read through to learn from the approach and its associated sensitivities. I read it myself coming from an interest in the spaces we give to art, play, music, and so on in our everyday lives, and it worked very well for me in that respect too.

Not a bad read, but was hoping for a more helpful book tbh.Didn't realise it was a story.

An interesting read which I would recommend to anyone interested in sociology or anyone who simply loves to play MMOs and is intrigued about what makes them what they are.

Interesting, enjoyable, very easy to read! I've read a handful of academic books about WoW, and this one goes into the most depth talking about the social logistics of raiding and other community-oriented aspects of the game. Video game academia around things like ethnography and literary analysis are currently underrepresented in my opinion, but this book is a step in the right direction. Definitely the most thorough, dedicated, and intelligent analysis of WoW that I've read.