The New York Times on Warcraft's Success
by Elizabeth Harper 
Sep 5th 2006 at 5:30PM
I think everyone who plays understands that World of Warcraft is a hugely popular game, played by millions across the globe. Well, today the New York Times ponders the game's immense success and international appeal. What World of Warcraft has meant to the MMO genre is summarized succinctly, I think, in this statement by the Times:There were massively-multiplayer games before World of Warcraft, just as there were MP3 players before Apple's iPod. Like the iPod, World of Warcraft has essentially taken over and redefined an entire product category.
Joystiq also points out something interesting in the tone of the article - namely, that it does not immediately assume games and gaming are negative things. Instead, it presents an open minded look at gaming as a hobby.
[Thanks, Dave]
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Elodren Sep 6th 2006 4:51PM
Its great to see mainstream media starting to drop the younger generation's culture denial I have witnessed. The traditional media definitely covered the digital culture as something alien and had the tendency to find in it illnesses of all sorts. With the surge of games studies in anthropology and sociology, the medias that are owned and directed by an aging baby boomer generation are starting to understand that gaming culture is not so different from rock and roll in the fities and short dresses in the sixties. Each generations bring its cultural traits into society and gaming is one of those.