WoW Moviewatch: Joi Ito talks WoW
by Eliah Hecht 
Jan 2nd 2007 at 10:34PM
This is probably the longest movie we've ever posted, at over 43 minutes. Entrepreneur, internet celebrity and generally hoopy frood Joi Ito (of We Know/We No on Eitrigg-US) gave this lecture on WoW at the latest Chaos Communication Conference (23C3). The talk doesn't assume any WoW knowledge, but also doesn't bore those of us who do play (at least not me). It seems to broadly concern itself with WoW as a social space/social experiment, including guild organization, voice chat, real-world/WoW bleed-through, and the implications of having such a huge subscriber base.
I found the video quite interesting. I wish it included the Q&A afterwards; maybe we can have our own discussion in the comments here.
Previously on Moviewatch
I found the video quite interesting. I wish it included the Q&A afterwards; maybe we can have our own discussion in the comments here.
Previously on Moviewatch
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves, Features, WoW Moviewatch
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
E-wren Jan 2nd 2007 11:19PM
Social Science FTW!
Dave Jan 2nd 2007 11:53PM
For some reason I couldn't watch the whole video (crapped out at the 25 minute mark), but the parts I saw were pretty entertaining. I'm in a casual raiding guild (2-3 times a week) which recently took down Nefarian, and I'm most impressed by the planning and coordination required to get 40 people on the same page, managing the inevitable guild drama, the high turnover the game has and building up their gear to accomplish something in game. The challenge to do that is much greater than simply downing a boss, IMO.
Stuart Salamon Jan 3rd 2007 1:36AM
I agree with the part that he says, "I wish we could send a sms to a priest." The ONE thing i found to help out in a guild I was in WAS the fact that the guild leader had alot of our cell phones and that alot of us were friends so we could call people if we needed more and it usually helped us from just calling it quits for that night.
I want the rest of this video PLEase someone find it!.
Eliah Hecht Jan 3rd 2007 2:05AM
This is just a hunch, but those of you who are having trouble with the video, try clicking the "Read" link (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5160442894955175707) to see it on Google Video. That might fix it.
Grendalsh Jan 3rd 2007 2:32AM
I know with the time requirements, he couldn't get into it.. but it would've been interesting to see some statistics on what tools folks use either in- or out-game to coordinate their guilds... i.e. guild scheduling mods, phpbb boards, Warcraft Social (www.warcraftsocial.com).. I've even run across WoW guilds in Yahoo!Groups and MySpace. As he was also pointing out where Blizzard is 'missing it', he could have said more regarding the barely existant guild tools, especially in the face of Blizzard's "it's about community building" attitude.