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Ethnographic study of Role-playing in World of Warcraft
Dušek, Ondřej ; Švelch, Jaroslav (advisor) ; Reifová, Irena (referee)
This thesis explores the almost unexplored phenomenon of role-playing in the MMORPG video game genre, focusing specifically on role-playing in World of Warcraft (WoW). Its assumption is that although players of this genre overwhelmingly focus on the gameplay aspects of the game, role-playing in MMORPGs exists and takes place as an activity of the fringe culture of players. The aim of this thesis is to investigate this phenomenon in WoW, to find out how role- playing in the game takes place and what artificial reality role-playing participants create in the virtual world of the game, and also to define this phenomenon as a form of role-playing The theoretical part of the thesis is divided into three segments. The first segment deals with role-playing itself and the role-playing game (RPG) genre, which is superior to the MMORPG subgenre. The second segment delves into the known knowledge about role-playing in MMORPGs, and the third describes the examined game WoW. In order to fulfill the goals of this thesis and answer the research questions, ethnographic procedures are used in the research part, by which the author of this thesis infiltrates the virtual role-playing environment in WoW and actively participates in the events, which he further describes and analyzes. Based on the analysis of field...
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