EverQuest, grandfather of the current boom of MMOs, is analyzed and deconstructed in a new book by Timothy Rowlands (Arizona State University). Using ethnographic, semiotic, and analytical approaches; first-hand accounts and interviews with fellow players, Rowlands uses EverQuest to ask broader questions. How do decisions made by game designers, and those made by players, shape video game culture as a whole? How are a game’s social norms taught to new players? And at what point does time spent in an MMO world stop resembling leisure time and start to look like work?
VIDEO GAME WORLDS: Working at Play in the Culture of EverQuest is now available from Left Coast at
http://www.lcoastpress.com/book.php?id=364