{"product_id":"my-life-as-a-night-bonnie-nardi-9780472070985","title":"My Life as a Night Elf Priest: An Anthropological Account of World of Warcraft","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"Ever since the creators of the animated television show \u003ci\u003eSouth Park\u003c\/i\u003e turned their lovingly sardonic gaze on the massively multiplayer online game \u003ci\u003eWorld of Warcraft\u003c\/i\u003e for an entire episode, \u003ci\u003eWoW\u003c\/i\u003e's status as an icon of digital culture has been secure. \u003ci\u003eMy Life as a Night Elf Priest\u003c\/i\u003e digs deep beneath the surface of that icon to explore the rich particulars of the \u003ci\u003eWorld of Warcraft\u003c\/i\u003e player's experience.\"\u003cbr\u003e--Julian Dibbell, \u003ci\u003eWired\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eWorld of Warcraft\u003c\/i\u003e is the best representative of a significant new technology, art form, and sector of society: the theme-oriented virtual world. Bonnie Nardi's pioneering transnational ethnography explores this game both sensitively and systematically using the methods of cultural anthropology and aesthetics with intensive personal experience as a guild member, media teacher, and magical quest Elf.\"\u003cbr\u003e--William Sims Bainbridge, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Warcraft Civilization\u003c\/i\u003e and editor of \u003ci\u003eOnline Worlds\u003c\/i\u003e \"Nardi skillfully covers all of the hot button issues that come to mind when people think of video games like \u003ci\u003eWorld of Warcraft\u003c\/i\u003e such as game addiction, sexism, and violence. What gives this book its value are its unexpected gems of rare and beautifully detailed research on less sensationalized topics of interest such as the \u003ci\u003eWorld of Warcraft\u003c\/i\u003e player community in China, game modding, the increasingly blurred line between play and work, and the rich and fascinating lives of players and player cultures. Nardi brings \u003ci\u003eWorld of Warcraft\u003c\/i\u003e down to earth for non-players and ties it to social and cultural theory for scholars. \u003ci\u003e . . . \u003c\/i\u003ethe best ethnography of a single virtual world produced so far.\"\u003cbr\u003e--Lisa Nakamura, University of Illinois\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eWorld of Warcraft\u003c\/i\u003e rapidly became one of the most popular online world games on the planet, amassing 11.5 million subscribers--officially making it an online community of gamers that had more inhabitants than the state of Ohio and was almost twice as populous as Scotland. It's a massively multiplayer online game, or MMO in gamer jargon, where each person controls a single character inside a virtual world, interacting with other people's characters and computer-controlled monsters, quest-givers, and merchants. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eMy Life as a Night Elf Priest\u003c\/i\u003e, Bonnie Nardi, a well-known ethnographer who has published extensively on how theories of what we do intersect with how we adopt and use technology, compiles more than three years of participatory research in \u003ci\u003eWarcraft\u003c\/i\u003e play and culture in the United States and China into this field study of player behavior and activity. She introduces us to her research strategy and the history, structure, and culture of \u003ci\u003eWarcraft\u003c\/i\u003e; argues for applying activity theory and theories of aesthetic experience to the study of gaming and play; and educates us on issues of gender, culture, and addiction as part of the play experience. Nardi paints a compelling portrait of what drives online gamers both in this country and in China, where she spent a month studying players in Internet cafes. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBonnie Nardi has given us a fresh look not only at \u003ci\u003eWorld of Warcraft\u003c\/i\u003e but at the field of game studies as a whole. One of the first in-depth studies of a game that has become an icon of digital culture, \u003ci\u003eMy Life as a Night Elf Priest\u003c\/i\u003e will capture the interest of both the gamer and the ethnographer.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBonnie A. Nardi is an anthropologist by training and a professor in the Department of Informatics in the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Irvine. Her research focus is the social implications of digital technologies. She is the author of \u003ci\u003eA Small Matter of Programming: Perspectives on End User Computing\u003c\/i\u003e and the coauthor of \u003ci\u003eInformation Ecologies: Using Technology with Heart\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eActing with Technology: Activity Theory and Interaction Design\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCover art by Jessica Damsky\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Bonnie Nardi\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0472070983\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780472070985\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Michigan Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 06\/28\/2010\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 248\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.05lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.80d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 12\/01\/2010","brand":"Bonnie Nardi","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":48086700556543,"sku":"9780472070985","price":55.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_aaf42313-e526-4b01-8eab-babcf2e67481.jpg?v=1769096070","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/my-life-as-a-night-bonnie-nardi-9780472070985","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}