Rearticulating Rewards in WoW - Wordplay and the Discourse of Video Games - page 117

If this is the case i [sic] would like to see Epic gear in my gear in my
mailbox on the 1 st and 15 th of every month. 16
In addition to recapping WoW Insider coverage in suspiciously convenient
ways, the author represents a common impression of welfare: it is a hand-
out regularly received by the undeserving, in stark contrast to proper work
where rewards are earned by active, productive members of society.
In addition to the emotionally fueled reaction that often surrounds the
word welfare, Yvonne Hartman argues that welfare policies also function
to produce particular subjects. In studying welfare policy in Australia,
she argues that additional restrictions being placed on welfare recipients
“may be regarded as a manifestation of the attempt to 'help' individuals to
align their individual desires with those of the government and to acquire
the requisite virtues in order to become self-governing, enterprising indi-
viduals.” 17 Ef ectively, welfare is a rhetorically powerful social policy that
shapes contemporary societies. Instead of merely providing for people who
are struggling, welfare reforms function to normalize recipients and per-
suade them to subscribe to the overarching assumptions of capitalist societ-
ies. In so doing, the mechanisms of the welfare state “support the capitalist
dynamic and the process of constructing 'docile bodies' rather than active
citizens.” 18 From this standpoint, and fused with a rhetorical perspective,
it is possible to see the ways in which Tigole's comment provoked a reac-
tion to his clear preference for raiding over PvP and also refi ned a desire
to normalize PvP rewards and players to already accepted norms of PvE. 19
In ef ect, the addition of a PvP system based on currency and incremen-
tal rewards placed PvPers on a gear progression treadmill already familiar
to raiders. The new system normalized more WoW players into receiving
rewards based on regular, ongoing play, which also required an ongoing
subscription to the game. Understanding the full implications of Tigole's
comment requires a more thorough discussion of the dynamics of MMOG
game design.
As well documented, a primary dif erence between MMOGs and many
other games is that they do not have a fi xed end point. Writing about Ever-
Quest , T. L. Taylor observes that “there is no winner. There is no obvious
fi nish line, no point of completion, where it is clear the game has been
won.” 20 Edward Castronova stresses a somewhat dif erent note of a similar
argument, claiming that players in MMOGs are continually faced with new
challenges after they experience the joy of defeating the last one. Drawing
a comparison to Sisyphus, he writes,
in a MMORPG [massively multi-player online role-playing game] the
huge stone does not roll back down the mountain. No! The Sisyphus in
a MMORPG gets the stone to the top and rolls it right over! Hurrah!
But the stone does then roll down into the next valley, where it comes
to rest at the base of a still taller mountain. 21