World of Warcraft and alcohol: A secret love story?

Abstract

World of Warcraft (Wow) is the leading online role playing game with an average total reaching 10 million players all over the world in December 2008. We launched an investigation to collect information and content related to alcohol mentioned in Wow. As a result we found that alcohol is depicted in a rather humorous and convivial manner. Alcohol has no central role in Wow but is present in all places in the game where you can buy food and drink and there are no warnings regarding the harmful effects of alcohol. Video games such as Wow might be a way for the alcohol industry to promote alcohol consumption and bypass legislations related to age limits and advertisement restrictions.

Notes

Notes

1. http://www.gamesindustry.com/profile/news/1805 (accessed 16 October 2009).

2. Blizzard Entertainment. (2008) WoW subscriber base reaches 11.5 million worldwide. http://www.blizzard.com/us/press/081121.html (accessed 16 April 2009).

3. http://thottbot.com/ and http://worldofwarcraft.judgehype.com (accessed June 2009).

4. http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/events/brewfest/ (accessed 16 October 2009).

5. http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=9023603213&sid=1 (accessed 1 November 2010).

6. http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=65017551&sid=1 (accessed 1 November 2010)

7. www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlULgi92zK8 (accessed 1 November 2010).

8. http://www.esrb.org/index-js.jsp (accessed 16 October 2009).

9. http://www.pegi.info/en/ (accessed 16 October 2009).

10. http://www.pegi.info/fr/index/global_id/505/?searchString=world+of+warcraft&agecategories=&genre=&organisations=&platforms=&countries=&submit=Recherche (accessed 16 October 2009).

11. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loi_Evin (accessed 16 October 2009).

12. http://forums.wow-europe.com/threac.html?topicld=10921022886&sid=1&pageNo=1#12 (accessed 28 October 2009).