The Gender Ethics of WoW Combat

A primary component of World of Warcraft, or any online game, is the killing of monsters for the sake of obtaining 'experience points'. These points, when enough are accumulated, allow you to progress through 'levels', thereby advancing your character. In WoW, there are all manner of creatures, including harmless creatures, angry animals (wolves, bears, coyotes, lions), demons, dragons, and so on. Myself, being a male player of WoW, typically kills whatever yields the most experience. However, not all players operate by the same rules. This is something that i've noticed is dictated by the player's perception of the monster at hand, regardless of whether or not it actually yields experience or treasure. Additionally, the gender of the player seems to dictate what action will be taken for example.

Take me, for example. I like to kill even the most harmless of monsters, regardless of what, if anything, it will give me. Particularly squirrels. I like to crush squirrels. I also like to chop kittens in half, or blast them with a fireball. These creatures are not monsters, and they will not even attack you. I've also seen this behavior performed by other players who are also male. WoW is a game where the player can exhibit a certain amount of power against other beings, and this seems to be a manifestation of traditionally male characteristics: exhibiting control, displaying power, killing?. We don't typically understand these characteristics and action to be female. It is an interesting sociological experiment to observe the behavior of such players for other reasons as well. For instance, not every male player will choose to kill the squirrel. When entering a situation where there is one tiny wandering kitten to kill, some players will repeatedly kill it, every time they encounter it. On the other hand, other male players choose NOT to kill the kitten, everytime they encounter it. In fact, a group of players I used to play with regularly explored a dungeon every thursday night. And every thursday night, the monsters in the dungeon would reset, so they could be killed again. Each group of players could only do this once a week. In the beginning of the dungeon was a non-hostile wandering kitten. It would not attack. it could not damage the group. It's electronic life was hanging in the balance of the power weilded by testosterone driven male gamers. And inevitably, every thursday night, the kitten would die at the hand of the same player. As it turns out, this player was a relatively young, teenage, high school sophomore, male gamer. He was relatively mature in all other facets of play, but he could not withstand the urge to kill the kitten.

Most players do not think of kitten-killing as a sin, but it was brought to my attention in the early weeks of Annie and I's mutual adventures within WoW that it was certainly innapropriate to murder harmless animals. It was even un called for to murder certain monsters that were deemed 'cute' by the forces of feminity. Annie took the time, one particular night, to scold my killing of a particular cat that had a piece of treasure I needed, by yelling 'Taylor!, what are you doing?!" and smacking me abruptly on the arm. I've seen other players chastised in the game by other female players for similar behavior, though often in a joking manner. Ultimately, the most interesting insight gleaned from the situation came from the instinctual urgency of both the male and female reactions. Neither could I stand to kill the cat, nor could Annie stop to think twice about injuring my much needed arm. And it does desribe something about the way individuals relate to virtual worlds. To Annie, my offense was along the same vein as being cruel to some sort of cute creature in real life, and should be punished as such.