The first online scientific conference in the World of Warcraft is taking place this weekend. Warcraft is a MMORPG which has over 9 million users. The conference discusses many aspects of online worlds. This type of meet-up happens more often in Second Life, but has brought together many academics, students, and professions in the warcraft environment. During the first session of the conference, it was noted that Blizzard may not be as supportive of social research as it could be.
Warcraft can be an absorbing activity. It’s “addictiveness” has been debated in the past and will be discussed in the future, but the bulk of the conference deals with many other issues. Details on the conference are available online at:
http://convergentsystems.pbwiki.com/
The conference was announced in online Science magazine. It was proposed by John Bohannon, who creates the Gonzo Scientist feature for the AAAS journal Science. The organizer is William Sims Bainbridge of the NSF.
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