I will discuss play in World of Warcraft, a popular massively
multiplayer online game. World of Warcraft enables self-
organizing groups of strangers and friends to collaborate on
short-term objectives. Such collaborations may reflect coming
changes in globalized work in which we will increasingly work
with remote others we know little about. In game play, the glue
that keeps groups together is the shared objective of completing
a "quest" or mission, as well as the shared culture of the game.
The game is rich in meaning with a strong narrative, a material
culture of weapons, armor, potions, recipes, jewelry, and many
other goods, as well as a vibrant economy. Players' backgrounds
are diverse but discourse emphasizes understandings about the
game rather than players' personal lives. Players learn to be at
ease with strangers, to get things done with others they don't
know and may never interact with again. The game diminishes some
of the impact of things that divide us such as ethnicity,
gender, and age, throug