Blood Plagues and Endless Raids

Blood Plagues and Endless Raids
Blood Plagues and Endless Raids

Blood Plagues and Endless Raids

A Hundred Million Lives in the World of Warcraft
By Tony Palumbi

SOCIAL SCIENCE

304 Pages, 5.5 x 8.5

Formats: Trade Paper, PDF, EPUB, Mobipocket

Trade Paper, $15.99 (US $15.99) (CA $21.99)

ISBN 9781613736845

Rights: WOR

Chicago Review Press (Apr 2017)

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Overview

A deep dive into the culture and social impact of World of Warcraft.

One hundred million people have played World of Warcraft in the 12 years since its inception. Those people did more than play; they worked, they fought, they triumphed, they held entire game servers hostage, they even married each other in real life. They developed new identities, swapping their workaday selves for warriors, mages, assassins, and healers.

Blood Plagues and Endless Raids explores this wild, incredibly complex culture partly through the author’s engaging personal story but also through the stories of other players and developers. It represents the definitive account of one of the world’s biggest pop culture phenomena. Perfect for gamers, social scientists, and anyone interested in online communities.

Reviews

“From the Mulgore plain to Draenor, Tony Palumbi and his avatar, a tauren shaman named Ghando, journey for years through the heroscape of World of Warcraft. Into these depths we plunge, too: Horde and Alliance, raiding and grinding, PvP battles and chat channels, guilds and ganking, leveling up, clearing dungeons, and making friends and enemies along the way. Writing a potent blend of cultural criticism and memoir, Palumbi—our Virgil-like guide through a Dantesque digital underworld—describes these travails with verve, wit, and wisdom. WoW the game may not be ‘real,’ but what happens there is. Blood Plagues and Endless Raids shows us why we should care.” —Ethan Gilsdorf, author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks


“[a] fascinating peek inside one of the Internet’s most popular online communities.” —Booklist

Author Biography

Tony Palumbi is the coauthor of the critically acclaimed book The Extreme Life of the Sea. His writing has been published by the Atlantic, the Washington Post, National Geographic, the Los Angeles Times, and Mission Blue, among other outlets. He lives in Orangevale, California.