A Sociologist named Parker Benth has published a case study on World of Warcraft players and their classes in the November 2010 issue of the Public Access Journal of Social Science. Paired with articles on the controversies of library censorship and issues with CYWSHCN (Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs), Benth's article is significantly different than the others published in the journal at the same time.
PAJS articles go through academic scrutiny before the authors are paid and published. Benth's personal blog (Which was on Wordpress.com but has since been taken down to prepare for his new book) described the rigid process of getting his article published in the academic journal of his choice.
Originally Posted by Parker Benth
Benth also expressed a great desire for his article to be re-published and used as a piece of news on MMO news websites. We're happy to announce that MMOwned is the first of any such site to feature Mr. Benth's wonderful case study.
The study, titled "Socioeconomic Mirror Thesis for World of Warcraft", deals with the ethnic, social, and economic backgrounds of World of Warcraft players on all types of servers, and how their real-world conditions affect their class choice. Benth stated that the pool was of a total of 5,000 players. 200 of those players were interviewed face-to-face, while a larger percentage of them filled out a document on Microsoft Word with their economic history, or did a face-to-face interview over Skype.
The results of Benth's study are absolutely staggering. He was able to discern an observable pattern between real-life conditions and class choice in game. His abstract focused extensively on psychological context as well, stating that players with certain mental disabilities are geared towards different classes than people with totally sound minds. Benth's argument is impressively cogent and valid, and his thesis statement is as follows:
Originally Posted by Parker Benth
Benth leaves room to expand on his theory, since his document is less than 10,000 words, not including the associated data.
ECONOMIC DATA:
With an average of 5,000 players, Benth organized each class from largest to smallest of real-world net worth. He also based much of his data on professions. Classes near the bottom of the list tend to have more blue-collar and factory jobs than classes at the top of the list, for example.
1.) Warrior (An average of $89,000+ per year)
2.) Hunter
3.) Rogue
4.) Mage
5.) Shaman
6.) Druid
7.) Death Knight
8.) Priest
9.) Warlock
10.) Paladin (An average of <$30,000+ per year)
The question struck Benth, and probably anyone else who read this list. Why do people who have greater incomes pick the Warrior over the Mage, Warlock, Hunter, Shaman, Paladin, or Rogue? Benth makes the following conclusion:
Originally Posted by Parker Benth
Originally Posted by Parker Benth
ETHNIC DATA:
Benth asked the pool of 5,000 players their ethnic background. They were given a standard US Census form answer sheet for the proceedings. Minorities were scaled in equal ratio with Caucasians to account for popular class choices for minority races.
1.) Paladin: Caucasian
2.) Warrior: Caucasian
3.) Hunter: Caucasian
4.) Shaman: Caucasian
5.) Priest: Asian/Pacific Islander
6.) Warlock: Caucasian
7.) Death Knight: Asian/Pacific Islander
8.) Mage: African American/Black
9.) Rogue: Hispanic
10.) Druid: Caucasian
Originally Posted by Parker Benth
Benth was unable to make any other conclusions based upon the economic data.
GENDER DATA:
The classic theory of women preferring healing classes does not ring true with Benth's report:
1.) Paladin: Male
2.) Warrior: Male
3.) Hunter: Female
4.) Shaman: Female
5.) Priest: Male
6.) Warlock: Female
7.) Death Knight: Male
8.) Mage: Male
9.) Rogue: Male
10.) Druid: Female
Originally Posted by Parker Benth
Originally Posted by Parker Benth
OPINION DATA: POLITICAL ALIGNMENT
Benth studied how the American players identified politically. He was interested in understanding how political opinions determine class choice.
The pool was given three choices:
1.) Democrat
2.) Republican
3.) Independent
1.) Paladin: Republican
2.) Warrior: Democrat
3.) Hunter: Democrat
4.) Shaman: Democrat
5.) Priest: Republican
6.) Warlock: Republican
7.) Death Knight: Democrat
8.) Mage: Republican
9.) Rogue: Independent
10.) Druid: Democrat
Parker Benth plans to conclude his WoW Sociological study with a new blog and book. There is no release date set, but Benth plans to release his book by Q2 2011 at the latest.
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