Sometimes, a cultural phenomenon grows so undeniably overwhelming as to compel one to start paying attention; often for no other reason than to finally understand what the big deal is. It was in this spirit that I finally broke down and read The Da Vinci Code, saw the first Harry Potter movie, and registered to play the multi-player online game World of Warcraft.

Having experienced each of them, I concluded that what these three memes have in common – and indeed what likely accounts for their unusual degree of cultural penetration – are story lines set around challenges which, once overcome, promise to illuminate ancient mythologies and in so doing, bring final resolution to ancient conflicts.

However meaningful, that is where the similarities uniting the three end, as books and movies are discrete works that can only be experienced from the standpoint of an observer, and are unlikely to fill more of a person’s life than is required to consume them once or twice. On the other hand, the storylines of games like World of Warcraft are unfolding continuously and give players the impression that they’re part of, and even helping to direct, the story – and thus history – itself, resulting in an unusual level of fanaticism among the most advanced online role-playing gamers.

I created my first World of Warcraft account (as the brave human warrior WillyWheels) not long after creating my first account on Wikipedia (as the frustrated human editor WordBomb). Almost immediately, I noticed the striking similarities between high-level online gamers and high-level Wikipedia editors that I intend to examine here.

Us vs. Them
The undercurrent theme of World of Warcraft deals with an endless conflict between two factions – the Alliance and the Horde – who just can’t seem to coexist.

In reality, the actual people whose characters comprise the Alliance and the Horde are almost certainly indistinguishable one from another. And yet, to hear the most fanatical players refer to the opposing faction, it’s clear that each regards the other side as filled with a fundamentally distinct type of person, whose very presence in the game somehow detracts from their enjoyment of it . This leads to a belief that, by concerted effort, ‘we’ must overcome the unworthy ‘them’.

The most advanced Wikipedia editors are also overwhelmingly affiliated with specific factions, usually defined by the position each takes with respect to issues such as intelligent design, Scientology, Israel, Lyndon LaRouche, global warming, 9-11, Ayn Rand, various sexual fetishes, and the like. The members of each faction typically view their counterparts as flawed advocates of a similarly flawed point of view that deserves to be suppressed. This, in turn, becomes a major motivating and organizing factor among Wikipedia editors.

Advancement
According to Nick Yee, the foremost researcher of online role-playing gamers, one of the most powerful motivators for high-level players is the thrill of attaining – and wielding – the abilities that attend leadership and advancement within the system. According to Yee, this phenomenon is enhanced among players who feel less empowered in the real world, the result of which sees a disproportionate number of high-level players and group leaders who are either very young or find it difficult to relate to others in the physical world.

In Wikipedia, the phenomena of judgment-impaired teenagers and maladjusted adult administrators is axiomatic.

Addiction
The addictive quality of online role-playing games is very well-established, and has resulted in multiple instances of players dying at their keyboards following dozens of hours spent playing non-stop. According to Yee, 40% of online role-playing gamers consider themselves addicted, a condition marked by excessive playing and intermittent, unsuccessful attempts to quit.

The addictive quality of Wikipedia editing is also widely recognized, though less studied. However, the patterns typical of gaming addition have been observed time and again among high-level Wikipedia editors, with several editors’ unsuccessful attempts to quit editing being the classic hallmark.

Combat
Online role-players of the same faction frequently further differentiate themselves by joining so-called ‘guilds’, which tend to encourage yet more obsessive playing through the addition of a social component to the game. Guilds also serve as a means of organizing players intent on engaging in combat against similarly organized groups from the opposing faction. These combat groups are based around players’ abilities. For example, some characters are created to fight, while others are created to heal the fighters. Among fighters and healers, some might have the ability to wield a powerful weapon or cast a spell, but only once per hour, for example. The group is more likely to include a player with the best abilities ready to use than one whose abilities are recharging.

The process of making substantial changes to the most factionalized articles on Wikipedia is often compared to combat. Among the more important abilities available to any editor is the full revert of an article to a prior state, with each editor limited to three reverts per article, every 24 hours. Simple math makes it obvious that, in its most basic and brutal form, the group of editor-combatants with the most reverts at their disposal will see their point of view outlast the opposition’s.

And just as having high-level players in one’s group always proves particularly useful when engaging in multi-player combat, the same is also true on Wikipedia, where the well-timed intervention of an administrator or other established contributor will usually end an impasse.

This sort of organization was suspected for some time, but was finally confirmed in December 2007 thanks to notoriously factionalist Jayjg, who inadvertently published to an entire public mailing list what was intended to be a private message to three well-known, fellow “guild” members:

Someone has conveniently deleted all the criticism from the lead, in violation of [[WP:LEAD]].
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Messianic_Judaism&diff=175803950&oldid=175525305
I’m planning to go in tonight and do some re-adding and tagging. Will you be able to watch my back?

This happened a few months after it was revealed that an organization known as the Hasbara Fellowships was actively recruiting college students to join “a team of Wikipedians” organized to help counter opposing factions whose “authors have systematically yet subtly rewritten key passages of thousands of Wikipedia entries.”

History
I believe the above appeal by the Hasbara Fellowships captures the essence of what makes Wikipedia, not World of Warcraft, the world’s largest multi-player online role-playing game: the sense shared by hardcore participants in each that their efforts are bringing final resolution to ancient conflicts, while helping to direct the history that will eventually be written of them.

“Stitches”: a worthy target for bellicose Wikipedia administrators

This scenario becomes particularly disturbing when one considers that Wikipedia’s influence makes it all too likely that the history of events referenced daily by untold millions is indeed being written by anonymous editors whom, I can confidently state, we might eagerly trust to fight and defeat a Level 58 Plague Monstrosity,  but not to compose an actual encyclopedia.