World of warcraft: semioses para produção de envolvimento em jogos eletrônicos

Abstract

The MMORPGs are a phenomenon apart in the industry of electronic games. They have a parallel development, always bringing new and different elements to the culture of games. World of Warcraft, launched in 2004, is the most significant representative of the MMORPG genre, with 11.5 million paying users in the world. The title is constantly criticized because of the high degree of engagement of the players (called "addiction" or "problematic use") that are on average 20 hours per week online. Understanding the development of this game and how does the participation in it led to the determination of standards inside the game design seeking to establish specific habits in the players, resulting in the high degree of involvement identified. Assuming that electronic games are changing habits, behavior and even sociability, a bibliographic research on the development of electronic games, since its inception, said the MMORPG genre always ended the essential characteristics for this involvement. The details of World of Warcraft as hybrid media – through Matrix of Language and Thought by Lucia Santaella, supported by Peirce's semiotics –, led to an analysis of dominances of sound, visual and verbal aspects in the game, as well as hybrid forms, potentially acting on the formation of habits. The analysis of the semiosis for the production of engagement pointed that the game world is designed and modified to suit the habits of players to the developers‘ commercial interests.