Abstract
World of Warcraft (WoW) represents a melting pot of popular culture myths, taking inspiration from a huge number of existing works and incorporating them together into its own vast lore. Amongst the many influences it draws upon are the works of H. P. Lovecraft, an influential horror writer. Lovecraft's writing encapsulated a particular pessimistic view of the universe, which stands in contrast to the heroic fantasy of World of Warcraft. This paper examines the presence in World of Warcraft for particular examples of influences from Lovecraft's writings. More importantly the use of these influences is compared to the underlying philosophy of horror that can be found in Lovecraft's work. It is our contention that the aspects of World of Warcraft inspired by Lovecraft are not employed in a way congruent with that source material.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | IE 2013 - Proceedings of the 9th Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment |
| Subtitle of host publication | Matters of Life and Death |
| Editors | Stefan Greuter |
| Place of Publication | New York |
| Publisher | Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) |
| Pages | 1-8 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781450322546 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2013 |
| Event | 9th Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment: Matters of Life and Death, IE 2013 - Melbourne, VIC, Australia Duration: 30 Sept 2013 → 1 Oct 2013 |
Other
| Other | 9th Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment: Matters of Life and Death, IE 2013 |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | Australia |
| City | Melbourne, VIC |
| Period | 30/09/13 → 1/10/13 |