The Forgiven - A Virtua-Biblical Community

Kaiousei

New Member
Hello everyone!

After a lot of cramming and frustration I passed in my paper on you guys yesterday! And, according to my promise, I'm going to post it here for you. <3 Now that I'm reading it over again I can see a few problems but overall I'm pretty happy with it. The conclusion needs some work, but I'm mostly hopeful that you guys are happy with it. I imagine this will be mostly a reiteration of stuff that most of you already know, but I hope I've painted a fair picture. Also, I'm sorry for the jargon.

There are a lot of disadvantages to the way I've done this, too. Virtual Ethnographies are a new sort of thing and there isn't really an agreed-upon way to undergo them. Also, ethnographies are supposed to be written after "at least 18 months" of participation with the researched group, so I'm afraid I might not have the appropriate level of familiarity with you to act as a representative.

Generally they say that "if a researcher is red and the subject is blue the outcome will be purple." So I hope I didn't incriminate myself too much in writing this.

So anyway... Download it here!

I also have other materials I can upload if you're interested and with the permission of the subject, such as:

-Interview Transcriptions with John, Terry, Adam and Randy
-My Research Journal with dirt on EVERYONE. <3
-A record of guild age statistics


So... let me know what you think! I will begin cowering in terror!
 
As a new member of the Forgiven, I really enjoyed reading this to get a deeper understanding of the philosophy and purpose behind the guild. I obviously can't speak for those you interviewed, so I don't know how much you twisted their words out of context ;), but I thought it was a pretty unbiased representation.

I also liked reading your descriptions and definitions of things in the game. I always enjoy seeing how other people would describe the game to someone who has no idea what it's about.
 
Thank-you for posting this. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I felt it reflected the essence of who we are. Great work!
 
Thank you very much for posting the report. It was good reading. You will have to post how it was received when you find out.
 
Your use of my interview makes me sound much more intelligent or thoughtful than I really am. I'm not sure I would give you permission to share the transcript :)

Just teasing. If anyone is interested, feel free to share it. I think the paper looks very good and represents all of us well. Do you have any long-term plans for continuing your research or using this information in further classes?
 
You have my permission to share all of my contributions, with the exception of the part where I said Adam ******* ****** * *** *** ***** *** *** ******.
 
Thanks everyone! I'm so happy you liked it! :D I've had a great time working with you! I'll let you know my mark as soon as I get it.

Do you have any long-term plans for continuing your research or using this information in further classes?

I think I'm going to keep this in mind for some future work, for sure! I'm also applying to a grad school which highly values field work, so I might pass this in with my application as a writing reference. As long as you guys are okay with that. It might also influence where I take my degree in the future.

When I told people what I was doing my research on they were shocked that Christian groups in WoW exist - or that Christians played WoW at all. WoW might be the most represented game in terms of research into religion and video games, but it is still not represented enough.
 
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It's actually no longer a rare phenomena to find Christians in WoW... a search for various Christian-type WoW guild names on the Armory reveals a large response. For example, I don't think "The Forgiven" is a name that would appeal to many players other than Christians... last time I checked there were more than a dozen The Forgivens on various servers.

There are at least 6 other Christian WoW guilds that I know of that are our size or bigger.
 
Hey, Forgiven!

I have some news! I've been seeing posters around school for a conference in Lethbridge, Alberta inviting undergrads to submit essays. Soooo... I'm going to send in my paper on The Forgiven! I hope this is okay with everyone.

All of the information on the conference can be found here:
http://rrsconference.wordpress.com/

I'll let you know if I get in!
 
woot woot! Come on out to Lethbridge! If you can make the trip out here we have a spare room that you are welcome to use. Good luck and let us know how it goes!
 
To elaborate on the point of more Christians in WoW than you may think:

A few days ago I was passing through Stormwind and saw a small guild advertising in trade for members. They indicated they were Christian based, and were looking for fellow believers. A couple of people started bashing them in trade, with comments I am sure you can imagine.

Enter the wrath of trade chat - ON THE BASHERS. People jumped up out of the woodwork to defend this small Christian guild, and none of the names popping up were of 'The Forgiven'. They were just random people on the server enjoying the game from all sorts of guilds. Someone even mentioned that our server had the largest Christian guild in Wow (referring to us, don't know if this is true), to the dismay of one of the Bashers.

As these things usually go, at first the Bashers defended themselves with rather strong language, but quickly realized they had no defenders and backed off. I watched the discussion go on for about 15 minutes, which is forever in trade chat terms :)

While I was ready to step in, I rather enjoyed that I was not necessary to the discussion so just sat back and enjoyed it.
 
nowt hats is good people stepped up and defended more amazing it wasnt a forgiven member for once. how ever we should note that most of the guild does have trade talk turned off lol.
 
What's trade chat? Oh, channel /2 that I turned off the day I started playing? :)

One of the first things I do with any new toon is /leave 1
/leave 2
/leave 3
/leave 4

On a sidenote... did you ever get your grade back, Kaiousei?
 
Actually I have my swear filter on and I leave trade chat up and visible. I have been tempted to /ignore certain people but have never gotten around to it. Jesus cares for and definitely loves those that we see as 'next to impossible to reach'. I contribute to trade here or there, and often find people new to the game that get bashed for simple questions that I can then /w and help them out. :)
 
woot woot! Come on out to Lethbridge! If you can make the trip out here we have a spare room that you are welcome to use. Good luck and let us know how it goes!

Aww! I've assumed they'll stick me in a hotel room if I get in, but if not I will definitely let you know! You should come check out the conference if you're free! Not that would help my stage fright.

On a sidenote... did you ever get your grade back, Kaiousei?

That's a more complicated answer! I had some problems getting my student loan, and my tuition just never got paid. So, I haven't been able to get my grades, or apply to grad school. So I'll be taking next year off to make some money. Someday I will be able to find my grade!

But my professor for this class was skeptical that it was viable to do a virtual ethnography. By the end, I had convinced him! So I imagine that means well for my grade.
 
The paper was accepted but I unfortunately do not have the funding to attend the conference! I have a few friends, however, who have been sending me other like things. I will keep you posted!
 
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