De Quem e o Jogo? Disputas Narrativas no Fandom de World of Warcraft

TL;DR

This paper explores narrative disputes within the World of Warcraft fandom, analyzing fan-produced content on platforms like Archive of Our Own and DeviantArt, revealing diverse participation and hidden narratives of dissident bodies and sexualities.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of fan works, highlighting the presence of marginalized groups and the contrast between fan content and platform visibility.

Findings

Women and LGBTQI+ are major contributors to fan fiction.

Fan works include narratives of dissident bodies and sexualities.

DeviantArt favors male and heteronormative, commercial fan art.

Abstract

Digital games are increasingly part of a cyberculture engendered by digital platforms. With this in mind, we approach in this work some considerations about World of Warcraft players as fans and content producers and the narrative disputes that emerge about the game on fan work publishing platforms (Archive of Our Own and DeviantArt). We analyzed a vast set of fanfics and fanarts collected on these platforms, showing a textuality that involves not only the digital game, but a whole network of fan production that expands beyond the act of playing. Our observations show that, despite the popular perception that World of Warcraft fandom is mostly male and heteronormative, women and LGBTQI+ people are a large participatory audience and produce a lot of content, especially in the fanfic universe. The works created are also quite marked by narratives of dissident bodies and sexualities. However, despite the presence of these subjects and narratives in the fandom, this content is made invisible in DeviantArt, which privileges male artists and heteronormative fanarts of a commercial nature.