{"product_id":"9781613736845","title":"Blood Plagues and Endless Raids: A Hundred Million Lives in the World of Warcraft","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn 2005, the video game \u003ci\u003eWorld of Warcraft\u003c\/i\u003e struck the cultural landscape with tidal force. One hundred million people have played \u003ci\u003eWoW\u003c\/i\u003e in the twelve years since.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut those people did more than play. They worked, they fought, they triumphed, they held entire game servers hostage, they even married each other in real life. They developed new identities, swapping their workaday selves for warriors, mages, assassins, and healers. They built communities and rose to lead them. \u003ci\u003eWoW\u003c\/i\u003e was the world’s first mass virtualization: before Facebook or Twitter, millions of people established online identities and had to reckon with the consequences in their real lives.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eBlood Plagues and Endless Raids \u003c\/i\u003eexplores this wild, incredibly complex culture partly through the author’s engaging personal story, from absolute neophyte to leader of North America’s top Spanish-speaking guild, but also through the stories of other players and the game’s developers. It is the definitive account of one of the world’s biggest pop culture phenomena.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eWorld of Warcraft \u003c\/i\u003eis more than ones and zeroes, more than lines of code, and so its history must be more than pushing buttons or slaying dragons. It’s the tale of a huge and passionate community of people: the connections they made, the experiences they shared, and the love they held for one another.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chicago Review Press, Incorporated","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47062268707056,"sku":"9781613736845","price":11.4,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781613736845_p0.jpg?v=1763848215","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781613736845","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}