"You think you do, but you don´t" : En netnografisk fallstudie av fanservern Nostalrius virtuella demonstration för kreationen av World of Warcraft vanilla/legacy servers

Sammanfattning: The virtual and digital world develops and changes frequently, within recent technology and the ways of using it. A complex phenomenon online with variables which isn’t fully defined in how they should be used or their strengths. One such thing is the use of the virtual and it´s tools in social movements. But there exists a stigmatization about the concept of the virtual. And within it how effective or useful cyberactivism is compared to the physical protest. This essay will cover and present a certain case of digital activism where it’s specific quality lies in the almost exclusively presence in the virtual world. Where the main goal of the essay is to shed some light on this certain case and bring forth it’s qualities in terms of the virtual, virtual communities and digital activism. To try to explain, provide and create aspects for further research and new theories. The case in question is Nostalrius, a World of Warcraft private server. And their digital protest against the gaming company Blizzard. Where the main goal of their manifesto was to convince Blizzard that there is a big community hankering for a reinstallation of a certain earlier stage of the game World of Warcraft; vanilla. In which Nostalrius community in the end succeeded with their goal. As it is an already completed case the data was collected through archives from Nostalrius own website and forum as well as their Twitter feed in the form of print screens as well as links. And since the case have taken place online the essay has used and taken the shape of a netnography case study. Where the data was later analyzed in the light of the virtual, virtual communitys and digital activism; to understand its qualities and shape. Nostalrius activism took the shape of a versatile virtual demonstration which used several different digital and virtual tools to promote their manifesto. And from the data a framework was developed of different qualities which emerged from the case in study. Namely different forms concerning the importance of a well-defined activism structure in the dimensions of: leadership, opponent(s), goal(s), community and context. Where it´s believed that virtual activism will become an even more frequent used method in social movements if carried out in good fashion. And that the integration between the virtual world and the physical will be furthered and hopefully breach the conception where the virtual is viewed as something fake or unreliable.