Today I logged into WoW with my Slizella avatar for the first time in a long while. Slizella is a member of the Peace Corps Guild in World of Warcraft. The Peace Corp advance through the game levels without doing any violence. It takes cunning to navigate the world without killing or being killed. I spent half an hour freeing myself from gankers today as I tried to resurrect in a graveyard. I took this photo when I finally succeeded. Slizella has made it to Level 5 by picking herbs and doing low level gathering quests.
My adventuring with the Peace Corps is a mostly solitary practice, different from working with the Third Faction – a peace focused collective I’ve had the fortune to collaborate with over the last few years. Third Faction actively interrogate the parameters of online game environments and aim to re-invent the approach to play. Third Faction create their own missions for World of Warcraft, missions that encourage cross-factional collaboration and promote harmonious relationships between players on both sides. Visit the group’s site for all the official text: Third Faction
One of my functions with Third Faction is to collaborate on the creation of machinima propaganda videos. Here are a few examples:
This is a short experimental machinima of an afternoon spent exploring the orphanages of World of Warcraft with artist and Third Faction member Jenene Castle.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62xf7lRprFo]
Demand Player Sovereignty – a collaborative propaganda machinima created for a Third Faction workshop and screening at ISEA Istanbul in 2011.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBhmys6QXaI]
Here is another machinima collaboration with Third Faction members – an Instructional Video for the /Hug Project exhibit at the Laguna Art Museum in 2010.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jx-iEUU5B4E]