Take One - or Three - for the Team: Consumerism as Play

With the expansion of consciousness driven by further discovery and creation of the digital realm, scholars have witnessed the birth of societal structures and cultures, originally found in the physical realm, within the digital realm. This has been documented mainly in the creation of communities within MMORPGs and synthetic worlds 1 [1]. Although these communities are defined as being based around fundamental principles of " play " and " fun " [1], I argue identical communities are being formed within sites dealing with consumerism, and these communities are not exclusive to these virtual worlds. Within my paper I will address the concept of consumerism as play using the wholesale outlet site woot.com, and their live-time sales experience, called a " woot-off. " I will analyze how the Internet has allowed for such a type of consumerism that breaks the norms of consuming in the physical world, allowing what once was a normally individualistic goal – purchasing an item for oneself that one wants – to turn into a group goal – helping others get to items they wish to purchase by " taking one for the team. " Author Keywords consumerism, Internet communities, Internet culture 1 A synthetic world is described as being a " an expansive, world-like, large-group environment, made by humans, for humans, and which is maintained, recorded, and rendered by a computer " *1+. This encompasses all three types of worlds: First Person Shooters, MMORPGs, and Social Worlds. However for the purpose of this paper, only the latter two shall be discussed.