Developing Online Communities of Practice: A Case Study of the World of Warcraft Developing Online Communities of Practice 2

are “created over time by the sustained pursuit of a shared enterprise ” and (2) change individuals in defining them within such communities. This paper adopts Wenger’s definition and examines communities of practice in the context of massively multiplayer online games. First, I provide an introduction to social prospects of online gaming and review how scholars have viewed virtual worlds with respect to learning. Next, I look at the World of Warcraft, a popular massively multiplayer online game, to see how relevant Wenger’s theoretical framework is to online gaming communities. This paper argues that virtual worlds in massively multiplayer online games foster virtual communities of practice that can contribute to learning practices in real life. I