Title: Another Endless November: AOL, WoW, and the Corporatization of a Niche Market

The entrance of World of Warcraft (WoW) into the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMO) market has drastically altered conceptions of how popular a virtual world could be.  Currently servicing over 12 million monthly subscribers (Woodcock, 2008), it has vastly exceeded expectations, and has brought with it more new users to persistent virtual worlds than any other product before it.  WoW has freely crossed boundaries between traditional and new media, with celebrity endorsements, television parodies, books, and even a motion picture in the works.  However, while there has been much academic work exploring developments within the game itself (Bainbridge, 2007; Duchenault, et al., 2006; Castronova, 2007), the processes by which this explosive growth has occurred have been under-explored.  It appears that the intrinsic characteristics of the game itself are insufficient to explain the meteoric rise.  The growth of World of Warcraft relative to the MMO market can only be explained via its extrinsic characteristics of the game and how these characteristics interact with processes of standardization and diversification with relative to the market as a whole.

In this paper, I propose that the process that enabled WoW to rise to its current position as market leader amongst MMOs is remarkably similar to that employed by America Online (AOL) in the early 1990’s, and that the growth of both firms are evidence of the standardizing influence that a globalizing process such as McDonaldization has when it enters a niche market.  The parallels that may be drawn between these cases may be instructive in understanding the future growth of MMOs and other virtual environments.  

I will examine the history of the two firms to find evidence of commonalities between them.  I will also outline the parallel corporatist models of McDonaldization and Disneyization as proposed by Ritzer (2000) and Bryman (2004), and break each down to their components.  I will then use the components to fashion a synthesis of the two processes, and evaluate both WoW and AOL with respect to those categories.  The process by which these firms grew to dominate their spheres will be examined in this context.  I will conclude with an examination of what this growth may mean for the future of the MMO industry.

World of Warcraft: exodus to the virtual
With the announcement of the development of World of Warcraft in 2001, Blizzard Entertainment entered a market that was dominated by a number of established firms, including corporate behemoths Sony Online Entertainment (Everquest, Star Wars Galaxies) and Electronic Arts (Ultima Online), as well as industry veterans Mythic Entertainment (Dark Age of Camelot) and Turbine (Asheron's Call) (Woodcock, 2008).  

Due to the lead times in bringing a MMO product to market, Blizzard were not ready to launch WoW to the public until November 2004 (a date that strategically took advantage of Black Friday, the post-Thanksgiving shopping rush in the United States).  At the time of WoW's launch the largest player in the domestic North-American market was Everquest (EQ), the 5-year reigning champion of the industry, produced by Sony Online Entertainment (SOE).  EQ’s subscriber base at that time was just below 500,000 users a month (Woodcock, 2008).  SOE had also just brought a sequel to their flagship game to market two weeks prior to the launch of WoW: Everquest 2 had been released with some novel additions to the genre such as integrated recorded dialogue but had nowhere near the user base of the original game, due to its steep system requirements, a user-base split between two versions of the same brand (Chapman, 2006), and an audience that was already awaiting the launch of the next big thing.  The prevailing consensus is that this would be World of Warcraft.  This consensus had been building due in part to Blizzard's online-oriented marketing approach, allowing bloggers, established guilds, and other netizens to post regulated amounts of information about the game during the alpha and private-beta phases of development in an effort to whet the appetites of a MMO user-base which had started to suffer burn-out after playing EQ for 5 years.

By February 2005, World of Warcraft had weathered the storm of the holiday season, and found themselves with a user-base equal to that of Everquest (Woodcock, 2008).  But whereas EQ had peaked at that 500,000 plateau several years earlier, WoW's growth continued unabated.  Yet, EQ’s user numbers did not begin to appreciably decline until the following year (Woodcock, 2008).  Rather, WoW's growth represented Blizzard Entertainment bringing in substantial amounts of new users to the MMO market that would not otherwise have participated in it.   By leveraging their customers from their existing games, where Blizzard had a long-standing reputation for delivering a quality product, and by providing easy means of access to potential new customers, WoW was able to achieve and sustain incredibly rapid growth.  This represented something entirely new to the MMO market.  But there were other markets where similar rapid growth had occurred.  The 'irrational exuberance' that typified the previous decade was driven in large part by similar growth numbers.

America Online: dot.com poster boy
The early history of the corporation now known as AOL paints a much different portrait than the one popularized in the dot.com era.  Formed as as CVC, Control Video Corporation, in 1982, it sought to provide content for the Atari 2600 VCS (Swisher, 1998; Stauffer, 2000) that would be downloadable over the telephone line direct to the user.  With the collapse of the home video-game market in in 1983 and 84 (Wolf, 2008), further work on this idea had to be shelved. They began providing online services as to the Commodore 64 platform as Quantum Link in 1985, allowing the suers to access online content through a "portal" which listed various categories in a hierarchical organization (Swisher, 1998).  As Commodore began failing, they once again shifted platforms, this time to the Macintosh brand where the firm began marketing their product as America Online.  After a falling-out, they shifted platforms once again, this time to Microsoft’s DOS-based computers (Swisher, 1998; Stauffer, 2000).  Throughout the turmoil of the market, AOL managed to survive by being flexible enough to adapt to any platform, which allowed it to thrive where stronger competitors failed by being reliant on the fortunes of a particular vendor (Chapman, 2006).

In this landscape already dominated by university campuses, private corporate services, and established firms such as CompuServe and Prodigy (Abbate, 1999) AOL needed to adapt quickly.  They soon found a niche within which they could thrive, by beginning an aggressive marketing campaign consisting of the mass-mailout of floppy disks containing the software that would connect users to AOL’s services (Stauffer, 2000).  Unable to compete on technical merits, AOL innovated in a social dimension by creating an ubiquitous presence of these disks, exploiting their fitness landscape (Nelson & Winter, 1982).  Shortly after the launch of the floppy campaign, they began to overtake their competitors.  In 1993, CompuServe was the lead player in the domestic US market with 1.5 million users, Prodigy had over 450,000 users, and AOL was a distant third with under 200,000.  During the eight-year period from 1993 to 2000, their yearly growth ranged from a low of 36% to a high of 197% (Stauffer, 2000).  Within four years of the start of the campaign, AOL was able to purchase CompuServe outright, and AOL’s growth continued unabated until the acquisition of Time-Warner Inc. in 2001 (Swisher, 2003).  While AOL's recent history since the acquisition is less than stellar, at the time it was the defining stock of the pre-millenial dot.com boom.  And as with WoW, evidence of a similar growth curve to can be seen in an earlier media boom, as the growth of RCA Victor in the 1920's also shares many of these characteristics. (Cassidy, 2000)

America Online and World of Warcraft: comparative characteristics
From the previous examples of their rapid growth, one can derive a number of characteristics that are comparable between the two.  Aside from the obvious online basis of their service, the firms' size relative to their market, the rapid speed by which market dominance was achieved, the business model that was employed, and the utilization of marketing and distribution practices that were innovative in their respective markets.

Both AOL and WoW were an order of magnitude larger than their nearest competitor in number of monthly subscribers, and this dominance was achieved in less than five years from their entry into the market.  They both had a very similar business model, which can essentially reduced to providing access to content for a low, recurring monthly charge.  The actual nature of the content is irrelevant at the moment.  At this price point, under $20, the firms were able to position themselves as offering a high-return for the cost, with their unlimited plans comparing favourably against other leisure activities, such as movie-going or dining out.  Finally, it was the utilization of a social innovations, such as mass-mailouts and leveraging of existing social ties that allowed for rapid growth, and not any technological advantage relative to their competitors.

Processes
It can be difficult to evaluate firms above a certain size with respect to their market.  As both AOL and WoW dwarfed their competitors, they can only really be compared with each other, or similar dominant  firms, despite the differences in the market.  Two theories dealing specifically with such alpha-brands and the effect they have on society may provide an answer.

George Rizter’s 1995 work The McDonaldization of Society (2000) provides a systematic breakdown of the processes by which this iconic corporation of late 20th century modernity achieved its success.  However, the very concentration on the brick and mortar trappings of modernity does not allow Ritzer's theory to address all the issues pertaining to Internet-enabled firms properly.  Alan Bryman’s Disneyization of Society (2004) builds on Ritzer's work, and extends the framework to include a post-modern, media-centric company.  Bryman suggests that the two models are parallel processes: the existence of one does not necessarily exclude the other, and they both may work in concert within the same corporation at the same time, achieving goals of control through different means.  Both McDonaldization and Disneyization are systemic processes that are representative of their namesake's influence on the socio-cultural landscape that surrounds them (Bryman, 2004, p. 161). Bryman also explains the desire to leave the door open for other large-scale processes, and it is in this spirit that Disneyization is utilized.  By breaking down the process into its component stages we can see the extent to which World of Warcraft and AOL mirrored the above processes, or if some alternative method was employed.

McDonaldization
"McDonaldization" is the term that George Ritzer has used to refer to the corporatist globalizing process "by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as of the rest of the world"  (Ritzer, 2000, p.1).  Since the first publication of the book In 1993, McDonaldization has at times been synonymous with the process of globalization, and has often become reified and used as a term of derision without necessarily understanding the root explanations behind it.   McDonaldization is fundamentally a Weberian approach to the social aspects of globalization, adapting and extending Weber's core concepts to account for the changes of the post-modern age.  For Ritzer, it is the process by which McDonaldization takes place that is important, and this occurs along 4 main dimensions: efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control (through non-human technology).  The extent to which any given may be said to be "McDonaldized" is determined by how much they adhere to these dimensions (p.19), but McDonald's is by no means the end-point in any of these dimensions.  While McDonald's is still the king within the sphere of fast food, modern exemplars have taken the process to new extremes, particularly in other marketplaces.

Ultimately, McDonaldization is a process of rationalization.  The four dimensions are applied to homogenize a firm’s business methods in a standardized manner.  These dimension's are contextual: the values that one may attach to a concept like predictability may be different depending on whether one is a customer, an employee, or with management.  But there are also trade-offs that occur during the process: when one optimizes for any one dimension (such as efficiency), one often must forego other concerns.  Thus Herbert Simon's concept of "satisficing" often is used in conjunction with elements of McDonaldization.  

The dimension of efficiency is the optimum way to achieve a goal.  As Ritzer outlines, this is a pathing solution, the way to best get from point A to point B (Ritzer, 2000, p. 12).  But this is state-based pathing, and not necessarily geographically related: the customer going from states "hungry" to "full" in the optimum way is an example Ritzer gives on how McDonald's excels (p.12).  One of the chief ways streamlining occurs is via a Taylorsist model of scientific management, whereby processes are broken down t their component parts, in order to "choose the optimum means to a given end" for each part of the process (p.42). Simplification of the product, by cutting down the number of options available, or by limiting the choices available with which to interact with the product (p. 55).  Efficiency can also be gained by offloading the labour to the customers where the potential exists, citing self-service of all manner of varieties as an example (p. 58).

Calculability is the "emphasis on the quantitative aspects of the products sold and services offered"  (p.12).  It is the implementation of the Stalinist aphorism: "Quantity has a quality all its own", and can be  evident not just in the amount of product that one receives, but also the time and costs associated with the good (p.13).  Calculability occurs in two dimensions: that of the speed of the process, or in the quantity of the output (p. 62), and Ritzer notes that increasing either of these tends to inversely affect quality.  Aesthetic concerns become a secondary factor, when calculability is optimized for (p. 71).

Predictability is the assurance that a good will be the same irrespective of time and place.  A customer ordering a Big-Mac has a very good idea of what they're going to get (p.13).  By creating a predictable setting via systemic standardization (p. 84), predictability allows an aspect of trust to develop between the consumer and firm.  By scripting the interactions that occur with customers, the responses that employees are allowed to have, and the products that should result from the process, the customer, firm and employee all can mitigate risk by dissociating themselves from the "process".  The 'system' becomes externalized.

Control is the last dimension of Ritzer's model, and the one where his Weberian influences show through most.  Control is achieved via the implementation of non-human Technology (p. 14).  This is the return to the Taylorist ideals mentioned above, and it works part and parcel with all three previous dimensions.  Technological means are used to control the customers, the process, and the product, and those things that can't directly be controlled are minimized as much as possible (p. 110).  The main process that can't be controlled is talking, and technologies released since the book's publication may be able to mitigate even that.  Ultimately, control is a rationalizing process that allows those in management to claim helplessness to the situation, and both workers and customers to submit to the control in order to obtain the benefits they may enjoy from the other three dimensions.  (Silverman & Simon, forthcoming).  It is this rationalizing process that is the goal of any McDonaldized system.  Rationalization is a homogenizing force (Bryman  2004), levelling distinctions in and between the various dimensions.

Disneyization
Alan Bryman's Disneyization (2004) is a derivative of Ritzer's model, and it outlines a systemic process that works in paralleled to Ritzer's own.  The need for the parallel model was brought about to explain some of the "changes that are occurring in the service and consumption spheres of modern society (Bryman, 2004, p. 158).  Much like Ritzer, Bryman's process also occurs across four dimensions: theming, hybrid consumption, merchandising, and performative labour.  Unlike Ritzer, these dimensions are not as categorically distinct, and there is some overlap between them.  Bryman also abandons Ritzer's concentration on ensuring the dimensions or the process apply to all equally, and instead focusses on a narrow set of participants in the process.

The first dimension, theming, "consists of the application of a narrative to institutions or locations" that are typically sourced "external to the institution or object to which it is applied."  (Bryman, 2004, p. 15)  As Bryman notes, the evidence of theming occurring within Disneyland is quite obvious.  How it is occurring and the dimensions in which it is occurring requires a little more detail.  Bryman builds his evidence for the sources of theming from the typologies of two works, that of Gottdiener (2001) and Schmitt & Simonson (1997).  Gottdiener had a list of nine "themes" divided amongst geographical locations and social constructions. The wild west, Arabian fantasy, and tropical paradises coexist with nostalgia, class, and modernism.  Bryman is critical of Gottdiener for a number of exclusions from the list (p. 17), and he contrasts this typology with that of Schmitt and Simonson and their list of 'cultural domains' that provide inspiration for themes.  Bryman uses these domains to synthesize a list of twelve thematic sources, including Place, Time, Sport, Music, Cinema, Literature, and the Natural World (p. 18).   Bryman also includes the company brand and logo as a theme, and while I will not deny these can be prominent, they are likely more relevant to his other dimensions of merchandising and hybrid consumption that follow.

Hybrid consumption is the blending of different modes of consumption by tying them to the environment within which these consumption activities take place (p. 57).  It is built on a destination model of retail design, wherein the customer is enticed to an environment and allowed to linger in the presumption that the longer they stay, the more likely they are to break down and begin purchasing.  As such, it is strongly linked to Bryman's third dimension of merchandising (p. 81), as an attempt to capitalize on synergistic effects of the marketplace by horizontally extending their potential revenue streams is undertaken.  This dimension  of merchandising is 'the promotion of goods in the form of or bearing copyright images and logos' (p. 79), and is a specialized form of the generalized franchising process, a distinction that would appear to be more relevant to Ritzer's McDonaldization than here.  Merchandising is a means by which a firm may maximize the revenue from any one particular piece of intellectual property.  

Performative labour is Bryman's final category, and its label may cause some confusion, particularly to those familiar with works of J.L Austin or Judith Butler.  What Bryman means when speaking of 'performative labour' is really Hachschild's concept of 'emotional labour' (1983), in which the employee in an organization "needs to convey emotions and preferably appear as though those associations are deeply held" during the general course of their work for the firm (Bryman, 2004, p. 104).  Bryman spends some time detailing the various ways in which this emotional labour may be conducted in modern consumer settings, including the hospitality industry, modern retailers, airlines, and even McDonald's itself.  Bryman notes Hachschild's belief that emotional labour is a net negative for both the workers and the customers, but Bryman considers it irrelevant to the larger process at hand.

Critique of Disneyization
While at first glance the model of Disneyization that Bryman proposes appears to provide a solid framework by which to analyse a prospective corporation or brand, it lacks several of the qualities that Ritzer's original formulation provided. Foremost of these qualities is depth: where Ritzer's work looked at the effect of his process on all actor's involved in the system, including the perspectives of the consumer, the worker, and management, this multiplicity of viewpoints is largely absent from Bryman's work.  While several examples are given where each dimension may take place, this is indicative of the breadth of the industries across which the process is deployed.

The second missing quality is that of generalizability. The processes given are narrowly defined and tightly constrained, to the degree that the utility of the Bryman's model is limited to explaining the particular thing (Disney) that Bryman wants to explain, and little else.  The final missing quality is that of completeness, and this is most noticeable in the categories of hybrid consumption and performative labour, where the dimension that is defined by Bryman is quite different than what the label would suggest.  In the first case, what is presented as 'hybrid' appears to simply 'geographically bound' and 'horizontally integrated', neither of which are particularly novel.    In the case of performativity, a bait-and-switch occurs, and the reader is presented instead with 'emotional labour', which while important, is only a small component of the larger concept of performativity.  

The strength of Bryman's model is that he still managed to capture what was occurring: both consumption and performativity are dimensions that should be part of the process of Disneyization.  The particular definitions simply need to be more inclusive and generalized.  This may be accomplished by engaging the relevant literature underlying the assumptions made for both these dimensions.

Extending Disneyization
The best way to reconcile Bryman's process and bring depth and generalizability to Disneyization, would be to reject the narrowly defined notions of 'hybrid consumption' and 'performative labour' and fully embrace the larger literature of both consumption and performativity.  Holt's typology of consumption practices (1995) proves a useful model.  Dividing consumption practices by both the purpose of the consumption, and the structure in which it occurs, Holt allows for various consumptive activities to be situated in relation to one another.  Within the typology, Bryman's 'hybrid consumption' is an instance of Holt's 'consuming as experience'.  Metaphoric and symbolic associations are utilized during the act of consumptive act to allow for sensemaking to be conducted by the consumer.  Other forms of consumption, that of integration, play, and classification can extend beyond the narrow definition that Bryman provided.

With respect to performativity, Loxley (2007) builds on the work of Austin, Butler, and Goffman, and notes that "performative [...] appears to focus a valuable but not too difficult idea, detachable from the circumstances of its formulation without significant loss and usefully applicable to a wide range of differing intellectual challenges or problems" (p. 2).  It is for this reason that the broad definition of performative is being appended to Bryman's restricted one.  Citing Austin, Loxley notes that performative means that "words do something in the world" and that "linguistic acts don't simply reflect a world but that speech actually has the power to make a world" (p. 2, emphasis in original).  Loxley also notes the ties performativity has with Goffman's work, in which roles "form the basis for the ways in which we navigate round our social world" (p. 151).  

Synthesis: Homogenous v. Heterogeneous
Bryman suggests that the two processes of corporatization operate in parallel, each fulfilling certain roles that the other lacks.   They are about different parts of the consumption dynamic, wherein McDonaldization is about the production of goods for consumption, where Disneyization is about the staging of goods for consumption. (Bryman, 2004, p. 158).  Disneyization becomes necessary, as McDonaldization "sits uneasily in an increasingly post-Fordist era of choice," (p. 159).  Disney stakes its claim in the service sphere of modern society that McDonald's doesn't address.  But putting the two parallel processes side-by-side, we see they are still ultimately both about rationalization and control.  How they implement this may differ, but is the end result really so different? 

Placing AOL
An analysis of AOL reveals how it best exemplifies Ritzer's concept of efficiency in the relative simplicity of the interface provided, with a limited selection of choices available to the user upon launching the service, presented with large, easily delineated 'buttons'.  The use of experienced users as 'guides' (Stauffer, 2000) provided the new user with a point of contact when faced with the unfamiliar software.  The AOL software was very predictable from the standpoint of the customer as well.  Outside of major version changes, the user was presented with the same layout and experience each time the program was started.  The only unpredictable component of using AOL was the connectivity issues that plagued them early on when demand exceeded capacity, and the company was struggling to keep up with explosive growth  (Stauffer, 2000).  Though the user may find something 'unique' online during any given session using software, this does not count against the predictability of the software and service itself.  The calculability of AOL can be seen in the flat-rate monthly fee for the service adopted in 1996 due to market pressure from competitors.  The customer was able to know ahead of time how much the service would cost, and earlier per-minute and per-hour charges that made budgeting an issue were no longer required.  Moreover, apart from localized versions, the service was the same regardless of where geographically the service was used.  Aspects of control via technology that manifested in AOL include control usable by the customer, such as privacy settings, parental block lists to safeguard children's surfing, and e-mail filtering programs. Control was also a tool available to AOL the corporation, including IP address logging, usage-monitoring, and restrictions on the availability of certain newsgroups (Stauffer, 2000) and it was the information that AOL was available to gather by data-mining their customer usage statistics that was one of the factors leading to its high stock valuation (Swisher, 2003).

AOL minimized the number of options available to their customers, but they still existed to some degree.  Theming was relatively minimal, aside from look and feel distinctions between different areas of the software.  The most prevalent aspect of theme was that of the AOL brand itself, which Bryman considers its own separate category.  Given how inextricably linked this is with  consumption and merchandising efforts, it is best to deal with all three at once.  Hybrid consumption existed primarily though treating AOL as a virtual 'site' or destination (Benedikt, 1991) through which other consumptive activities could take place, such as shopping and accessing media content.  Merchandising was available, but these branded products tended towards 'logoware' and other ancillary products.  The most common AOL merchandise was the installation floppies and CDs that the company used for promotional purposes (Stauffer, 2000).  Performative labour  occurred in the customer service area, but it was the expanded notion of performativity that was available in abundance, and the AOL customer could exercise a wide variety of options to construct an online identity (Turkel, 1995), from the choice of username, to participation in official online virtual realms such as Neverwinter Nights, or AOL's unlimited access to Usenet and its own internal forums (Raymond, 1996).   

Placing WoW
When applying this analysis to World of Warcraft, we see a quite different pattern.  Beginning with Ritzer's dimension of efficiency, there are a number of intentional design choices which contributed to the streamlined feel of the game.  These include the use of a single dual-use disc for distribution, servicing both the PC and Mac user-base.  The low system requirements relative to its direct competitors and the industry at large allowed Blizzard to target the largest potential market.  Ritzer's notion of limiting choices comes up again in the race and class selection as the 8 races and 9 classes available at launch were significantly less than their nearest competitors.  (EQ2 launched 2 weeks prior with 14 races and 24 classes).    Ritzer's notion of "putting customer's to work" didn't involve bussing tables, but can be seen in 2 ways:  foremost among these is the guide program, in which volunteers serve (check the facts of this].  Additional forms of labour can be seen in guild system itself. (Duchenault, et. al, 2006).  Blizzard offloads a large amount of human resource management as guilds self-organize to the aim of completing the content that is provided by the developers.  Any attempt to quantify the real-world value of this virtual labour can be problematic at best  (Castronova, 2007).

Ritzer's dimension of calculability manifests to a small degree within WoW.  Chief of these is the extrinsic variable of the fixed monthly cost.  A player of WoW is aware up-front of exactly what he is going to get.  Intrinsically, the game is quite explicit about the calculations: providing DPS (damage-per-second) numbers for every weapon in the game.  In-game quests are undertaken with full knowledge of the reward available for completion, and integrated quest-tools created by third-party publishers can trivialize their undertaking.  There is one manner in which WoW directly contradicts Ritzer's calculability:  aesthetics are not taken for granted within the world of Azeroth.  There is a very strong and consistent style, that carry over in all aspects of the game, from the user interface to the in-game artwork.  Aesthetics are such a strong component of the WoW's experience that the degree to which WoW is McDonaldized in this dimension is minimized.

The dimension of predictability is also manifest within WoW.  The extent to which a player is able to optimize for certain occurrences within the game, and make allowances for small degrees of random variation speaks to the high degree of predictability in-game.  One of Ritzer's key components of predictability was the presence of scripted interactions, and this used heavily within WoW, though it is also true of the entirety of the MMO market.  Automated agents within the game are the primary way story, plot and quest information is distributed to the customers.  These non-player characters (NPCs) give out quests, provide information, clues, and rewards, and provide essential in-game services, such as travel, food, item repair, and skill advancement.  All are entirely automated, all act without the need for human oversight (beyond the original programming), and all are beyond the ability of the players to deviate from the script.  (Blizzard allowing NPCs to be targeted and slain within the world PvP that exists in WoW is one of the few ways that one can go outside the script, and even this is achievable only through a narrowly constrained set of conditions).  The automation allows for the MMO genre to achieve in the virtual a level of control over their agents scripted interaction that far exceeds anything achievable in reality.

The level of control that manifests in the scripted interaction is also present in the way that players interact within the game itself.  Foremost of these is the reporting function within the game, by which a player can report objectionable language, behaviour, or conduct.  Blizzard again offloads the labour to the customer, this time the labour of social control, turning the entirety of WoW into a surveillance society where non-normative actions may be rationalized, or excised completely.

Turning now to the modified dimensions of Bryman's Disneyization, the dimension of theming is available everywhere within WoW.  While WoW has followed the lead of Asheron's Call is moving to a seamless virtual world uninterrupted by zoning or loading screens (save during specialized fast-travel or personalized pocket dungeons or 'instances'), the visual and auditory distinctiveness of each particular area within the game contributes to the strongly-themed feel that exists within the game.  As with the control dimension above, WoW is not being singled out for from the MMO market for special attention here, as a similar list could be provided for every major MMO.  There is a high degree of similarity in themes that occur across various MMOs in their implementation of thematic elements.   Themes such as the tropical paradise, the wild west, the encroachment of technology, deserts or Arabian Nights, and elemental realms of fire, ice, and water are obvious in most of these games.   Why the prevalence of themes in MMOs?  Bryman notes that "theming provides a veneer of meaning and symbolism to the objects to which it is applied."  In a world in where all interaction is symbolic, theming provides a method of interaction that is easily knowable to the consumer (Minsky, 1984).  It also allows the designers of a virtual world a shortcut to providing the massive amounts of content required to occupy and retain their customers. Theming in effect becomes 'content for free'.  This does not mean to suggest that no work is done to create it; it simply implies that much of the heavy lifting can be diffused by relying on a well-known theme.  

Examining WoW with the expanded dimension of consumption reveals how multi-faceted the dynamic of this process within WoW really is.  There is an intrinsic/extrinsic split in the location where the consumption occurs.  Intrinsic consumption is that which occurs within the game, and this is further split between that of virtual goods and the game 'content' itself. The very act of consumption is a heavily integrated component within WoW.  The prevalence of scripted-agent sales avatars, and the trade in goods is everywhere.  A further part of this consumption is the heavily-stylized animations that occur with the avatars use of consumable items within the game, including the use of virtual food and drink, and the drinking of potions to achieve various in-game benefits. Within WoW, consumption is more than desirable, it is necessary.

One of the game's major innovations at launch was the auction house.  This was a point of divergence from the 'bazaar' model that was prevalent in MMO's at the time, as typified by the vendors of Ultima Online and the Bazaar zone of the original Everquest.  The formal integration of in-game tools to facilitate trade arose from the social innovations that the players of those games undertook to enable trade in the game, providing an example of user-led innovation (Von  Hippel, 1987), including marked runes in UO and the 'neutral ground' of the Commonlands tunnel in EQ.  WoW changed the dynamic of how player's interacted with virtual goods and each other within the game, by incorporating an eBay-like dynamic, with short-term lengths and buyout pricing.  This too has had unseen secondary effects (Bartle , 2004).

Extrinsic consumption is that of goods that are external to the virtual world of the game.  One of the manners this occurs is merchandising, which Bryman treats as a separate category, below.  The other is the  purchase of goods and services to either facilitate game-play (ie. the subscription to Blizzard to provide the service), or facilitate interaction with other players (eq. tickets to Blizzcon, or additional consumer peripherals).

Bryman's dimension of merchandising is closely linked with consumption, but prevalent nonetheless.  It is fairly obvious: there exists a wide variety of branded goods, and Blizzard has been Lucas-like in their amount of WoW branded products available.  Hardcover atlases and art books, licensed fiction and comic books, computer peripherals, action figures, and more all exist for the WoW devotee.  There has also been horizontal integration of the WoW brand within the gaming marketplace, with WoW-themed boardgame, an adaptation of WoW using the Open Gaming License (OGL) (Wizards of the Coast, 2004) of the 3rd edition of Dungeons and Dragons, and a collectible trading-card game (CCG) that featured cards that could be redeemed for in-game tokens and rewards, such as mounts and cosmetic goods, showing a level of synergy between the virtual and material worlds that had not existed prior.  Unlicensed, third-party products can benefit from an association with the WoW brand as well.  Websites discussing WoW can see a benefit from increased traffic, and other third-party services include commissioned character portrait work, game guides and atlases, and customized plastic figurines.  

The final dimension is that of performative labour. With the expanded definition of this category, performativity occurs in two ways.  Bryman would likely concentrate on the work that is conducted by the customer service employees and guides within the game itself.  Indeed, this kind of labour has been present within the MMO field since its inception, from the appearance of the operators of early MUDs as 'Wizards' within the game, to the guide programs, volunteer or paid, conducted by most modern MMOs.  However, WoW is hardly the exemplar within the field in this area.  That distinction would likely go to the recently closed Matrix Online (MxO), which had paid actors using avatars in game to lead events and story-lines.  This practice was discontinued relatively early on, and by the closing of MxO, the role was filled entirely by volunteers.

MMOs expose the how shallow performative labour was  as a concept in Bryman's original proposal.  He made no allowances for the performativity that is conducted by the customers themselves (Turkel, 1995)  As a RPG , WoW provides the customers a wide latitude in constructing an identity for themselves (Dumitrica & Gaden, 2009).  The roles that a given player may engage in vary depending on context, whether it is the roles dictated by game logic within a small group or raid, the roles that may be imposed socially, by guild, faction, group, or extrinsic factors (friends, family, gender, etc.), or the roles that one may undertake of their own volition in both intrinsic and extrinsic situations. 

Populating the Matrix

Returning now to the 2-axis matrix envisaged earlier, wherein the processes of McDonaldization and Disneyization operate in parallel in different sectors, we can see where some of the subjects lie.  
Making a distinction between real-world and on-line sectors, the namesakes of each process stand as representative of their category.  As Bryman has noted (2004), the boundary between the two processes is porous: each company has elements which can be best explained by processes in the alternative stream.  However, the overall trend for each firm is to be in the stream for which they are named.  Following this, we can look to some modern exemplars: those firms that have taken the original processes to new heights, surpassing the namesakes in some (or all) elements.  Wal*mart has taken the rationalization processes of McDonald's as far as allowable. (Fishman, 2006; Hicks, 2007).  Conversely, Las Vegas is the modern expression of Disney; a playground for adults who grew up with Disneyland as a vacation destination.  Bryman notes the ways it which the modern casinos are emblematic of the disneyization process: theming occurs in each different casino complex; hybrid consumption occurs everywhere (indeed, the entirety of the strip is one giant zone of consumption); merchandise is also available everywhere, and all of the 'front-facing' labour in the entertainment complex is performative (Bryman, 2004).  On the horizon, Dubai could also stake a claim to being a modern exemplar of the process.  And while both Wal*mart and Las Vegas have taken the process to new heights in their respective spheres, this by no means suggests that either McDonald's or Disney are no longer relevant in theirs.

Within the on-line realm, comparison takes place between the business model employed.  As noted earlier, both Blizzard and AOL had employed a similar method in their business plan: monthly billing of customers for unlimited access to their service. This is the essential fact of both firm's operation: access to on-line content being granted for a monthly fee.   Differences in what and how the product is provided is what factors into where they fit along the McDonald's - Disney axis.  

Reaching the top
Both AOL and World of Warcraft came to dominate their respective markets within a remarkably short amount of time.  Both utilized elements of homogenization and heterogeneity that can be found in Ritzer's and Bryman's parallel processes.  Yet the steps that were undertaken in both instances were remarkably similar, and may prove instructive.  Recalling the histories of the rise of each firm, we can see four stages in which these steps took place.  Each successive stage leveraged the results of the previous stage to produce a mutually-reinforcing system that developed and sustained growth, leading to their eventual market dominance. The stages are simplification, saturation, engulfment, and establishment.  They occur as follows: 

Simplification is most evident in the technical requirements of a given product.  It evokes McDonaldization's notion of efficiency and predictability at every turn, providing a carefully constructed user-experience to the largest extent possible.  This is evidence of a  strong intentionality in the design process (Feng & Feenberg, 2008).  AOL provided a simple and accessible interface that obscured the technical details of the connecting to the internet, and  provided a consistent graphical interface.  WoW maximized its market by lowering the technical requirements relative to its competitors, and allowed Mac users to play simultaneously with those playing on Windows systems.  They created a highly stylized artistically rendered game-space, and also simplified the user interface, hiding much from novice users to facilitating easy play wherever possible.  For both AOL and WoW, this stage was illustrative of Borgmann’s "device paradigm" of technological interaction (1984).

Saturation is the next stage, and where the largest innovations by both companies took place.  They both saturated the target market with tactics that were novel in their respective spheres.  Disneyization's elements of consumption and merchandising begin to come into play here.  The leveraging of social ties and cheap distribution allowed for a mass of potential new customers to easily access try their product for the first time.  These new users found the simplified system created in the first stage, and this enabled a high level of retention of new users to occur.

Engulfment is the stage wherein the high level of retention, due to factors of performativity and calculability, combine to achieve explosive growth.  The extrinsic factors of the first two stages fall away and intrinsic factors start to take over.  While no-one begins playing WoW with the goal of slaying Onyxia, this may become an intrinsic motivation once the virtual world is engaged with.  As consumers decide they are getting good value for the money, and in-game social ties become stronger, the firms do not experience the same level of churn typical of their markets.  By continuing to engage in the saturation practices of the second stage, growth becomes additive, and not merely just a replacement of departing users.

Finally, we come to establishment, wherein a new paradigm is created as the firm has come to represent not just the majority of users within their respective markets, but they are also often the first point of reference for many of these users. and the measure by which all competition, even those which are antecedents, are judged.  A Kuhnian paradigm shift has occurred within their respective spheres, and brand brand often comes to be assumed as representative of the that market or class of goods.

Future trends
The implications of WoW's growth model can be seen in three key areas:  the niche market that MMOs were prior to WoW's launch; the trend to wards standardization and interoperability; and the change in alternative business models.

In 2004, the Everquest was king of the MMO market with 500,000 subscribers.  Even with the large number of titles, the total user-base for MMOs was only a fraction that of other video games.  With WoW's release, the market expanded outside its traditional niche. A parallel may be seen with AOL's opening of Usenet to its user-base in 1993, the infamous 'September that Never Ended'  (Raymond, 1996).  However, while a number of Usenet groups were able to weather the storm of an influx of new users and maintain their niche within the larger internet, most were lost.  It remains to be seen whether the users that WoW brought to the MMO market are consumers of MMOs, or just WoW.  Or has the endless September transformed into an endless November,  with the bulk of new users drifting off for different pursuits over time?

The second implication is one of standardization and interoperability.  Standardization appears to be occurring not through a explicit process with a governing body, but via emulation and iteration.  New MMO releases since 2004 have tended to mirror WoW in user-interface, on-screen layout, and other design aspects, in order to attract current customers and prevent them from rejecting their offering for diverging too far from the conventions they are used to (see op'tLand, n.d).  As noted above, WoW represents the first experience with MMOs, and so defines expectations that those consumers have for product within the marketplace.  The gravity of WoW's mass within the marketplace becomes a lens through which all customers expectations are filtered.

Similarly, cross-MMO interoperability is some ways off yet.  One of the side-effects of AOL allowing its users to cross its borders to the internet at large was the necessity for AOL to seamlessly deal with the systems that were already in place.  There are already signs of this occurring around the margins in the MMO sphere.  Innovations such as Sony's Station pass, providing access to any games within its stable for a single monthly fee. Other interoperability initiatives, such as the OpenSim project(Linden Labs, 2008) or the MPEG-V standard, may provide a key alternative, but as capital is always a standardizing influence, new business models and revenue streams in the MMO market may have a greater say indicate where the future really lies.

While WoW may be the dominant MMO player today, it could be the last of its kind, the largest of those charging a monthly fee for access to it's servers.  Already in 2009, free-to-play MMOs supported by alternative revenue streams such as advertising, retail, or micro-payment based models are on the rise.  Other models, such as lifetime subscriptions (seen with Lord of the Rings Online),  or community supported play on free servers may also find an uptake, but are not the focus.  Micro-payments by necessity require a means to handle the funds being transferred.  Once this is in place, what is being transferred is less relevant. The effective market size of the MMO is restricted not by the userbase of one title, but of all titles using that model (Krugman, 1997).   If multiple virtual realms are all using the same system, then micro-payment becomes a predictable, calculable and efficient resource, a homogenizing force that influences the shape and growth of those MMOs that utilize it.

I am not suggesting that such a change would spell the doom for the World of Warcraft.  Blizzard Entertainment's stewardship of its title has been remarkably sure-footed, and any missteps have been dealt quickly and professionally.  If a sea change does occur within the MMO industry, there is no reason WoW could not change with it.  It may prove resilient to any underlying currents in the water, unlike AOL, which misread the signals of its industry and foundered (Swisher, 2003).

Conclusion
Let me be explicitly clear: I am not suggesting that WoW is the McMMO, but rather it was the most heavily McDonaldized MMO, particularly at the time of its launch in 2004, and this homogeneity was what allowed for its explosive growth.  Neither am I suggesting that WoW is CyberDisney: all MMOs fit this Disneyized model, and others such as Free Realms, Disney's ToonTown Online, Hello Kitty Online, and Lego Universe emphasize the Disney model or controlled heterogeneity even more.

Ultimately, it is these twin parallel processes that led WoW, as with AOL before it, to achieve dominance in its market via the four linear stages that could be be loosely typed as "AOLification". or "Wowification".  Intrinsic features may retain a customer, but it is extrinsic and often social reasons by which these customers are engaged in the first place.  As WoW is the first point of exposure for the vast majority of all players of MMOs and virtual worlds, it becomes the de facto reference point for any and all discussions involving the subject.  The features and play-style become the lingua franca of the field, and future development becomes predicated on those models, until another homogenizing force supplants the old model.

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