By Skylar Smith
Daily Titan Staff Writer

This screen capture shows the computer game“World of Warcraft,” which millions play around the globe, has inspired countless art pieces. Screen capture by Skylar Smith.

Boasting 11.5 million monthly subscriptions, the popular massive multiplayer online role playing game “World of Warcraft” has spread its influence across millions of computers, gaming cafes and college laptops.

Blizzard Entertainment, which created the computer game, has worked hard to support its community by creating an expansive world full of exciting quests, intricate lore, strong social relationships and a place for others to share their creativity through role play and fan art.

Grace Kook-Anderson, curator of exhibitions at the Laguna Art Museum, saw the potential of this creativity and made the art exhibition “WoW: Emergent Art Phenomenon.”

“Before I started, Blizzard had actually proposed to do something at the Laguna Art Museum, also to celebrate the fifth anniversary of ‘World of Warcraft,’” said Kook-Anderson. “I was also really interested in looking at artists who play “World of Warcraft” or who are looking at this game’s unique appeal, and I was hoping for a conversation between the two.”

This exhibition showcased hundreds of fan art projects, art from several of those on the Blizzard payroll, a room dedicated to Machinima (videos in which the game is used to create stories), a downstairs mostly consisting of interactive media and a massive sculpture of an Orc riding his wolf mount in the lobby.

The fan art posted at the exhibition was entirely taken from the “WoW” community Web site and filled a small room from floor to ceiling. Pieces ranged from comical to epic and featured all races and classes in “WoW.”

Jorg Dubin, a traditional oil painter who works mostly on linen canvas, had three paintings on display that had a gritty and realistic depiction of “WoW.”

Screen capture by Skylar Smith

“Night Elf with a 12 Gauge,” featured a night elf touting a shotgun, “Blood Elf with Head of Stranger” was a gruesome and dark depiction of a Blood Elf’s latest kill, and “Days End in Dalaran” which showed a depressed looking blood elf drinking and holding a bottle of whiskey.

Wei Wang, one of the Blizzard staff artists who is also working on “Starcraft II,” had many pieces on display, including several drawings of the Lich King Arthas, the main villain in “WoW’s” latest expansion, “Wrath of the Lich King.”

Glenn Rane was another staff artist who had many of his works on display, one of which was an impressive depiction of the game’s undead queen Sylvannas Windrunner.

Traditionally drawn and painted art aside, the interactive, video and experimental art was the focus of the exhibition.

Pieces such as Antoinette LaFarge’s “World of World” attempted to take on the complex topic of the relationship between player and avatar. Her piece, splicing webcam pictures of a player and in-game screenshots, explained the sometimes disturbing obsessive relationship between the player and their in-game character. Within the wall consuming display was text in the form of a dialogue between the character and the player, developing unhealthy relationship.

Robert Nideffer’s “2007 BC, ‘09,” a triptych inspired by Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights and The Temptation of St. Anthony, used in-game images depicting the conflict between two of the top guilds on a server, “Death and Taxes” and “Nihilum.” This epic mural included several of the guild members in combat (some of them naked) and evidence of their conquests (corpses of Dungeon bosses), on the sides of the triptych.

Nideffer also co-created a side scrolling RPG with Alex Szeto, based around “WoW” called “WTF?!,” which was playable at the exhibition. The game drops several philosophers, such as Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud as characters in the “WoW” universe.

The exhibition has seen many students in its four-month run including Kevin Takenaka, 19, an architecture major from Saddleback Community College. “I’m here for a school assignment in my art history class,” said Takenaka, “I have played ‘WoW’ before, but that was a long time ago, but the exhibit is pretty cool.”

Even some of the staff who never really experienced “WoW” previously were influenced by the exhibition and are now actively involved in “WoW.” Bret Eagleston, an animation major at Laguna College of Art and Design, a member of the security team and a host at Laguna Art Museum is currently a level 59 (possibly higher now) undead mage. He started playing around the same time the exhibition opened. “I like most of the art upstairs like the fan art, and I really like the sculptures,” said Eagleston. “The interactive stuff is kind of weird though.”

The event was highly successful, and many students and “WoW” members are wondering if it will continue next year. “For now, it’s a one time thing,” said Kook-Anderson.

Although the exhibition has ended, all of the art featured is available online, including videos and interactive entertainment.

For artwork and videos referenced in the story, check out:

Fan Art: http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/community/fanart/

Machinima: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/community/machinima/movies.shtml

2007 BC, ‘09: http://nideffer.net/promo/proj/bc.html

WTF?!: http://nideffer.net/promo/proj/wtf.html

Jorg Dubin: http://www.jorgdubin.com/mainpage.html

Tale of Tales: Endless: The Endless Forest: http://tale-of-tales.com/TheEndlessForest/