WoWer

plural WoWers · alternative WOWer

1. A player of the massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft.

   Well, I have to say I was a reluctant WoWer, but I have been into gaming since I was young, before college.

   2007 January 28, John Faherty, quoting Luoluo Hong, “Dean of students accomplishes objectives, forms friendships … and then there’s her job”, in The Arizona Republic, 117th year, number 255, page B2

   2 more examples

   Yup, World of Warcraft has been an amazing success: a massively multiplayer game that is easy to learn, addictive, and requires months of overuse to master to reach the highest levels to then join guilds to cruise around in packs with other like-minded WoWers.

   2011, Andy Kessler, Eat People: And Other Unapologetic Rules for Game-Changing Entrepreneurs, Portfolio / Penguin, →ISBN, page 206

   These guilds and friendships form across age, class, and gender divides, and yet, in the context of the game, all share a collective identity as WoWers.

   2020, Marcella Szablewicz, “Carving Out a Spiritual Homeland”, in Mapping Digital Game Culture in China: From Internet Addicts to Esports Athletes (East Asian Popular Culture), Palgrave Macmillan, →ISBN, page 121

   Synonyms: Warcrafter, World of Warcrafter

plural WOWers

1. Alternative letter-case form of WoWer.

   Our MMO expert Ed [Zitron] has angered loyal WOWers as he didn’t think Wrath of the Lich King was ‘all that’, as they say in the States.

   2009 February, “Meet the team”, in PC Zone, number 203, page 6

   5 more examples

   The inability to affect the game world in any significant way is of course, unavoidable, if [Darkmaster] Gandling could be truly destroyed, then it would have already been done so by one of the professional WOWers that spend more time in Azeroth than in the real world.

   2006 July, Ian Jackson, “Inbox”, in Edge, number 164, page 127

   Dating Web site created to help WOWers connect […] Enter World of Datecraft, a Web site meant to facilitate real-life meetings between players of the world’s most popular online fantasy, also called WOWers.

   2006 August 3, Gazette staff and wire reports, “Gizmos”, in The Gazette, volume 124, number 206, page 1D

   Dr Maressa Orzack, a clinical psychologist who studies games addiction, argues that up to 40 per cent of the 6 million US WOWers are addicted to the game, but she presents little evidence to support this claim. The Chinese government is bringing in legislation to prevent the 20 million Chinese ‘WOWers’ from playing the game for too long because of the ‘social and economic damage’ caused by such addiction.

   2008, Julie Cameron, Tony Flowers, Margaret Hart, Mark Peace, Neil Renton, Duncan Watts, Michael Wright, AQA Sociology A2, Nelson Thornes, →ISBN, page 143

   Even one of the esteemed teachers of Oyster River High School has become a WOWer. Trevor Garman, a second year English teacher at ORHS plays WOW about 1-2 hours a day. "My favorite part is going through the instances with my buddies," Garman says. He also claims to have been a WOWer for four years, and even says he has fallen into minor moments of 'addiction' with the game in his long tenor as a WOWer.

   2008 December 9, Max Snelling, “Addicts Anonymous”, in Mouth of the River, page 19

   It goes without saying that starting to date is a lot like leading a raid in Upper Blackrock Spire in World of Warcraft. Okay, if you’re not a WOWer, I suppose it goes with saying.

   2013, Eric Smith, The Geek’s Guide to Dating, Philadelphia, Pa.: Quirk Books, →ISBN, page 0041