The Sims 2

If Power Gamers Aren't Fans, Who Are?

Wirman's paper challenges a long-standing assumption in game culture: that productivity, whether in the form of forum contributions, walkthroughs, or extensive participation in massively multiplayer games, reliably signals fandom.

• Productivity in games (forum contributions, walkthroughs, heavy MMO participation) does not reliably signal fandom: power gamers who produce heavily may not identify as fans at all, exposing conceptual ambiguity between the two categories.
• Wirman distinguishes instrumental texts that serve efficient play, such as walkthroughs, community databases like Thottbot, and cheat listings, from expressive texts like fan fiction, poetry, and machinima, which align more closely with traditional fan practice.
• Informal surveys of World of Warcraft forums found that most respondents self-identified as fans while power gamers were less likely to do so, with a gendered dimension evident in these self-identifications.