“In 2014, I accidentally stumbled into the infamous Lion's Pride Inn (also known as Goldshire Inn) while leveling a new character on the Moon Guard server. I had been trying to find a server with a substantial LGBTQ+ presence (as the server I played on was incredibly homophobic and misogynistic), and a player had recommended the Alliance faction on Moon Guard server. An early leveling quest took me into an inn which changed my relationship to World of Warcraft forever. For the entire time I played World of Warcraft, women were scarce. And because of our scarcity, when a male player would somehow realize that I was an actual living breathing woman behind the keyboard, our play dynamic would change. Maybe we had been questing together or in a party trying to complete a dungeon...but as soon as that player realized I was not just playing a female-bodied avatar and that I was a "real woman," I would often be aggressively offered gold, high level equipment, and other gifts in exchange for erotic role play or asked to get onto Skype and have video sex. These interactions would occur completely out of context and made it all the more obvious why so many women felt uncomfortable in World of Warcraft. These attempts to solicit online sexual exchanges might start with a request, but rejecting these advances would frequently result in a flood of unwanted whispers from these male players with descriptions about what their avatars were doing to me - descriptions of sex acts I had not consented to.

What I loved about finding the Goldshire Inn - was that it felt like I had stumbled upon an erotic role play sex club where the people who were there wanted to enjoy sexual role play inside the visual and design limitations of World of Warcraft with each other. Players were open about their desires and able to find players who were mutually interested. Consent seemed to be informally embedded into the codes for participation in the events of the Goldshire Inn. This is a series of images from some of my visits to the Goldshire Inn after I became a regular visitor in my project The World of Warcraft Psychogeographical Association. Through The World of Warcraft Psychogeographical Association, I explored the landscape in World of Warcraft in a site-responsive way, ignoring the game’s quests and creating new games and performances inside the virtual environment with other players.

These images are shared in this exhibition for the first time.” Angela Washko