Abstract
This article focuses on how the “everyday" has colonized and complicated the virtual world. Using examples drawn primarily from Sony Online Entertainment's Everquest 2, I explore the way that both the institutional force of the everyday and mundane objects such as tables and chairs have come to be a major part of play in MMORPGs. In exploring these topics, I consider the possibility of a "mundane circle" in which mundane objects and activities exist in a fantasy setting. I also examine how the presence of these mundane objects refreshes the fantasy world. In the end, I question whether play can truly be called so when the virtual world is so reminiscent of the real world.
Highlights
I put on the bunny hat first, as is my habit
I have spent hours completing tasks I rarely attempt in my everyday life: cooking, decorating, and even manually paying the mortgage
As I think about the boundaries of the virtual and the real, I come to realize that my in-game house is part of my real life, but that parts of that virtual home have been thoroughly colonized by the most mundane aspects of my everyday life
Summary
I put on the bunny hat first, as is my habit. The hat's pink fur contrasts nicely with my blue skin and makes it easier for my friends to locate me in a pile of bodies should the worst happen and I die. It suggests that the space of play is stable and controllable, with a hard boundary through which the forces within and without the circle may not pass Huizinga himself problematizes this interpretation of the circle, though, by noting that cheating or quitting inevitably ends the game as "the whole play-world collapses" In an attempt to draw the discussion of the everyday out of the abstract realm of theory, I will offer some concrete examples through an exploration of the Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) Everquest 2 Through these examples, I will show that the everyday exists in multiple forms in the game world, all of which help create a space that feels both real and exciting for players, and where the mundane itself becomes a part of play. I will show how the transposition and juxtaposition of the fantastical and the mundane serve to break down the boundary between Huizinga's special spaces "dedicated to an act apart" and the so-called "real” world
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