Scaling Technoliberalism for Massively Multiplayer Online Games

Authors

  • Aleena Chia Indiana University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4101/jvwr.v10i3.7264

Keywords:

MMOGs, affordances, technoliberalism, brandfests, agency

Abstract

The sandbox genre of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) addresses players as subjects with agency to shape worlds, impact populations, and make history through their actions within virtual environments. Designed features afford feelings of empowerment and solidarity that undergird technoliberal forms of subjectivity, which uphold technological structures as legitimate means to emergent effects in virtual worlds. This article uses ethnographic fieldwork and player interviews at EVE Online fan conventions to examine how the ideas and affects of technoliberalism are afforded through procedurally-encoded game processes, yet are aestheticized through branding onto player communities and their platforms. This smooths over the contradiction at the heart of technoliberalism that players

Author Biography

Aleena Chia, Indiana University

Indiana University, Communication and Culture, PhD Candidate

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Published

2018-01-04

Issue

Section

Peer Reviewed Research Papers