MMOs, Desire, Deleuze and Guattari

What is the relationship between MMOs and desire?

That is probably more a subject for a thesis, not a blog post, but here anyway is a simple introduction for everyone that also introduces the philosophers Deleuze and Guattari .

Deleuze and Guattari’s classic text Anti-Oedipus (1972) maps out, among other things, a theory of desire which might shed some light on MMOs.

Desire in Anti-Oedipus starts as an alchemy of nature that rises up in our bodies. It is unthinking - it just happens and is played out as pure energy, pure physicality.

Later, according to D&G (yep, they are in many ways the Dolce & Gabbana of Post Modernism), desires are represented to us as “something”. In other words desire is identified, given meaning, as in - “Dude, I just totally ate that cookie ‘coz I was hungry *burp*”.

This representation can be influenced by many things, including society. A lot of Anti-Oedipus is about the way capitalism misrepresents desires to us.

For D&G, therefore, desire exists on two levels - the pre-conscious body where it originates and, later, the more insubstantial level of representation, influenced by such evil forces as society, capitalism, the family, or whatever else is around to provide meaning.

How might MMOs fit into this scheme?

Well, avatars are certainly not physical - if anything they are representations, as is their online environment.

So are MMOs representations of desire?

It’s certainly not hard to see them this way - and it explains a lot.

In Anti-Oedipus, representations of desire are seen not just as images but as conduits - they grab desire and direct it - often limiting its opportunities to find expression. And because desire is seen as a force independent of human consciousness - where it is lead is where humanity gets dragged along after it, for good or for ill.

Perhaps this an explanation for people getting so strangely involved in mass numbers with the crazy all-consuming pastime of MMO gaming.

Many activities in MMOs - perhaps all activities in MMOs - can be seen as driving desire, from building up power and reputation and possessions, to the outer edge of MMO behavior, where real romantic connections spring up between players.

Try reading accounts of people who have fallen in love through MMOs, describing how significant and authentic an MMO relationship can be (check out MMO Couples for more).

From all this an important question can be asked about MMOs - is this system of representation opening up creative possibilities for desire, or is it locking it down into regimes of repetitive, limited meanings and behaviours?

This relates to a lot of issues that MMOs are involved in at the moment, including design issues.

MMOs and desire, I would argue, are intimate bed-partners, and must be treated as such.

(Look out for other mini-intros in this Blog. Next fun intro: MMOs and Lacan)

Avatars Behaving Badly

Imagine this in the Lord of the Rings - Frodo corners Gandalf and barks "LOL dude - you’re pwned", then whacks him with a sword.

There can be a big difference between the idealised appearance of MMO worlds (magical forests and whimsical Baroque cities) and the frankly uncivilised behaviour of many avatars lurking about within them.

Perhaps its just an accurate portrayal of human history?

Adam Hildreth’s article Moderation by Machine in Edge makes some interesting points on this subject:

" ...MMOGs create more kinds of issues than blogs, Twitter or Facebook. ... it’s the gap between the collective ‘rules’ and human behaviour present in an MMOG that is the cause of so much pain and frustration for game companies.”

Hildreth is president of Crisp Thinking, which develops “behavioural analysis technology, internet safety, management and control” software for MMOs.

They sell technology based on natural language processing and machine learning aimed at spying on avatar interractions.

Hildreth’s article is, in part, a plug for his services:

“Even when you’ve cracked the conversational data, you’re still left with Real Money Traders ... spamming, gold farming, kill stealing and theft. Griefing, spam, power levelling, blocking, camping, botting, and most insidious - and dangerous of all - the growth of cyber-bullying, grooming and online predation.”

So much for Middle Earth.

In a familiar line, Hildreth is all about increased monitoring (using AI) to police the encroaching chaos of humanity. At the same time there is a despairing sense of doom in his article so common to law enforcement officials everywhere. What can you do? There’s just too much weird stuff going on out there for things to ever be truly safe.

As a player of MMOs (and a fan of fantasy books), I have to agree on one thing - once you pack a magical kingdom full of “normal” people, there’s precious little “fear not fair Elf I shall assist Thee” going on.

Maybe it's the gap between artifice and common human madness. It's the risk you take including the public in the painting - of having the art gallery and the art merged into one - the “peanut-crunching crowd” (as Sylvia Plath described them) stomping about inside Da Vinci’s Last Supper, ruining the effect.

And then there’s the issue of privacy. People tend to see their avatar as a freedom-loving and devilish version of themselves. Yet how free is your adventuring hero going to be in this growing paradigm of surveillance?

See you next time!

MMORPGs, reality and everything

The physical world has been fully explored. You can see the whole thing on Discovery Chanel. There’s nowhere new to go.

No wonder humanity is becoming ever more inward-looking, ever more narcissistic.

But with Massively Multiplayer Online Roll Playing Games (MMORPGs), we get an armchair experience of what inspired Elizabethan adventurers to escape whatever prosaic all-knowing suburban banality they felt constrained by and trek madly into the tropics.

MMORPGs attract people in a way that is new - and yet in a way that we all recognise - something familiar from dreams, from desires, from literature, from art and history. In MMORPGs we too can encounter strange environments, and meet stranger inhabitants - ourselves in fact, unencumbered by consequence, circumstance, or identity. Brand new creatures.

Meanwhile in China there are MMORPGs where the risk is toned down - the game difficulty is minimal and the emphasis is purely on socialising (for instance Battle of the Immortals). Monsters are not aggressive. Purchase the right “weapon” and you can dispose of them quickly.

That way your avatar has plenty of time to flirt and generally hang out.

In the West there is a more unforgiving tradition. It's dangerous and you have to fight hard to get anywhere. Adventure persists.

Will the future favour social platforms over biffing contests? Will the mainstream turn Middle Earth into a holiday in Miami?

Fascination with in-game socialising extends to academics. If you play MMORPGs there’s always the chance you’ll run across a wandering researcher questing for a PHD. You may be be asked questions like, do you feel that your gender performance in this game has freed you from patriarchal systems of identity??

MMORPGs are very thesis-friendly. They tick so many boxes - postulations about identity, the body and social organisation have been fashionable on campus for more semesters than departmental heads can remember.

I personally believe the arcane technical game play in MMORPGs (despite what is happening in China) is also a form of activity with philosophical resonances.

Which brings me to Postmodernism.

Continental theorists practically invented MMORPGs simply by thinking about society as a "text" or a "simulation". As the world sinks into a banality of social networking and endless “apps” (never mind virtual gaming), those crazy continentals may never be so necessary as now for the health of your brain cells.

Look out for them in this blog also!

Until next time....