On the Move: Played Characters Circulations through Online Landscapes and Infrastructures Played Characters Circulations through Online Landscapes and Infrastructures

• Published in: Online Virality. Spread and Influence pp. 227 - 248
• Main Author: Vétel, Bruno
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: De Gruyter Oldenbourg 02.09.2024
• Series: Studies in Digital History and Hermeneutics, vol. 9
• Subjects: Dynamical Systems; Humanities and Social Sciences; Library and information sciences; Mathematics; migration; mobility; assemblage; video game; infrastructure; circulation
• ISBN: 9783111310350; 3111310353
• DOI: 10.1515/9783111311371-012

This chapter addresses a complex issue: the reconnection of player mobility to the circulation of their ingame characters. Within the context of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs), players often develop deep emotional attachments to their in-game characters over time. These attachments, cultivated year after year, anchor players to specific gaming territories and in-game relationships. Our study investigates the intricate socio-technical relationships between players and their in-game characters, a phenomenon we term the player-character “assemblage”. At the level of each gaming server’s infrastructure, commonly referred to as a “shard”, these assemblages exert profound influences on the broader gaming dynamics, giving rise to distinct social contexts. Our research draws upon empirical investigations conducted within the MMOG Dofus (2010–2016), encompassing 40 semi-structured interviews with players and employees of Ankama Company in Roubaix, complemented by quantitative data collected from gaming servers. As a supplementary investigation, we also extend our scrutiny to League of Legends (Riot Games 2009) during the years 2022 to 2023, utilising online observations on platforms like Discord and Reddit to provide a comprehensive examination of these sociotechnical dynamics.