Paper Short Abstract:

In our paper, based on research, we assert that insights about assuming identities in the worlds of MMORPGs such as Warcraft 76, can be gained through reconsidering Jean Baudrillard’s concepts of hyperreality, simulacra and simulation and Michel Foucault’s concept of heterotopia.

Paper Abstract:

Online video game worlds are digital environments that entail the emergence of new ingenious forms of existence and their correlated identities. Through their avatars, players find themselves in various game emplacements at the intersection of multiple juxtaposed meanings that are hyperreal in essence and heterotopic in form. These environments entail both simulacra and simulations. Drawing upon ethnographic research, we assert that insights about assuming identities in the worlds of massively multiplayer online role-playing game (i.e. MMORPGs) such as Warcraft 76, can be gained through reconsidering Jean Baudrillard’s concepts of “hyper-reality”, “simulacra” and “simulation” (1981) and Michel Foucault’s concept of “heterotopia” (1967/1984). As repositories of collective experiences, digital environments have been subsumed into new virtual realms, which are perceptual competitors amongst players to the world of "traditional" reality (Faulkner, 2022). In our paper, we focus on the ways in which Baudrillard and Foucault’s theoretical frames of reference should be reconsidered in order to reveal: (a) experiential storytelling in the game’s virtual world (Murray, 2017); (b) how interactive storytelling is used to link narrative elements that bridge the gap between players’ identity and their virtual world (Gaudenzi, 2019; Nash et al. 2014).