University Honors

My research question is “What happens when you apply the concept of fantasy worlds toonline video games?” John Caughey explains in his book Imaginary Social Worlds that whenpeople watch a movie, they fantasize that the story is truly happening as they are viewing thisexperience, creating a fantasy world they interact with inside their imagination. This idea has yetto be applied to the world of massive multiplayer online games (M.M.O.s). Once this theory isapplied to M.M.O.s, the idea of the fantasy world becomes a shared phenomenon among everyplayer within the game, since they are all essential to creating the game content and fantasy realmtogether. There is no existing term for this shared fantasy structure, so the term called thecommunal fantasy needs to be created for this dynamic.Deep-seated social bonds eventually develop from this communal fantasy. This isexemplified through the ritual of the Eve Online funeral. When an Eve Online community memberdies outside of the game, it is common for players to hold a funeral within their virtual world fortheir recently deceased friend. The act of mourning the end of this social relationship proves howdeeply Eve online players internalize their fantasy world and how complex social relationships arein this communal fantasy. These rich emotional feelings caused by such social bonds meet thedefinition of a person’s Reality in the philosophical sense. As such, these fantasy worlds need tobe considered an extension of a person’s Reality.