The Worldness of EverQuest: Exploring a 21st Century Fiction Cover Image
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Światowość EverQuestu: odkrywając dwudziestopierwszowieczną fikcję
The Worldness of EverQuest: Exploring a 21st Century Fiction

Author(s): Lisbeth Klastrup
Subject(s): Media studies, Fiction, Social psychology and group interaction, Social development, Social Informatics
Published by: Instytut Badań Literackich Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Keywords: gameworlds; worldness; MMORPG; fictionality; engagement; player experience; sociality;

Summary/Abstract: ‘You’re in our world now!’ has been the slogan for EverQuest since 2000. This article takes this quote literally by exploring what ‘being in a gameworld’ actually entails. Taking its point of departure in a more general discussion of online gameworlds as a new form of engaging fictional universes, Klastrup argues that it is in the complex interplay between a) the aesthetics of the gameworld as both an actualized explorable and mentally imagined universe; b) the experiences and means of expression the world as a game system and tool allows and affords; c) the social interaction in and about the world, that the unique characteristics of an online gameworld, its ‘worldness’ emerges. How these aspects can by studied more concretely is demonstrated in an illustrative analysis of EverQuest.

  • Issue Year: 2017
  • Issue No: 3
  • Page Range: 87-115
  • Page Count: 29
  • Language: Polish