Online Communities and Massive Multiplayer Online Games as Homes
Why is it so difficult to leave an MMO?
Most people think of homes as physical places. But a home can be a lot more than that. A home is every bit as much a product of who as it is where and what. Here are three definitions of “home” provided by Merriam-Webster:
- one’s place of residence
- the social unit formed by a family living together
- a familiar or usual setting
Virtual communities, like those that form around massively multiplayer online games, are homes for many people. No, we don’t physically live in these virtual worlds, but many view those with whom they interact in these worlds to be family, and they are absolutely familiar and usual settings.
Online gaming communities are so interesting that there are entire anthropology papers which are dedicated to the topic. Back in 2014, Sonja Sapach wrote an interesting discussion on the challenges of doing ethnographic research in virtual worlds (Sapach 2014). Her research focused on sacred spaces within the virtual world. While there are plenty of sacred spaces that we might consider on a regular basis, such as churches, monuments to fallen military or those who died under terrible circumstances, such as the 9/11 memorial, it might…
