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Session 11: : Monsters, MMORPG’s and the Real
Chair: Ewan Kirkland

Monstrosities Made Real: The Use of the Real to Support the ur-Real in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs).
Marlin Bates
Director of Forensics, Department of Communication, University of the Pacific

Until now, online games have adopted a standard schema of the usual pantheon of monsters: Orcs, trolls, undead, ad nauseam.  However, if the monstrous is truly the Real that has been distorted and misshapen, then it is the presence of a non-standard monster committing monstrous atrocities that truly represents an ur-Real monster. There are increasingly frequent reports of monstrously Real behaviors occurring in the ur-Real world, e.g., the theft of in-game belongings, con games, and aberrant sexual behavior.  The use of the Real to reify the ur-Real is an interesting new twist that demands examination and redefinition.  This paper seeks to accomplish that feat.  Building on prior research, this paper seeks to discover how the player-rhetors of ur-Real worlds further solidify their implicit identity structures through the use of physically tangible objects.  Specifically, how player-characters use real monsters to make the ur-Real monsters more tangible.  Furthermore, this paper seeks to demonstrate that the ur-Real use of physical referents is making the line between the Real and the ur-Real even more blurred. Although the paper will investigate examples from a variety of sources, the main focus will be on the MMORPGs Ultima Online, World of Warcraft, and Second Life.  Additionally, the paper seeks to expand the definitions of rhetoric, community, and communication to include the ur-Real worlds located within the Internet.  Specifically, the paper seeks to move the analysis of communication beyond the Real world and into the virtual or, as the author describes it, the ur-Real world of online computer gaming.  Furthermore, the paper analyzes how these games seek to more firmly cement their place in the Real through the addition of physically external, but internalized tools. 

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