MMOGs and the Ecology of Fiction: Understanding LOTRO as Transmedial World

This paper by Lisbeth Klastrup and Susana Tosca examines Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) as a gameworld instantiation of a transmedial world, a concept they previously defined as an abstract content system from which fictional stories and characters can be actualized across multiple media forms. The authors aim to identify the particular strengths and weaknesses that computer games bring to such franchises, arguing that a game version of a popular universe must be understood within its broader cultural, fan, literary, and cinematic context. Their framework draws on genre and adaptation theory and centers on three core features of the ur-world: its mythos, topos, and ethos.

The study's central questions concern how players interpret and act upon the relationships between Tolkien's original books, the Peter Jackson films, the tabletop roleplaying games, and the LOTRO gameworld. The authors ask how players respond when the game departs from the canonical mythos, topos, or ethos, how such departures affect immersion and gaming experience, and whether players weigh the canonical status of the source material when creating their own modifications. Key concepts include credibility, immersion, interpretation, and realignment, drawn in part from Wolfgang Iser's theory of repertoire and gaps as adapted to games by Tosca.

Methodologically, the research combines a humanistic aesthetic approach with user-experience studies, game research, and ethnography. The authors base their analysis on their own observations of the game world, in-depth interviews with experienced players and fans, and close readings of paratexts such as official forums, guild pages, and fan sites. The paper is presented as a theoretical and qualitative case study rather than a quantitative survey, with its main contribution lying in offering a conceptual lens for understanding how players construct meaning and align gameplay with a pre-existing fictional world.