On the Ontology of MMORPG Beings: A Theoretical Model for Research

This theoretical paper argues that the ontology of MMORPG beings, the essential characteristics of online avatars, is a neglected fifth research theme in Game Studies. The author contends that the field's established traditions, namely social, individual, narratological, and ludological approaches, implicitly assume an ontological foundation that has never been made explicit. Drawing on Hakken's six levels of analysis and Salazar's Model for the Ontology of the Online Being, the paper positions ontological clarification as a prerequisite for coherent MMORPG research. Its contribution is conceptual rather than empirical, offered as a position piece to provide common ground across disciplinary approaches.

The proposed model is built in layers. It begins with the player's pre-existing subjective content, including wishes, expectations, and personality traits, and with the pre-existing software, hardware, and design elements created by developers. On this foundation, the paper analyzes MMORPGs as game spaces, social spaces, and individual places, drawing on ludological, sociological, and narratological traditions. The author's personal experience in Star Wars Galaxies, as the character Eter, a self-styled XenoAnthropologist, serves as the principal illustration. The model culminates in the player's identity, expressed through avatars that function as cyborg-like digital correlates of the self, thereby linking individual identity studies with analyses of gameplay and narrative.

The paper's evidentiary base is largely qualitative and anecdotal, grounded in ethnographic reflection rather than quantitative data. Its final conceptual synthesis frames the Virtual World as both a space and a place, constructed from pre-existing technical infrastructure and players' subjective design elements. The author acknowledges that length constraints required omitting certain themes and that the model reflects a personal interpretation, and invites scholars to adapt it to their own research focus. Its scope is theoretical and draws on foundational game studies and virtual world scholarship, including work by Aarseth, Taylor, Turkle, and Salazar, without reference to specific geographic regions, time periods, or industry-wide datasets.