Online Diasporas: Theoretical Considerations on the Study of Diasporic Behavior in MMORPGs

Salazar's study examines whether the concept of diaspora, long applied to forced dispersions of physical peoples, can meaningfully describe groups of players who become displaced within massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs). The work sets classical notions of diaspora, which stress forced dispersion, nostalgia for a lost homeland, and tension with host communities, against postmodern accounts that treat deterritorialization and fragmentation as generative of group identity. Its central argument is that online groups can exhibit either or both patterns, and that an online community should be recognized as a diaspora only once it develops a diasporic consciousness.

To support this position, the paper draws on two cases. The first is the Gathering of Uru, whose members, displaced by a server shutdown, displayed idealized attachment to their virtual homeland and friction with new environments, reflecting classical traits. The second is Target Guild D, a group of Star Wars Galaxies players who left that game in protest of publisher changes and then relocated together through World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, and The Lord of the Rings Online. Here cohesion rests on friendship and shared displacement rather than on any particular game, which the author identifies as a postmodern diaspora. The paper proposes reconciling the two models by treating online diasporas as one possible outcome of MMORPG social configurations.

The author's contribution is a tentative structuralist framework in which narrative, cultural, and spatial attraction forces, along with structural codes, drive diasporic behavior. The paper argues that digital mediation makes both online and offline diasporas hyperreal, so the model may apply to each. While the analytical framework is offered as valuable for Digital Game Studies and diaspora scholarship, the study acknowledges a limited empirical base, with its conclusions presented as a foundation for further research.