Life Among the Ruins: An Examination of Monument and Power in the Abandoned Game Star Wars: Galaxies
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Date
2022-10-26
Authors
Hansen, Jared
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Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
In the genre of Massively Multiplayer Online video games are titles that have been abandoned by their developers. These cloud-based games are inaccessible and disappear when shut down unless new servers are launched. Such is the case with Star Wars Galaxies, which was discontinued in 2011, but later pirated servers run by fans of the game continue to host the content for themselves. This study examines the community of one server (titled Legends), analyzing the virtual world and its player cities to draw conclusions about the players and their governments. This dissertation is a multi-method approach, employing archaeological methods (site mapping, structural analysis) and anthropological methods (semi-structured interviews, ethnography). Some of the findings are that players engage in spheres of governmental influence that interact with the play experience in different ways, that players aren’t engaging in traditional forms of urbanization, and that these virtual cities and structures are more prone to change than consistency. These findings are relevant to studies and theories about virtual reality (VR) and future technologies such as the metaverse in that they reveal how players create meanings of place in the virtual, and how they create settlements and governments alongside and within the play experience.
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Keywords
Archaeogaming, ethnography, media studies, MMORPG, site mapping, Video games