An Elf, a Knight, and a Princess Walk Into This Bar… Virtual Friendships 7 Years Later

Matthew Hayes · Warwick Phipps · Constance Steinkuehler

What happens when three gamers from three different time zones, across two continents, and having only one glaring thing in common — an inexplicable love of the MMO game Lineage — meet for the first time after years of online friendship? In this session, three old friends from this classic siege title discuss their histories both within the game and beyond it, the nature of guilds and the pleasures (and perils) of trying to lead them, and what it is about this Asian title (with only lukewarm reception in Europe and the United States) that draws them all back despite the intervening years since its release and intervening titles like World of Warcraft.

Come discuss the function of MMOs as important third places for informal sociability (Steinkuehler & Williams, 2006) and share a few laughs about 4:00 a.m. phone calls for siege time and day-long gaming marathons with at least one of them literally, asleep at the keys.

References

Steinkuehler, C., & Williams, D. (2006). Where everybody knows your (screen) name: Online games as “third places.” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 11(4), article 1.