Desire and Fantasy: Our Hopes Achieved

Blog Post Psychoanalytic Theory:

In high school I was addicted to World of Warcraft. I no longer play the game but I think that  Psychoanalytic structure and give some insight into why roll playing games, of which Massively Multiplayer Online RPGs like World of Warcraft are only a sub-genre, are so addictive in general. I will divide the examination into two sections: 1. An examination of the way in which our desires are fulfilled and 2. how the mechanism of fantasy, specifically rpgs, opens the possibility of fulfilling those desires in unique and previously unimaginable ways.

When I speak of desires in this context I'm not referencing any specific delineation of the manner in which sexuality, or other internal drives, cause our minds to change but instead about the more grand desires of human existence; to feel success, to feel comfort, to feel them easily and quickly, to be able to link the fulfillment of our desire directly to our own immediate and controllable action, in short, the security of knowing that our success was not in vain and is in our control. In a world that is real we must set and reach goals to succeed; often these goals, if worthwhile, cannot be accomplished easily or quickly. Perhaps most traumatizing in this process is the fact that we are often not solely in control of the outcomes of our goals and, as such, cannot ensure that we succeed and are even more unsure of whether or not they will last.

If this is the nature of our desires then how can fantasy roll playing games give us unique access to their fulfillment? First, they offer us immediacy in the fulfillment of our desires for success and power. Even if you have to grind to get gear or experience points it is still substantially faster than our everyday lives. This factor alone, however, is not enough to make them adictive. Secondly, and quite significantly, fantasy rpgs give the player an opportunity not only to be the hero, something that fantasy shows cannot access in quite the same way, but gives the them a very visual representation of where they are. They can see how much power they have, how much they have left to gain and exactly how to do so. Essentially, the game turns the social-realities of our existence, the fear of the unknown in-so-far as how we stack up against life and the standard of success, and turns it into a knowable and achievable factor. Finally, and most importantly for all of these to tie together is some kind of permanency. In the real world even if you succeed today you could be ruined tomorrow. We have no way of ensuring our success and even less surety that it will remain; fantasy can fix that.

By showing us a world in which we will always know where we are, where we have to go and what we have to do rpgs basically manufacture success by creating a beatable challenge and rewarding you for doing so. As a player everything is there at your fingertips waiting for you, all you have to do is come and take it. There is no risk because in most cases, even if you die, you can still come back and try again. Roll playing games show us our desires, make them obtainable and then convince you, by giving you exactly what you desire, that it is always worth coming back.