노동은 어떻게 놀이가 됐는가? : 한국 MMORPG와 게임 판타지 장르소설에 나타난 자기계발의 주체

Abstract

Gamers are the subject who present the contradictions of the modern entertainment industry. The point that modern games are contradictory is that they operate or even control pleasure in a very economic way. The development of the game industry and culture from the late twentieth century to the present has reinforced the logic of competition and growth. Gamers have appeared to be the subject who compete through growth. Immersion in the game does not mean grow up consistently and even abandoning reality and sinking into the world of pleasure. Rather, games have been related to the practice of ‘economic subjects’ that grow for themselves and gain a competitive edge through strict self-regulation. In short, gamers are not pleasure addicts, but subjects to self-development, and games have emerged as a special cultural industry that demands these subjects in large quantities. To demonstrate this point, I analyzed first-generation Korean MMORPG Lineage (1998~) and game fantasy genre novel The Moonlight Sculptor (2007). With Lineage, the self-regulation of play was reviewed. Thus, the point that games internalize the capitalist value of competition and growth was captured. Meanwhile, by deciphering The Moonlight Sculptor, the capitalist pleasure reflected in the heroic gamers was examined. This demonstrates that gamers are expressed as an infinite multiplicity of capital and the illusion of ‘unalienated workers’. By treating MMORPGs and game fantasy novels together, it was examined how the logic of capitalist growth and competition has reconstructed the system of pleasure in the popular culture.