•  
  •  
 

Antropologi Indonesia

Abstract

This article will explain about the love process of the players that occurs in a chat-based online game called LINE PLAY - Our Avatar World. LINE PLAY is an online game that aims to interact by bringing a player closer to another player who is distant and foreign, including virtual dating. The case studies are taken from virtual dating experiences carried out by LINE PLAY players whom are members of a “BROTHERHOOD” group, namely, Momo, Sapi, Rio, and Emeng. They were represented by an avatar in the LINE PLAY world. This research was conducted online and offline for 1 year and 2 months. In Online data research, my avatar, Volans and I conducted participatory observations and interviews to get to know the respondents in LINE PLAY. In Offline data research, I met the respondents in real life by conducting interviews in Dago, Bandung, West Java. In this research, I found that LINE PLAY as a virtual space is a serial world for someone which doing a virtual dating. That is, when players date virtually, there are many options for virtual spaces that are similar to the steps of someone who takes in finding a girlfriend in the real world. So, it becomes an imitation for a player to look for a girlfriend virtually. Also, LINE PLAY is also an extension of a player in virtual dating, represented by an expansive, playful avatar that makes it interesting to play.

References

Ben-Ze’ev, Aaron

2004 Love Online: Emotions on the Internet. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Boellstroff, Tom

2008 Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.

Bolter, J. D., dan Grusin,R.

1999 Remediation: Understanding New Media. United States of America: MIT Press

Butler, Judith 1990 Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routlegde, Chapman & Hall, Inc.

Creeber, Glen dan Martin, Royston

2009 Digital Cultures: Understanding New Media. England: McGrow-Hill.

Fuchs, Christian

2015 Culture and Economy in the Age of Social Media. New York: Routledge Hine,

Christine

2000 Virtual Ethnography. London, California, New Delhi: Sage Publications Pearce, Celia dan Artemesia

2009 Communities of Play: Emergent Cultures in Multiplayer Games and Virtual Worlds. USA: Massachussetts Institute of Technology.

Subrahmanyam, Kaveri dan Greenfield, Patricia 2008 ‘Online Communication and Adolescent Relationship’, Children and Electronic Media, 18(1):119-46.

Suh, Kil-Soo, Kim, Hongki dan Suh Kyo Eung

2011 ‘What If Your Avatar Looks Like You? Dual Congruity Prespectives for Avatar Use’, MIS Quarterly, 35(3):711-729.

Spradley, James P.

1997 Metode Etnografi. Yogyakarta. PT. Tiara Wacana.

Stafford, David

2002 Avatar. England: McGraw-Hill.

Download

Included in

Anthropology Commons

Share

COinS