The “Other Self” in digital games: subjectivity, alienation, and power in Tibia

Abstract

This article analyzes the dynamics of power, alienation, and hegemony present in the digital game Tibia, focusing on the relationships established between dominant players and casual players. Based on a theoretical-conceptual essay articulated with a case study of the Serdebra server, the study investigates how the game’s structure and the organization of guilds produce specific forms of symbolic and material domination. The analysis engages with authors from the Marxist tradition, such as Karl Marx, Antonio Gramsci, and Herbert Marcuse, as well as contributions from digital game studies, particularly James Paul Gee, to understand the constitution of an “other self” in the virtual environment. It is argued that the game operates simultaneously as a space of escape from reality and as a site for the reproduction of capitalist logics, in which the hegemony of dominant guilds is sustained through a combination of consensus and coercion.