The free fantasy MMO Lord of the Rings Online has made it to university curriculum. At Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tennessee, an English seminar is dealing with it.
“Online Games: Literature, New Media, and Narrative” – this is the name of a new course at Vanderbilt University. In the course, the MMO is not simply going to be played – contrary to rumors, humanities scholars at the university also do something else. Instead, the course intends to explore what happens to Tolkien’s material when it serves as the basis for an MMO. Students will engage with the changes in narrative pace and structure: How does the material need to function in an MMO, compared to The Lord of the Rings as a film or book?
In the accompanying text to the seminar, the university states that today, MMOs must be viewed as part of our narrative culture due to their economic significance, and one must engage with this if one wants to keep up with the times. Vanderbilt sees itself in a pioneering role here. The MMOs have changed our narrative culture, the way we experience and share stories. In doing so, classic romantic and fantasy materials served as their foundation.
