REFLECTIONS OF LOVE AND CYBER MARRIAGES ON IN-GAME ADVERTISING

Abstract

Badiou (2012:19-20), analyzes Lacan’s well-known definition of love which states that it is what fills the absence of a physical relationship, and interprets it as “love is what the imagination employs to fill the emptiness created by sexuality, and then comes to be the idea that something exists in this void”. Taking into account this interpretation, may one state that the living grounds of the new media based virtual worlds may indeed be the perfect place to find love since they leave the reality of ‘space’ and ‘time’ behind, in the pursuit of achieving ‘perfection’ of the imagined one? In this study, the presumption that love is a form of communication that is shaped by social discourse will be discussed together with the changing rules of marriage in virtual lives. The ways in which love and marriage echoed within the communication channels through the years, and their impacts on in-game advertising will be analyzed. At this point, some questions may come to mind: Since the woman’s body has always been presented as the “object of desire” in advertising, will this legacy continue in the age of new media without the presentation of an actual image? Can the normalisation of the avatar, together with the changing definitions of love and marriage be some of the reasons behind the new genre of in-game advertising in New Media? In order to find answers to the above mentioned questions, a comprehensive qualitative content analysis will be conducted in this study; cyber marriage and in-game advertisements on IMVU virtual life game will analyzed as an example.