in Lacanian psychoanalysis objet a (objet petit a) ”stands for the unattainable object of desire” or in plain english an object that is supposed to fill our fundamental lack. in our fantasy objet a makes us whole (again) and translated to the setting of an mmorpg that could mean that we want to own a certain piece of armour or a weapon so badly that we go at great length to get that item of loot. however, once we have acquired that item it loses its “desireable” quality and we switch our attention to get another fantastic (no pun intended) item. the inherent nature of objet a is that you cannot have it, it is elusive and once you think you have acquired it, it switches and something else becomes the object of your desire.
Slavoj Zizek, one of the leading experts on applying Lacanian psychoanalysis to phenomena of popular culture compares objet a with the plastic toy that can be found in surprise eggs. when you acquire one of those eggs, you have a certain expectation of which toy you want to find inside it. however, when you crack the egg open and discover that it is not the toy you have hoped for… you go and buy another one.
this could be an explanation why most mmorpgs are focused around loot and items. by continuosly introducting new armour sets and even more powerful items they exploit the desire of the players to make their character “complete”. in RL the concept of objet a can be used to explain what keeps us going, makes us improve in life and feel good or bad about it. the same is true for our virtual lives, only that objet a switches way more often in mmorpgs because there are so many potential objet a‘s to choose from. and once you think you have achieved everything with a character in an mmorpg the next expansion comes out and the vicious circle continues…