Game Users’ Fandom Culture and Contents Activism: Focusing on MMORPG Lost Ark

Today, activism is divided into several types depending on the tools and means used, and contents activism means carrying out activism using cultural content as a means. This is because cultural content is effective in delivering messages to society and expanding language channels. This paper seeks to expand the scope of contents activism on two levels. First, it is an expansion of the problem recognition and agenda that contents activism can have. This means expanding the social changes that occur in contents activism to a more microscopic perspective in today’s multidimensional and fragmented common interests. And we want to expand interest not only to creators of contents activism but also to audience. We talk about why audiences participate in contents activism and that participation is not simply following an activist, but is an ‘action’ as another activist. This paper understands fandom as a ‘cultural formation’ based on affection and emotional resonance for a common object, and focuses on the fandom’s subjective and active participation in content. Through this, we would like to talk about the fact that fandom is not simply a vague following of celebrities or content, but is another subject of contents activism that actively sympathizes with and participates in ‘actions’ according to the identity of the fandom. In other words, we would like to view the relationship between activists and followers discussed in contents activism as an interaction between content and the fandom that enjoys it. To this end, this paper deals with contents activism and fandom culture, focusing on the live service game MMORPG <Lost Ark> and its game users. In particular, focusing on the ‘donation campaign’ formed among users of the <Lost Ark> game, we discuss how the message presented by the content is accepted by the fandom and forms fandom culture. <Lost Ark> is a case study of a sustainable game culture built through collaboration between fandom and developers based on the philosophy of ‘making games like games’, and presents new possibilities for content activism.