“Playable” Nationalism: Nusantara Online and the “Gamic” Reconstructions of National History

Nusantara Online is an Indonesian-made massively multiplayer online role-playing game that imaginatively reconstructs the history of the archipelago. As an “allegorithm” for the Indonesian nation, the game suggests a distinct model of digital nationalism, here dubbed “playable” nationalism. This concept captures the formulation of “Nusantara” as the idealized yet playful version of the Indonesian archipelago, a version emphasizing the principles of digital collaboration. The promotion of this model of “digital nationalism” as an egalitarian model of Indonesian popular nationalism has certain limitations.