Me, myself and my Avatar

The hypothesis’ – If players use ‘I’ or ‘me’ when referring to the avatar and are given the choice to personalize their avatar through character creation, then players self-identify with the game character that the avatar represents in the game world.

It is true that there is a possibility of no correlation between calling a game character as oneself and self-identifying with that character, however, this paper seeks to contribute to the possibility that it is in fact a plausible theory.

Self-identification, according to the Webster University dictionary, self Identity is the identification of oneself with another person or thing' (Websters' New World College Dictionary, 2014)

If a player refers to a game character as themselves this may suggest a degree of self-identification with the said character. According to the Webster University dictionary, self Identity is the identification of oneself with another person or thing' (Websters' New World College Dictionary, 2014). It could be argued that self-identification occurs prominently in situations when higher levels of emergence are present.

Immersion has been described by academics as a state in which the player feels within the video game world. However, the theory of immersion is a highly-disputed topic in academia. To avoid misunderstanding I shall instead relate to Cutajar’s theory of incorporation (Cutajar,2011). Which like immersion, occurs when the player is giving particular high levels of attention and involvement into a game.

Cutajar in his book from immersion to incorporation sums up the expansive worlds of games perfectly, “Aside from enabling us to transcend the practical limitations of our environment, digital games became popular because they transported our imaginations to the places represented on screen. We no longer had to imagine landscapes of forests and mountains to roam in; they were right there in front of us.” (Cutajar, 2011)

It is during these moments of incorporation that a player is more likely to self-identify. In other words, to refer to their avatar as themselves. Perhaps it is during these moments of concentration that the lines between real and virtual begin to blend. When one is engrossed in such an activity, it is possible that the player may feel as if the avatar a part of oneself.

An avatar can be a representation of a person made as realistically as the technology allows, or it can be carefully crafted creation of a personality or character made for a specific intention or expression (Baileson, & Blascovich, 2005).

Self-identification in video games is more prominent, but not limited to, role playing games (RPG). This is partially because of the nature of RPG’s being focused on narrative and self-exploration.

According to Cornillie the co-writer of the role of feedback in foreign language learning through digital role playing games, Role-playing games are ‘‘digital games that strongly emphasize narrative, alternating action with episodes of exploration and dialogue, and with intricate reward mechanisms’’ (Cornillie, 2012). The overall nature of role-playing games is ideal for players to explore the boundaries of the self without consequence.

The majority of today’s role-playing games offer character creation. A tool which allows players to personalise the visual characteristics of their avatars. Thus it could be argued that players who are given the choice to personalise their avatars are more likely to self-identify with them.

Studies show that the overall population of RPG players personalize their character’s appearance from their own. They embellish their avatars with physical attributes that they associate with their own identity. This is explored in the book Body and Mind: A Study of Avatar Personalization in Three Virtual (Ducheneaut, Don Wen, Yee, Wadley, 2009).

In the book, Life on The Screen- Identity in the Age of the Internet, Turkle states that “When each player can create many characters, and participate in many games, the self is not only decentred but multiplied without limit.” (Turkle, 1997). Thus, according to Turkle, the avatar becomes in a sense an extension of self.

However, there remains a demographic of players whom create characters that don’t appear to possess physical resemblance to themselves. For example, in a recent study: The strategic female: gender-switching and player behaviour in online games (Consalvo, M., 2014) reported in the Information, Communication & Society, researchers recruited 375 World of Warcraft gamers. The researchers found that the men were more than three times as likely as the women to gender-switch (23 % vs. 7%). Shows that most male players’ when given the option will play as female.  One might conclude that this is evidence that character creation doesn’t necessarily result in players reflecting themselves unto their avatars as it ‘I’ evident with these players opting for the opposite sex. However, one could argue that players playing as the other sex can aid players to broaden their sense of identity and experience. That games offer the opportunity to explore different aspects of their identities in the confined safety of the virtual world.

Self-Presence in video games, is the state in which users experience their virtual self as if it were their actual self (Lee,2004). Not unlike Yung’s identity theory (id, ego, and the superego) Biocca defines self-presence to be ‘The actual body, the virtual body, and the schema (Biocca, 1997). The schema representing the player’s mental model of self. Biocca also argues that the graphical representation of ourselves evokes mental models of our body as well as identity. Therefore, according to Biocca our game avatars may cause our sense of self to alter (Biocca, 1997).

This argument is not unlike the theory of the Proteus Effect proposed by Nick Yee (2007). In which ‘the player acts based on how they themselves believe their appearances indicates the should be expected to behave’ (Yee, 2007). To support this theory studies on the massively online multiplayer game Second life (Linden Lab, 2003) show that a player’s avatars appearance can affect the behaviour of the player. We refer to this as behaviour confirmation.

It is this ‘behaviour confirmation’ that implies players self-identify with their game avatar users connect with the world in SL by creating an identity through an avatar.

Jeremy Bailenson, an associate professor at Stanford University and Infinite Reality’s other author explains that “the Proteus effect describes the phenomenon where people will change they’re in game behaviour based on how they think others expect them to behave. “In our studies at Stanford, we have demonstrated that avatars shape their owners” (N Yee, J Bailenson, 2007).

In fact, a Stanford Universities lead by Jesse Fox (2009) study suggests that one’s avatar can aspire its player to improve their physical appearance. The study consisted of participants who played gym simulations with their game avatars. Fox noted that that after the participants had done playing they felt more inclined to go to the gym "If they saw a person they didn't know, they weren't motivated to exercise. But if they saw themselves, they exercised significantly more” (Fox, 2009).

Fisher (1970) argues that these virtual representations of ourselves can alter both mental models. With the recent growing popularity in Role playing games (RPG) “the idea that the virtual representation can change both self-image and social identity is an intriguing possibility”. (Tamborini, Skalski)

Thus, we’ve established that our virtual selves have the power to affect our real-life self. Surely, if an avatar can make that of an impact in someone’s life it is evident that players do self-identify with their virtual embodiments.

Throughout this paper, we’ve seen evidence that when players use ‘I’ or ‘me’ when referring to the avatar and are given the choice to personalize their avatar through character creation, players self-identify with the game character that the avatar represents in the game world.

As evident throughout the paper, there seems to be a substantial amount of arguments that support the hypothesis. This suffice amount of research to lead one to believe that the possibility that when players refer to their game character as themselves they are indeed self-identifying with their virtual character. To which the game avatar becomes in many ways an extension of themselves – their virtual self.

As for if I will be keeping this hypothesis, or at least the subject of my thesis the same as I have done substantial research in this field that I wouldn’t want it to go to waste and I still have interest in the subject. Though my research will not end her, I hope to continue to search for better ways for self-identification measurements, and to put more focus on the psychological elements when it comes to my dissertation.

Bibliography

Calleja, G., 2011. In-game: From immersion to incorporation. MIT Press.

Ducheneaut, N., Wen, M.H., Yee, N. and Wadley, G., 2009, April. Body and mind: a study of avatar personalization in three virtual worlds. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems (pp. 1151-1160). ACM.

Yee, N. and Bailenson, J., 2007. The Proteus effect: The effect of transformed self‐representation on behavior. Human communication research, 33(3), pp.271-290.

Harris, T., 2011. Psychology, Character Creation and Avatars-‐Representation in Virtual Worlds. England: Staffordshire University (Unpublished master’s thesis).

Torner, E. and White, W.J. eds., 2012. Immersive Gameplay: Essays on Participatory Media and Role-Playing. McFarland.

Martey, R.M., Stromer-Galley, J., Banks, J., Wu, J. and Consalvo, M., 2014. The strategic female: gender-switching and player behavior in online games. Information, Communication & Society, 17(3), pp.286-300.

Vella, D., 2013. " It's A-Me/Mario!": Playing as a Ludic Character. Foundations of Digital Games, pp.31-38.