Players and Avatars: Against Identification
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Much study of MMOGs as well as other videogames presumes an affinity between players and their avatars. Gee has developed the concept of 'projective identity' and Bailensen, Yee and others have done extensive work exploring the Proteus effect, which suggests humans are deeply influenced by the avatars they choose, and likewise how such avatars become extensions of themselves in games and virtual spaces. Some of my own past work has explored how women strongly identify with female avatars, 'gender-swapping' at rates much lower than similar male players. Yet what of games that don't employ avatars, or rely on multiple or non-human avatars for players to employ? What of players who simply do not characterize game avatars as extensions of themselves? How can we speak of identification such instances? Is it still a useful concept to investigate? This talk reviews some of my past research about players, identity and avatars, to offer a starting point for argument. But the heart of the talk explores instances of games where avatar presentation and use depart from our traditional conceptualizations --either by their absence or their opposition to humanoid facsimiles. By doing so this talk challenges game studies' easy reliance on avatars as proxies for identity in games, and asks what happens when players fail to use or access such embodiments in their gameplay. It suggests alternative ways to understand player agency and identification in games, and moves beyond avatars as the principle means for doing so.
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Players and Avatars: Against Identification
- 1. Players and Avatars: Against Identification Mia Consalvo MIT
- 2. okay maybe not against all identification
- 3. but game fiction plays an important role in nudging players towards or away from different kinds of identification, with and without avatars
- 5. Story 1: Women in World of Warcraft (and Age of Conan)
- 6. How do women reflect on their avatars and gear?
- 14. But players not willing to switch games just for greater avatar choices
- 15. the issue of gear (or its lack)
- 16. Audri “it’s a high fantasy game, and if you look at high-fantasy art and you know anything about it, the women are always skimpily dressed. That’s just how it is. It’s never bothered me.”
- 17. Raven “I sort of feel like it should bother me. But it doesn’t.”
- 23. Story 2 The Caretakers of Faunasphere
- 43. Story 3: Social games: Or, how invested am I in my Facebook avatar while I’m busy using my friends?
- 44. The project: what’s social about social games?
- 45. The researchers
- 47. 80+ games/50 FB for Charts
- 54. Gifting
- 68. City of Wonder
- 69. Coffee Bar
- 76. Ravenwood Fair
- 82. But usually leave no trace
- 86. Fish World
- 88. Improve on existing world
- 92. NBA Legend
- 96. Fashion & Popularity Contests
- 105. How do avatars fit in?
- 111. Story 4: Players & ethical limitations
- 116. Breaking a contract
- 117. Player intent can trump fiction
- 118. Can even MMOGs posit player identification with avatars?
Editor's Notes
- My past work on players- some has dealt with avatars and identification specifically, other work has not. I’m re-examining it here for this talk, to see what can be learned from a meta-analysis of sorts. My ideas about identification- Althusser and interpellation- hailed as a subject, always/already; as well as Butler’s notion of performativity and the subject- bodies that come to matter over time- we call ourselves into being through our actions.
- And the structures of the games are important as well– they shape what we can do; although we still have freedom (to an extent) within those bounds. Sim to Foucault- thanks Felan!- and technologies of the self. We can play within the boundaries, find what works for ourselves.
- My earliest work focused on women gamers- 10 years ago a somewhat rare species. Talk today looks at two different sets of female players, separated by only several years, but seemingly light years apart in terms of how the market perceives them. Some commonalities between them as well as some differences.
- Anecdotal evidence as well as other research that women prefer female avatars; Virtual census study- female playable characters in top selling games is less than 20%; MMOGs- used to be a high point of female players; now not so much; but we wanted to get a baseline of how female – adult- players felt about their avatars and gear. Gear is functional in MMOGs, although it is also aesthetic; how did women react to gear- not just chain mail bikinis but all kinds of gear.
- Main is the central avatar; the one a woman plays the most; alts were more varied; experimenting with different race/class combinations; starting stories; mule accounts; in WoW race/class are fixed (note that FFXI does NOT have fixed job system for avatars- leads to greater persistence of avatar use; also a sep charge for each avatar used- again a system constraint) Women tend to have more avatars than male players; hardest of the hardcore; most loyal to the game (least likely to report planning to quit)
- Living ‘through’- for some women, such avatars tended to ‘take on a life of their own’ and developed personalities that they had not planned, or felt that they were not entirely responsible for. It could be a race thing, or a class thing, or some undefined essence; but several women mentioned their avatars having distinct personalities- even if they weren’t explicit role players.
- Even though women didn’t see a problem playing a fantasy race, or imaginary class- such as mage- they still had a drive to create characters that reflected their gender.
- Identity not the issue- rather it is design that is the problem.
- Sexual dimorphism was mentioned by a couple of women; and has gained attention in games media. Interestingly, male blood elves were changed from original design to be more bulky/masculine- had been read as too ‘gay’ initially.
- LOTRO had clothing that can be put “over” gear and is decorative, allowing players to “wear” something visually more pleasing to them while still maintaining the stats boost of particular pieces of (ugly) gear.
- Raiders in particular saw gear as “work clothes” that, even if ugly, were appropriate to wear in particular situations. “off duty’ time- they could wear what they wanted.
- Took pride in having/earning particular gear; as well as being able to craft certain items.
- SL- even less gender switching than in MMOGs- our study found only 8% of women used a male avatar;
- And SL avatars are hypersexualized, by both men and women, even though you can be ‘anything you want’ in the VW- even non humanoid.
- BFG folks saw my paper, contacted me; we talked about me doing some research for them; this study was borne; work on with Jason Begy- another caveat– another perspective can help you see things you’d overlook.
- Caveats: I dislike playing this game! Painfully boring :p
- FS Refugees
- From FFXI to Faunasphere to Farmville/Frontierville?
- How much are friends worth? 25 diamonds!
- Farmville before I got going, but note the relative simplicity: plant crops; decorate farm; acquire animals and trees
- FameTown: when friends visit, they increase the rating of any movie currently in production Cityville franchises allow for friends’ personalization efforts to persist across their friends’ spaces
- It Girl, Big City Life allow challenges that test players based on stats, items, cliques, and so on BCL allowed voting on hottest outfits, across friends and strangers
- Ethical decision making games (mass effect, dragon age, fable, infamous, kotor, etc) How to players choose a path? How can ethical theories help us understand the choices we make as players?
- Avatar as extension of their own ethical selfhood– closely linked in terms of gameplay choices; can’t really separate- this is a different person/character who can try this or that– maybe on SECOND playthrough- similar to cheating behaviors after having finished game ‘once through on my own first’
- How are we seeing what we want to see/