Restricted affordances: Avatar models and capacities for identity (original) (raw)
Related papers
Is My Avatar MY Avatar? Character Autonomy and Automated Avatar Actions in Digital Games
This paper will explore the borders between the avatar and character dimensions of the player figure, as outlined by Vella (2015), particularly in cases where this line is blurred. Through investigation of five different examples, I suggest we use the measures of avatar control and character complexity to study the relationship between avatar and character in a given instance. Avatar control refers to the amount of agency the player has in a given instance in a game compared to the default mode of agency, whereas character complexity builds on transmedia and literary theory approaches to characters, to explore what constitutes complexity of the character in question. The analysis allows us to assess whether the instance can be considered representing either character autonomy or automated avatar actions, and in turn may help us understand the relationship between the player, the avatar, and the character.
This thesis explores the phenomenon of character autonomy, which I define as situations where character complexity is prominent in one or more categories while avatar control is limited or non-existent. Avatar control describes the levels of the player’s control of the avatar in a specific instance under study, while character complexity refers to how characterisation is communicated in that instance. I argue that both concepts can be measured on a four-point scale, ranging from high/full character complexity/avatar control to no character complexity/avatar control. Using the two models, I define various types of character autonomy; cutscenes, forced dialogue, quick-time events, idle animations, unwillingness, and (other) unmotivated actions. These six types are discussed in relation to the concepts of avatar and character to uncover how the two are often interrelated and thus difficult to assess as separate. Various theories from game studies (Lankoski et al, 2003; Vella, 2015), literary studies (Margolin, 1986; Forster, 1985), and transmedia studies (Bertetti, 2014) are used to explore the notion of character in video games and discuss how the model of character complexity can function with the inherent connection between avatar and character. Moreover, I discuss the various approaches to the notions of avatar (Linderoth, 2005; Klevjer, 2007; Bayliss, 2007), player character (Westecott, 2009; Lankoski, 2011), and playable figure (Vella, 2015) to outline how various terminologies are used to make sense of the subject matter, and to critically engage in a discussion of what I refer to as the trinity between player, avatar, and character. The concept of character autonomy is studied through various examples, uncovering how this can easily be mistaken for what I term automated avatar actions and define as actions which are automatically performed by the avatar promoting the player’s focus on game mechanics. Such actions, as for example the act of walking, can be understood as limitations to the player’s agency and hence her avatar control, but have formal functions that are very different from character autonomy. When studied in comparison, the two phenomena illustrate how characters in video games cannot be productively studied as characters in non-ergodic media, as an avatar is in many games necessary for playerinteraction. The avatar may have its own functions and attributes, unrelated to the character it can represent, constituting a paradoxical relationship between the two, where they cannot be studied either in isolation or as one and the same thing. I conclude by arguing that this illustrates how some core concepts such as avatar and character are not sufficiently established to ground a theory of games. Being an interdisciplinary field, game studies, including this very thesis, builds on concepts and theories from other disciplines, especially that of narratology, and while much of this work is productive and relevant for the study of digital games, we must constantly ensure that such concepts are revised as medium-specific. If not, we may easily overlook some of the intrinsic and fundamental elements of the digital, ergodic medium.
Avatar Creation in Videogaming: Between Compensation and Constraint
Games for Health Journal, 2020
Abstract Objective: We examine the extent that videogame avatars provide players with opportunities for identity exploration, aiming to test the findings of self-discrepancy theory research on the user/avatar relationship with novel cognitive anthropological methods. Specifically, we examine if avatar traits are idealized (more representative of players' ideal rather than actual self) or actualized (more representative of players' actual self) as a function of players' self-esteem. Materials and Methods: Utilizing cognitive anthropological methods, we examine the relationship between actual, avatar, and ideal selves. We first asked 21 respondents to list traits they associated with their various selves. We then asked 57 new respondents to perform four pile sorts of the salient items from these lists (1 unconstrained sort of like-traits, and 3 sorts of terms indicative of respondents' ideal/actual/avatar self). Analysis of this “free list” and “pile sort” data allowed us to clarify (in a manner sensitive to gamer culture) relationships between respondents' various conceptions of self, including how those relationships were modified by self-esteem. Illustrative quotes from the interviews further clarified these relationships. Results: Paired t-test analysis shows that informants as a whole describe their avatar compared with actual selves with fewer negative terms (idealization). Low-esteem players actualize what they deem as positive traits onto their avatars, while simultaneously idealizing avatars' negative traits by minimizing them. Compared with low-esteem gamers, high-esteem players associate significantly more positive attributes with all their various selves—actual, avatar, and ideal—while describing avatar compared with actual selves with fewer positive terms and comparable numbers of negative terms (the latter a process of actualization). Conclusion: Results point to the necessity of theoretical accounts that recognize that avatars may reflect a complex relationship with the user's actual and ideal self, without assuming that avatar play frees gamers from offline social, psychological, or bodily constraints.
What is the Avatar? Fiction and Embodiment in Avatar-Based Singleplayer Computer Games. Revised and Commented Edition, 2022
What are the characteristic features of avatar-based singleplayer videogames, from Super Mario Bros. to Grand Theft Auto? Rune Klevjer examines this question with a particular focus on issues of fictionality and realism, and their relation to cinema and Virtual Reality. Through close-up analysis and philosophical discussion, Klevjer argues that avatar-based gaming is a distinctive and dominant form of virtual self-embodiment in digital culture. This book is a revised edition of Rune Klevjer's pioneering work from 2007, featuring a new introduction by the author and afterword by Stephan Günzel, Jörg Sternagel, and Dieter Mersch.
Some Assembly Required: Player Mental Models of Videogame Avatars
Frontiers in Psychology, 2021
In playing videogames, players often create avatars as extensions of agency into those spaces, where the player-avatar relationship (PAR) both shapes gameplay and is the product of gameplay experiences. Avatars are generally understood as singular bodies; however, we argue they are functional and phenomenological assemblages-networks of social and technological components that are internalized by players as networks of knowledge about the avatar. Different PARs are based on different internalizations (i.e., mental models) for what an avatar is and why it matters. Toward illuminating nuances in PARs, we examine the content and structure of players' internalizations of avatars as evidenced by descriptions of those digital bodies. Secondary analysis of N = 1,201 avatar descriptions parceled them by PAR type (avatars as asocial Objects, psychologically merged extensions of Me, hybrid me/other Symbiotes, and authentically social Other). Aggregated descriptions for each PAR type were subjected to semantic network analysis to identify patterns in salient avatar components, and then qualitatively compared across the four PARs. Results indicate component clusters that are universal to PARs (demographics and body features), common to three of four PARs (time, appearance, clothing, and player agency), and idiosyncratic to specific PARs (significance, character narratives, game dynamics, liminality, and gratifications). Findings signal the importance of theoretically engaging avatars as assemblages both (a) influenced by player-avatar sociality and (b) that contribute (in part and whole) to antecedents, processes, and effects of gameplay.