Virtual Avatars: Trans Experiences of Ideal Selves Through Gaming (original) (raw)
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Performative identity and the embodied avatar : an online ethnography of Final Fantasy XIV
This thesis explores the performative enactment of identity and embodiment through an online ethnography of the online game Final Fantasy XIV. It is argued that online identity must be viewed as performative, that is, enacted through speech and action, and embodied via the avatar, which acts as a body project for the player. The avatar identity is also constrained by the notion of authentic identity, which denotes how a single body is expected to hold a single identity. The thesis makes contributions to three areas. Firstly, in substantive terms, the thesis contributes original sociological knowledge of online social interaction, drawn from an online game and its related spaces, which remain under-researched sociologically. Secondly, the thesis makes a theoretical contribution through a theoretical framing of how online, embodied identity is achieved in an online game in a performative fashion, which is centred on the body of the avatar, coupled with the speech and actions of the player. Finally, the thesis also offers a methodological contribution through its original use of photo elicitation in online interviews, and furthers the debates around (online) ethnography. An 11 month programme of fieldwork was undertaken, comprising 36 asynchronous, image elicitation interviews, extensive participant observation of the game over the 11 months, and observation of the official forum lasting nearly six months. The thesis concludes that online identity and embodiment in these spaces are heavily constrained by norms drawn from everyday life, such as heteronormativity, and racism. The game design is also influenced by the developers‟ norms and values, such as the avatar appearance. The possibilities for performative identity and embodiment are severely constrained by the community, who reify the game space as separate from “real” life and reject the inclusion of non-normative avatars.
Embodiment and Gender Identity in Virtual Worlds: Reconfiguring our "Volatile Bodies"
Creating Second Lives Community, Identity and Spatiality as Constructions of the Virtual, 2011
Since the emergence of graphical virtual worlds, such as Second Life (2003) and Entropia Universe (2003), the creation of our second lives in cyberspace no longer relies predominantly on text-based means, as it was in the case of MUDs (Multi-User Dungeons) or MOOs (object oriented MUDs). The focus of the online existence in VWs (virtual worlds) shifted from text-based descriptions to graphical representations of ourselves as avatars and of the virtual reality surrounding us. The customization of our virtual personas (choosing the name, adjusting body parts and selecting clothes) entails above all gender specification. As it turns out, coexisting in virtual communities as avatars, the majority of us seem to project an equivalent of reality onto our cyber bodies. Despite the fact that the Internet itself constitutes a flexible tool, which could be used to implement revolutionary ideas contradicting stable and fixed gender boundaries, the traditionally defined gender 2 identity based on binary oppositions (male versus female; heterosexual versus homosexual) is still being reinforced online. We are more likely to fill the virtual worlds with unusual objects or imaginary scenery than to populate them with gender ambiguous creatures.
New media brought new possibilities for marginalized communities and authors, including videogames. Even though concept of queer scene is not without its problems, the decreasing skill-barrier needed for making their own game and emergence of new, user-friendly game-building tools, a new kind of videogame wave emerged amidst the tranquil sea of mainstream. Autobiographical titles speaking from previously unheard from positions began to flower. What interests me is the intersection of those two movements. Autobiographical games such as Dys4ia or Mainichi shows how videogames can be used by transgender people to express themselves. Yet there exists too little insight into how those work in context of minority mediascape, along personal blogs or self-help community message boards.
Your second selves: avatar designs and identity play in a teen virtual world
2007
Avatars in online games and worlds are seen as players' key representations in interactions with others. It is surprising then that this aspect of game play has not received much attention in research, in particular what concerns playergenerated avatars. In this paper, we investigate the avatar design and identity play within a large-scale teen virtual world called Whyville.net with more than 1.5 million registered players ages 8-16. One unique feature of Whyville is the player's ability to customize one's avatar with various face parts and accessories, all designed and sold by other players in Whyville. Our findings report on the expressive resources available for avatar construction, individual teen players' choices and rationales in creating their avatars, and online postings about avatar design in the community at large. With the growing interest in playergenerated content for online worlds such as Second Life, our discussion will address the role of avatars in identity play and self-representation as well as the social issues that arise within the game world.
2009
Who do people want to be in virtual worlds? Video game players can create their avatars with characteristics similar to themselves, create a superhero that is predominantly designed to win, or chose an in-between strategy. In a quasi-experimental study, players’ strategies of avatar choice were investigated. Participants created an avatar they would like to play with for five game descriptions and two gaming scenarios by choosing from a list of (pre-tested) masculine and feminine avatar features. Additionally, participants chose their avatars’ biological sex. The results reveal a mixed strategy: On the one hand, the avatar’s features were chosen in accordance with the game’s demands to facilitate mastery of the game. On the other hand, players strived for identification with their avatar and thus preferred avatars of their own sex. Participants rated those game descriptions and gaming scenarios more entertaining which required avatar features in line with their own sex role.
Avatars as transitional objects: The impact of avatars and digital objects on adolescent gamers
With practically unlimited opportunities for having fun, the Internet and numerous applications rapidly became favourable means of popular media among members of the younger generation, who enthusiastically embraced the contributions of the new Digital Age. The purpose of the current article is to explore the nature of adolescent gamers’ use of avatars as transitional objects, via employing object-relations theory to understand the psychological use of objects within a digital material culture. Incorporating the psychoanalytic research interview method, the current study builds on in-depth interviews with two adolescent males. By equipping their avatars with special skills, attributes and possessions, users were able to establish their virtual presence, and in turn address and compensate for certain difficulties, shortcomings and anxieties deriving from their offline existence and family conflicts. The avatars were viewed as objects of perfection and collectors of meaningful artefacts, and served as a source of status, recognition and accomplishment; frequently reaching beyond offline realities. Throughout the manuscript, we discuss relevant implications for the field of game studies.
2007
Avatars in online games and worlds are seen as players' key representations in interactions with others. It is surprising then that this aspect of game play has not received much attention in research, in particular what concerns playergenerated avatars. In this paper, we investigate the avatar design and identity play within a large-scale tween virtual world called Whyville.net with more than 1.5 million registered players ages 8-16. One unique feature of Whyville is the player's ability to customize one's avatar with various face parts and accessories, all designed and sold by other players in Whyville. Our findings report on the expressive resources available for avatar construction, individual tween players' choices and rationales in creating their avatars, and online postings about avatar design in the community at large. With the growing interest in playergenerated content for online worlds such as Second Life, our discussion will address the role of avatars in identity play and self-representation as well as the social issues that arise within the game world.
Gaminguistics: Proposing an Ethnography of Communication for Video Game Avatars
Journal of Social Studies Education Research, 2019
This study attempts to revisit the ethnography of communication in video games with avatars as the axis of communication connecting the games and the gamers. Employing Aarseth's textonomy Rehak's avatar's life cycle Lury's prosthetic culture avatar's theory and Hymes' ethnography of communication as the basis of analysis on purposively selected fifty games, the research reveals that ethnography of communication for avatars requires an additional formula from that of Hymes' SPEAKING (Settings and Scenes, Participants, Ends, Act Sequences, Keys, Instrumentalities, Norms, and Genres) due to the prosthetic nature of games; we propose ACTION (Avatars, Communicators, Transmissions, Instruments, Orientations, and Navigations). Avatars, borrowing Aarseth's terms, are textonomically classifiable into interpretive, explorative, configurative, and textonic with four systems and sub classifications for each type. Communicators, referring to the participants invol...
Why is my gaming avatar so 'hot'? Gender Performance in online video games
Through imitation and simulation in video games, gamers are learning a range of cultural roles, both negative and positive in nature. When it comes to gender, more specifically, which games we are attracted to can depend strongly on our gender, and the agency we are given when it comes to learning gaming discourse. Looking past the notion that ‘boy games’ and ‘girl games’ exist and that gender is the only influence for choosing the kind of game one interacts with, a difference in gaming interaction becomes more prevalent. While many female gamers play ‘boy games,’ their interaction with these male-centric games, and the male gaming world as a whole, involves a great deal of reinterpreting digital identities. This chapter will explore the complicated space of gender representation in gaming, and how girls and women learn to negotiate the creation of digital identities when designing an avatar themselves is not an option. Exploring the online 'real time strategy' game League of Legends, I argue that female gamers are forced to interact with a male-created gender identity far different from their own self image when gaming. When game creators allow players selected options of representation in the game, players, both male and female, must negotiate the images of their avatars with the strategic benefits of the character they've chosen. By including the idea that “the body is the inscribed surface of events”, the female game characters, and their digital representation of individual players, are spaces of exclusion that expose young people to distorted views of digital identities and the physical representation of those identities.