User talk:Cheech16

The visual representation of oneself is a critical factor in the experience of online social mediums. As a process of this we have these subtopics, personality balance emotions and feelings and to play to be remembered for the customization of their identity.The use of online games have done nothing but sky rocket off the charts since there creation in 1973 with PLATO’s first game “Empire”. That was until games like “World of Warcraft” that was released November 23, 2004. Recently within the past year or two “World of Warcraft” has gone down in ratings and players in general. But in its place other popular 3-D games such as “IMVU” (September 15, 2005) and “Second Life (June 23, 2003)” have come to par with the gaming society to a whole new level. Yet no matter which game you decide to play in the first step after creating an account is to create your Avatar. Which leads to the question, do people play these games to be remembered by the customization of their Avatars identities? Depending on the game you choose to play, there may be different motives for why it attracts you in the first place. With 2-D visual games, like “World of Warcraft”, “Lord of the Rings”, etc MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game), the appeal for these comes from the yearning for a deeper connection to bond with friends, family, and overall strangers. “What keeps you in the game is the thrill and excitement of defeating the different types of bosses and the ability to try and improve my character”; claims veteran WOW player, Maroics, raid leader of one of the top three guilds of 2006-2009. Sitting down with another person who plays MMORPGs to find out if he plays for the customization of the Avatars; his response was “That I personally do not play video games to be remembered by their facial appearance or their hairstyles, but I do believe that when you put so much time into a video game to gain certain types of gear that in a sense you do become remember for how your character looks.”, veteran WOW player Qunon. From playing IMVU, “I believe that customization of your Avatar was a very big deal, because even though it was just a chatting game, people judged you the most off of what your character wore and what they could afford.” said, TaylorTay16. Emotional Balance Sherry Turkle, the Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at MIT, claims that users often choose a virtual life that represents their notion of ‘ideal self. For example, an obese person may create a thin character in the virtual world, or a poor person may experience a rich person’s life style in online social medium. Creating the avatar is the first step for them to escape the ‘real life’. A case study developed by Turkle describes a man named Peter who couldn’t go out and socialize due to his heart condition, but Peter has found the way to overcome this by creating a virtual identity on an Multi-User Dungeon or Dimension (Turkle 1997a, p.161) The virtual community provided Peter the experiences of “Friendship” and “intimacy”; his online character played an crucial role of connecting him with the virtual world and provided him with the emotional balance which he could hardly find in other ways. The Avatar not only provides a person the balance between his actual self and ideal self but also the balance of different aspects of his identity, according to the research done by Turkle. Case, a forty three year old male business manager, played the role of a female in virtual communities. According to what Case said, he could experience “aggressive and confrontational" aspects of his identity (Turkle 1997b, p.79). Case couldn’t show these traits in his daily life as they were socially undesirable for males, but desirable traits for female, but by playing a confrontational female character in a virtual environment Case could express this side of his identity without getting embarrassed.

Harris, Stephen. "Working Through Personal Identity Issues Using Virtual Communities and Networks - Online Conference on Networks and Communities." Home - Online Conference on Networks and Communities. 23 Apr. 2010. Web. 02 Mar. 2011. . Maroics. "Visual Representation." Personal interview. 20 Feb. 2011. TaylorTay16. "Visual Representation." Personal interview. 20 Feb. 2011. Qunon. "Visual Representation." Personal interview. 20 Feb. 2011.