Why do i fall for the elf, when i am no orc myself? The ımplıcatıons of vırtual avatars ın dıgıtal communıcatıon

Various recent research on online avatars debated their authenticity in terms of representing the individuals that manage them. Seemingly users would construct an enhanced or idealized presence of themselves online, yet fail to realize that others also do so when seeking information of other users through their avatars. This phenomenon becomes even more curious inside online video game spaces, since video game avatars are already expected to be unrelated with their players but are still seen as sources of information about them. This study approaches the issue as a communication problem and tries to explain the process through Berger’s Uncertainty Reduction Theory (URT). Merging URT with various other nonverbal and visual communication approaches, it is debated how video game avatars – seemingly unrelated or arbitrarily related entitites with their users – become information sources about them. Additionally to elaborate further on the process, the relationship between self and avatars is also analyzed. To create this link, semiotic theories of Saussure and Lacan were expanded and a new approach was proposed. Saussure’s signification process and Lacan’s chains of signification were adapted into digital avatars to define an on-going feedback loop between the video game avatars and the self

Why Do I Fall for the Elf, When I Am No Orc Myself? The Implications of Virtual Avatars in Digital Communication

Various recent research on online avatars debated their authenticity in terms of representing the individuals that manage them. Seemingly users would construct an enhanced or idealized presence of themselves online, yet fail to realize that others also do so when seeking information of other users through their avatars. This phenomenon becomes even more curious inside online video game spaces, since video game avatars are already expected to be unrelated with their players but are still seen as sources of information about them. This study approaches the issue as a communication problem and tries to explain the process through Berger’s Uncertainty Reduction Theory (URT). Merging URT with various other nonverbal and visual communication approaches, it is debated how video game avatars – seemingly unrelated or arbitrarily related entitites with their users – become information sources about them. Additionally to elaborate further on the process, the relationship between self and avatars is also analyzed. To create this link, semiotic theories of Saussure and Lacan were expanded and a new approach was proposed. Saussure’s signification process and Lacan’s chains of signification were adapted into digital avatars to define an on-going feedback loop between the video game avatars and the self

Making Ourselves Visible: Mobilizing Micro-Autoethnography in the Study of Self-Representation and Interface Affordances

Avatar customization and self-representation in games has been widely studied. In this paper, I propose the use of micro-autoethnography as a complementary methodology in such studies. I propose such an approach, theoretically and methodologically informed by Actor-Network Theory, as a way for researchers to situate themselves within their own studies of identity and play in games. I present a micro-autoethnographic study in which I, the researcher, attempt to create the same avatar in eight different Character Creation Interfaces (CCIs), otherwise known as a "trans-ludic" avatar. Implications for a micro-autoethnographic approach to avatar and identity research are discussed

Por que é que hei de apaixonar-me por um duende, quando também não sou nenhum ogre? As implicações dos avatars virtuais na comunicação digital

Diversos estudos recentes sobre avatars online abordam a sua autenticidade em termos da representação das pessoas que os gerem. Supostamente, os utilizadores construirão uma presença melhorada ou idealizada de si mesmos online, sem compreenderem, no entanto, que os outros fazem o mesmo ao procurarem informações de outros utilizadores através dos seus avatars. Este fenómeno torna-se ainda mais curioso no seio dos espaços dos jogos de vídeo online, uma vez que já se espera que os avatars dos jogos de vídeo não estejam relacionados com os seus jogadores, mas ainda são vistos como fontes de informação acerca dos mesmos. Este estudo aborda a problemática da comunicação e procura explicar o processo recorrendo à Teoria de Redução da Incerteza, de Berger (TRI). Agregando a TRI com diversas outras abordagens não verbais e visuais da comunicação, discute-se de que modo os avatars dos jogos de vídeo – aparentemente não relacionados ou arbitrariamente relacionados com os seus utilizadores – se transformam em fontes de informações acerca dos mesmos. Adicionalmente, de modo a elaborar ainda mais o processo, também se analisa a relação entre o próprio e os avatars. Para criar esta associação, aprofundaram-se as teorias semióticas de Saussure e Lacan e propôs-se uma nova abordagem. O processo de significação de Saussure e as cadeias de significação de Lacan foram adaptados aos avatars digitais, de modo a definir um ciclo repetitivo de retorno contínuo entre os avatars do jogo de vídeo e o próprio

Interacting with Masculinities: A Scoping Review

Gender is a hot topic in the field of human-computer interaction (HCI). Work has run the gamut, from assessing how we embed gender in our computational creations to correcting systemic sexism, online and off. While gender is often framed around women and femininities, we must recognize the genderful nature of humanity, acknowledge the evasiveness of men and masculinities, and avoid burdening women and genderful folk as the central actors and targets of change. Indeed, critical voices have called for a shift in focus to masculinities, not only in terms of privilege, power, and patriarchal harms, but also participation, plurality, and transformation. To this end, I present a 30-year history of masculinities in HCI work through a scoping review of 126 papers published to the ACM Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) conference proceedings. I offer a primer and agenda grounded in the CHI and extant literatures to direct future work.Comment: 12 page

Komunikace a komunity ve World of Warcraft: Etnografie gildy

Tato práce je etnografickým pohledem do světa komunit uvnitř počítačových online her žánru MMORPG. Jejím cílem je představení MMORPG jako zajímavého pole pro antropologický výzkum a pohled na fungování herních komunit - hráčských raidicích guild ve hře World of Warcraft. V práci jsou zkoumány otázky toho, jakým způsobem se guildy drží pohromadě, co motivuje hráče k formování takových seskupení a co všechno jim v tom naopak překáží. Při výzkumu byly použity metody zúčastněného pozorování virtuálního prostředí uvnitř hry, zkoumání prostředí v Internetu kolem hry a rozhovory s hráči. Celý výzkum byl proveden online. Klíčová slova: MMORPG, digitální etnografie, digitální antropologie, gildy, World of WarcraftThis thesis is an ethnographic look at the player communities inside of the setting of digital online games in the MMORPG genre. The goal of this work is introducing MMORPG as an interesting and vibrant field for anthropological research. Another goal is an inquiry into player raiding communities in the game World of Warcraft. Thesis is researching questions of what is motivating players to join into guilds, how are they staying together and why do they fall apart. Research was conducted through methods of participant observation inside of the game's virtual environment, interviews with players, and the Internet space formed around the game was also observed. Whole research was conducted online. Key words: MMORPG, digital ethnography, digital anthropology, guilds, World of WarcraftInstitute of EthnologyÚstav etnologieFaculty of ArtsFilozofická fakult

Fantasies of the North: Medievalism and Identity in Skyrim

The primary text of this thesis is Skyrim, a fantasy roleplaying game released in 2011 to huge commercial success and critical acclaim. Through this text, the project explores the intersection of medievalist fantasy, politics, and whiteness. It investigates the parallels between political medievalisms, playful medievalisms, and the ways in which medieval fantasy is used to reinvent or reaffirm white identities. The Middle Ages, as a time period, an imagined geographic space, and an ideological concept, is often nostalgically recalled as a key element in Western nationalism and identity formation. Skyrim provides a major case study through which to interrogate the tropes of medieval fantasy in order to understand how the genre situates itself as a space of creativity and resistance, but in fact maintains conservative social values. Furthermore, it asks how players engage in identity play in medieval fantasy games, and to what extent Skyrim’s politics encourage discussion and reflection. This thesis is highly interdisciplinary in its form and utilises multiple methodologies to explore the construction of the self and the other through medievalism in fantasy. Traditional humanities methods are combined with a survey of players’ narrative choices and modes of identification with characters and factions within Skyrim, as well as analysis of ‘gamer’-activism in popular politics. Ultimately, although the games explored are established to be highly conservative in their modes of racial representation, the thesis finds that players are actively engaged in identity play. Although this is limited in many ways by game design—especially where medieval fantasy genre conventions are heeded—the potential for game worlds to destabilise racial boundaries and provide a space for identity play is acknowledged, opening up several avenues for further research in the fields of enquiry

Distant pointing in desktop collaborative virtual environments

Deictic pointing—pointing at things during conversations—is natural and ubiquitous in human communication. Deictic pointing is important in the real world; it is also important in collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) because CVEs are 3D virtual environments that resemble the real world. CVEs connect people from different locations, allowing them to communicate and collaborate remotely. However, the interaction and communication capabilities of CVEs are not as good as those in the real world. In CVEs, people interact with each other using avatars (the visual representations of users). One problem of avatars is that they are not expressive enough when compare to what we can do in the real world. In particular, deictic pointing has many limitations and is not well supported. This dissertation focuses on improving the expressiveness of distant pointing—where referents are out of reach—in desktop CVEs. This is done by developing a framework that guides the design and development of pointing techniques; by identifying important aspects of distant pointing through observation of how people point at distant referents in the real world; by designing, implementing, and evaluating distant-pointing techniques; and by providing a set of guidelines for the design of distant pointing in desktop CVEs. The evaluations of distant-pointing techniques examine whether pointing without extra visual effects (natural pointing) has sufficient accuracy; whether people can control free arm movement (free pointing) along with other avatar actions; and whether free and natural pointing are useful and valuable in desktop CVEs. Overall, this research provides better support for deictic pointing in CVEs by improving the expressiveness of distant pointing. With better pointing support, gestural communication can be more effective and can ultimately enhance the primary function of CVEs—supporting distributed collaboration

Me, Myself, and Interface: The Role of Affordances in Digital Visual Self-Representational Practices

A growing number of digital games and virtual worlds allow users to create a virtual self, commonly referred to as an ‘avatar.’ Essentially, the avatar is a digital entity which is controlled by the user to attain agency within the virtual world. Avatars are visually customized by users via interfaces, referred to within the body of this work as Character Creation Interfaces (CCIs). CCIs are often framed as tools that are utilized by players to create a desired avatar. In other words, the popular approach is one that is anthropocentric in nature and neglects to take into account the ways in which interface affordances - the action possibilities afforded by an artifact - potentially constrain our interactions with them. In my dissertation, I argue that CCIs co-construct avatars with players. I mobilize Actor-Network Theory in order to re-position these interfaces as actors, rather than benign tools in digital-visual self-representational practices. In order to investigate the interface-as-actor I present an analytical framework: the Avatar Affordances Framework, and apply this framework to 20 CCIs in order to systematically study their affordances. In the second phase of this investigation, I present data on two user studies: the first, a within-subjects study investigating self-representational practices in the Massively-Multiplayer-Onlne-Game (MMOG) Rift (n = 39), the other, a between-subjects study of self-representational practices on the Nintendo WiiU console's MiiCreator (n = 24). Results of these two studies are presented alongside analytical data derived from both interfaces via the Avatar Affordances Framework in order to illustrate how interface affordances are negotiated by players. A final study, an autoethnographic chapter, situates myself within the dissertation as both a researcher and user of the technology, addressing how my own experiences with these games, and my own self-representational practices, have come to shape this research. Data from the aforementioned studies was then utilized in order to generate a list of best practices for game developers. To date, such documentation is absent from game design literature. It is my hope that the practices outlined herein help developers make design choices that invite opportunities for identity play without simultaneously creating socially exclusive spaces