Choosing My Avatar & the Psychology of Virtual Worlds: What Matters?

Avatars and virtual worlds have become commonplace across the Internet in recent years through the development of the gaming industry and social media technology. The technology involved in virtual environments is becoming more accessible to the general public, and software for creating avatars or participating in virtual worlds can be found free online. Virtual worlds are used not only for recreation, but are also increasingly used for other purposes, such as education, marketing, and meeting places. We are finding new ways to represent ourselves online for various purposes. Recent research in psychology has shown that social phenomena in virtual worlds are comparable to real life experiences. For example, interpersonal distance and eye gaze are demonstrated in interactions with avatars in a manner similar to human interactions in the real world (Yee, Bailenson, Urbanek, Chang, & Merget, 2007). These experiences occur when individuals feel embodied by their avatar, or consider their avatar as an extension of themselves manifested in a particular virtual world. When utilizing this technology, an individual’s motivations and intentions may affect the appearance of the avatars they choose to represent themselves. In this study, we are examining the relationships between background attributes of virtual world users and the nature of the avatars used for self-representation in a specific virtual social context. We surveyed a sample population of college students on personality, use of communication technologies and social media, and gaming experience. Then, we presented those students with an array of pre-selected avatar choices for them to choose for representation in different virtual social situations. We intend to analyze whether the surveyed attributes of participants influence avatar embodiment and whether social context affects their choice of preferred avatars. By better understanding how participants select avatars and how avatars affect the virtual world experience, we hope to discover ways to better use virtual world technology for education and positive social connections

Avatar actors

In this text I wish to discuss, as well as illustrate through pictorial examples, how the Live Visuals of three dimensional online virtual worlds may be leading us into participatory and collaborative Play states during which we appear to become the creators as well as the actors of what may also be described as our own real-time cinematic output. One of the most compelling of these stages may be three dimensional, online virtual worlds in which avatars create and enact their own tales and conceptions, effectively bringing forth live, participatory cinema through Play

Diversity and the Virtual Workplace: Performance Identity and Shifting Boundaries of Workplace Engagement

This article explores the meaning of workplace discrimination where reality meets the imaginary world in virtual work settings. Using a more recent development in the realm of virtual work--workplace avatars--the article considers the impact on law of virtual performance identity by workers where appearances can be altered in virtual reality. Current protected-class approaches to antidiscrimination law have not served as the antidote to workplace bias and exclusion. Thus, the article investigates whether avatar technology holds promise for facilitating greater inclusion of marginalized workers in the contemporary workplace. Does this mode of virtual work serve as a platform for diversity or simply create more confusion regarding our fundamental understandings of discrimination? The author\u27s premise is that the mechanics of online identity and the social and behavioral dynamics of virtual engagement produce a new locus for bias to flourish. While the virtual workplace holds some appeal for promoting broader acceptance within organizations, the article claims that avatar-based virtual work environments do not constitute unconditional and neutral spaces. Overall, the article takes an optimistic stance toward immersive environments in the employment context. However, it cautions that avatars create interpersonal dynamics that are just as dangerous to notions of belonging in the contemporary workplace as their physical counterparts. The author posits that the multidimensionality of identity in this context illuminates the limitations of the categorical approach to antidiscrimination law and concludes that the avatar makes the case for intersectionality theory in workplace law

Diversity and the Virtual Workplace: Performance Identity and Shifting Boundaries of Workplace Engagement

This article explores the meaning of workplace discrimination where reality meets the imaginary world in virtual work settings. Using a more recent development in the realm of virtual work--workplace avatars--the article considers the impact on law of virtual performance identity by workers where appearances can be altered in virtual reality. Current protected-class approaches to antidiscrimination law have not served as the antidote to workplace bias and exclusion. Thus, the article investigates whether avatar technology holds promise for facilitating greater inclusion of marginalized workers in the contemporary workplace. Does this mode of virtual work serve as a platform for diversity or simply create more confusion regarding our fundamental understandings of discrimination? The author\u27s premise is that the mechanics of online identity and the social and behavioral dynamics of virtual engagement produce a new locus for bias to flourish. While the virtual workplace holds some appeal for promoting broader acceptance within organizations, the article claims that avatar-based virtual work environments do not constitute unconditional and neutral spaces. Overall, the article takes an optimistic stance toward immersive environments in the employment context. However, it cautions that avatars create interpersonal dynamics that are just as dangerous to notions of belonging in the contemporary workplace as their physical counterparts. The author posits that the multidimensionality of identity in this context illuminates the limitations of the categorical approach to antidiscrimination law and concludes that the avatar makes the case for intersectionality theory in workplace law

Breaching bodily boundaries: posthuman (dis)embodiment and ecstatic speech in lip-synch performances by boychild

Employing a sci-fi inspired aesthetic, queer, black, trans artist, boychild presents audiences with a future vision of human embodiment. Strobe lighting makes her appear fragmented or as if she were a hologram. An electronic light flickers behind her teeth. Her eyes are obscured by whited-out contact lenses. boychild’s is a body interfaced with technology. She is imaged as non-human, cyborgian. Whilst boychild considers her onstage persona to be female, her body reads ambiguously. Transgressing demarcations between the supposedly polarised categories of organic/machine, male/female, the queer form of embodiment she presents is posthuman. Implementing the theoretical principles of Rosi Braidotti’s anti-humanist concept of the posthuman and Donna Haraway’s cyborg politics, I argue that boychild’s engagement with the posthuman does not end with aesthetics, rather it extends to the plotting of a posthuman politics, posing a radical challenge to heteronormative body politics. Theorising boychild’s lip-synch performances, I argue for her style of performance as a technologised form of ventriloquism, as she ‘speaks’ with the voice of another or the voice of another speaks through her. Using Mladen Dolar’s and Slavoj Žižek’s psychoanalytical philosophies in conjunction with Steven Connor’s literature on ventriloquism, I unpick the intricacies of presence and power inherent to her ‘voice’ and indicate its broader political implications

Player attitudes to avatar development in digital games: an exploratory study of single-player role-playing games and other genres

Digital games incorporate systems that allow players to customise and develop their controllable in-game representative (avatar) over the course of a game. Avatar customisation systems represent a point at which the goals and values of players interface with the intentions of the game developer forming a dynamic and complex relationship between system and user. With the proliferation of customisable avatars through digital games and the ongoing monetisation of customisation options through digital content delivery platforms it is important to understand the relationship between player and avatar in order to provide a better user experience and to develop an understanding of the cultural impact of the avatar. Previous research on avatar customisation has focused on the users of virtual worlds and massively multiplayer games, leaving single-player avatar experiences. These past studies have also typically focused on one particular aspect of avatar customisation and those that have looked at all factors involved in avatar customisation have done so with a very small sample. This research has aimed to address this gap in the literature by focusing primarily on avatar customisation features in single-player games, aiming to investigate the relationship between player and customisation systems from the perspective of the players of digital games. To fulfill the research aims and objectives, the qualitative approach of interpretative phenomenological analysis was adopted. Thirty participants were recruited using snowball and purposive sampling (the criteria being that participants had played games featuring customisable avatars) and accounts of their experiences were gathered through semi-structured interviews. Through this research, strategies of avatar customisation were explored in order to demonstrate how people use such systems. The shortcomings in game mechanics and user interfaces were highlighted so that future games can improve the avatar customisation experience

Investigating VTubing as a Reconstruction of Streamer Self-Presentation: Identity, Performance, and Gender

VTubers, or Virtual YouTubers, are live streamers who create streaming content using animated 2D or 3D virtual avatars. In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number of VTuber creators and viewers across the globe. This practise has drawn research attention into topics such as viewers' engagement behaviors and perceptions, however, as animated avatars offer more identity and performance flexibility than traditional live streaming where one uses their own body, little research has focused on how this flexibility influences how creators present themselves. This research thus seeks to fill this gap by presenting results from a qualitative study of 16 Chinese-speaking VTubers' streaming practices. The data revealed that the virtual avatars that were used while live streaming afforded creators opportunities to present themselves using inflated presentations and resulted in inclusive interactions with viewers. The results also unveiled the inflated, and often sexualized, gender expressions of VTubers while they were situated in misogynistic environments. The socio-technical facets of VTubing were found to potentially reduce sexual harassment and sexism, whilst also raising self-objectification concerns.Comment: Under review at ACM CSCW after a Major Revisio

Avatar Kinect: Drama in the Virtual Classroom among L2 Learners of English

This study presents a qualitative approach to exploring classroom behaviour using dramaturgical analysis of student interactions in relation with, and as mediated through, a gesture-based gaming software among L2 learners of English at two international branch campuses in the Arabian Gulf where face-to-face interactions between unrelated members of the opposite sex are generally discouraged. We investigated whether Avatar Kinect might provide a safe way for young males and females to interact while discussing social issues in a composition course. Data were collected through personal observation and survey. Five key themes emerged from the study. First, some participants chose to perform at front stage and others chose to remain back stage. Second, front stage participants chose avatars with gender and skin colour similar to themselves. Third, all participants appeared to be engaged in the interactive role play processes and with one another. Fourth, front stage actors appeared to act without inhibition. Finally, all participants expressed frustration with technology shortcomings