close intimate playthings? understanding player-avatar relationships as a function of attachment,...
Upload: west-virginia-university-department-of-communication-studies
Post on 02-Dec-2014
2.191 views
DESCRIPTION
Central to research on video games and virtual worlds is the player-avatar relationship (PAR): the interaction between a corporeal person and a digital body. Research perspectives on the nature of this relationship vary, suggesting it to be: a feature of social presence (de Kort, IJsselsteijn, & Poels, 2007), a function of emotional intimacy and perceived agency (Banks, in progress), identification with avatar personae (Yee, Bailenson, & Ducheneaut, 2009), and a merging of player and avatar psyches (Lewis, Weber, & Bowman, 2008). Yet, each recognizes that there are real physical humans and real digital avatars interacting in digital spaces. The following study uses in-depth player interviews to integrate Banks (in progress) and Lewis et al.’s (2008) perspectives to provide a more comprehensive understanding of PARs and suggests how a more integrative approach might aid our understanding of the gaming experience from an entertainment perspective. Citation: Banks, J. D., & Bowman, N. D. (2013, October). Close intimate playthings? Understanding player-avatar relationships as a function of attachment, agency, and intimacy. Paper to be presented at the annual meeting of Association of Internet Researchers, Denver.TRANSCRIPT
Close intimate playthings?
Understanding player-avatar relationships as a function of attachment,
agency, and intimacy
Jaime Banks@amperjay
Nicholas D. Bowman@bowmanspartan
Avatar:“An interactive, social representation
of a user.”
Meadows, 2008
Avatars are …Possibilities (Markus & Nurius, 1986; Nakamura, 2002) Bricolage (Turkle, 1997)Rhetorical acts (Kolko, 1999)Vehicles (Carr, 2002)Bundles of resources (Castronova, 2005)Tools, roles, and props (Linderoth, 2005)Surrogates (Gee, 2006)Masks (Galanxhi & Nah, 2007, in Schultz & Leahy) Totems (Apter, 2008)Symbolic objects (Giddings & Kennedy, 2008)Costumes (Merola & Pena, 2010)
Player-avatar (para)relationships
• Attachment• Identification• Proteus Effect (reverse)
“one-sided, non-dialectical, and controlled by the performer” ~Horton & Wohl, 1956
Character Attachment
• “Psychological Merging”• Dimensions
o Identification/friendshipo Suspension of disbeliefo Sense of controlo Sense of care/responsibility Past work demonstrates:
Highest in RPGs (Weber et al., 2008)
Associated with pro- and anti-social gaming (Bowman et al.,
2012)Drives enjoyment and
appreciation experiences (Bowman et al., 2013)
Player Avatar Relationships
Relationship = valenced connection between two people
where each party influences the other
Burscheid & Peplau, 1983Harvey & Pauwels, 2009
AGENTS
Player-Avatar Relationships
• Two-sided, dialectical, mutual agency• Dimensions
o Emotional intimacyo Perceived agencyoGameplay practices
PAR Types
Object Me Symbiote
Other
Research Question
How do dimensions of CA (parasocial)
map to PAR types (social)?
Method• Transcripts from in-depth
interviewsoVoice interview + play interviewo 25 World of Warcraft playerso~70 hours audio 1,500 pp transcripts
• Thematic narrative analysisoCA dimensionso Known PAR types (previous analysis)
ResultsAvatar as
ObjectAvatar as
MeAvatar as Symbiote
Avatar as Social Other
Identification
Low High Mid Low
Suspension of disbelief
Low Mid Mid High
Sense of Control
High Mid Mid Low
Sense of care/responsibility
Low Mid Mid High
CA: Identification
Low“I know who I am and so an avatar on a screen is not going to be me.”
Medium “She’s just kind of that part of me that I don’t allow to come out in… real life.”
High“He's just kind of more my style than others … Dwarves are kind of rough and tumble, and I'm a little that way.”
CA: Suspension of Disbelief
Low
“I’m a woman in real life. … Well, I’m not a guy in real life. But then I’m not a Paladin in real life, either, so. I don’t really see whether that should matter.”
Medium
“I’d just go into the park and find a tree and just kind of chill. Same thing I do in Org. I’m around people … but in my own world enjoying it.”
High
“I always kind of envisioned his retirement, sort of golden years, as patrolling in the Barrens. He was tasked by the Warchief to lend aid to the young’uns.”
CA: Sense of Control
Low“I know his voice, I know his stance and I will frequently make choices in-game based on how I know he would act.”
Medium“I think as long as the game is a place that people can interface with each other with pixels … I think that I'll continue to play it.”
High
“I feel like I have a lot more control over the success of a group [as a healer] than I did as just a damage dealer and it’s much more engaging.”
CA: Sense of Care/Responsibility
Low
“[When I’m raiding] I feel kind of a responsibility. You have 24 other people counting on you or 9 other people counting on you.”
Medium“Someone had hacked my account … I felt really violated … like somebody had taken something from me.”
High“His entire family died. He barely escaped and had to learn how to take care of himself.”
ResultsAvatar as
ObjectAvatar as
MeAvatar as Symbiote
Avatar as Social Other
Identification
Low High Mid Low
Suspension of disbelief
Low Mid Mid High
Sense of Control
High Mid Mid Low
Sense of care/responsibility
Low Mid Mid High
Self-differentiation
LowHig
h
ResultsAvatar as
ObjectAvatar as
MeAvatar as Symbiote
Avatar as Social Other
Identification
Low High Mid Low
Suspension of disbelief
Low Mid Mid High
Sense of Control
High Mid Mid Low
Sense of care/responsibility
Low Mid Mid High
Human-Tech RelationshipsFrom user-used to “we”
Tools
Bundles o
f res
ourc
es
V
ehicl
es
C
ostu
mes
/mas
ks
Rhet
orica
l act
s
Surro
gates
To
tem
s
Bric
olage
Role
s
Symboli
c objec
ts
P
ossib
ilities
………….Social self-differentiation
Entertainment gratifications
• Entertainment is (Oliver & Raney, 2010)o Enjoyment: Pleasure of Control o Meaningfulness: Pleasure of Cognition
• Self-differentiation seems key to stimulating “authentic” meaningfulness
Authentic emotional intimacy requires self-differentiation (Bowen,1978)
Future Research• Language patterns (signatures)• PARs through levels of ‘realism’• Moderating effects?o Impact of educational gameso Influences on identity performanceoExperiences of violent contentoPower of mood management
Jaime Banks@amperjay
Nick Bowman@bowmanspartan