Players and Avatars: Against Identification

1. Players and Avatars: Against Identification Mia Consalvo MIT

2. okay maybe not against all identification

3. but game fiction plays an important role in nudging players towards or away from different kinds of identification, with and without avatars

5. Story 1: Women in World of Warcraft (and Age of Conan)

6. How do women reflect on their avatars and gear?

7. Methodologically speaking…
Female players of WoW and Age of Conan
14 players interviewed
Age range 20-45 years old
Playtime averaged 8-15 hours a week

8. Women MMO players
WoW & AoC players: all had a female ‘main’
Clara “I really identify more with them [female characters] than with males.”

Kyouran “If I’m able to choose the gender and appearance of the character I’ll be living through vicariously, it might as well be one that I would actually like to embody in one way or another.”

Noelove “I picked a Tauren after looking at all the other characters, because I found her body style to be incredibly similar to my own. … I’m very curvaceous, I’m tall … I thought she kind of represented me best.”

11. Male characters?
Designs described as:
Odd
Horrible
Too beefy
Ugly
Too comic book stereotypical

13. Desire for greater customization options in WoW
Barbershop a start
Not extensive enough to make a real difference
Body type changes—relative to class choice
Also desire shift over life of the avatar

14. But players not willing to switch games just for greater avatar choices

15. the issue of gear (or its lack)

16. Audri “it’s a high fantasy game, and if you look at high-fantasy art and you know anything about it, the women are always skimpily dressed. That’s just how it is. It’s never bothered me.”

17. Raven “I sort of feel like it should bother me. But it doesn’t.”

18.
Itsy Bitsy “There are times when I’ve just endlessly bitched and moaned about things that looked horrible … but I’m not going to wear something that’s going to be statistically and performance-wise inferior to something else … It’s like wearing gym clothes to the gym and work clothes to work.”

19.
Louise “I take … satisfaction in wearing something that I was able to make or obtain through some amazing feat of skill.”

22. Women and Avatars
Functional as well as aesthetic considerations
Representationally, conflicting views
Some level of identification is going on– we bring our own interests and demands to our avatars, which helps shape them as well

23. Story 2 The Caretakers of Faunasphere

24. A “Casual” MMO Game
Big Fish Games/Faunasphere
Gender, age, gameplay, beta/new players
Fiction and player activities

27. Data
671 survey responses
Usage data from BFG
Interview with Community Manager
Forum post collection
Player base primarily USA & Canada, but also UK, Australia, some Western Europe and South America

28. Who Played
Gender: 93% female
Age: 26% 45-54
22% 55-64
21% 35-44
Education: 31% Some college
20% Bachelor’s degree

29. Prior Experience
Prior MMO experience: 61% No prior exp.
Of those with experience:
39% have tried/still play World of Warcraft
32% have tried/still play Second Life
Smattering of heavy players of other MMOs, other choices such as Runescape, Travian, Free Realms

30. Not so casual
Playtime:
41% play several times a day
37% play daily
14% play several times a week
Playtime per session:
51% play for more than 2 hours at a time
27% play 1-2 hours per session
11% play 41-60 minutes per session

31. Against typical player types?
Favorite activities in game:
#1: Completing goals [quests]
#2: Breeding Fauna
#3: Leveling up Fauna
#4: Decorating Faunasphere
#5: Interacting with friends

32. Gaming Fiction/ Categories of Analysis
Player activities tied to a game’s fiction
Our categories also tied to fiction
What happens in a game with a different fiction?
Caretakers, powerful avatars, and issues of identification

36. Caretakers, not avatars
“ I spent the last hour with my Fauna, watching them play and feeding and denning them and saying “goodbye.”
“ I spent a little time with each of them. I had them all do their tricks for me and fed them well and made them as happy as I could.”
“ During the last 5 minutes I started throwing all my food from inventory on the ground (did not want anyone to starve) lol and I cried.”

37. Player Reactions
“ Your fauna weren’t simply a bunch of pixels, they were your children. You gave ‘birth’ to them (hatching), you fed them, you cared for them (dens), you taught them things, you shared their foibles with friends as well as their eggs.”
“ It was heartbreaking, sort of like when you have to put a pet to sleep.”

38. Player Reactions
“… look at the premise of the game, it’s about naming and raising pets. In the real world, a good person would never just walk away and abandon their pet, and that’s what BFG made us do. They gave us creatures to love (even if they are only pixels) and then told us they were taking them away from us.”

40. From avatar to caretaker
The fiction of the game pushed players to “see themselves” as the disembodied care giver
Avatars not positioned as source of identification for players
Players still highly invested in avatars/pets, and the game

43. Story 3: Social games: Or, how invested am I in my Facebook avatar while I’m busy using my friends?

44. The project: what’s social about social games?

45. The researchers

46. The Challenge
Test as many social games as possible to identify major mechanics, as well as unusual/interesting additions

47. 80+ games/50 FB for Charts

48. What do I mean by “social”?
Opportunities for interaction(s) by players
Types of interactions
Quality (meaningfulness) of interactions
Opportunities to communicate
NPC interactions offered
Importance of interactions to overall gameplay
Cooperative/Competitive styles
Facilitated for pre-existing “friends” and/or “strangers”

49. Types of Interactions Found
Friend bar lends silent presence of friends/family
Gifting’s different roles
Visiting
Challenge & competition
Communication

50. Surrounded by your friends
Majority of games displayed your friends as a part of your interface, usually at the bottom of your screen
Pictures of your friends/neighbors greet you as you start the game
There’s always a slot to invite another friend to join you
Many games now auto-populate the interface with friends already playing the game
Less tedious than having to invite friends, wait for them to accept, install game, make progress

Friends are ranked, and you are ranked amongst your friends
You can see how your friends are advancing (or not)
You can check your progress relative to your friends
Encourages more casual as well as intense/overt competitiveness, particularly as friends get started, or as levels become tougher to achieve (the TL Effect)
Streamlines how to visit friends/gift friends

Many games include a ‘starter friend’ that is initially more advanced than the player
A goal for the player to aspire to
One possible way to develop in the game
In games with fewer real friends, can be a valuable resource

54. Gifting

55. Gifts
Gifts function in two central ways
Potlatch
Reciprocation

56. Gifts as Potlatch
Impressing Your Friends
Games let players show off their status, (large) bank accounts, advanced levels through gifting

Zoo Kingdom lets player gift some of her actual inventory (this can be dangerous if she doesn’t know she’s actually giving away her own stuff)

Mafia Wars allows higher leveled players to send more advanced/powerful gifts

Mafia Wars also lets player give gifts from their own inventory

Cupcake Corner

Frontierville lets player send items she has crafted to other players who have wished for them

Frequent gifters, or those who respond immediately to requests, can become more valued friends

63. Gifts as reciprocation/barter
If I send you a Ribbon, won’t you send me one back??
Zynga has automated with their toolbar, making process more streamlined

Gifts can be 1-1 (sending a coffee gets a coffee in return) or gifts-for-coins (although returns are normally not that large)

Cityville: Chris offered to serve as Librarian in my Library, so I’ll be sure to return the favor the next time he builds a community structure

66. Gifts as attacks?
Gifts as attacks?
None found! Problem: you must always ‘accept’ gifts, so who would accept an attack? Perhaps send a very valuable gift offer that comes with a potential downside.
Would that still be a gift?

67. Peripheral Gifting
Many/most games offer the ability to send decorative items that players can use, with no real bonus or advantage, or very little, built in

68. City of Wonder

69. Coffee Bar

70. Critical Gifting
Gifts can be essential to completing quests in games

71. Critical Gifting
Gifts might be the only way to acquire particular items (useful or simply decorative)
Recipe elements in Café World

72. Is friendship only about trading stuff?
The less importance the game places on acquiring gifts from friends, the more the game functions as a solo experience (apart from competitive games)

73. Is friendship only about trading stuff?
Is forced gifting the only way to encourage sociality?

74. Visiting
Nearly as ubiquitous as gifting
More variations emerging
Balancing act of letting friends interact in other spaces with controlling access
Most visits assume asynchronicity

75. Won’t you be my neighbor?
Most common trope: Show up, get stuff

76. Ravenwood Fair

77. Chocolatier: Sweet Society

78. Personalized Spaces

79. Taking actions is variable
Actions leave no trace
Actions can add new existing elements
Actions can improve existing elements
Possibility to ‘interact’ with friend while visiting

80. Act on existing world
Fantasy Kingdoms asks the player to tend magical crops, clean up ruins, remove ogre footprints, etc

81. Act on existing world
Pet Society lets you interact with friends’ pets

82. But usually leave no trace

83. Change the existing world
My Vineyard: taste friends’ wine, rate it to increase its value

84. Change the existing world
Stores to sell creations

85. Cityville franchises

86. Fish World

87. Improve on the existing world
Cityville watering crops makes them ripen faster, or can revive withered crops

88. Improve on existing world

89. Improve on the existing world
City of Wonder requires friends to contribute to building of ‘world wonders’

90. Interactions with friends’ avatars
Clean a pet
Go to friend/stranger’s FB Profile
Take pictures of avatars together
Kiss, dance with, hug (other) pet avatars
Brush their horse
YoVille used to allow dancing, joking, hugging, etc
Interactions more likely when avatars are pets

91. Challenges & Competitions
Tournaments & Matches
Predominant in sports games, strategy games
FIFA Superstars; PGA Golf, ESPNU

92. NBA Legend

93. Texas HoldEm Poker

94. Real Time 2 player challenges
Miscrits lets the player challenge strangers in real time

95. Asynchronous challenges
Crazy Caravans, City of Wonder let players challenge strangers as they travel (stat based challenges)

96. Fashion & Popularity Contests

97. Competition & Glory
A few games give glory/fame but no actual achievements/advancements for rising to the top
Isle of Tune allows viewers to rate up/down various island submissions (anonymously on both sides)
?

98. Communication
The majority of games presume an asynchronous experience
Leaving messages in the game world for friends to find
Posting on wall with standardized messages and possibly personalizing them
Dragon Age Legends lets players personalize ‘kill phrase’ which friends will see when they recruit you
Friends’ interactions are mainly through gameplay itself, rather than communication about gameplay

99. Synchronous Communication
A few games offer real time chat:
With friends & strangers (Yoville)

My Vineyard

Kingdoms of Camelot

102. How social are social games?
Friends are a presence in games, but mostly silent
Replicating the ‘bowling alone’ experience of many MMOG players
Friends’ help is mostly transaction based. Very few games utilized friends’ skills in helping players with gameplay
Skill is mostly evidenced in competitions and the building of stats

103. The illusion of sociality?
The more friends you have, the more status you have in a game
More friends let you advance, unlock areas, gain access to particular shiny objects
Friends can inspire competition, whether reciprocated or not
Lapsed friends can be a resource, can signify which of your friends are ‘socially absent’
Friends add content to games through the designed system

104. Sociality
More friends = better
Communication = limited
Interactions = largely scripted, innovating somewhat
Use of sound for interaction?
More creative use of communication?

105. How do avatars fit in?

110. Social (Network) Games
Identity linked more greatly to Facebook profile than avatar
Structure of games works against deep investment in avatar identification
Time played in short bursts
Gifting, visiting, competition as central mechanics
Churn rate
Avatar often meaningless in terms of gameplay

111. Story 4: Players & ethical limitations

112. Ethical choices, players, and avatar identification
Dragon Age; Mass Effect; Fable; Fallout; Elder Scrolls; Knights of the Old Republic
Some games allow avatars to visually change based on player choices
Most shift storyline but no visual cues

113. Ethical choices, players, and avatar identification
Players are allowed to explore different choices, positions, or “identities” with their characters
For some players, this choice is already delimited by their own ethical standards

114. How do players play?
“ I always seem to go good. I can go evil if I force myself to be evil—I really have to force myself to do it, it never comes naturally to me”
“ I generally do good ‘cause it’s easier. ‘Cause that’s how I was raised. Like, for example, it’s easier to be good, ‘cause that’s how you’re trained. ... as a person, but you translate that into gamer world, almost innately.”

115. Evil or just selfish?
“ I was trying to do kind of ‘evil-ish’ things, but when I went into ‘game autopilot’ mode, I would naturally make the good guy choices. And I started to get ‘renowned’ back—good guy points, essentially—and I was like ‘no, I don’t want to do this! Stop it!’”
“ the good guy always wins, the bad guy never wins. It’s the rules. If it’s Batman versus Joker, Batman always wins.”

116. Breaking a contract

117. Player intent can trump fiction

118. Can even MMOGs posit player identification with avatars?

119. Conclusions
Particularly if they can be customized, avatars do matter to players
The fiction of each game will shape a player’s relation to it, and it’s avatars
And sometimes, players reject that fiction, preferring their own values to those of a different play style

120. thanks!
Mia Consalvo
MIT
Twitter: miaC
[email_address]

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Players and Avatars: Against Identification

Mia Consalvo

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