Audition: Do you love me or my virtual body? – capability of reconstructing players’ identities

26/04/2010 FransiscaMS 43 comments

Nowadays Cyber space has become a crucial part in people’s daily lives wherein most of the users are escaping online from the exact reality and intentionally created another different kind of identities due to breaking away the problems which they faced in real lives. Therefore, some people might choose to escapes online into the virtual communities like online game. Online game is a part from a virtual world and built up a community online among players, inside this virtual communities, ‘players are capable to reconstructs their identities through character from the game in favour of maintain social relationship‘.

In further this essay will explains the motives and ways behind the reconstructing of player’s identities, for instance the relations between online game and socialising, the reasons from reconstructing their identities, the difficulties headed for recognizing someone identities (anonymity, invisibility, multiplicity), the ways how players are able to represent strong image of their identities through the character game (both psychical and psychological), and draws one examples from online game called Audition Online.

Understanding a person’s identity in virtual communities is a crucial matter, we need to understand a person’s identity that we have been socialising and communicating with. Hence, there are strong relationship between person’s identity and virtual communities according to Judith S. Donath:

“Identity plays a key role in virtual communities. In communication, which is the primary activity, knowing the identity of those with whom you communicate is essential for understanding and evaluating an interaction. Yet in the disembodied world of the virtual community, identity is also ambiguous” (Donath, 1999).

Therefore, knowing the identity of a person in virtual communities is essential due to maintain a good relationship through knowing, recognizing, and understanding well the person whom we have been interacting with. In virtual community, interactions among online game players is the main keys of communication, nevertheless inside this world people were able to reconstruct themselves in dissimilar ways as diverse identities and yet constantly hard to identify because of difficulties in terms of defining someone’s real identity, and besides as has been said by Donath that identity also ambiguous, therefore players are capable to reconstruct their identities inside online game.

Online game is a one part of virtual communities, Riding and Gefen explained that Virtual communities existed and have been characterized through people whom shared similar interest and goals, wherein as mainly they are communicating and interacting all the way through the electronic communication as the primary form. Virtual communities as well define as a group of people who meet regularly to discuss the same subject of interest among members, and these groups are brought together by shared interests or a geographic bond, yet in this term the virtual community indicates the nonexistence of physical place. According to Catherine M. Ridings and David Gefen “The term of virtual itself means that the primary interaction is electronic or enabled by technology”, Thus this type of computer-mediated communication (CMC) allows players to locate and communicate between another players which is have similar interest, therefore they are forming a virtual communities and creating social society which emerge from the Net along with sufficient human feeling to forming personal relationships in cyberspace (Ridings, & Gefen, 2004).

By relating what Riding and Gefen had explained and the concept of online game, this community had been built in reason of same interest and goals between players, and by drawing on Audition online game, players have common interests by having dance competition, building their reputation through competing their character’s avatars, and showing the skills and abilities they have based on the level of their character. Thus, as the results from these interactions, players were socialising through one another and forming relationship in cyberspace.

Hence, to maintain a relationship with other players, a particular person will be able to reconstructs and creates one or even multiple characters to represents themselves and attracts other player’s attentions. Since people are free to reconstruct their identities, they could create any characters which are close to themselves or as the opposite from themselves. In fact, players are able to create character they wish to be or they cannot be in their real lives. As Turkle mentioned: “For virtual reality to be interesting it has to emulate the real. But you have to be able to do something in the virtual that you couldn’t in the real” (Turkle, 1997). Therefore, through the game players are able to reconstructs as well represents themselves as anonymous characters and play different roles to be someone else they desired to or else someone who is unable to be in real lives toward performs any social relationship.

Social relationship or friendships in virtual communities basically becomes the main attraction besides entertainments provided by the game, thus players reconstructing their identities through the characters to maintain any personal relationship with others. Therefore, according to Catherine M. Ridings and David Gefen (2004):

“Friendship in virtual communities can provide additional benefits beyond that of information exchange and social support. The feeling of being together and being a member of a group of friends comes with the notions of being part of a group, spending time together, companionship, socialising, and networking. Friendship in this context is about the value of being together, unlike social support that deals with seeking emotional help or helping others” (Ridings, & Gefen, 2004).

As relating into the quotation mention above, Riding and Gefen theory will be apply and drew on Audition game. By playing this game simultaneously, each player will had feeling from being together as member of a same group while spending their time together in companionship, socialising, networking, and putting the friendship for the main value of being together. Friendship or personal relationship therefore becomes the main motivation to reconstructing player’s identities for attracting and seeking another attention.

As referring into online game, Audition online are applying the same type as the Multi-Users Dungeons (MUDs) which is refer to all various kinds. According to Turkle: “ MUDs as a social interaction in a virtual space, worlds in which we can present ourselves as a character, we can be anonymous, and we can play a role as close or as far away from ourselves as we choose to” (Turkle. 1997). Furthermore, MUDs is a part of virtual community as well whereupon individuals are plays and develop friendship In MUDs, and those who did not have friendships in real lives are tend to spend more time inside the virtual community. Friendship developments in MUDs are one of main motivation for joining the game, consequently establishing any friendships or personal relationships through a virtual community is a major reason why people join the online game (Ridings, & Gefen, 2004)

Afterwards, Virtual reality is not real but it relates to the real lives, based on the games which exist today, players are exploring, constructing, and reconstructing their identities. This online game underscores the ways in which players construct gender and themselves, the ways in which they become what they play, argue about, and build, therefore according to Sherry Turkle (1997):

“Virtual communities such as MUDs are the most dramatic example of the way the culture of simulation challenges traditional notions of human identity – When we live through our electronic self-representations we have unlimited possibilities to be many, people become masters of self-representations and self-creation” (Turkle, 1997).

By relating into the statement above, Players were free to reconstruct their identities through electronics self-representations, they have chance and possibilities to be many, and they might become masters of self-representations and self-creation by creating anonymity, invisibility, and multiplicity identities in Audition online.

The Muds (Audition Online) consisted of several different version of game (UK, US, SEA, EU) and been spread out and play on several different region (South Korea, Japan, China, Philippines, South East Asia, Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan, Hong Kong, North America, Latin America, Indonesia, Brazil, Europe). This game allows players to freely create their character for representing themselves, and as they are able to reconstruct the identities they would represents different identities than previously they had (both personally and physically of the characters), And as been mentioned by Turkle that we can present ourselves as a character, we can be anonymous, and we can play a role as close or as far away from ourselves as we choose to (Turkle, 2007).

Audition allows every players to reconstructs any character they wish they want to be, and what is more they were able to hide the real identity by changing the gender of the character from the game, as proposed by Turkle : “In virtual reality, whereby men may play the roles of women and women the roles of men” (Turkle, 1997). There are some reasons why players are reconstructing their characters identities, for instance while relates to gender changing from the character: it as practices of their personal issues which deal to the feminine or the masculine inside their own personality. “Gender swapping has dealt with how female characters are besieged with attention, sexual advances, and unrequested offers of assistance which imply that women can’t do things by themselves” (Turkle, 1997).

By referring back to Turkle statement, mostly founded that male players are often swap their gender and playing as female characters in order to expect sexual favours in return for technical assistance. In Audition case, the gender swapping happens to obtain any avatars gifts, as well give way to while competing each other (during the dance competition), therefore the particular female character will be able to win and obtain more experiences which is needed due to leveling matters in the game. As any references backup, boyd’s statistic are represents which founded that male players are often swap their gender characters (2007 ):

“Genders appear to influence participation on social sites. Younger boys are more likely to participate then younger girls (46% vs. 44%) but older girls are far more likely to participate than older boys (70% vs. 57%). Older boys are twice as likely to use the sites to flirt and slightly more likely to use the sites to meet new people than girls of their age” (Boyd, 2007).

Another statement from Turkle: “They create characters who have casual and romantic sex, who fall in love and get married, who attend rituals celebrations. “This is more real life than my real life”, says a character who turns out to be a man playing a woman” (Turkle, 1997). By reflecting on what Turkle had said: Audition allows players to communicate each other and creates various kind of online relationship, for instance as online partner, as online guild (be member of the guild), as online couples, and even as rival or online enemy as well. Audition provides online community whereupon players could interact from one to another and maintains any relationships. Hence, by spending time playing together and following several event that been held online, players will grow up their feeling to another, they are able to get married as couples, they are also able to create more strong bounds for being the same group member or same guild member, thus players were reconstructing their identities in order to maintain any social relationship with other players.

Besides changing the gender, players could characterize themselves by using different avatars and items from the game, for instance: Hairs items, Face items, Clothes items (Tops, Bottoms, and Set), Shoes items, Pets items, and different Movements. By looking from these avatars, players would be able to differentiate and represents their own unique personality. Gender swapping and character attributes are two parts of several ways reconstructing player’s identities. What is more, by looking from the avatars attributes other player would get attracted due to the avatars values, while in this term more expensive the avatars used on the characters, means more higher reputation based on financial of players have, in which as one of the main aspects to be proud of in this game are to built any reputation by spotlighting to wealth matters and leveling matters (represent player’s skills on the game, more higher the levels more advanced the skills they have). As results, players were able to reconstructs any strong image by reflecting on character attributes, character personality (feminine, masculine), skills and abilities they have.

In relation of skills and abilities representations, Audition provides several different ways, as for instances, players are the ruler where they are able to create a room and manage the room setting by themselves, the creator for the room called DJ, this person could manage different setting such as; having capability to invite and kick out other players into the room, capability to changes the songs BPM (song’s BPM [beats per minute] will determine song’s difficulty), capability to change the mode of the battle, capability to set the chance level, capability to set the room into public or private rooms, and capability to create the passwords for the room. Hence, particular rooms are presenting important roles, whereby people would start attracts other attention in order to show off their playing game skills, abilities and avatars to represent their reconstructed identities.

“We use our bodies to project information about ourselves. This is done through movement, clothes, speech, and facial expressions. What we put forward is out best effort at what we want to say about who we are” (boyd, 2007). Thus, this game provide graphic movements by showing of various dancing styles, various avatars, various speech personality where players able to talks and chats online, and various facial expressions where players could shows their feeling by represent the face avatar or using any emoticons provided. Moreover, “Text, Images, audio, and video all provide valuable means for developing a virtual presence” (Boyd, 2007). This game as well provides text, images, audio, and video as main attraction and evidences for developing this virtual presence of how every reconstructed character are existed.

Further, Audition provides player with anonymity, invisibility, and potential multiplicity identities. Due to this reasons players will reconstructs some specific characters based on they own desires. “You are the character and you are not the character both at the same time, and you are who you pretend to be – we are not limited by our histories, that we can be recreated or can recreate ourselves” (Turkle, 1997).

Anonymous means player creates their character as their only identity on the game, their character need not have real gender or share any recognizable feature, players were able to be who they wants and play with no concern in real life for their actions, quarrels, or relationships from the game. Invisible means ‘The created character can have any physical description and will be responded to as a function of that description “The plain can experience the self presentation of great beauty: the nerdy can be elegant; the obese can be slender” And Last, Multiplicity means Players allows creating several characters, playing out and playing with different aspects of themselves (Turkle, 1997).

In conclusion, players are capable to reconstructs their identities through character from online game to maintain any social relationship. They are able to reconstructs their identities because of several difficulties defining player’s identities (anonymity, invisibility, multiplicity, ambiguous, gender swapping, and strong images of identities they have been presented [characters attributes, characters personality, skills and abilities].

REFERENCES

Audition AyoDance – Dance Battle Game Online Indonesia. (2010). Retrieved March 29, 2010, from http://ayodance.megaxus.com/index/index.php

Audition Online Dance Battle. (2010). Retrieved March 29, 2010, from http://au.mmosite.com/

Audition Online. (2010). Retrieved March 29, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audition_Online

boyd, d. (2007). Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life. In D. Buckhingham (Ed.), MacArthur Foundation Series on digital Learning Youth, Identity, and Digital Media Volume. Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press. Retrieved March 29, 2010, from http://www.danah.org/papers/WhyYouthHeart.pdf

Donath, S. (1999). Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community. Retrieved March 29, 2010, from http://smg.media.mit.edu/people/Judith/Identity/IdentityDeception.html

Ridings, C., & Gefen, D. (2004). Virtual Community Attraction: Why People Hang Out Online. New York: Routledge. Retrieved March 29, 2010, from http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol10/issue1/ridings_gefen.html

Turkle, S. (1997). Construction and Reconstructions of Self in Virtual Reality: Playing in the MUDs. In S. Kiesler (Ed.), Culture of the Internet. Hilldale, NJ: :awrence Erlbaum Associates. Retrieved March 29, 2010, from http://www.mit.edu/~sturkle/pdfsforstwebpage/ST_Construc%20and%20reconstruc%20of%20self.pdf

Turkle, S. (1997). Multiple Subjectivity and Virtual Community at the End of the Freudian Century. Retrieved March 29, 2010, from http://www.mit.edu/~sturkle/pdfsforstwebpage/ST_Multiple%20Subjectivity.pdf

Wellman, B., & Gulia, M. (1997). Net Surfers Don’t Ride Alone: Virtual Communities As Communities. Retrieved March 29, 2010, from http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman/publications/netsurfers/netsurfers.pdf

Identity in Communities and Networks avatars, gender swapping, identity, multiplicity, relationship, virtual communities

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Comments

Written by us open tickets 2011 about 4 months ago. Reply

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Written by ESutton about 2 years ago. Reply

Hi,
I really like the topic you have chosen. Not being very much into online games or MMORPG’s I found your discussion of the reconstruction of identity interesting in regards to the use of an avatar to contain, promote and control the the user experience.

In your paper you mentioned a quote from Sherry Turkle about online being more real than real life, from your experiences in Audition Online or another similar game do you think this is a good thing or bad? Your paper didn’t seem to take a side. Or is it more often a crutch used by users who cannot deal with the real world?

Do you think is it possible to use such a game to benefit a user and promote a healthy perception of self? Being a dancing game I can hardly imagine it promoting healthy body images and exercise, but do you think it possible it could promote such benefits?

Thanks,
Emelia
- Written by FransiscaMS about 2 years ago. Reply
  
  Hi Emelia thanks for your comments
  
  yes by using different avatars you could be different , just like in real lives when you do some makeover on your looks and as we know appearances does change the way peoples’ perception about us.
  
  For me its negative once, since you choose your little self online rather than yourselves, you will abandoned your basic needs and more focus on problems or matters which happened in your virtual world. No : ) My paper just argue that this game allows player reconstruct their identities due to socializing matters, and they are totally able to be someone else here which is cannot be done in reality.
  
  For me its no, this game just to shows how great skill you have, how rich you are, how cool is your personality and how popular you are.
  
  Skills: you were able to show off your games skills just like the DDR (dancing revolution) or o2jam have you ever heard that one?in here the skills are really need, not just because you have higher level doesn’t means you are expert in this game, just like another game like MORPG if you got higher level your attack or strength will increase and become more powerful, but not in this game, how can you win this competition depends on how great your fingers can move and follow the beat and arrows.
  
  rich: means how much money u spends on your avatars, more expensive avatars you use, more attention and admirers you will get.
  
  cool: they way you talks, chats, or interact with other through wordings.
  
  popularity: how much people you know, or how much people know you!
  
  therefore this game provides so many ways to interacting and maintain online relationships with others.
Written by KathleenV about 2 years ago. Reply

I found your paper a very interesting and informative read. I was impressed by your summation of virtual identity and your reasons as to why people reconstruct their identities online. I was particularly intrigued by your references to gender swapping online. Some of your ideas closely related to my paper “The benefits of gender swapping online.” The benefits of constructing an identity online is limited only by your imagination.

You wrote “There are some reasons why players are reconstructing their characters identities, for instance while relates to gender changing from the character: it as practises of their personal issues which deal to the feminine or the masculine inside their own personality.” In your research and experiments that you conducted, did you feel that there were any benefits to gender swapping online? If so, could these benefits be utilized in a real life perspective?

In my opinion, I feel that gender swapping online allows an individual to explore elements of their real life personality just as creating an avatar in a virtual game environment does.
- Written by FransiscaMS about 2 years ago. Reply
  
  Hi Kathleen Thanks for your comments : )
  
  Yes we are in the same ideas, so true our imaginations and minds was the main keys since we can’t experience this world physically.
  
  Yes for me by changing your gender.. [which is actually cannot be done in reality]
  will give you different kinds of feelings by showing the opposite of you, for example I’m a girl then i try to be like a boy, i used to talk like them, react like them, thinks like them, and have the same interest like them, it feels like its the other me, my own masculinity, because most of everyone had this kind of personality. Well not really useful for real lives, but pretty much will help u in understanding the opposite gender more : )
Written by noviaCS about 2 years ago. Reply

Do u think is it really working in bringing the friendship from that “fake” world to the real one? Many people underestimate that kind of friendship, due to what u have told in the paper about changing their personality in the games.

This is also related to human’s different personality when we meet face to face and when we are chatting, sms-ing, or even calling. If we meet someone face to face, almost nothing that we can hide because of the spontaneous act, gestures, and mimic, especially if we meet almost everyday like with school’s friends etc.

Do u agree that friendship from the real world is lasting longer than the “fake world” friendship ?
- Written by FransiscaMS about 2 years ago. Reply
  
  No because its totally different worlds, however since they build such a strong bonds and trusting each other, there would be a chance to bring this kind of friendship to reality by meet face to face since they are sure to do that.
  
  Its true, therefore by meet face to face people easy to recognize others personalities rather than interact with them online, I’m not sure for that one, but for me it wont, since you stop using this technology online, your friendship will just end there, compare to real world friends, you still can meet them wherever and whenever you wants to : )
Written by Clyde A about 2 years ago. Reply

Hi Fransica,
I enjoyed reading your paper, and your explanation of the term ‘virtual’, which describes the interaction as electronic and enabled by technology – places the term ‘reality’ in context and amplifies the distance of the two worlds, which for me, also highlights the cleverness of technology today to blend these two worlds into one – in our minds.
I also agree with your claim that identity authentication is essential to maintaining a good relationship; I think it’s the very fabric that all relationships are built upon both online and offline, so it is quite interesting to see the success of MUDs, where identities are often fantasy based.
I was very interested to read that “Social relationship or friendships in virtual communities basically becomes the main attraction besides entertainments provided by the game”, this comes as a surprise because I would have expected the fantasy-based MUD identities to create a less trusting environment.
Cheers, Clyde
- Written by FransiscaMS about 2 years ago. Reply
  
  Hi Clyde thanks for dropping by
  
  Yes indeed it does exist in our minds, yes people will try to develop relationships both offline and online, where online are more freely and no such boundaries and responsibilities asked for that, this game provide you with two things: entertainment and socialize matters, which is pretty much interesting.
Written by LL about 2 years ago. Reply

Hi nice discussion topic

Interacting each other in online game is creating wider friendship network which brings advantages for user. I’ve played this game for years and I mostly like to chat in game instead of playing the game. Do you play this game? Do you prefer to chat or playing???

Do you agree with the in-game relationship? Some addicted players seems whose playing games all the time, they preferred to have in-game relationship instead of having the real relationship (escaping from the reality). Especially if the female character that is owned by real man, having the in-game relationship with the other male character. In addition, if they are bringing from in-game relationship to the reality, then they will be very disappointed. In my personal opinion, each male user should have male identity in character. It is as same as for female. The fake gender character will feel happy in swapping gender but the real one will feel disappointed.
- Written by FransiscaMS about 2 years ago. Reply
  
  Hi thanks for your comments as well, Yes this is pretty much my own experiences, both? chat and playing will extend your social relationship in this game, apparently prefer chat since they provide private rooms without any interruption, feels like chat on private messenger such as MSN or YM : )
  
  Yes the online relationship have opportunity make you disappointed, since the identities of the players were blur and vague its hard to identify. Yes that’s better, we play as our actual gender would helps lots, but apparently lots of gender swapping happening recently.
Written by Lee about 2 years ago. Reply

Interesting – quite enjoy while reading it, my friend ask me to join this conference paper
and i found out the students are doing well. Are you agree or disagree of this reconstruction identities?
- Written by FransiscaMS about 2 years ago. Reply
  
  Thanks
  
  Agree since we are not depends on the character so much, apparently we need to proud of ourselves since we are the one who created those character, if people likes then we should proud as well, this char wont moves, talks, walks, dances, impress, and interacting with others people without us , as i explain in further reconstruction itself use for entertainment and maintain relationship, whether escaping from reality for a while or extend the range of your social life, but again not to become addicted to it.
Written by Amy Bear about 2 years ago. Reply

It’s interesting to consider how sexuality is projected into game space, and how avatars may be used as lures, for want of a better word, to attract attention to the self, and their sexuality.

Do you find gender swapping in games challenges traditional expectations of gender roles?
- Written by FransiscaMS about 2 years ago. Reply
  
  Yes indeed, therefore the female characters often use as main lures to attract attention or
  gain sympathy from others players. The gender swapping will challenge the expectations of gender roles : ) , where male tends to play and act as female characters, they need to pretends, acting, and talks like the way female players did, even they need to have particular topic or interest same as the female players, just like copying all the things then the reconstruction are successfully created : )
Written by Amy Bear about 2 years ago. Reply

I’m about to read your discussion paper, but I feel compelled to slip a link into comments based solely on the title. I’d be very disappointed if no one has seen this! It seems very topical to your introduction, but I’ll read on and comment again when I have something more intelligent to say than:

Do you want to date my avatar? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urNyg1ftMIU

/geek
- Written by FransiscaMS about 2 years ago. Reply
  
  Hi Amy , Thanks for dropping by
  
  Wow this song so true, totally related to my topic
  ” You’ll never see my actual face – Our love will be in virtual space” Indeed : )
  Avatars as the main attraction to players besides the leveling matters, more expensive items and avatars you use, more attention and admirers you got.
Written by Lin about 2 years ago. Reply

Nice paper and nice topic

I agree that nowadays cyber space is one of the greatest escaped from today’s hectic and boredom world.
People tend to think that it is fun to make friends from online social community especially if it’s comes from the other side of the world which will bring certain benefits to them such as exchange cultures, and yet is true from one of your point the reason they like to do it because usually they don’t have much friendship in real lives or they feel that they more comfortable and acceptable in the cyber space rather than in real life.

As it mentioned above it is fun to make or change our identity in the online game, and seems that the reason behind it because we want to become the masters of self-representations and self-creation by creating anonymity, invisibility, and multiplicity identities in Audition online. Can you explain it clearer what that is all about?

Furthermore besides the positive aspect that MUD bring to the relationship, friendship and other things could you explain what are the negative impacts that people face when they’re reconstruct and enjoying socializing in the cyber game?

Thanks
- Written by FransiscaMS about 2 years ago. Reply
  
  Hi Lin, Thanks for dropping by
  
  Yes cyber space can bring many advantages, besides working as entertainment
  it will enrich your own experiences regarding to multicultural people who involved inside, therefore lots of people will maintain online relationship such as making friends or even romance : )
  
  Since there’s no strong evidences whether the person is real or fake, and how strong the online image could be build, people/users of the game could be came master of self-representations and creations by using the anonymity, invisibility, and multiplicity identities, this features are provided by the game, hence players are able to creates several different characters according to their desires.
  
  As the consequences, people would tend to love their cyber space live rather than the reality, they will abandoned reality and put more efforts on the game, being addictive players are the main problems, they would spends several days keep playing on the game and doesn’t really car their real lives, and if the reconstruction succeed rather than personality they had themselves, they will have less confidence or even hate themselves because people prefer to loves their characters from the game rather than the real person.
Written by Shyang Sora about 2 years ago. Reply

I love reading your paper, it’s pretty much draw on my own experience.
Have you ever had this kind of experience before? do you have any idea how to solve this
problems? I mean when we have crush on people who actually doesn’t exist?
You tittle does attract my attention, I think i have fall in love with the character only, not the real person inside.
- Written by FransiscaMS about 2 years ago. Reply
  
  Thank you : )
  
  Yes this is pretty much my own experience and i ever try on both side
  as a person who being cheat? or as the person who tell lies?
  
  Apparently, it’s pretty hard though, nowadays lots of people fall in love online
  because they keep interacting regularly and spend most time online together. Probably, the only way to keep our feeling save was decreasing online time, that’s in my opinion, and less active or maybe retired from the game, back to reality again : )
  we cannot just live and depends on the virtual world, because at the end we shall leave that world no matter what, yes that’s why we need to consider more and getting know each other before we start new step kind of relationship : )
  - Written by Shyang Sora about 2 years ago. Reply
    
    both?
    Agree, less contacting might have people lost the feelings.
    Yes but what about people who keep addicted to the game even though
    they are in middle age? which is supposedly focus on their job or family.
    - Written by FransiscaMS about 2 years ago. Reply
      
      Yes both, basically you will have different feelings or we might said you can feel
      whether the person is real or not since you ever try both the roles as well : )
      
      Yes it such a good question, but they can’t just leave in front of the computer
      and abandoned their basic needs, they still need to fulfill their hunger, social life, and etc. Soon or later they will stop, and if they have work or family, these two fields of course will force them to stop. Who wants to have a lazy employee who keep playing the games 24 hours? or who wants to have a husband/wife or parents who keep playing everyday without any concern on family life?
      
      I think they will help the addicted person to stop : )
      - Written by Shyang Sora about 2 years ago. Reply
        
        It so true, I never thought about the environment before. They would helps lots.
        
        Written by FransiscaMS about 2 years ago. Reply
        
        Yes : ) that only one from several others keys to survive from the game lol
Written by Jo Morange about 2 years ago. Reply

Hey Fransisca !

First of all, I would like to thank for having written such a nice comment on my paper. I appreciate.

Here are some of my thoughts on your paper, that I found pretty good in the message and the position it takes.

“Hence, to maintain a relationship with other players, a particular person will be able to reconstructs and creates one or even multiple characters to represents themselves and attracts other players’ attention.”

> I do agree with you on that point. Still, I think it is essential to precise that, in order to build a strong relationship with someone (especially someone we don’t know), it is better not to assume several characters at the same time; but rather fuel and reinforce only one of our virtual character’s personality. I reckon it could be fun to play several “roles” at the same time. But it would be hard to manage on the long term, no to mention the risks to mix up and confuse each “lives” and relationships they all respectively have.

Additionnaly, because of all the characteristics you enumerated, proper to virtual games: anonymity, invisibility and multiplicity (Turkle, 1997); and to motivations such as the ones described in the ACE Model (quoting Carolyn’s paper: “Second Life: Helping You to be Virtually Unfaithful since 2003″), I personnaly think lots of the relationships build on-line, in a specific (game) context, would not exist in the “real life”. Simply because all the above give us the possibility to be everything but the real us…

What is your opinion on that ?

I join Ridings and Gefen idea of friendship in virtual communities (2004) but unlike them, I think “emotional help or helping others” comes along with the idea of friendship and strong ties relationships, whether it is online or in reality. One day or another, if the relationship last, it is not impossible that the nature of the friendship comes to these kinds of social supports. Yet, I know people that went on games such as Second Life or Audition Online just to “empty their bag” and talking about their problems to people they absolutely did not know; maybe because they did not want to talk about it in their personal and real surroundings.
And, paradoxically, sometimes this is even how people start strong friendship relationships online ! I have personally experienced that myself…

“Friendship or personal relationship therefore becomes the main motivation to reconstructing players’ identities for attracting and seeking another attention.”

> I am not sure I understand that point
Do you mean, hereby, that friendship and personal relationships are the main objectives of players, when they try to get someone’s attention ?

If that is the case, I am not pretty sure it could be cited as a general statement. Peoples’ motivations are various and numerous. And most of the time, “relationships” (or contacts) online are short in terms of duration. From a delirious or comic situation, or an ephemeral topic of conversation, people weave links and weak bonds on the fly. The idea is interesting here, but I am not sure it is a general state of mind when people seek for someone else’s attention.

> “[...] When we live through our electronic self-representations we have unlimited possibilities to be many, people become masters of self-representations and self-creation” (Turkle, 1997).

That is totally right, and you did a good job finding this statement. I agree with Turkle in the sense that, I think that is one of the main reasons why people join and get into virtual world/communities. Because they can control their image, they can manipulate and they can shape what they are and what they look like, only guided by their wills. Moreover, I think “controlling” is quite addictive. We basically are given the power to change and transform following our envy, as much as we want to. We are the “God of ourselves” and we exerce control on the avatar that represents us.
The fact that we can improve our image, make it evolve in a positive way, and maybe gain influence through that, is also quite addictive.
It simply comes in opposition to life. To our real lives where, for most of us, everything (especially our physical appearance and image) is imposed by something we do not totally have control on: life it self.
The difference and the addiction lies in the choice that games such as Audition or Second Life give us… The choice to be whatever we ever wanted to be!

> “[...] by creating anonymity, invisibility and multiplicity identities in Audition online.”
I’m a bit mitigated on that part of your essay.
Is it the player him/her-self that creates all this? Or the game itself ?
My opinion would be that it is the game, more than everything else. As a virtual and mass medium of communication. Players, however, are the ones who use that medium to take advantage of anonimity, invisibility and multiplicity.

> “We use our bodies to project information about ourselves [...] (Boyd, 2007)

You made a good one by quoting this in the context of on-line games and virtual communities.
Yes, I do believe it is really important to state, as nowadays, the virtual tends to get closer and closer to reality. Actually, it becomes even harder everytime to distinguish the boundaries between reality and virtuality: they become blurrier as improvements in technologies and develpments are more and more performant.
Body language and non-verbal communication as a whole, become two important aspects of social games. In real life, this represents 90% of our personnal communication toward others. Our body talks for us. And developpers really want to integrate this dimension in virtual social games, to get always closer to what real contacts are.
Simple illustrations of that, with offline and online games, would be the incredible improvements (from very serious researches made by companies in the video game industry) in terms of non-verbal communication within the game itself, the importance body language has and the influence it can have on our virtual life: The Sims, Star Wars: The Old Republic or even Grand Theft Auto.

I think this is especially true regarding games like Audition Online.

Finally, the last paragraph before your conclusion is interesting as well.
I would just add that, as far as I’m concern, I only adopt different aspect of myself when I change the virtual environment I am in.
Depending on the environment, the community will be attracted by different aspects or interests. Your nickname, your avatar and/or your virtual appareance have to be adapted to the virtual context: especially if you want to be integrated to the community. Because each community has special norms and rules.

I will, for example, adopt a different vocabulary, avatar and nickname from a “Naruto” community to a “Star Wars” community. Because of all the above mentionned.

Again, I really appreciated your paper. I can hardly relate it to mine, but the topic is still very important, and we could relate both in the sens that: the virtual and the on-line experience constantly get closer and closer to reality. And people behind all these games, programs, improvements, certainly have the will to make virtuality and reality a one unified world. A world we already put a feet in: the social media world.

REFERENES:

Turkle, S. (1997). Multiple Subjectivity and Virtual Community at the End of the Freudian Century. Retrieved March 29, 2010, from http://www.mit.edu/~sturkle/pdfsforstwebpage/ST_Multiple%20Subjectivity.pdf

boyd, d. (2007). Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life. In D. Buckhingham (Ed.), MacArthur Foundation Series on digital Learning Youth, Identity, and Digital Media Volume. Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press. Retrieved March 29, 2010, from http://www.danah.org/papers/WhyYouthHeart.pdf

Audition AyoDance – Dance Battle Game Online Indonesia. (2010). Retrieved March 29, 2010, from http://ayodance.megaxus.com/index/index.php

Turkle, S. (1997). Construction and Reconstructions of Self in Virtual Reality: Playing in the MUDs. In S. Kiesler (Ed.), Culture of the Internet. Hilldale, NJ: :awrence Erlbaum Associates. Retrieved March 29, 2010, from http://www.mit.edu/~sturkle/pdfsforstwebpage/ST_Construc%20and%20reconstruc%20of%20self.pdf

http://www.swtor.com/media/trailers

Ridings, C., & Gefen, D. (2004). Virtual Community Attraction: Why People Hang Out Online. New York: Routledge. Retrieved March 29, 2010, from http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol10/issue1/ridings_gefen.html
- Written by FransiscaMS about 2 years ago. Reply
  
  Hi Jo nice to see you here
  
  Yes it so much fun, especially when we have chance to be someone else. I found out there are so many characters with only one player actually, including me I ever had this experience before, having 5 different types of characters with different personality and gender as well, since we remember and can manage the character itself that should be fine.
  - “because of all the characteristics you enumerated, proper to virtual games: anonymity, invisibility and multiplicity (Turkle, 1997); and to motivations such as the ones described in the ACE Model (quoting Carolyn’s paper: “Second Life: Helping You to be Virtually Unfaithful since 2003″), I personally think lots of the relationships build on-line, in a specific (game) context, would not exist in the “real life”. Simply because all the above give us the possibility to be everything but the real us…”
  
  Yes I am agree with that, therefore as players we do have lots of chances to built lots of online relationship even have multiple relationship themselves without offends other relationship. Yes I do agree once more with you, we will talk more freely online rather than face to face, thus we would feel closer while talking some personal feelings, experiences, and problems with people we meet online, yes that’s my experience as well, I have lots of closer online friends both male and females, we even still keep contacting until now, for me other than looking for romantic relationship, it would be more fun if we have several different friends from different country, since we have geographical barriers to meet each other.
  
  - “Friendship or personal relationship therefore becomes the main motivation to reconstructing players’ identities for attracting and seeking another attention.”
  “> I am not sure I understand that point
  Do you mean, hereby, that friendship and personal relationships are the main objectives of players, when they try to get someone’s attention?”
  Yes in here my points mainly to interacting and socialize with other people, since this people had problems in real live, they tend to escape from the real world and socialize with people inside, just as you mention before like they tend to talk freely and more open rather than talk with real person on their live, therefore they were seeking another attention both to have friendship or even romantic relationship from the game 
  Yes how cool is that? We can build such a different strong image which is actually totally different from our real personality.
  
  - “by creating anonymity, invisibility and multiplicity identities in Audition online.”
  I’m a bit mitigated on that part of your essay.
  Is it the player him/her-self that creates all this? Or the game itself ?
  My opinion would be that it is the game, more than everything else. As a virtual and mass medium of communication. Players, however, are the ones who use that medium to take advantage of anonimity, invisibility and multiplicity.
  
  Yes players as the users and games as the providers , it so true! I play the Sims and GTA as well so close to real lives and feels like having different kind of lives. Indeed we need to adapt well to the environment as well, appreciate your ideas as well, thank you for your thoughts
  
  References:
  
  Audition AyoDance – Dance Battle Game Online Indonesia. (2010). Retrieved March 29, 2010, from http://ayodance.megaxus.com/index/index.php
  
  boyd, d. (2007). Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life. In D. Buckhingham (Ed.), MacArthur Foundation Series on digital Learning Youth, Identity, and Digital Media Volume. Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press. Retrieved March 29, 2010, from http://www.danah.org/papers/WhyYouthHeart.pdf
  
  Donath, S. (1999). Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community. Retrieved March 29, 2010, from http://smg.media.mit.edu/people/Judith/Identity/IdentityDeception.html
  Ridings, C., & Gefen, D. (2004). Virtual Community Attraction: Why People Hang Out Online. New York: Routledge. Retrieved March 29, 2010, from http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol10/issue1/ridings_gefen.html
  
  Turkle, S. (1997). Construction and Reconstructions of Self in Virtual Reality: Playing in the MUDs. In S. Kiesler (Ed.), Culture of the Internet. Hilldale, NJ: :awrence Erlbaum Associates. Retrieved March 29, 2010, from http://www.mit.edu/~sturkle/pdfsforstwebpage/ST_Construc%20and%20reconstruc%20of%20self.pdf
  
  Turkle, S. (1997). Multiple Subjectivity and Virtual Community at the End of the Freudian Century. Retrieved March 29, 2010, from http://www.mit.edu/~sturkle/pdfsforstwebpage/ST_Multiple%20Subjectivity.pdf
Written by Tai about 2 years ago. Reply

What a good paper I’ve ever seen…very details to point out the crucial part in online game and human relationship maintenance~Do u think the people in the future will reply on online to remain their relationship or addicted to online relationship ?
- Written by FransiscaMS about 2 years ago. Reply
  
  i love your name : )
  
  well maybe at the first time they would get addicted to online relationship, but still we are humans cannot just rely on virtual things which cannot be touch, hear, smells, and even see, we will need more rather than that : )
Written by RubyPan about 2 years ago. Reply

It’s a good paper, according to your opinion how did we know and how can we proof someone identity? some of i found people change their personalities and even the fake personalities they created are better than the real one. According to your opinion is it good or bad when people keep doing that?

For my opinion it will bring negative impacts for them, they will prefer they online life rather than focus on their real lives.
- Written by FransiscaMS about 2 years ago. Reply
  
  You will had a feeling i guess, especially when you get close to the person, you can discovered them the way they talk, interest, the way they think, that if you are sensitive enough , yes its a bad idea if you really get addicted to that, you will more value your fake identities rather than yourself, however i believe these people would get up someday and back to reality no matter what.
Written by Viviane about 2 years ago. Reply

Hi this is exactly my experience! :D
im still playing on this game as well, before i was like have a crush
with my couple.. until i found it out he is a she! and i so disappointed that time,
but what can i do? it just a game. So what about you? have you ever meet or have this experience as well?
- Written by FransiscaMS about 2 years ago. Reply
  
  Thank you : )
  Well for me actually i ever change my gender as well, since you ever change the roles
  you will have feeling whether the players have real gender or not, usually only pro players or talented person who can play without any being caught, they are so talented in represent themselves in different personalities including how they talks and so on, for me its totally much fun and interesting : )
Written by Sky about 2 years ago. Reply

An interesting paper! I’m curious as to whether you (and other readers) think that taking on the role of another gender leads to a reinterpreting and destabilising of traditional gender roles, or whether it reinforces existing gender stereotypes?

To explain further…it’s possible that by playing the role of the other (or another) gender, players of MMORPGs are encouraged to explore the aspects of their identity that don’t fit their usual gender role. On the other hand, in taking on a different role, there’s a possibility that players will fall back on extreme gender stereotypes in order to reinforce their performance, as often happens in drag performances.
- Written by FransiscaMS about 2 years ago. Reply
  
  Hi Sky, such interesting view, and yes for me it would be more on gender stereotypes. In order to represent femininity or masculinity from both male and female, they would like to try different roles which is cannot be done in real lives, therefore even though they changing the gender, it would not give any effect or consequences in reality. As the consequences, we will focus more gender stereotypes like how male and female act and how supposed they should be, like If im playing as male character then I used to act like man and vice versa.
  - Written by Sky about 2 years ago. Reply
    
    I’m also curious, since I don’t play this game…is it common for players to attempt to build androgynous avatars or to disrupt gender stereotypes in other ways?
    - Written by FransiscaMS about 2 years ago. Reply
      
      Hi Sky,
      
      Most of the player will have multiple characters, at least two character in different level, mainly they will use low level to practice more and playing with other random people, therefore it wouldn’t affect their real main character if they do something bad or lose on dance competition. In this game we will need real skills rather than just become superior if we have higher level, this game little bit similar to the O2jam if you ever heard that one : )
      
      Thus, it is common for them to create several characters and most have both male and female gender, we could identify the character, apparently there is no androgynous avatars on this game, this game will separate the male and female avatars, the things are we can choose which gender we play on, then we can’t change the gender after that, hence we will create new character in terms of change gender role and personality
Written by FransiscaMS about 2 years ago. Reply

Hi Josh,

Sure it does, that is why as a player we are totally free to create another us in
Different version.

I’ve agree with your thoughts, but my points in here was to gain any relationship status like having virtual couples, loves, and friend, besides you play the game just for run.

I think we need to know each other since you get a chance to fall in love with other people in cyber space just like the recent case we found out nowadays : ), and yes just like what I said before, they do escaping from their real problems and maintain other relationship in cyber space which is they can’t get in real world, its pretty much fun : )
Written by Joshua Atlee about 2 years ago. Reply

Well I believe and have played games that include World of Warcraft and Audition, World of Warcraft has over 14 million players world wide and by entering this game there is no way that you will know or even have the time to find out if a gamer is a boy or a girl even though their character shows the opposite and I don’t believe you really need to know their sexuality to even have a relationship between gamers, a group of gamers, groups or guilds can all have a relationship without knowing each others sex, In Audition it’s a dancing game you can either be a girl or a boy but the whole point of playing Audition isn’t to find out someones identity but it’s all about who can press keys in sync with the song, the better you get the faster the songs go and as you get good you can goto a store and dress up your avatar but again to have a relationship between gamers you don’t need to know thier sex for virtual relationships to work.

The good thing about being able to create a character that does not reflect oneself in the real world is that if someone was having real life issues, mental issues, social problems in a virtual world that person can make an avatar that does not carry these real life attributes and can fit themself into the online society and feel normal again.
Written by FransiscaMS about 2 years ago. Reply

Hi Michael Thanks for your earlier comment,

Yes it is, especially when you get closer and even likes someone who actually doesn’t exist. Basically this game provides some chance how to be someone perfect and attract the others attentions, usually it works as entertainment by such great experiences of being someone who cool, handsome or beautiful, and it just such escaping ways for gain some popularity and admiration from the others.

You are free to make over yourself, even though it just a virtual characters, but the image of the character and their personality will stay longer, and yes you may say that ‘create internal worlds or fantasies world’.

both of this matter will gain bad and good sides as well, supposedly it help as entertainment but whenever person get addicted to it, they will abandon their life and even hate themselves and try to be the character they made, we better use the game as how it used to be, to escape for a while and do some refreshment while you can do that in your real life : )
Written by Michael N about 2 years ago. Reply

I think that it is a bad thing to fool someone into believeing they are something they are not, but equally what is it in the person who goes to Audition that they need to become someone who they are not to attract someone? I also don’t think it is positive to be so far away from who you are in an environment such as this, but of course one is unlikely to meet the other person. What does it say about our society that we cannot control the external but we can create internal worlds to live out fantasies. Of course we have done that with film and television but the online games are more interactive. Escapism is still in a lot of cases a good thing and that is what humans strive to find to get away from their issues.
Written by Cathy Brzeski about 2 years ago. Reply

You have done an extensive amount of research and have covered the topic of identity construction in gaming communities in depth. Although my paper is on Identity & Facebook i have also talked about identity construction in MUDS. I would really like it if you shared your opinion on my paragraph about identity in MUDs. It would be interesting to hear what you think considering you have specifically researched MUDs and have way more knowledge on the topic then me! My paper is titled “Social Networking Sites = Identity Management Tools” and is under the same stream as yours .

You have mentioned a point which i also wrote about: that in MUDS people are free to reconstruct their identities and be as “close to themselves or as opposite from themselves” as they want. What is your opinion on this factor? Do you believe it is a really positive thing that people can be as far away from who they are in games? Or do you think it can be a bad thing or both?

In my opinion it can be a very good thing, because as you said in the beginning, MUDs allow us to escape from our problems. So if we want to be someone different, if we want to escape from who we are in real life, then we can create a character and forget about our daily lives for a few hours. This is a positive thing. But i also think it can be a negative thing. It can be negative when people prefer to be the character they are in a game, then be the person they are in real life. However as Turkle has mentioned, the character they are in a game reflects the person they are in real life. For example if they feel insecure about their body image in real life they may create an attractive character in a game. Some may say their character in the game is the complete opposite of who they are in real life. However we can also look at it like, the decisions they have made in regards to their gaming character relates to how they feel about themselves and their identity in real life.

You have read similar papers to me Turkle is definitley a great source for researching identity in MUDS!

Looking forward to reading your response
- Written by FransiscaMS about 2 years ago. Reply
  
  Hi Cathy,
  
  Thank you for your response, so are we in the same boat?
  
  Yes both in MUDs and Networking sites people are able to recreate themselves, you can be whoever you want to, even different personalities by act and say something you never say in your real life before, so yes for me the main factors are because they want to feel how exactly the feeling to be someone else, or they can evaluate which personality suit and most people will accept, besides you will get chance to be someone else that you can’t be In your real lives, and yes for me it brings such good impacts.
  
  Whenever you feel want to escape of you didn’t satisfied with your personality, then you can have a taste by forming someone else and what people thinks about you
  So we are totally on the same boat! : )
  
  Yes sometimes they will bring bad effect as well, you will prefer your second life rather than the real one, then you will abandoned it which is quite harmful to ourselves if we do that , hopefully not : )