players and avatars: against identification

Players and Avatars:Against Identification

Mia ConsalvoMIT

okay maybe not against all identification

but game fiction plays an important role in nudging

players towards or away from different kinds of identification,

with and without avatars

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

How do women reflect on their avatars and gear?

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

Women MMO players

• WoW & AoC players: all had a female ‘main’– Clara “I really identify

more with them [female characters] than with males.”

Women MMO players

• 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.”

Women MMO players

• 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.”

Male characters?

• Designs described as:– Odd– Horrible– Too beefy– Ugly– Too comic book

stereotypical

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

But players not willing to switch games just for greater avatar

choices

the issue of gear (or its lack)

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.”

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

• 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.”

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

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

Story 2The Caretakers of Faunasphere

A “Casual” MMO Game

• Big Fish Games/Faunasphere• Gender, age, gameplay, beta/new players• Fiction and player activities

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

Who Played

• Gender: 93% female

• Age: 26% 45-5422% 55-6421% 35-44

• Education: 31% Some college20% Bachelor’s degree

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

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

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

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

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.”

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.”

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.”

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

Story 3:Social games: Or, how invested

am I in my Facebook avatar while I’m busy using my friends?

The project: what’s social about social games?

The researchers

The Challenge

• Test as many social games as possible to identify major mechanics, as well as unusual/interesting additions

80+ games/50 FB for Charts

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”

Types of Interactions Found

• Friend bar lends silent presence of friends/family

• Gifting’s different roles• Visiting• Challenge & competition• Communication

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

Surrounded by your friends

• 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

Surrounded by your 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

Gifting

Gifts

• Gifts function in two central ways– Potlatch– Reciprocation

Gifts as Potlatch

• Impressing Your Friends– Games let players show off their status,

(large) bank accounts, advanced levels through gifting

Gifts as Potlatch

• 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)

Gifts as Potlatch

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

Gifts as Potlatch

• Mafia Wars also lets player give gifts from their own inventory

Gifts as Potlatch• Cupcake Corner

Gifts as Potlatch

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

Gifts as Potlatch

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

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 as reciprocation/barter

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

Gifts as reciprocation/barter• 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

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?

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

City of Wonder

Coffee Bar

Critical Gifting• Gifts can be essential to completing quests in games

Critical Gifting• Gifts might be the only way to acquire particular items

(useful or simply decorative)– Recipe elements in Café World

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)

Is friendship only about trading stuff?

• Is forced gifting the only way to encourage sociality?

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

Won’t you be my neighbor?

• Most common trope: Show up, get stuff

Ravenwood Fair

Chocolatier: Sweet Society

Personalized Spaces

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

Act on existing world

• Fantasy Kingdoms asks the player to tend magical crops, clean up ruins, remove ogre footprints, etc

Act on existing world

• Pet Society lets you interact with friends’ pets

But usually leave no trace

Change the existing world

• My Vineyard: taste friends’ wine, rate it to increase its value

Change the existing world

• Stores to sell creations

Cityville franchises

Fish World

Improve on the existing world

• Cityville watering crops makes them ripen faster, or can revive withered crops

Improve on existing world

Improve on the existing world

• City of Wonder requires friends to contribute to building of ‘world wonders’

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

Challenges & Competitions

• Tournaments & Matches– Predominant in sports games, strategy games• FIFA Superstars; PGA Golf, ESPNU

NBA Legend

Texas HoldEm Poker

Real Time 2 player challenges

• Miscrits lets the player challenge strangers in real time

Asynchronous challenges

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

Fashion & Popularity Contests

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)

– ?

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

Synchronous Communication

• A few games offer real time chat:• With friends & strangers (Yoville)

Synchronous Communication

• My Vineyard

Synchronous Communication

• Kingdoms of Camelot

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

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

Sociality

• More friends = better• Communication = limited• Interactions = largely scripted, innovating

somewhat

• Use of sound for interaction?• More creative use of communication?

How do avatars fit in?

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

Story 4: Players & ethical limitations

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

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

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.”

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.”

Breaking a contract

Player intent can trump fiction

Can even MMOGs posit player identification with avatars?

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

thanks!Mia Consalvo

MITTwitter: miaC

consalvo@mit.edu