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