The Game Plan: For this assignment, I thought it would be interesting to test drive the graphical game world of "Second Life". Through performing a Google search, I came across the link for "Second Life". To be honest, what drew me in was the slogan "Your world. Your Imagination". In addition, I stumbled upon several YouTube clips and blog posts about this graphical gaming world. Needless to say, I was curious to understand what the fuss was all about.
The Game: Upon entering the virtual "welcome" portion, I was surprised at how similar the graphics were to "The Sims". Although I was not a big "Sims" player, I noticed that the overall design of the avatar was fairly the same. However, what threw me off the most was trying to navigate through this virtual world. I found myself bumping into the mountain and stumbling into other players as I tried to get acquainted with my surroundings. Interestingly enough, I stumbled into another player, who was a little more experienced with using the application. "She" came up to me and greeted me almost instantly. I told "her" that I was new to the whole "Second Life" scene, and I was trying to get familiar with all of the options. "She" politely informed me that I could change the appearance of my avatar by right-clicking. However, my computer and "Second Life" did not seem to get along very well. As I played around with all of the features, my computer would freeze every now and again. Thus, it made exploring the virtual world rather difficult.
The virtual environment was not as impressive as that of "The Sims", but it was creative if anything else. The volcanoes, buildings, and sea added something novel. The scary part though were the flying people everywhere, and the large stiletto heels that almost trampled me on several occasions. I clearly wasn't in the land of the Sims. This is where the tutorials came in handy. As I walked around, I came across tutorials outlining how to do everything from change my appea
rance to travel through the different lands. I spent most of my time trying to figure out how to change my appearance. It was interesting to see how many different aspects of my appearance I could tinker with. At first, I wanted to make my avatar resemble myself, but that proved to be problematic because I needed to completely revamp what everything. Thus, instead, I just opted to make the avatar as cute and stylish as possible. I asked the "girl" where "she" found "her" cute rugby styled shirt, and "she" proceeded to walk away. It's weird because initially I thought it was really cool of "her" to help me out. However, when "she" walked away, I immediately wrote her off as being "bitchy", even though she didn't give me much reason to think that.
After finalizing a look that I thought was acceptable, I ventured into the realm of "Help Islands". I was overwhelmed by the "real-world" simulation of purchasing things like different modes of transportation and clothing. My favorite part had to be talking with the different avatars around. I found that the male avatars gave off a subtle flirtatious vibe; while the female avatars were similarly interested in talking about their experience with "playing" the game thus far. Almost instantly, I began to draw personality conclusions about the individuals I was talking to based on how they chose to present their avatars and their conversation style.
The virtual environment was not as impressive as that of "The Sims", but it was creative if anything else. The volcanoes, buildings, and sea added something novel. The scary part though were the flying people everywhere, and the large stiletto heels that almost trampled me on several occasions. I clearly wasn't in the land of the Sims. This is where the tutorials came in handy. As I walked around, I came across tutorials outlining how to do everything from change my appea
rance to travel through the different lands. I spent most of my time trying to figure out how to change my appearance. It was interesting to see how many different aspects of my appearance I could tinker with. At first, I wanted to make my avatar resemble myself, but that proved to be problematic because I needed to completely revamp what everything. Thus, instead, I just opted to make the avatar as cute and stylish as possible. I asked the "girl" where "she" found "her" cute rugby styled shirt, and "she" proceeded to walk away. It's weird because initially I thought it was really cool of "her" to help me out. However, when "she" walked away, I immediately wrote her off as being "bitchy", even though she didn't give me much reason to think that.After finalizing a look that I thought was acceptable, I ventured into the realm of "Help Islands". I was overwhelmed by the "real-world" simulation of purchasing things like different modes of transportation and clothing. My favorite part had to be talking with the different avatars around. I found that the male avatars gave off a subtle flirtatious vibe; while the female avatars were similarly interested in talking about their experience with "playing" the game thus far. Almost instantly, I began to draw personality conclusions about the individuals I was talking to based on how they chose to present their avatars and their conversation style.
The Research: After reading the article by Yee and Bailenson, it is readily apparent how my choice of avatar influenced my behavior within the virtual gaming environment. Upon changing the appearance of my avatar, Jade Tuqiri, I was trying to make her "cute". Honestly, in my mind I was trying to go for a Laguna Beach/Newport Harbor look. I made her medium height, skinny, blonde. I also tried to find stylish outfits for her. With respect to my gaming behavior, Yee and Bailenson's noti
on of the "Proteus Effect" come to mind. In essence, my online gaming behavior was informed by my perception of what those I would interact with would expect. I was very friendly and flirtatious in my interactions with other players in the game. I also modeled my communication style based on who I was speaking with. Thus, with female avatars I was less flirty and more friendly. However, with the male avatars, I asked a lot of probing questions and self-disclosed more.
Extending my analysis, I found that not only did my behavior support Yee and Bailenson's claims, but also that of the other "Second Life" players. Typically, other deemed "attractive" avatars were increasingly more social with other players. They were more likely to simulate conversation, while the less "attractive" avatars interacted more with the actual "gaming" aspect. In addition, I noticed that when I self-disclosed information, the individuals who were most likely to reciprocate were other "attractive" avatars. The less "attractive" avatars were more interested in talking about "Second Life". With respect to the "taller" avatars, I kind of found them to be rather threatening. I was not really too happy with their ability to tower over me, but that did not really discourage me from initiating conversation. I felt that mostly the height was a method of overcompensation and the person on the other side of the computer screen was probably was 5 foot.
on of the "Proteus Effect" come to mind. In essence, my online gaming behavior was informed by my perception of what those I would interact with would expect. I was very friendly and flirtatious in my interactions with other players in the game. I also modeled my communication style based on who I was speaking with. Thus, with female avatars I was less flirty and more friendly. However, with the male avatars, I asked a lot of probing questions and self-disclosed more.Extending my analysis, I found that not only did my behavior support Yee and Bailenson's claims, but also that of the other "Second Life" players. Typically, other deemed "attractive" avatars were increasingly more social with other players. They were more likely to simulate conversation, while the less "attractive" avatars interacted more with the actual "gaming" aspect. In addition, I noticed that when I self-disclosed information, the individuals who were most likely to reciprocate were other "attractive" avatars. The less "attractive" avatars were more interested in talking about "Second Life". With respect to the "taller" avatars, I kind of found them to be rather threatening. I was not really too happy with their ability to tower over me, but that did not really discourage me from initiating conversation. I felt that mostly the height was a method of overcompensation and the person on the other side of the computer screen was probably was 5 foot.
2 comments:
Hey Julia,
I really enjoyed your post and how in depth it got! Your interpretations of the Yee and Bailenson were good. I liked how you debated making your avatar look like yourself versus making a completely new one. I think this goes to show what Second Life is about in the first place, the fact that we can simply disregard our own personalities, appearances and what not with the blink of an eye in order to create whomever we want.
The only thing I think I would have liked to have read in your explanations was whether or not you would have disclosed more in real life. I liked your explanation of self-disclosure in terms of male vs. female, but my only question is that don't we already change the way that we interact with different groups of people in face to face as well? I guess I would just have liked to have seen you discuss a little more about the differences in what you disclosed over Second Life versus how much you would have in a FtF interaction?
Other than that, it was really good though!
I enjoyed this post. I found the section about your self-disclosure to male characters and female characters particularlly interesting. You have an idea about how a male or female character would respond, and therefore managed your self-presentation online accordingly. So, not only your attractiveness mattered in these exchanges as the study suggests, but you were constantly making judgements about other characters as we do in real life.
You suggest the less attractive avatars interact more with the actual gaming part of the online-world. Is this to suggest the less attractive avatars correspond to less attractive people in the real world? I would tend to think this is not the case at all. It would be an interesting study to see if in fact less attractive people in real life, make their avatars online particullarly more attractive in the online realm, because it is a "second life".
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