Assignment 10: Feared and Revered

I decided to play the MMORPG, City of Heroes, where the game space is fashioned like a metropolis that you would find in the comic books. The purpose of the game is to join forces with other heroes to defeat various villains throughout the game. Over time, with the completion of missions, you will level up which advances your superpowers. The central location is the courthouse where the other superhero characters congregate to meet each other. Sometimes people are sitting there trying to find other people to play with, other times you can find people just socializing or dancing with themselves. At a certain time of day, you can even find the avatars engaging in a costume contest. The superheroes ranged from figments of peoples’ imaginations to archetypes of famous superheroes, such as Superman and Wonderwomen.

Upon starting the game, you must start your own superhero. I decided to be a vampire, who decided to turn into a Superhero—similar to a female Blade. I tried to make her look like a Vampire through giving her gray skin, red eyes, and dressing her in bad-ass gothic clothing; she wore tight black leather pants, tall boots, and a shirt with lots of straps all over it. Also, I tired to make her superpowers match her character; I gave her the power of dark melee, because vampires often have super-strength and they are magical creatures, and I gave her the super-jump power because over time she would learn how to fly, another aspect characteristic of vampires. Since I did not feel like finding a team, I asked my friend to play with me. He made himself into a Juggernaut-type character and off into the game we went.

When I entered the game, I felt more like a villain than a superhero. My costume was dark and dreary and Paragon City was a bright place filled with colorful people. I instantly felt the effects of behavioral confirmation. Behavioral confirmation is “the process whereby the expectation of one person case another person to behave in ways that confirm the perceiver’s expectations.” The majority of the characters did not approach me, I am assuming because of my evil appearance; which in turn, lead me to be more antisocial. My partner and I stayed away from the populated areas and I just assumed my role as the aloof evil character. Only some of the other malevolent characters would shout random comments. It became apparent at that point that there were certain group norms for this psychological space. The stereotype was that the dark or evil looking heroes were solemn, unfriendly, completely unapproachable, and were often rude. You could tell the difference in the characters by looking around the courthouse. The “dark” heroes were often somberly grouped together and they showcased their powerful dark magic; whereas the other “typical” heroes were socializing and dancing. As I tested the waters, I found that it was easy to be initiated into the typical hero group—you just had to be friendly.

But I did not want to be part of the typical heroes, I wanted to be a dark hero, feared and revered. My reason for this desire is the fact that I was trying to portray a vampire, how would anyone ever believe I was a vampire if I was prancing around and smiling like a nymph. Therefore, I changed my behavior to mimic that of the dark group: I did not dance, smile, or laugh and I kept my conversations short and quick. My next step into being accepted was leveling up my dark magic powers, so I could be recognized. In this case, it is difficult to discern whether my behavior followed SIDE theory or the Proteus Effect. SIDE theory argues that “factors that lead to deindividuation, such as anonymity, might thus reinforce group salience and conformity to group norms,” whereas Proteus effect emphasizes “conformity to individual identity cues.” Although I was conforming to the local group norms of the “dark” heroes (SIDE theory), the behaviors that I decided to replicate were based on my vampire avatar (Proteus Effect).