As soon as I subscribed to Xbox Live and created a gamer tag I was prompted to make an Avatar or a person to represent myself in the Xbox Live community. So as I was creating my Avatar I realized that though she resembled me, in a way she was different. Not different due to the limited options for creating her facial structure and features, but because without intention, I had created an idealized version of myself; I had removed all the features that I have tended to dislike such as my freckles. After realizing this, I remade my Avatar so it portrayed me in the most accurate way. However, this small event brought to my mind many questions about what Avatars must mean to some people.
What you choose as a gamer tag (basically a username) is also important to self image being represented on Xbox Live, but what a person actually sees, the thing that represents you as a person on Xbox Live is your Avatar. It is the physical definition of yourself and how you want other people to see you on Xbox Live. It is because of this reasoning that a person would be willing to pay extra money on Xbox Live for different styles of clothes for their Avatar. Xbox Live is a social space where someone would want their Avatar to look like how they want to be viewed and having their Avatar wear a certain style of clothing could be important to the identity they want to be portrayed.
It is because of this representation of identity through Avatars that helps make Xbox Live more familiar and personal. The Avatar helps to give a space meaning and thus turn it into place. But this place can have many different meanings that rely on the person who is utilizing it. Some people may have their Avatar as who they want to be and in such a case Xbox Live is the place where that can be a reality.
Swalwell, Melanie, and Jason Wilson
2008 The Pleasures of Computer Gaming. Jefferson, N.C.: Macfarland & Company.
No comments:
Post a Comment