For this assignment I chose to play an online multiplayer shooter a friend had told me about called Insurgency. This game is a modification of Half Life 2 made by a marine who fought in
During my more than an hour playing time I was placed on the insurgent team. I switched through a few of the character classes which look basically the same but come equipped with different types of guns. After a few rounds I found myself increasingly setting into the mind set of an insurgent. I was playing in my room with two of my friends watching and I actually said at one point, “I’m gonna die but I’m gonna take out as many marines as I can with me.” Now it probably helps that death is not real in making a statement like that, but it is still very surprising. Causing this in part might be Behavioral Confirmation as the players on the other team expect me to play like a terrorist. It is not surprising to see someone jump out with an rpg just to get one shot off before dying in an attempt to kill a few marines. Self perception theory also comes into play due to the realism of the game. You are given a task to accomplish by any means, and when you plan out your attack your thinking what would you do if you were an insurgent in harsh conditions. The Proteus effects states that there will be conformity to individual identity cues, which perfectly explains all of the behavior while in the insurgent skin. Although the effects of height and attractiveness didn’t particularly come into play in my time playing, the way I acted in response to my avatar definitely supports Yee & Bailenson’s findings.
3 comments:
Chris,
Wow, great post! I found it really interesting that you went beyond the Proteus effect and explored how factors besides height and attractiveness affect players in a virtual world. Your experience really displayed how one’s thought process is affected by a virtual world. Your statement regarding how if you (or your avatar, rather) were going to die you were going to bring as many marines down with you as you could really grabbed my attention. I think this statement really embodies the wartime mentality, where the value of individual lives is lost. It is quite terrifying and makes me think that if you felt this way in a virtual world, the same sentiment would be intensified when actually in the line of battle.
Really good job!
It’s true that good games are often immersive enough to draw empathy from the player, and it’s not surprising that you got drawn into the role of the insurgent. If the game is designed well, sometimes it’s necessarily to embrace the role to do well. I’ve never played the game, but maybe, by playing in a more suicidal fashion, it helps your team advance a particular goal. It begs the question, though, about whether this empathy leaves a lasting mark on one’s personality or behavior. There have been studies arguing for and against the possibility that people become more violent after playing such games, but nothing has been definitive, although your experience is evidence for the former. Maybe, however, the only lasting marks may be an urge to work toward the greater good at one’s expense, or a greater sense of courage.
Hey Chris,
I think it’s interesting how behavioral confirmation actually seems to extend beyond the examples of male or female characters online. I have played online games before where the objective of one team is to defend their home base or protect hostages while the other team attempts to disrupt them. The game you played seems to take it to another level, because in addition to the terrorist objectives, you had a corresponding uniform and equipment.
If I’m playing a game with an avatar that is wearing street clothes and has thug weaponry, it only makes sense that I will act accordingly. While war based games like Insurgency are incredibly violent, people seem to get much more upset about games like Grand Theft Auto exactly because the characters are dressed in street clothes, as are the victims. It would be interesting to see if people have more difficulty divorcing reality from the game when the players’ avatars aren’t soldiers or fantasy characters like in World of Warcraft. Good post!
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