~Hot Sultry Women~

I did not know much about second life until I read about it in an article in the WSJ. I was thrown aback by the number of hours some people spend in this world. A husband claimed to spend 12 hours on this game, leaving his wife a widow. He was intimate with his wife in second life as well. When he woke up, his so-called wife would have breakfast ready for him and when he came back for a lunch snack, there was tea and cookies at the table. Furthermore, when the husband woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, he would kiss his “wife” avatar on second life before falling asleep again. I was disgusted by the way people have, in the recent years especially, been engrossed with this game.

When I saw this assignment, images of the aforementioned kept flashing in my mind. I did not want to become this mad woman who leaves everything in her real life for the computer world. But regardless, I decided to make the most of my experience by entering this second life world. When I did I finally understood why people are completely engrossed in these games. The degree to which you have control over the smallest aspects is the thrill.

I made my avatar tall, hot, and sultry. Her name was Giuselle. I had her dressed in very seductive clothes. As Yee and Bailsenson said, a more attractive female would leave a better experience in the mind of the player especially. Furthermore, it would give the woman more sass in terms of personality. She was wearing black high-heeled boots, with a short skirt and a pink tube top. The avatar resonated a prostitute likened image.

Thereafter, the avatar began to walk the streets of a city in broad daylight. It was at first interesting to note the behaviors by the public. I first noticed men glaring at her. She was probably the most attractive looking woman in the area. The other women glanced at her in jealousy. The different behavioral expressions she received by different peoples was interesting. After just watching the expressions she received by walking the streets, I decided that I should make her communicate. I had her ask for directions. Upon asking old women, she received an almost reproaching answer. It was probably because of the inappropriate manner in which the girl carried herself. When she asked men, she was given clear perfect directions. Some of them even walked her to the place. These behavioral differences I noted between men and woman toward a highly-attractive beauty support the claims of Yee and Bailenson.

Furthermore, I noted, that once my avatar began to receive a more agreeable answer from the men in terms of directions, she began to loosen-up. Her gait was more womanly, and easy-going as opposed to being tough. Thus this is agreeable to the proteus effect, which states that an individual’s behavior changes to conform to their digital representations. Thus, in my avatar’s case, her behavior changed as she became more agreeable to the community.

Furthermore, once I became more and more engrossed in the second life world, I was more prone to making more radical changes that would probably not be considered appropriate in the real world. This is where the deindividuation effect comes to play. I gained more confidence in the CMC environment. With reduced social cues and more anonymity I felt that my identity was safeguarded. No one knew who I really was, and that made everything better.

I finally can see why people can get hooked to second life. It’s pretty scary to say the least. However, since November 8^th, 2007, I have only logged onto my second life world two times. So I am not quite hooked, but I imagine, without self-control, I see myself getting engrossed in it.

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Assignment 10

The computer game I played was an online version of the Final Fantasy series. The game revolved around playing out a story line in a game while completing certain tasks and battles. Battles being described as real-time turn based fights between yourself and another. What I found to be the most powerful aspect of the game were the actual battles. It is where the player has the most control and discretion of the video game characters power. Through this control of the on-screen characters, you can really get a feel for the game functions. The game itself has a very engaging storyline which keeps you latched to the game for hours on end. The strategy behind the game also plays an important role since it keeps you constantly involved in the game. You are also able to communicate between other online players.

Within the fighting aspect of the game, I felt more compelled to use forceful and physical attacks when using the male characters versus the female characters. There just seemed to be something stronger looking about the male characters. This is an example of the “Proteous Effect”. I was taken by the physical characteristics of my character and acted in a way I perceived them to act based on their image.

Throughout the game, you are given the option of talking to other members and responding with whatever you want. When using a stronger looking character to approach others, I was generally treated friendlier (stronger characters are more desirable in the video game). This is an example of the nonverbal expectancy violations theory since I created a positive valance with my character. I think this theory is very relevant to communications inside of a virtual world space like this since it really emphasizes the deindividual aspects of the video game.

I used to play a ton of video games as a kid and have since lost interest but I completely remember now what it was like to act inside of a virtual space with others. You can take on the role of another simply by their on-screen image.

Assignment 10 - Zero Online

Being an avid gamer I have already explored many online multi-player games such as World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online, Warhammer, Nexus TK, Second Life, Aspereta, Jedi Knights, Guild Wars, and Everquest. Because of this I decided to investigate new MMO (massively multiplayer online) games. I looked over several general synopsises before deciding to download and play a game called Zero Online. Zero Online is based on futuristic intergalactic robotic warfare where users act as pilots for giant robots. There are several different environments from military bases to asteroid strongholds and they all exude a very metal and high-tech look. While in these different environments there are a variety of activities for users to participate in, from player-versus-players combat arenas to market places.

In Zero Online a user is able to create and customize the identities and appearances of their robot and their human avatar who is piloting the robot. I found it interesting that robot appearance is largely influenced by the gender one chooses for their human avatar; males have distinctly male-looking very macho robots, while females are given robots with a more slender looking build and sometimes even shorter. Users can also customize the functions of their robot by choosing which type of combat they want to specialize in, either melee, ranged, or special combat.

For my first character on Zero Online I chose to be female, have a melee robot (close combat), and use a female avatar with a strong, assertive, and tall looking character model. Although I had other avatar choices I picked the one that I felt best represented the robot I chose because she seemed to fit better than some of the other avatars who looked shyer or more fragile. Before even entering the game I believe that I felt more confident in my ability to be successful at this game, and this continued throughout my entire experience. As I was cooperating in the robot wars I often took on more than one enemy at a time, believing that I was capable to defeating them, and I was. Also when I created teams with other users I often found myself in leadership roles, and taking the position of leading the action while leaving others to be support roles.

My experience with Zero Online supports the theory of the Proteus Effect by Yee and Bailenson. The Proteus Effect is the idea that in online environments users may become deindividuated and act in accordance to the new identity that is inferred from their avatars and or act in a way that they feel others would expect them to behave. In this case I chose a human avatar with a strong and assertive personality, and a melee robot which is the largest in size and armor protection. I felt that both of these identities accumulated to the overall confident personality of my online identity.

Another interesting personality characteristic that I developed while playing was that I was socially withdrawn and almost cold. While I would take on leadership roles, I wasn’t anyone’s friend and never acted like it. This is interesting because in all of the other online games that I have played I have always been extremely sociable with other players. The only difference I could find from these past experiences to my experience with Zero Online is that in this game I played as a human piloting a robot. I believe that this change in personality also supports the Proteus Effect in that one can behave based on stereotypes and expectations. Perhaps because when I was playing you would mainly see the robot, rather than the human pilot, I took on what I consider ‘robotic’ characteristics. I expected robots and pilots in wartime to be focused and withdrawn and thus I became.

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Assignment 10 - Second Life as a rapper

Yee and Bailenson described the Proteus Effect as the hypothesis that an individual's behavior conforms to their digital self-representation (avatar) independent of how other perceive them (real life). From my experience with Second Life, I would have to agree.

In their two experiments, they highlighted two aspects which control one's behavior in the digital world: Avatar attractiveness and height in regards to negotiation behavior. They found that people, for the most part, decided to choose an avatar that was highly attractive. They also found, that those who chose avatars of normal height were least likely to accept an "unfair offer." They described an unfair offer as one with the intent to manipulate the participant.

By chance, my avatar happened to be an average height (5'10") highly attractive rapper (I'm one myself) that went around for about an hour and a half spitting game to females and making other friends I thought were the coolest of the bunch. Due to my attractiveness, I felt behavioral confirmation was necessary. My attractiveness had a great deal to do with how I decided to behave because I wanted to feel comfortable, accepted. I wanted to be popular and even though this is a digital world, in real life, I want to have the same type of reputation especially since I feel I'm in competition with others for friends. Morally, it shouldn't be this way but sometimes people dodge morals for benefits (refering back to the O'Sullivan reading).

Unfortuantely for many rappers, they weren't born being tall and for the sake of maintaining some credibility with my avatar, I decided to be average height. After I read Yee and Bailenson, I was happy to see that my height actually had a correlation with my "successful game spitting." In this case, I would call asking for dates and obtaining friends a "negotiation behavior." It always feels good to not be alone and that's what many strive for both in Second Life and in the real world. This is why it isn't surprising that being "average" attracts the most friends. People want to associate with someone like them so overall being average is the way to go.

Speaking of my great Second Life negotiational skills, I still have some Second Life dates to attend to. Hopefully that doesn't lead to PIU!

Peace

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Assignment 10: Lord of the Rings

For this assignment, I chose to play Lord of the Rings Online: a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. While I’m not a devoted player, I do play on occasion and am familiar with its mechanics. In this game, you create a character in Tolkien’s Middle-earth that serves as your avatar. Unlike most MMORPGs, there is no player-verse-player combat (using your primary avatar), as all the characters are on the side “good” and therefore PvP would be anachronistic. In order to have PvP combat, a special mode is available where you take control of a generic “evil” creature to fight other players in a designated area. As a result, LOTRO lacks the type of player who finds enjoyment in ruining others’ experiences. Players are generally helpful and polite.

Recently I’ve been using a male Elf “Hunter.” The character has a fairly typical appearance; he has long dark hair and is average size. My experience with this character contrasts with an older character (who I’ve spent much more time as). The other character is a male Dwarf “Guardian.” The dwarf has a more distinctive appearance with medium-length white hair and a very short beard. I noticed a few differences in my behavior between the two characters. The foremost difference was that I was much more assertive as the Dwarf. The Dwarf is definitely less “attractive” of an avatar than the Elf, but I found that I had greater confidence in that role. In this type of game, confidence is probably tied less to “attractiveness” and more to an appearance of “toughness.” As the game is based around combat as opposed to social interactions, the older, tougher Dwarf can be seen as a more desirable character to work with than the vaguely gender-neutral young-looking Elf. The result is behavioral confirmation where I was more deferential as the Elf since my appearance was less authoritative.

While this seems to fit with Yee & Bailenson’s ideas, I would suggest that the most significant factor for my different behaviors is the class of each character. The Elf is a “Hunter,” which attacks from afar with a bow and has little armor. The Dwarf is a “Guardian,” which has heavy armor and high health, and therefore stands up front and absorbs as much enemy damage as possible. The roles therefore demand that the Guardian be more assertive as they have to directly engage the enemy. The Hunter supports the melee classes from afar, but has to avoid becoming the center of enemy attention.

Yee & Bailenson also discussed how deindividuation in CMC could result in normative behavior. With both characters, I acted in a similar, polite manner when it came to social encounters. This could partially be explained as following the normative behavior of players, but I also used to act similarly when I played World of Warcraft, where the normative behavior is significantly more confrontational. These reflections lead me to believe that Yee & Bailenson’s results apply more directly to specifically social virtual spaces, such as Second Life or Habbo Hotel. The next step I'd take would be to set up two more characters with the same appearances as my Dwarf and Elf, but reverse the classes. This would indicate how much of the behavioral difference is due to appearance and how much due to combat role.

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assignment 10: two views of second life

I was pretty excited for this assignment. I’d never interacted with others on Second Life. I thought about what kind of avatar I wanted to use and decided to be short, rotund female with short hair and casual clothing. I wanted to see how people would treat me online Second Life, and how that would affect my own behavior. I found that this character made me feel awkward, perhaps because I created it knowing it was an “unattractive” avatar. With this knowledge, I was hesitant to ask for help from other avatars, even though I clearly needed it. After reading about online self presentation, I felt especially hesitant to talk to characters which were clearly opposite of my presented image. I felt detached from those avatars who were obviously attractive and interacting with others. Instead, I choose to ask the more plain avatars for help and to interact with. While these characters answered my questions, they did not seem eager to stick around to get to know me more or offer any extra helpful information.

Yee and Bailenson suggest that there is a proteus effect that individuals change their behavior to conform to their digital representations. This happens because individuals are deindividualized in the digital world because of reduced social cues and anonymity. This loss of self identity contributes to individuals conforming to their avatar identities. The proteus effect emphasized conformity to individual identity cues such as being friendly with an attractive avatar or being more outgoing with a taller avatar.

In order to test this out, I then changed avatars to a tall, slender female with long hair and trendy clothing. Just looking at this character made me feel more confident. I thought others would be more responsive and felt more comfortable approaching other characters. This time, I did not shy from the more social characters. Yee and Bailenson were correct that having a more outgoing character makes the entire virtual world experience more friendly and intimate, meaning there is a higher chance of forming online relationships. Other characters were more willing to hold longer conversations with me and invited me to other areas of Second Life.

Even when I was alone just walking around in more “attractive” character, I felt more confident. When I was exploring Second Life alone as a less “attractive” character, I felt more reserved and like an outsider. According to the proteus effect, this is normal because individuals behave according to beliefs about what others would think and not actual responses from others. None of these effects roll over to real life. As soon as I logged off, the feeling of self consciousness or confidence were gone.

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A10: Neverwinter Knights

Neverwinter Nights 2 was a very good game, but I always thought “Hrm, this would make a good coop(eration) mission.” While the characters are very well done, it doesn’t beat having friends taking up the slack. This weekend, I finally started up the Neverwinter Nights multiplayer and played on a Story server, which allows all the players to participate in the single player campaign together. I created a human character, as a paladin/divine champion class, who was as tall as he could be and somewhat attractive. Initially, I was the sole tank (read: meat shield) of the party of mostly spell casters, and we played for a few hours of the first chapter.

The attractiveness of my character was very subjective, considering that many of the NWN2 visages are less than appealing, with a more drab, dull look. Also, I saw your characters face often, since it shows up every time I opened up my character sheet, but other players would have to zoom in and pay attention to my character in order to see his face. It makes it even harder, since the camera focuses in on your character and not anyone else, and typically, players are always moving about. This actually would lower the behavioral confirmation, since, regardless of whether my character looks attractive or not, other players would not treat me more warmly if I was and cooler if I wasn’t if they don’t often see at my character’s face. This, in turn, would mean that I would not alter my behavior subconsciously to adhere to the expectations of others.

In addition, the player characters of the party were all male, and thus, the attractiveness of my character would not have as much of an effect as if some or all of the other party members were female. In Yee and Bailenson’s study, they chose their confederate to be the opposite gender of the participant. During my time playing NWN2, this was not the case, and thus, the Proteus effect was not in full force; that is, I did not walk as close to other players or disclose more about myself as I would if there were more female players. There is also the fact that I pay little attention to the distance between characters, excluding a rush to an enemy or a subsequent retreat toward a doorway. The fact that the Lee/Bailenson study had participants using VR googles made facial attraction and virtual physical proximity a larger factor, while avatars in most roleplaying games do not often have or use such an close and intimate perspective.

With respect to my height ingame, however, I was especially aggressive while engaging mobs. Lee and Bailenson predicted that, as the tallest character a player can be, I would be more aggressive, but my behavior could also be explained by my role in the party. I was the sole tank toward the beginning of the game, and with a party of spellcasters, it behooved me to engage as early as possible so that everyone else wouldn’t die. Later, when a NPC fighter (non player character) joined us, I actually became more cautious, because the enemies were becoming more potent, which is the opposite of the results of Lee/Bailenson study, which resulted in a more aggressive stance over time. As a lawful good character, I spent a lot of time trying to convince the party to choose more morally upright decisions, partly for role playing reasons and mostly for self preservation (an evil or chaotic paladin no longer has access to his abilities). Thus, I made my opinions about each decision very vocal, and even though it wasn’t always heeded, it was often heard. So, although the first two hypotheses of Lee/Bailenson about attractiveness did not affect my game playing experience, my height did seem to have a significant impact on my inter-group interactions.

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