Empathy and identity

The June 17 New York Times Magazine has a fascinating set of photos, showing players and their in-game avatars side by side.

In some cases (as with the photos above), the avatar seems to exude a heightened version of the person's own fantasy characteristics. In others, for example this one:



the avatar is quite different from the player at first glance...

What drives people in their choices, when they have a wide range of options in crafting their in-game persona? How do we choose a social 'face' (in the Goffman sense) in-game? These are important questions for game researchers that have increasing implications for game designers as the palette of player choices expands.

Game designers have a chance now to do something that movie directors and novelists cannot--offering players a deeper fusion of the real and the fantasy worlds through the vessel of the player character. I can look different, I can act different, and I can be treated differently, moment-to-moment. As I play this alternate version of myself, I am experiencing my social self and my connections to others in ways I might never have access to in the 'real world'.

A very powerful way to explore empathy.