The Daily Grind: Do you think of your avatar in the first person?
by James Egan 
Dec 3rd 2008 at 8:00AM
Filed under: Opinion, The Daily Grind
A recent post over at the Terra Nova blog is the inspiration for today's The Daily Grind. In that post, Rutgers Law Professor Greg Lastowka observes that some MMO players and virtual world residents refer to their avatar as "I", while others refer to it as a he, she, or even it. Many people form some degree of attachment to their digital personas. For some it's through customizing the look of a character, while for others it might be creating the perfect class build or acquiring pets. Given all the time you spend in MMOs and virtual worlds with your characters, is your avatar something you associate with yourself in some way, thus causing you to refer to it in the first person? Or do you view your avatar as something 'other' that you puppeteer... something separate from you, making the avatar a thing you refer to in the third person?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
ScytheNoire said on 8:55AM 12-03-2008
I never have had an attachment to my avatar. Typically I make characters I find attractive, thus, I usually make women. Even my forum avatar is of a woman (Luis Royo Prohibited).
Only time I make male avatars in games is when it affects the game play, such as in a Fallout, where it can kind of get creepy getting hit on by guys in the game. That weirds me out.
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spiral-soldier said on 12:22PM 12-04-2008
Surprisingly I haven't really found a lot of that in Fallout 3. There are however a delightful number of conversations with lesbian undertones. I think it's probably because they just left in some dialog options from the male version but no harm, no foul.
I'd imagine getting hit on in an mmo would be creepier than in a single player game but maybe you've got preventative measures in place?
Lemmo said on 10:09AM 12-03-2008
Back in EQ1, when the game played in first person mode almost exclusively, it was always "I". And when I'm playing in a game, I of course refer to myself as "I". But when I'm talking to someone about my character builds or achievements, I refer to the character in third person, simply because I have too many characters to speak of to not differentiate. I think the altitis is part of that disconnection. I can jump between three different characters in a single play session, so to not qualify them as separate entities would just be really confusing.
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mirilene said on 12:06PM 12-03-2008
Forgive me, but I think you (James) are misunderstanding the post you're citing. Referring to your characters in the first person IS the normal way to go about it. It has nothing to do with personal attachment.
MOST people refer to their characters as I, as in "I was grinding and..." Or "...So then I stunned them and..."
The Terra Nova post was asking if it was weird to refer to your character in the third person, as if they were seperate from yourself.
You might argue that doing such is the ultimate form of personal attachment: that you've essentially created a whole fictional being out of your character. But its definitely unusual to refer to them as seperate entities for most purposes.
The exceptions would be when discussing gear, quests, abilities... "X has finished all of netherstorm, but Y still has a long way to go". Something like that.
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James Egan said on 1:08PM 12-03-2008
Hi Mirilene,
Thanks for your input, but I didn't misunderstand the Terra Nova post. I was trying to avoid calling one orientation either weird or unusual through my wording in today's Daily Grind (regardless of my own views). I also mentioned attachment because I wondered if that's the real dividing line between associating an avatar with oneself or externalizing it as something 'other'.
I agree that referring to one's avatar in first person is basically the default orientation, regardless of the degree of attachment, but there seem to be plenty of people who don't see it that way. (Though I do wonder if people who form some kind of real attachment to their avatar will still refer to that avatar as 'he' or 'she'. Or would they go from initially viewing it as 'he/she' to 'I' or 'me' over time?)
So today's Daily Grind wasn't asking the question quite as Terra Nova did -- about whether it's unusual to refer to an avatar in the third person -- but rather was meant to elicit more response by not taking one side or the other... The idea/discussion is still pretty much the same though. Well, regardless of whether I wrote 'first person' or 'third person' in today's title, the questions I ask in the post itself toe the line between those groups, I think.
Most people (myself included) speak of their character(s) in the first person. When I'm playing, that's me. I'm doing it, not 'him'. But I do know several people who use third person or -- more often -- refer to their character/alt by name, rather than using "I" or "my". Some of the people I know who do this often do so in the context of referring to their avatar as a 'toon'... something I've noticed, anyway.
You pointed out an interesting thing though -- externalizing the avatar as 'he' or 'she' and wrapping it in fiction is a very different kind of attachment. Perhaps a stronger one at that.
Mr Angry said on 12:36PM 12-03-2008
I read an interesting article about the psychological aspects of relating to an in game avatar "dress up soldiers" vs "toy soldiers" and what that said about the player themselves. I'll see if I can dig it up.
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Havok said on 2:19PM 12-03-2008
If I didn't relate to my character on a "he/she" basis I'd get crazy bored. I
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Havok said on 2:21PM 12-03-2008
Also, Drew requests that you credit toothpastefordinner.com whenever you use any of the material from that site.
You know, since you're a professional and that pic is under a copywrite and all that.
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James Egan said on 2:33PM 12-03-2008
Havok, the image is already linked back to the toothpastefordinner site as it should be, as stated on their site under use/reuse/ip:
http://www.toothpastefordinner.com/misc.php
Jess said on 4:06PM 12-03-2008
If I'm roleplaying yes, otherwise, no. Either way I do consider that avatar to be "me" in that world.
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Jeromai said on 2:20AM 12-04-2008
My initial stab at it would surmise that I use old tabletop RPG tropes, separating player/character.
But that's not very satisfactory a generalization on second thought, since there are people who will say "I stab him with my dagger." or "Fizban shoots a fireball at him now" to describe an action they want their character to do. This particular case probably reflects how willing-to-be-immersed someone is.
For me, first person usage would be for things I choose to do as a player.
"I'm going raiding tonight (as name of character/class)." Brackets left unspoken, but understood, if I'm only playing one character as my main or if there's only one character of the right level range.
"I went exploring and found a neat location." - I, the player, found it, and it's stored into player memory to be shared with all future characters, unless I'm roleplaying on purpose.
"(As a marauder,) I (the player) like to use impale (a specific skill) to stab people (other players, as their characters) in the back." - lots unspoken here, but implied in context.
I normally refer to my characters in third-person, especially when there's a need to get specific about aspects which are unique to classes/specs or in some way differentiate them from the general norm.
Maybe because I run an alt stable in most games, so I have to tell them apart. "My shaman needs a new staff. His current one sucks. But the marauder just got a nice drop in Gunbad last night."
If I said "I need a new staff (referring to the shaman)," the unspoken assumption would be, in order for me, the player, to do something. I need that new staff to heal better, or kill things, etc.
Perhaps I look at them more like a novelist would. The characters are aspects of me, mixed with other things, and that makes them new characters in and of themselves and referred to in the third person. It's important for me to name my MMO characters properly. They take on a new not-me aspect then.
Gah, I'm confusing myself. Let's just go with whatever feels correct at the time.
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