Persona in MMO Games: Constructing an Identity Through Complex Player/Character Relationships
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21153/ps2017vol3no2art672Keywords:
identity, online interaction, methodology, qualitative research, digital gamesAbstract
Studies of online interaction involving identity can be divided into two distinct categories. On the one hand, there is the study of the players, which often asks questions of a psychological or economic nature. On the other hand, there is the study of characters, which looks at issues of language or culture, and critical theory topics such as gender, class, and race online. While these two approaches have created a field of digital games research that provides many valuable resources and research projects, the separation between these topics is also limiting due to the complex and intertwined nature of online and offline interaction in the modern age. This paper presents a new definition of persona as an additional methodological concept that can be used to observe interaction in the online world, particularly as it applies to the presentation of an identity to others. This construct serves as a joint identity of character and player, combining these otherwise separate topics to allow for a greater depth of understanding of the actions and reasoning behind the characters and players of digital games. It is also applicable to other online contexts, such as social networking, livestreaming, and forum use.
Downloads
References
Baden, R, Bender, A, Spring, N, Bhattacharjee, B & Starin, D 2009, ‘Persona: an online social network with user-defined privacy’, in Proceedings of the ACM SIGCOMM 2009 conference on data communication, SIGCOMM, Barcelona, Spain, pp. 135–146.
Barnett, J & Coulson, M 2010, ‘Virtually real: a psychological perspective on massively multiplayer online games’, Review of General Psychology, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 167-179.
Bergstrom, K 2012, ‘Virtual inequality: a woman’s place in cyberspace’, in Proceedings of the International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games, FDG, Raleigh, NC, pp. 267-269.
Boellstorff, T 2008, Coming of age in second life, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey.
Boellstorff, T, Nardi, B, Pearce, C & Taylor, TL 2012, Ethnography and virtual worlds: a handbook of method, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey.
Bullingham, L & Vasconcelos, A 2013, ‘The presentation of self in the online world: Goffman and the study of online identities’, Journal of Information Science, vol. 39, no. 1.
Burke, P & Stets, J 2009, Identity theory, Oxford University Press, New York.
Carter, M & Fuller C 2016, ‘Symbols, meaning, and action: the past, present, and future of symbolic interactionism’, Current Sociology Review, vol. 64, no. 6, pp. 931-961.
Carter, M, Gibbs, M & Arnold, M 2012, ‘Avatars, characters, players and users: multiple identities at/in play’, in Proceedings of the 24th Australian Computer-Human Interaction conference, OZCHI, Melbourne, Australia, pp. 68-71.
CCP Quant 2014, ‘Player age distribution in EVE Online [OC]’, CCP Quant, retrieved 13 November 2017, https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/2p2s7m/player_age_distribution_in_eve_online_oc/
Chang, JH & Zhang, H 2008, ‘Analyzing online game players: from materialism and motivation to attitude’, CyberPsychology & Behavior, vol. 11, no. 6, pp. 711-714.
Coulter, J 1999, ‘Discourse and mind’, Human Studies, vol. 22, pp. 163-181.
Denzin, N 2003, ‘Much ado about Goffman’, in A Trevino (ed.), Goffman’s Legacy, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc, Lanham, pp. 127-142.
Ducheneaut, N & Moore, R 2005, ‘More than just ‘XP’: learning social skills in massively multiplayer online games’, Interactive Technology & Smart Education, vol. 2, pp. 89-100.
Ducheneaut, N, Yee, N & Bellotti, V 2010, ‘The best of both (virtual) worlds: using ethnography and computation tools to study online behavior’, in Proceedings for EPIC: Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference, Tokyo, Japan.
Garfinkel, H 1967, Studies in ethnomethodology, Polity Press, Malden, MA.
Goffman, E 1959, The presentation of self in everyday life, Anchor Books, New York.
Goffman, E 1974, Frame analysis: an essay on the organization of experience, Northeastern University Press, Boston, MA.
Grundy, D 2008, ‘The presence of stigma among users of the MMORPG RMT: a hypothetical case approach’, Games and Culture, vol. 3, pp. 225-247.
Hagstrom, C 2008, ‘Playing with names: gaming and naming in World of Warcraft’, in H Corneliussen & J Rettberg, J (eds), Digital culture, play, and identity: a World of Warcraft reader, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 265-285.
Hogan, B 2010, ‘The presentation of self in the age of social media: distinguishing performances and exhibitions online’, Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, vol. 30, no. 6, pp. 377-386.
Kerr, A 2003, ‘Women just want to have fun – A study of adult female players of digital games’, in Proceedings of the Digital Games Research Association, DiGRA, Utrecht, Netherlands, pp. 270-285.
Lehdonvirta, V & Ernkvist, M 2011, ‘Knowledge map of the virtual economy: Converting the virtual economy into development potential’, infoDev/World Bank, http://www.infodev.org/publications>
Mamiit, A 2016, ‘League of Legends troll streamer perma-banned, what did he do?’, Tech Times, retrieved 3 May 2016, http://www.techtimes.com/articles/155323/20160502/leagueof-legends-troll-streamer-perma-banned-what-did-he-do.htm
Marshall, PD 2010, ‘The promotion and presentation of the self: celebrity as marker of presentational media’, Celebrity Studies, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 35-48.
Marshall, PD 2014, ‘Seriality and persona’, Journal of Media Culture, vol. 17, no. 3.
Marshall, PD & Barbour, K 2015, ‘Making intellectual room for Persona Studies: a new consciousness and a shifted perspective’, Persona Studies, vol. 1, no. 1.
Marshall, PD, Moore, C & Barbour, K 2015, ‘Persona as method: exploring celebrity and the public self through persona studies’, Celebrity Studies, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 288-305.
Matticus 2009, ‘Girls hate Chuck Norris: on women and raiding guilds’, World of Matticus, retrieved 9 May 2013, http://www.worldofmatticus.com/girls-hate-chuck-norris-on-women-and-raiding-guilds/
Milik, O 2015, ‘Virtual warlords: an ethnomethodological view of group identity and leadership in EVE Online’, Games and Culture, vol. 12, no. 7-8, pp. 764-785.
Milik, O & Webber, N 2016, ‘Selling the Imperium: changing organisational culture and history in EVE Online’, in Proceedings of the First International Joint Conference of DiGDRA and FDG, DiGRA/FDG, Dundee, Scotland.
Moore, C, Barbour, K & Lee, K 2017, ‘Five dimensions of online persona’, Persona Studies, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 1-12.
Moore, R, Ducheneaut, N & Nickell, E 2006 ‘Doing virtually nothing: awareness and accountability in massively multiplayer online worlds’, Computer Supported Cooperative Work, vol. 16, pp. 265-305.
Myers, D 2008, ‘Play and punishment: the sad and curious case of Twixt’, paper presented at the meeting of The Center for Computer Games Research, Copenhagen, Denmark, May.
Nakamura, L 2009, ‘Don’t hate the player, hate the game: the racialization of labor in World of Warcraft’, Critical Studies in Media Communication, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 128-144.
Pargman, D & Jakobsson, P 2008, ‘Do you believe in magic? Computer games in everyday life’, European Journal of Cultural Studies, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 225-244.
Paul, C 2010, ‘Welfare epics? The rhetoric of rewards in World of Warcraft’, Games and Culture, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 158-176.
Taylor, N, Kampe, C & Bell, K 2015, ‘Me and Lee: identification and the play of attraction in The Walking Dead’, The International Journal of Computer Game Research, vol. 15, no. 1.
Taylor, TL 2002, ‘Living digitally: embodiment in virtual worlds’, in R Schroeder (ed.), The social life of avatars: presence and interaction in shared virtual environments, Springer-Verlag, London.
Taylor, TL 2006, Play between worlds: exploring online game culture, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Williams, D, Contractor, N, Poole, M, Srivastava, J & Cai, D 2011, ‘The Virtual Worlds Exploratorium: using large-scale data and computation techniques for communication research’, Communication Methods and Measures, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 163-180.
Yee, N 2006, ‘The demographics, motivations and derived experiences of users of massively-multiuser online graphical environments’, PRESENCE: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, vol. 15, pp. 309-329.
Published
Issue
Section
License
How to Cite
