Online Games and Identity.

A look at : Computer Supported Cooperative Play,
“Third Places” and Online Videogames.
Greg Wadley, Martin Gibbs, Kevin Hew, Connor Graham.
Department of Information Systems, The University of Melbourne
http://www.dis.unimelb.edu.au/staff/gwadley/roc/WadleyEtAl-OzChi2003.pdf


This paper looks at the then newly emerging on-line capabilities of console gaming platforms. Written in 2003 which is an age ago when referring to these types of things Wadley, Gibbs, Hew and Graham did a study of people using Microsoft’s X-Box and its ‘X-Box Live’ on-line multiplayer network in an attempt to asses the functionality, benefits and limits of games as ‘Third Places”. While they did a pretty good job; many of the same issues still exist today even with the release of the x-box 360, though it seems that they may be a little over enthusiastic about the freedom of interaction that, as they call it, Computer Supported Co-operative Play (CSCP), affords on systems such as these.

Few people will dispute the distance AI has come with the latest generation of games, but it is yet to match the experience of taking on a human opponent. The ability to personalise your appearance, chat with your opponent and form alliances (commonly known as 'clans'), as well as the general unpredictability of other players brings game play to a whole new level. “Just playing anyone, that’s just like playing against a computer that’s just dumber or smarter. The community part is important.”[1] As hard as programmers try they will never be able to catch the ‘human touch’, it is the unpredictability of human players, and most importantly the individuality.

Despite the common idea that cyberspace is removed from the real world, on-line communities don’t exist in an environmental void. The way a meeting place is set up, be it a forum, instant messaging service, an MMPOG or a space like 2nd Life, will affect the way users interact, create and understand identities.
“Third places are taken for granted and most have a low-profile. The character of a third place is determined most of all by its regular clientele and is marked by a playful mood.”[2]
While this is certainly true of third places such as chat rooms and forums, graphically represented game worlds are also determined by rules and are limited by the programming. There identity is made up of much more than simply your words or text, it is based on among other things, ranking, appearance, skill and specific knowledge of the game and its environment. Competing with these other elements, the importance of textual interaction in identity creation within such systems is significantly reduced.

The paper points to notions that real world identity is much less solidly connected to online identity in CSCP than it is to CSCW (Computer Supported Co-operative Work), due to rank and position within the workplace. This is true but still definite ties to the real world that come up in identity creation within gaming systems. The most obvious being disparities in the hardware and amount of money that players have and are willing to spend. In 2nd Life for example a player can only really change their looks though spending real-world money. Similarly a faster internet connection is a major advantage when playing fast paced action games online, if your system lags mid-game you are very likely to be killed in the time it takes for the screen to refresh.

The authors further deduce that due to their lack of ties with real world identity:
“CSCP environments such as online games support a more fluid and organic sense of self. This seems more closely aligned to Oldenburg’s (1989) “third place” in which an individual’s individuality and personality are celebrated.”[3]
As much as it may seem this is the case, given the greater number of ways to express yourself, I’m hesitant to agree. As I briefly mentioned earlier the freedom to express yourself is limited in these realms by the mechanics of the game environment. For example you can’t show off your artistic side in a game of Counterstrike. Actions are limited by the game world, while at the same time they are given more status as a means of communication and expression of character. The virtual community of Jedi Knights II: Jedi Outcast, players have taken to bowing to each other as a sign of respect, the thing is that there is no bow command or animation in the game so players have resorted to crouching and ducking their head to substitute.[4] Thus expression of self through the game world is limited and while there are textual or even audio communication channels available they are often clunky and primitive meaning that less weight is given to language interactions, text or voice.

While the report was overly enthusiastic about the freedom that the systems offered it also recognised the value of community in multiplayer systems, which couldn’t have been more correct. This incongruence (importance of community vs. restrictions on identity creation) is a major reason for the comment by the PC gamers in the focus group, which stated that they prefer to use multiple means of communication simultaneously. Often ones online identity is simultaneously existent between different systems each displaying a different view of the person. Players say that interacting with various manifestations of a person or opponent makes identities feel less ‘fake’. True online identity is made up from a combination of identities. Interacting with multiple online manifestations of a player gives a better understanding of them and helps forge communities outside of the game realm. It also makes it harder to fool people using ‘dummy accounts’. Anonymity makes some people act like assholes just because they can, again see the Bow Nigger article for an example.

I must admit that in this respect X-Box has done exceedingly well. Players are held accountable for their actions by the GamerTag system. This ensures players only have one identity within the X-Box Live arena meaning that if you get a reputation for cheating or being a bad sport you’ll be stuck with it. It works well but mainly because people have to pay to create an account. In the case of many free games there are no effective measures that I know of the stop people from creating multiple accounts and logging back with a different ‘identity’ after they’re booted.

As a quick little aside on this topic I came across this story which is a bit of an extreme example highlighting the advantages of a system like the GamerTag where everyone has only one login.

Games are by far the most lucrative of the online communities in action today, their community aspect being a big part of this success. But it seems that it has been given a little too much credit. The freedom to express yourself is still heavily limited. Users are finding ways around this problem though by using multiple means of communicating and strengthening their community.

References:

[1][2][3] Greg Wadley, Martin Gibbs, Kevin Hew, Connor Graham. (2003) Computer Supported Cooperative Play,“Third Places” and Online Videogames. Department of Information Systems, The University of Melbourne. Accessed on 23/05/07 at http://www.dis.unimelb.edu.au/staff/gwadley/roc/WadleyEtAl-OzChi2003.pdf

[4] Always_Black,(2004) Bow Nigger, accessed 23/05/07 at http://www.alwaysblack.com/blackbox/bownigger.html