The fun and liberation of custom avatars

Usually i hate Choice-whether it’s which restaurant to eat or which song to play at a party. Even swiping a potential date can inspire anxiety. I just don’t know. My indecision stems from my irrational fear of wrong choices, or maybe FOMO of other choices.

When the pandemic began, this hesitation ceased: I quickly chose the tribe. More specifically, a male, blood elf, warlock.Once the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned against social activities such as going to bars with friends or meeting strangers I knew online, I was back in the game World of Warcraft kill time. I stopped playing seven years ago, obviously replacing one bad habit with another. This is not because of lack of interest, but lack of self-control. Without it, I couldn’t play for an hour, which resulted in all night.

The irony is that in an immersive virtual world with seemingly limitless choices, indecisive adults can still become decisive gamers. When playing games online, I no longer feel pressured by the opinions or judgments of others. The pleasure of releasing demonic servants to kill them suppressed my instinctive desire to please others. I am guided by happiness, not by letting others like my things. For many people, the identity of a game player is usually limited to the “player of video games”, but it contains many unique experiences. Players can browse different existences and identities as quickly as possible when changing the game they are playing. You can immerse yourself in fantasy while still feeling the interpersonal connection with the avatar by controlling their behavior. The player manages to lose himself while never losing his sense of self.

When Gamecube came out in 2001, I inadvertently began to reveal my secret personal interests while playing with my quadruplet twin brother. Although our appearance is brotherly, our internal differences have never been as specific as when choosing a role. Super smash bro. Three user icons of different colors are placed on Samus, Donkey Kong and Link, waiting for a player to start the game. I took a deep breath, then released my breath on Zelda.

“You chose a girl!” One of my brothers pointed out aggressively like I was blind.

“Oh,” I said, changing the color of her dress from pink to black, as if it made Zelda no longer look like a woman. “I just want to try her power,” I told them.

When I witnessed the character spinning into a gorgeous sapphire diamond reflective shield, or when I jumped and created an explosive storm cloud, my cover-up excuses showed up, which is reminiscent of my favorite X-Men character, Storm girl. After pressing D + Down and becoming her other self, Sheik wore a tight suit similar to a male catwoman. Although they laughed at me, I refused to fight like any other character-until Mewtwo was unlocked, she happened to be nothing Sexual, but with their way to win my telekinetic ability. Sams is the unanimous favorite of my brothers, but it takes many years for them to realize that “he” is actually a woman in cyborg armor. Although gender is actually purposeless in the game—if not irrelevant—my brothers reflect the society’s obsession with forcing others to choose between pink or blue.

I don’t think of myself as a girl, but Zelda is one of the few characters with form and power that satisfies me. It’s true that you don’t need to be attached to the protagonist to enjoy playing them, but for some of us, this will take away the fun of the game.Author Keith Stuart described the internal conflict of this identity paradox in a 2014 article protector: “For example, in terms of its exquisite sandbox environment modeling and interlocking AI system, Far Cry 3 is one of the greatest mainstream action-adventure games of all time. But the plot is full of disturbing colonialism The subtext, the protagonist is a terrible brother. I don’t want to identify with that bastard. The term ludonarrative dissonance is widely ridiculed in the industry, but this is a frustrating common phenomenon-when players can’t see the narrative sequence and their own inner self When the connection between the game is real, the problem of identification and association becomes more problematic.”

For me, part of the experience is choosing a character that satisfies the fantasy, and the way it is more difficult to explain than simply choosing a female character, because “I am gay”. Otherwise, I might work harder on this useless princess.in a Learn Published on Information, communication and society, The researchers examined the online behavior of 375 participants while playing custom tasks World of Warcraft; 23% of male participants and 7% of female participants chose the opposite sex avatar. The study also found that older and experienced gamers are more likely to have sex swaps. Players have different reasons: men like “beauty” and attention, while women who decide to play a male role appreciate unattended attention. Players like to indulge in different experiences. Interestingly, men who choose female avatars are more likely to be attracted by feminine, “beautiful” aesthetics, and speak with more emotional phrases and smiling emojis. Even those who do not try to conceal their identity will still strengthen idealized and gendered social concepts by choosing model-like physical characteristics and adopting softer and passive communication methods. But whether it is virtual characters or the way players interact, their subconscious behavior reflects their offline gender tendency in terms of moving or jumping frequency.

The way their interaction is transformed online emphasizes the importance of pretending to feel real and exciting in the game. It’s no problem for men to choose trolls or goblins when playing male roles, but when switching to female players, they design sexy avatars, just like choosing a potential romantic partner. Kotaku reporter Nathan Grayson wrote in an article in 2014 that why he Choose a female character: “Physically speaking, I am attracted to women, but when I look through my virtual skin closet to decide what I want to wear to a grand party, it is usually not the motivation that drives me. However, I think, no matter how long or short I am I am already in real life. I like to see the world through the eyes of other people-far away or close to home. Video games let me do this, even if it’s only in a very low place (usually not). Sexuality or reality) level.”