Variation in Player-Avatar Relationships: Towards a Genre-Independent Typology

• In Event: In the Digital Mirror: Avatars in Games

Abstract

Based on in-depth interviews with n=19 German and n=13 US-American video game players (including casual and core gamers), a new typology for player-avatar relationships (PARs) is developed. Departing from an extensive literature review on different notions and accounts, we suggest to organized the heterogeneity of PARs by a distance/closeness continuum. Five types of PARs were identified in respondents’ self-reports that were labelled functional PAR, empathy-based PAR, intense dyadic PAR, selective identification, and shift of identities. While MMOs were found to enable or stimulate the greatest diversity of PAR qualities, shooter games seem to prescribe high distance modes of PAR, the treating of an avatar as functional object in particular. In sum, the interview-based typology is able to classify PAR across different gamers and game genres while incorporating much previous conceptual and terminological work. Perspectives for future games research are discussed.

Authors

• Daniel Possler, Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media

• Christoph Klimmt, Hannover University of Music, Drama, and Media

• Natascha Carnol, Hanover University of Music, Drama, and Media

• Ina Weber, Hanover U of Music, Drama, and Media

• Arthur A. Raney, Florida State U