Topic 2

I played World of Warcraft to look into the aspects of anonymity and behavior online and also the creation of avatars and if they had any significance to the identity of the player. Do people act differently? Did their avatars say things about them, either known or unknown to the player?
The more I played the game, the more I realized that with the time I had to play the game there would be no way to find the knowledge I was looking for. World of Warcraft (WOW) is a game that to fully experience a player must invest large amounts of time. The online community is a very tight knit group and to gain respect from the other players your rank must show you are devoted. With my skill, I could not gain the experience I needed; therefore I could not gain access to the social elements I was interested in. I chose instead to look into the book Computer Mediated Communication which shows research into the internet as a whole. My purpose was to see which elements that were present in dealing with digital identity online translated over to the gaming world.
While the book discusses mostly text-based online interaction, the points made are valid and strongly applicable to WOW, as well as many other online communities. “Scholars talk about our having multiple identities – people take on different identities throughout their lives and find new ways to represent themselves to the world (Thurlow 97).” Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) games allow people to create another character that lives in an online world. This character can be a branching of their current identity or they can try to create an entirely different identity with them. This topic relates to how we are in real world; we are constantly reinventing ourselves, our identity is always evolving. In my opinion, nothing is really wrong with this. If someone is more comfortable and can express themselves more openly online, then they should do so.
Online communities allow people who wish to express themselves more in the real world communities a chance to do just that. “Anonymity [of the internet] paved the way for disembodiment – an identity which was no longer dependent on, or constrained by, your physical appearance…It would give an opportunity for those whose voices had not been heard before to speak and be heard (Thurlow 99).” The book referred to the internet as being color blind. Personal characteristics such as race, gender and religion are only known if you let them be. Also the aspect of being anonymous can give some people the courage to voice their opinion. It also may encourage others to express themselves in a negative way. For instance, we discussed in class the WOW funeral scene where a group of people came charging in and ruined a funeral, obviously this would never happen in real life. The aspect of anonymity however allows, and possibly encourages, people to act out more. I know many people who will make crude remarks online without thinking twice when in a real life social setting would never imagine it.
The authors of Computer Mediated Communication also quoted the famous internet scholar Sherry Turkle referring to chat rooms, “You can be whoever you want to be. You can completely redefine yourself if you want…You are the character and you are not the character, both at the same time. You are who you pretend to be (99).” Creating an avatar is creating another identity. I believe there is rarely a direct correlation between a user and an avatar. Many times people just pick one to try something different they cannot do in the real world or enjoy the aesthetics of a certain character. Some of my colleagues have mentioned they will almost always play a character of the opposite gender, just because it is something different from their real life. Like the research given to us in class, occasionally it really could be someone trying to live out a different identity in the best way they know how; however I believe if they spend enough time with the same group of people they may eventually give themselves away. Based on our class discussions the majority of one’s selection seems to be personal preference without a deeper meaning in most cases.
“It’s therefore important to put online identities into context: first, in the context of the fluid, multiple nature of offline identity, and second, in the context of what people are really up to in cyberspace (Thurlow 102).” My final thoughts are that each individual would need to be analyzed on a case-by-case basis; but overall there is no direct correlation. Anonymity online will allow, and encourage, people to act more confidently for positive or negative impact on the online world.

Thurlow, Crispin; Lengel, Laura and Tomic, Alice. Computer Mediated Communication. Sage Publications, 2004.