Gameology: Commentary and Resources for the Game Studies Community

I agree that the freedom to explore varied virtual identities through the context of numerous avatars can be both therapeutic and telling. Through playing/performing with different (virtual) bodies, it seems we experience different contexts, whose juxtaposition poses unique questions about who “we” are. For instance, I know that when I play female avatars in MMORPGs, I feel like my ideas are glossed over by other players more often than with my male avatars.

In this same line of comparison, I imagine that putting an avatar in an entirely different world/context could offer drastically different possibilities for inquiry. I do however share the worry that if our virtual worlds become muddied, (i.e. WoW characters in Second Life) then their integrity may be in put in Jeopardy. Sure I like PBNJs but not when I mix them with salmon!