Identity Construction: The Learning Experience
The Learning Experience David Haapalehto, Ryan Klesc, Erin Pereira
Everyone is probably familiar with the highly successful game The Sims. The simple premise places you in control of one or more virtual people (“Sims”) who have virtual needs and wants you must satisfy. The game is modeled after real life; Sims can have jobs, love affairs, marriages and children.
Identity creation begins with creating one or more Sims.
You select their name, skin color, personality traits, hair color/style, eye color, body type and facial structure. You can select from the default “skins” or download new ones created by a thriving online community that numbers in the thousands.
But it doesn’t stop there – your Sims’ identity evolves as the game progresses. They move into a house, start relationships, get jobs. In other words, they lead a virtual life. You are mostly in control of your Sims’ lives – you can make them successful (monetarily, emotionally, physically), or decide to kill them all in a kitchen fire.
You can play the game on a superficial level for entertainment or use it as an outlet for self-expression or experimentation. Dedicated fans create custom furniture, custom skins, custom fashion and more. Some fans get quite involved with identity play – for example, check out www.spicysims.com, where you download erotic fashions and gear for your Sims, and even experiment with cross-dressing Sims.
(This is an Example of a cross-dressing Sim)
The Sims represent identity creation in many ways. The idea of creating an entire person from scratch to represent you, act as your emissary in a virtual world (when meeting other Sims online), show your affinity to cultural group (by downloading a custom Skin), shows the diversity of the players and the ways to use the program. Identity can be both who you are as a Sim and how you use the program.
With Sims, your identity is your choice.
Here are a few Sim community sites:
Sims2Sisters http://sims2sisters.sme.sk
SpicySims http://spicysims.com
7deadlysims http://www.7deadlysims.com
Official Sim Site:
Maxis site http://maxis.com/
Questions:
1. What other games support extensive identity creation? Have you played them? Do you have a story?
2. How much does your created Sims say about the player? The game can be played superficially or seriously: is it wish-fulfillment/fantasy or fun?
3. As technology develops it allows for a more realistic immersive environment. However, it is not reality. Are there problems with blurring virtual and the real?
Image References
The Sims Banner- Maxis
http://www.vitasims.com/lotr.htm
Star Wars Skin- Han Solo
http://www.yodamac.homestead.com/SimsCity.html
Lord of the Rings
http://www.vitasims.com/lotr.htm
Man In Drag- Sim
http://spicysims.com/DownloadsClothing.cfm?DownloadCategoryID=4
Everyone is probably familiar with the highly successful game The Sims. The simple premise places you in control of one or more virtual people (“Sims”) who have virtual needs and wants you must satisfy. The game is modeled after real life; Sims can have jobs, love affairs, marriages and children.
Identity creation begins with creating one or more Sims.
You select their name, skin color, personality traits, hair color/style, eye color, body type and facial structure. You can select from the default “skins” or download new ones created by a thriving online community that numbers in the thousands.
But it doesn’t stop there – your Sims’ identity evolves as the game progresses. They move into a house, start relationships, get jobs. In other words, they lead a virtual life. You are mostly in control of your Sims’ lives – you can make them successful (monetarily, emotionally, physically), or decide to kill them all in a kitchen fire.
You can play the game on a superficial level for entertainment or use it as an outlet for self-expression or experimentation. Dedicated fans create custom furniture, custom skins, custom fashion and more. Some fans get quite involved with identity play – for example, check out www.spicysims.com, where you download erotic fashions and gear for your Sims, and even experiment with cross-dressing Sims.
(This is an Example of a cross-dressing Sim)
The Sims represent identity creation in many ways. The idea of creating an entire person from scratch to represent you, act as your emissary in a virtual world (when meeting other Sims online), show your affinity to cultural group (by downloading a custom Skin), shows the diversity of the players and the ways to use the program. Identity can be both who you are as a Sim and how you use the program.
With Sims, your identity is your choice.
Here are a few Sim community sites:
Sims2Sisters http://sims2sisters.sme.sk
SpicySims http://spicysims.com
7deadlysims http://www.7deadlysims.com
Official Sim Site:
Maxis site http://maxis.com/
Questions:
1. What other games support extensive identity creation? Have you played them? Do you have a story?
2. How much does your created Sims say about the player? The game can be played superficially or seriously: is it wish-fulfillment/fantasy or fun?
3. As technology develops it allows for a more realistic immersive environment. However, it is not reality. Are there problems with blurring virtual and the real?
Image References
The Sims Banner- Maxis
http://www.vitasims.com/lotr.htm
Star Wars Skin- Han Solo
http://www.yodamac.homestead.com/SimsCity.html
Lord of the Rings
http://www.vitasims.com/lotr.htm
Man In Drag- Sim
http://spicysims.com/DownloadsClothing.cfm?DownloadCategoryID=4
posted by Faythe at 10:59 AM
4 Comments:
Marteena, I think the game you're referring to is HabboHotel. It's a Canadian online community.
3. As technology develops it allows for a more realistic immersive environment. However, it is not reality. Are there problems with blurring virtual and the real?
There are definite issues with realistic virtuality. One is the damage these games can do to your social life! These games are highly addictive. When these realistic games become an addiction, the lines of real and virtual are often blurred. I used to play the Sims for hours on end. The time of day goes by in seconds in the Sims world. You don't realize how fast real time goes by until you look out the window and the sun's already gone down...
These games require the player to enter into the virtual game and allow it take over the real. When we play we insert ourselves into the virtual world. These dual identities can also have major implications on a person’s psychological condition. If you become too immersed, you begin leading a double life—one on screen and one off screen. With the fantastical technological developments generating extremely high quality games, precautions must be taken in order to avoid such addictions. Family and friends need to ensure their peers and kids have time limits on game playing and are able to recognize that a game will always be there when they leave. Otherwise we might be witnessing a “gamers anonymous.”
And it does! Many people mentioned in class (when we talked about The Sims) how it took up most of their time. You become to intune with the characters, houses, lives that you have created that you tend to ignore your own life to try and improve theirs.
For example - buying expensive furniture after your character has made some money, meanwhile ignoring the fact that yours is falling apart, and you have made enough money to go do the same.
It is probably one of the many games that are most responsible for 'depression' because they are just so addicitive. They keep growing in nature with special features, editions, (SimCity, etc) and now spicey sims...which is just a tad weird.
I think using the sims as an example of identity creation was an excellent exmaple. In response to the question of what other games mirror similar characteristics such as the sims consider this genre - online role playing games. Online RPGS in my opinion are the epitome of computer identity creation/virtual reality. A typical online RPG follows similar paths as The Sims. You begin by creating you're own character, develop personal traits, gain skill, choose decisions, and etc. However, what really differentiates online RPGS is the simple fact that it really does mirror reality. All of these RPGS have something called constant flow. Unlike the sims your character is part of an online community which is constantly interacting. Even after you lof off the world and turn your computer off the world is still evolving. For example, consider the World Of War Craft. In this Online RPG you can pick to be several races: Orc, Human, Necro, Elves, and a dwarf. Ultimately however you choose a side, either alliance or un-dead. These two sides exists in a vast world which hosts thousands of other characters like your own. The world consists of towns, large cities, garrisons, dungeons, trade routes, and a lush environment filled with trees, rivers, oceans, mountains, wildlife and etc. Your character is born into this world where he/she is constantly involving. Furthermore, the nature of this game makes it so that you must cooperate with other characters to evolve, therefore the creation of clans/online community. Even after you lof off the server the world continues to evolve, and when you log back on it can be drastically different. These online RPGs in a sense create a virtual world where through our characters we mirror our virtual identity. As a user i would pick a character which reflects myself, grows to how I would, develops specific traits I consider important, and interacts with other people how I would. Conclusively the online RPG represents the closest thing there is to a virtual world. With technological advances in software, hardware, and gaming who knows what can be next.
Most people are quick to blame violence in youth on violence in video games. Im not saying this isn't true and it is a fact that games do keep getting more violent - not to mention real.The buffer between reality and virtual reality continues to decrease. Advances in software have made blood look from pixelated red dots to eerily real with games such as Doom 3.
Thus game violence does play a certain factor. However, linking simulated violence to real violence is an entirely differnt issue. Most people don't even analyze the possibility that these kids who commit acts of violence could be inherently violent to begin with. It is so much easier to make a correlation between a child who punches a kid in the face with him playing Counter-Strike. "Maybe the child is troubled? Perhaps issues at home? No that can't be, his parents are responsible and well groomed. It must be the video games." This is the type of reasoning that a lot of people use. Questioning the ability of parents is a little bit more sensitive and a lot more personal. It is so much easier to blame something that can't respond back.
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