Exploring the world of online gaming and avatar-related wellbeing
Online gaming has increased in popularity over the past decade but research into the impacts of gaming is still in the early stages. Our knowledge of the effects – both positive and negative – and the factors that contribute to the potential outcomes are still emerging. In this context, the figure used to represent the gamer in the online video-game world, commonly known as the avatar, has attracted significant attention. Avatar-customisation options that enable the user to selectively portray himself/ herself in the virtual world have been suggested to invite a significant psychological attachment. Interestingly, the bond developed between the user offline and the avatar online has been implicated with excessive gaming risk as well as the effectiveness of online therapeutic applications.
Since their inception in the mid-1990s, a number of distinct features have contributed to the ever-growing popularity of online (or internet) gaming. These include flexible interplayer communication methods, and both collaborative and competitive gameplay possibilities that promote a sense of accomplishment for players (Anderson, Steen & Stavropoulos, 2017; Smahel, Brown, & Blinka, 2012; Stavropoulos, Beard, Burleigh, Gomez & Griffiths, 2018). Specifically, participation in online games is made possible and popular by the fact they are:
- constantly accessible via a variety of devices including portable (and non-portable) personal computers as well as smartphones that continue to blur the line between phone and computer
- relatively affordable, via a small monthly subscription fee, an individual can prolong their in-game presence
- to some extent anonymous, as the individual is not required to reveal their real-life identity in the online gaming world, and can instead choose to disclose and/or alter their real-life presentation and behavioural features to suit their needs (Triple A engine; Cooper, Delmonico & Burg, 2000).
Online gaming in action
A user within the game-world may coexist, ally and/or antagonise other gamers (or groups of gamers) while they are aiming to achieve in-game related goals (Burleigh, Stavropoulos, Liew, Adams, & Griffiths, 2018). Following extended participation and completion of in-game activities and goals, the gamer’s in-game character progressively evolves and becomes more equipped and integrated, following developmental trajectories similar to those one would go through in real-life (Liew, Stavropoulos, Adams, Burleigh, & Griffiths, 2018).
All of these life-mirroring inter- and intrapersonal processes are considered to occur within an ‘augmented’ context. In particular, game-worlds that involve real-life elements, including features such as being played in real-time and real space (i.e. Pokemon-Go), and with real co-players are defined as virtual-worlds ‘augmented’ with real-world features. This may also include games that involve an in-game currency or income, that can be exchanged with real-world money, and vary with a daily floating rate, following similar patterns to exchange rates in the real world.
These purposely augmented game-worlds aim to magnify the users’ attraction and absorbance. So that for some players, it can reach a level of addiction (Stavropoulos et al., 2019). Within this gaming context, where the imaginary world, action and life are collectively shared, the line between what is real and what is unreal inevitably becomes very thin (Anderson et al., 2017). This subsequently challenges the notion of ‘contact with reality’ and the way this implicates with traditional definitions of psychopathology (i.e. psychosis). Therefore, one could wonder “Is this gaming or living a Second Life”, as the name of a popular internet game implies. This notion is also reflected in game production company Linden Lab’s motto which espouses it is “your life… your imagination…” as an incentive to target its audience (Ensslin, 2017; Linden Lab, 2019).
While these questions still remain to be answered, a consensus seems to have been reached regarding the role that one’s avatar plays in understanding the extent of in-game life engagement (Burleigh et al., 2018).
What is an avatar?
The term avatar originates from the Sanskrit word avatāra representing the descent and reincarnation of Hindu deities (primarily Vishnu) to earthly forms. The notion of the word inherently implies a sense of embodiment, which in the digital-game context refers to a bond developed between the user in real life and the game figure online (Burleigh et al., 2018; Merriam-Webster, 2019). The avatar constitutes one’s passport to the gaming world and it is the primary medium of acting and communicating within the virtual context (Burleigh et al., 2018; Liew et al., 2018). Not surprisingly, rewarding a user’s avatar is one of the most prevalent ways of enticing a gamer.
The user-avatar relationship (UAR) has been conceptualised as an ongoing, bi-directional (from the gamer to the figure and vice-versa) link between the gamer and his/her avatar. This user-avatar tie has been implicated with the user’s behaviour offline, through behaviour transference processes, disordered gaming risk, as well as the effectiveness of e-health applications involving gamified components (Burleigh et al., 2018; Liew et al., 2018). The range of these potentially significant user-avatar bond implications has invited different theoretical explanations with cyberpsychology and psychodynamic perspectives dominating the field (Blinka, 2008; Ratan & Dawson, 2015).
Cyberpsychological view
The term ‘self-presence’ was coined to reflect the channelling of one’s psyche through his or her avatar. The term aimed to capture the (at that time) emerging tendency of progressive online embodiment, which was conceived as a parallel process whereby the users projected in a digital space alongside their concurrent body-related, emotional and self-perception views (Biocca, 1997). Later on, the formal meaning of the term self-presence was altered to define the psychological state in which someone’s digital self is experienced as his or her real-self, in both a sensorial and a psychological way (Lee & Jung, 2005).
A more recent wave of cyberpsychology scholars, have further elaborated on the term in a way that it aligns with the three-dimensional perception of self, advocated by (Damasio, 2006; Ratan & Dawson, 2015). This suggests that one’s sense of self is multifaceted and inherently composed by:
a) the level of proto-self, that involves one’s physical being, informed by sensorial interactions with environmental stimuli;
b) the core-self level of emotional being, which refers to one’s emotional responses following his/her interactions with the surrounding and;
c) the extended-self level, that refers to the individual’s self-narrative based on the view of him- or her-self, as dictated by internalised autobiographical information, recollections and memories (Damasio, 2006).
Following this line of thought, the user-avatar self-presence bond is also conceptualised as three-dimensional (Ratan & Dawson, 2015). First, ‘proto self-presence’ reflects the rate at which the avatar corresponds with the gamer’s body perception. Second, ‘core self-presence’ defines the level at which the emotion of the gamer is intertwined with the emotional state of the game figure. Last, ‘extended self-presence’ indicates a state, where the self-narrative and identity of the gamer in the real world is mixed with that of the gamer’s avatar online.
Although, this view has been more consistently adopted by recent studies (when considering the user-avatar bond) and has been adequately operationalised by the internationally used self-presence scale (Liew et al., 2018), the psychodynamic approach seems to receive more support among clinicians working therapeutically (with the user-avatar bond) in the context of gaming disorder treatment (Blinka, 2008).
Psychodynamic approach
Blinka (2008) aimed to consolidate major psychodynamic arguments considering the complex attachment, projective and immersive dynamics linking the gamer with the avatar. Specifically, in line with other scholars, he highlighted that a psychological transmission (with the psychoanalytic meaning of the term) takes place from the gamer to the avatar, as the latter is not exactly overlapping with the gamer’s identity without being concurrently distinct (Allison, Von Wahlde, Shockley, & Gabbard, 2006).
Blinka (2008) attributed such transmissive processes on the ‘augmented’ nature of the avatar, which crosses the border between the internalised fantasy world and the collectively experienced reality. This phenomena is considered to be enabled when gamers role-play different identities, that may correspond with the various, likely suppressed, reflections or versions of one’s psyche/self while gaming (Burleigh et al., 2018; Blinka, 2008).
It is this emotional attachment developed between the user and the avatar, as depicted by Wolfendale (2007), that may enable the projection of unconscious psychological material. This prompted Tisseron (2009) to suggest that the avatar constitutes the new “royal way to the unconscious”, paraphrasing the famous Freudian statement about dreams (Sands, 2010).
In this manner, Blinka (2008) demonstrated that the gamer is ‘transferring’ psychological material to the avatar though three main channels. First, the ‘identification’ channel, whereby the gamer fuses his identity and self-perception with that of his/her online representation. Second, the ‘immersion’ channel whereby the needs, the drives and the in-game priorities of the avatar dominate the thoughts and the feelings of the gamer offline, leading to them being (in excessive gaming cases) prioritised as the gamer’s real-life needs. Third, the compensation channel, whereby the user may counterbalance through the avatar, perceived real-life deficits such as appearance (i.e. height, skin colour) or character-behaviour (i.e. confidence, assertiveness) attributes.
Blurred lines between games and reality
It is widely accepted that it is not only who the gamer is in the real world that formulates the avatar’s representation in the game, but that the avatar can also affect the gamer’s behaviour offline (Liew et al., 2018). It has been suggested that non-volitional phenomena associated with playing games, referred to as game transfer phenomena (GTP) can influence the real-life behaviour of the gamer (Dindar & Ortiz de Gortari, 2017). These non-volitional phenomena have been proposed to include altered perceptions, automatic thoughts and even involuntary behaviours ranging from bodily sensations within video games to altered behavioural patterns, the more
avatar-attached a gamer becomes (Ortiz de Gortari, Pontes, & Griffiths, 2015; Ortiz de Gortari, Oldfield & Griffiths, 2016).
Such behaviour transference phenomena seem to climax in the context of what has been defined as ‘Proteus-effect’ manifestations, which are developed in the context of the user-avatar bond (Yee, Bailenson, & Ducheneaut, 2009). According to the myth, Proteus was the name of the ancient Greek god of transformations, who could assume any form and shape he wished in order to avoid communicating his privileged knowledge of the past, the present and the future (Britannica, 2019).
Based on the analogy between the god’s capacity to take various forms and shapes, within the context of his effort to avoid contact, Yee and colleagues (2009) employed the term Proteus to define the mutually transforming relationship between the gamer and his or her avatar. He noted that while the gamer may assume different avatar forms, depending on his or her choice, the in-game avatar can also transform the gamer’s perception, behaviour and demeanour in real-life. Empirical evidence suggests that appearance attributes of avatars, such as height and looks, have a certain effect on real-life actions (Ratan & Dawson, 2015; Yee et al., 2009). Studies have shown that people infer their expected behaviors and attitudes from observing their avatar’s appearance, a phenomenon known as the Proteus effect.
For example, users given taller avatars negotiated more aggressively than users given shorter avatars. Two studies are reported here that extend our understanding of this effect. The first study extends the work beyond laboratory settings to an actual online community. It was found that both the height and attractiveness of an avatar in an online game were significant predictors of the player’s performance. In the second study, it was found that the behavioural changes stemming from the virtual environment transferred to subsequent face-to-face interactions. Participants were placed in an immersive virtual environment and were given either shorter or taller avatars. They then interacted with a confederate for about 15 minutes. In addition to causing a behavioural difference within the virtual environment, the authors found that participants given taller avatars negotiated more aggressively in subsequent face-to-face interactions than participants given shorter avatars. Together, these two studies show that our virtual bodies can change how we interact with others in actual avatar-based online communities as well as in subsequent face-to-face interactions (Yee et al., 2009).
Avatar as a wellbeing opportunity
The multiple facets of the user-avatar bond have been suggested to possess a powerful psychological potential, mainly due to the way they might interfere with the gamers’ wellbeing (Jones, Scholes, Johnson, Katsikitis, & Carras, 2014). In keeping with this idea, Jones and his colleagues (2014) employed Seligman’s (2011) wellbeing conceptualisation, PERMA, reflecting the five elements that are said to be important for happiness and wellbeing (Positive emotion; Engagement; Relationships; Meaning and purpose; and Accomplishment) to describe the positive effects likely to arise from games involving
avatar use.
Jones et al. (2014) suggested that online games which necessitate the use of an avatar could provide an opportunity of experiencing fulfilment to the gamer, and enhance in-game activity engagement. This may occur to the extent of an immersion that distorts time-perception and triggers a sense of unlimited energy. Furthermore, they added that relationships conceived among avatars could be of improved quality, providing the gamers with a sense of belonging within in-game groups and communities, and filling them with in-game purposes that when achieved facilitate feelings of accomplishment. It is these exact positive potentials of avatar-employing online games that have precipitated and perpetuated their use in online psychological therapies and e-health applications, addressing (often with great efficiency) a range of mental health issues (Liew et al., 2018).
Avatar as a wellbeing risk
Despite these positive potentials, the user-avatar bond has also been portrayed as being critically involved with disordered gaming behaviour (Burleigh et al., 2018; Liew et al., 2018). It has been suggested that identification, immersive and compensating processes linking the gamer with his or her avatar increase in-game absorption, while concurrently enhancing real-life withdrawal, paving the way for (internet) gaming disorder1 ([I]GD) behaviours to emerge (Burleigh et al., 2018; Liew et al., 2018).
Nevertheless, it needs to be noted that it is the interplay between individual characteristics of the user, alongside features of the real and in-game context that defines the range of negative and/or positive outcomes that the use of the avatar may eventuate (Stavropoulos et al., 2018).
It follows, therefore, that the user-avatar bond emerges as a powerful psychological component of the gaming world with significant potential impact to the user’s experience, behaviour and conduct in the real world. Interdisciplinary collaborations across psychology, information technology and media-communication scientists are imperative to advance knowledge considering both its debilitating and deliberating uses within the context of our progressively more ‘digitalised’ everyday life.
The first author can be contacted at [email protected]
1 Gaming Disorder is now included as a ‘condition for further study’ in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic Statistical Manual (DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013), as well as the recent acknowledgement of gaming disorder as an official classification in the 11th edition of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11; World Health Organization, 2019).