Proceedings of CGSA 2006 Symposium �� 2006 Authors & Canadian Games Study Association CGSA. Personal and educational classroom use of this paper is allowed, commercial use requires specific permission from the author. I���m a warrior, I���m a monster ��� Who am I anyway? Shifting/Shaping Identity through Video Game Play Kathy Sanford University of Victoria ksanford@uvic.ca Leanna Madill University of Victoria lmadill@uvic.ca Abstract This article examines the implications of video game play on identity constructions. Our study focused on the gendered nature of identity and young males��� construction of their gendered identity. Our study involved interviewing 3 young adult males aged 21, 24, and 30. The interviews allowed for the participants to reflect on their particular (previously unexamined) ideologies and values, as they began to question the incongruence of these values with particular game-based behaviours. For example, practices of competition, aggression, and violence were issues that either conflicted with or paralleled participants��� practices in other aspects of their lives. Introduction Identities are complex, multi-dimensional ways of being in different contexts and to the extent that we believe our identities are socially constructed, we have a choice in how we represent who we understand ourselves to be. Therefore, attempting to understand how or what each context and choice says about our identity construction seems critical in how we perceive and behave in the world. Not surprisingly, video games seem to be contributing to shaping players��� identities in the digital world. This paper will explore notions of identity with three young adult male participants who have been video game players since childhood, attempting to understand the complexities of identity and the influence of video game play on identity. Notions of Identity Traditional understandings of identity as an essential characteristic that identifies someone and constitutes his/her personality for life have been challenged by social identity theory and postmodern notions that identity is fluid and ongoingly constructed and reconstructed. As Filiciak (2003) comments, ���the notion of identity is one of the most important questions in any study dealing with the human creature in Western culture, ���self��� is the measure of reality��� (p.

2 93). He goes on to suggest that ���problems of our ���self��� become more pronounced now that conventionally understood human identity has undergone erosion���, that is, identity based on the ���constancy of physical and mental traits that allow us to differentiate our self from others��� (p. 93). William James who is considered a leader of modern psychology, suggested that humans determine their identity as social creatures only in reference to others, and present different ���versions��� of themselves in specific situations. Foucault suggests that there is no inside ���self���, no essence that makes a person who he/she is, but that ���self��� is only one of the possible ways of thinking, a discursive construct. Therefore, a ���self��� is only a temporary construction, a ���liquid identity��� (Filiciak, 2003, p. 92). As a social construction, our ���original��� self is impossible to distinguish from the self that is created through societal expectations. From a postmodern perspective, identity is never quite defined, its final form is never reached, it can be manipulated - by media, by peers, by desires ��� it is always under construction. The postmodern self is fragmented each identity we create is a temporary construction. Reading texts and gender identity According to Alvermann, Moon, and Hagood (1999) popular cultural texts powerfully aid in shaping identities and continually reinforce gendered identity . There are many ways that popular cultural texts influence gendered identities. Alvermann, Moon and Hagood (1999) explain how Barbie, Walt Disney movies, and fairytales are all laden with value messages about what it means to be male or female. Appearances, language, and actions of characters in magazines, movies, television, comics, toys, and the World Wide Web all suggest ways in which males and females should take up and practice identities that are appropriate to their particular gender. If, as Knobel and Lankshear (2003) suggest, ���attention economics��� illuminates how society is functioning today, then popular cultural texts are being read, viewed, and heard at such a fast pace that there is little to no time to reflect on the value messages linked to these texts. In other words, students have limited time and opportunity to attend to or therefore to reflect upon values implicit in positions and situations they wish to explore. Drawing on studies from researchers of media and adolescent development, Alvermann, Moon, and Hagood (1999) report that ���a common finding is that teens, while not as easily deceived by the mass media as some critics would assert, still find their personal needs for dealing with popular culture texts largely ignored and unaccommodated in formal educational circles��� (p. 138). On this view, adolescents need more guidance in deconstructing the value-laden messages in texts, and this will very likely include grappling with the contradictions in their gender identities. How readers engage with a text differs depending upon their background knowledge and experiences they bring to it (Rosenblatt, 2003). They can read texts, such as graphic novels, horror movies, or video games and disrupt the social norms that are presented however, others will read these same texts and miss the undercutting of stereotypes and inequalities, instead adopting surface-level messages about gender, race, social, and economic beliefs (Alvermann, Moon, & Hagood, 1999). Rosenblatt���s (1994) transactional theory acknowledges this reciprocal relationship of meaning making that occurs between the text and reader. If each person���s schema develops from their individual experiences, we wonder how all readers can be said to react to any text (including video game text and play) in the same way?