Living Digitally: Embodiment in Virtual Worlds

Abstract

In effect, I suppose I was unknowingly using my second reality as a social experiment and it has become very much a learning experience for me. Meg, virtual world user Designers, and the code they construct, go a long way toward making a virtual world real. They fill it with objects and spaces, properties and behaviors. Sometimes they create imaginative scenes only found in science fiction or fantasy. Other times they help mirror the offline world by creating more straightforward representations of our everyday environments. In each case they significantly provide a means of embodiment for the user. For graphical worlds, this comes in the form of avatars – those pictorial constructs used to actually inhabit the world. It is in large part through these avatars that users can come to bring real life and vibrancy to the spaces. Through avatars, users embody themselves and make real their engagement with a virtual world. They often push back on the system – asking more of it, turning its sometimes limited palettes into something other than what was intended. Avatars, in fact, come to provide access points in the creation of identity and social life. The bodies people use in these spaces provide a means to live digitally – to fully inhabit the world. It is not simply that users exist as just " mind " , but instead construct their identities through avatars. To examine how digital bodies can facilitate life in a virtual world, I am going to focus my attention on a particular graphical multi-user system, The Dreamscape. The environment is a " 2 1⁄2 D " world in which the user looks at their avatar from a third person perspective. Although it is not a three dimensional space, I would argue that it still very much constitutes a virtual environment (as text-based MUDs – multi-user dungeons or dimensions – do). Users engage in real time with an immersive simulated world in which objects and others occupy the space. Avatar bodies (of which there are ten varieties in The Dreamscape – five male and five female) can be changed at will by purchasing new ones (both via " inworld " tokens or " real " credit cards). Avatar heads, which are separate and different Living Digitally 41 objects from the rest of the avatar body, more commonly operate as the main means of customization and individuation in the world. They too can be purchased and are also often given as prizes or gifts. These heads and bodies can be further customized through the use of " spray paints " to change the color of the clothes, skin, and hair. Finally, many different accessories (such as hats and jewelry) as well as more mundane " daily " objects (like coffee mugs) can be used by the avatar as well. In terms of simple communication, both the bodies and the heads contain a range of gestures and expressions, some of which are specific to that particular graphical representation. Actions or facial expressions are initiated by either clicking on an appropriate button or through keyboard commands. Colored speech bubbles, containing the typed text of the user, appear above the corresponding avatar's head. Private speech is also allowed through a backchannel method. This particular system is one of the oldest graphical environments around, and its original incarnation dates back to 1985 [1]. While the number of users has varied over the years, the latest figures put average U.S. nighttime use somewhere around 500 (this total is for both worlds running the software). I have conducted an in-depth ethnography of the space (including several different " worlds " that use this software) which ran over approximately two years and included hundreds of hours of participant observation. In addition, I have interviewed both designers and users. Doing online research of this sort provides particular challenges, both in terms of the multiple mediums at work as well as for questions of authenticity and plurality that can be raised [2]. Interviews took place through a variety of formats, including email, telephone, and in person. I also conducted a number of group discussions. In addition, I participated in two offline " gatherings " in which users came together for a weekend mini-convention to socialize and talk about the virtual world. The following observation and analysis is drawn from that research. When quoting from interviews and personal conversations pseudonyms are used to protect the anonymity of informants. 3.2 Social Life