Are Cars Considered Avatars

Avatars & Identity

I think that when talking about Avatars and Identity a thing (car in this case) has to be. When talking about this topic we discussed reasons why gamers become so invested in their avatars and listed four reasons. The reasons are as follows…

1. Time commitment during creation

2. Time spent playing as the avatar

3. Skill acquisition in game

4. Similarity to the self

I believe that in racing game such a Midnight Club 3 Dub Edition I became very invested into the cars that I would make and use for my races. So out of those reasons for investment correlating to the car I have all four of these. For the first one I think I’ve spent more time customizing and creating a car how I want it than any other avatar or character even when creating myself. The second one I've played many hours driving around in the cars that I created and have completed many races. Moving on to skill acquisition during the game you have to gain money to be able to make your car better and customize it exactly how you want it. Lastly it correlates to similarity to the self because each car that I have customized I have personalized to be similar to something that I would like not necessarily look like me obviously because it’s a car but created to look how I like it to look. This also goes into another point that you live vicariously through you virtual representation (Downs, Avatars & Identity). I connect to this point because though this game I am able to purchase cars, rims, paint jobs etc. that I cannot afford in real life.

So this poses that question can things be considered avatars such as cars in a video game or would the “driver” in the car technically be the avatar?

Referene

Downs , Edward . "Avatars and Identity ." COMM 3560: Video Game Entertainment. University of Minnesota Duluth. Power Point , Duluth . 2 May 2013. Class lecture.