The kind is naked: A study of the players' relationship with their avatar in the World of Warcraft role-playing game

Abstract

The present study explores the characteristics of the avatar, the characteristics of the player, and their relationship in the mythical context of role-playing games. The aim of this study was to understand what components of their personality, players, express through their avatars. The principles of qualitative research were the tool to understand the meaning of each story as it was spoken by the participants and interpreted by the researcher. Through semi-structured interviews four participants shared experiences, desires, accomplishments and misfortunes of their avatar as well as of the person behind the avatar. The narratives were transcribed and analyzed according to the principles of interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) (Willig, 2008). Two master themes emerged that reflected the essence of the experience that all four interviewees shared: a) The presented self, and b) the admired self Role play games are a new world that is still mapping. Associating the myths with the role play games, this study, offers a different viewpoint and stimulation for further research. It advances our understanding of role-play games and it might be enlightening to the players enabling them to gain a deeper understanding of aspects of themselves.