avatar

Avatar r is derived from the Sanskrit avat ā ra , “descent,” and can roughly Hindu deity’s voluntary and temporary incarnation as an animal or In 1980s science fiction literature, a user’s engagement with cyberspace described along the same lines: as a descent into another realm (see cyberspace). Unlike Hindu deities, science fiction’s cyberspace users had to split themselves in two. The real body would be left behind in the real world, and the user’s consciousness would move through cyberspace. This is, for example, how the protagonist of William Gibson’s hugely influential fl novel Neuromancer r (1984) navigates cyberspace. Neal Stephenson’s novel Snow Crash h (1992) is often credited with popularizing the idea that the user’s consciousness does not float fl freely through cyberspace but is fi xed in a virtual body, an avatar r .

This conceptual development within literature is mirrored by fi films such as Tron n (Steven Lisberger, 1982), a fantasy in which a colorful cyberspace inspired by arcade games is fully entered—with no manifestations of the user left behind in the real world— and The Lawnmower Man n (Brett Leonard, 1992), a more realistically flavored piece of science fiction in which virtual reality equipment and avatars are employed in order to enter cyberspace (see virtual realit y). The hugely popular film fi Avatar r (James Cameron, 2009) strengthened the cultural trope of the avatar as a virtual body inhabited by a motionless user in order to enter a fantastic realm (in Cameron’s movie the jungle world of the moon Pandora). Importantly, the film’s protagonist gains through his avatar a body physically be translated as a human on Earth.

(Johns Hopkins University Press)

This paper considers how the avatar focuses the metaphor of interactivity in video games and interactive narrative environments. It argues that, despite serving as the on-screen representation of user input, the avatar has some independent agency (whether through design or representational practice) that influences its behavior. Thus, rather than merely relying upon it as her transparent stand-in, the player must negotiate with the avatar to achieve her goals. The negotiation serves to dramatize interactivity as an imperfect conduit between the textual and extra-textual worlds. While not so evident in video games, this imperfection sustains the metaphor of interactivity, deepening expressivity in interactive narrative environments.

(Source: Author's abstract, 2008 ELO Conference site)

One of the most controversial computer games in recent years has been "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" (Rockstar Games 2004). Much of the controversy surrounding the game (including the disparaging critiques of the likes of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton) centered around the relationship between the game's simulation of violence, sex, and racial stereotypes and the potential for this game interface to affect the real-world actions of its players. Though "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" is often considered to simply be a gang-violence simulator, this paper will argue that the relationship between the digital interface and the potentially-affected material space can be altered in such a way as to create a sense of distanciation. Drawing from Bertolt Brecht's theory of the Alienation Effect (which is echoed in Bolter and Grusin's theory of the hypermediated interface), I will demonstrate how the customization possible in "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" provides a framework for distanciation and socio-political critique essential to Brecht's theory. The potential break from gang-violence simulation ("Grand Theft Auto's" default mode) is found in the ability to alter the avatar of the protagonist, CJ. By creating an avatar that glaringly juxtaposes the gang life surrounding him, the avatar alienates players from a sense of immersion in the simulation. The success of this juxtaposition is highly dependent on the relationship of the avatar of CJ and the game narrative he engages. As the customized CJ (who can more closely resemble the Shakespearean clown than a violent gang member) continues to engage the narrative, the story begins to emerge as a social satire and absurd exaggeration of the generic stereotypes the game supposedly advocates.