10. The Proteus Effect in World of Warcraft

The gamespace in World of Warcraft consists of thousands of varied characters populating the world at any one time. A player can choose between 8 different races and can modify his or her appearance by selecting from various choices of hairstyle, skin color, face, beard, etc. My avatar in World of Warcraft was a human male priest. He was tall with long, blonde hair and looked somewhat like a pro wrestler or an American Gladiator with his bulky frame. I decided to go on a group quest with 4 other players to see how we would interact with each other during our mission.

Off we went into a large dungeon of some sort. We had to work together in order to fight off multiple high level enemies and split up or share the loot in a fair manner. There was no specific leader in our group, although, we all sort of seemed to follow this night elf player, who was wearing a thick layer of metal armor, and masking his appearance with a mysterious helmet. We probably followed his lead because he was usually the first to select the next enemy to fight and because he was in the warrior class, which meant that he had a higher health capacity than the rest of us, so he could take more damage. Perhaps we decided to follow him because of his dominant appearance, as he was the tallest in the group and looked like a tank with all his protective armor on. I suppose that psychologically we felt he was best fit to protect our group so we sort of naturally acknowledged that he should be the leader. In accordance with Yee and Bailenson’s Proteus Effect argument, he acted very confidently and friendly to the rest of the group, embodying his noble facade. He seemed to give in to behavioral confirmation in that he looked like an experienced leader and others treated him as such, so his actions often mirrored his appearance.

As for my character, I found that my appearance may have affected my behavior. I was a human priest, and I wore a long, white robe and carried a staff. My job was mainly to heal the other players when they were in trouble and cast some deadly spells on the enemies from time to time. Because I was the only human in the group (besides a dwarf and two gnomes), I sort of felt like I was supposed to be the voice of reason in the group. Maybe it was because this was my first time playing in a long while, but I had a more practical take on the quest and helped keep our group focused on the goal of clearing the dungeon and finishing our mission, whereas, the other players seemed to take their time and tell jokes and animate themselves by typing things like “/sleep” or “/dance” or “/sneeze,” which caused their characters to perform that action. Perhaps they acted silly like this because their appearance was very similar to a cartoon character – abnormally short and pudgy, with a cartoonish face and bright colors – so they embodied their appearance by acting the way they expect their avatar to act if he were a real person, adhering to the Proteus Effect.

Yee and Bailenson wrote about the black robe / white robe effect, in which players wearing a black robe tended to have more aggressive, antisocial behaviors than those wearing white robes, which had the opposite effect. As for my character, who was wearing a white robe, I felt a sense that I was supposed to be a friendly, helpful part of the group (whether or not this was because of the color of the robe), and I acted accordingly. As a priest, I spent more time healing the other players and casting strength/agility spells than I did attacking the enemies. Perhaps this was attributed to the fact that I looked so noble and confident that I had to live up to my appearance. I think the Proteus Effect is a powerful presence in online gaming MUDs like World of Warcraft, especially in how we feel almost guilty or awkward if we don’t live up to the expectations that our avatar’s appearance gives off.

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