For this assignment I decided to go with a classic. I fired up my xbox and played an hour of Halo. I actually ended up playing partially in the online space and part local, I had one of my friends playing with me and we were playing against other people online. As for the avatar, unfortunately Halo is kind of limited in selection. I decided to be human for no reason in particular. Then I decided to be green, because I like the color green. For my name, I went with something strong and powerful, ‘Godzilla1111,’ because nobody messes with Godzilla, and someone else already had the name ‘Godzilla’ without all the numbers after it, and I was green.
My play experience was fun. I lost, a lot, mostly because I don’t play very much and my friend who I was playing against does. Unfortunately we did not have headphones but we could still hear other members of our team talking. They seemed to get very into the game and at one point, it surprised me when I heard the voice of some kid (he sounded like he was probably under 10 years old) who was outplaying everyone.
Because everyone’s avatars looked fairly similar, I often forgot that all different types of players were playing this game. And when I was playing with people that did not have headphones, I had no way of knowing who was controlling the character I was watching on the screen. Because there is not a wide selection in avatars, behavioral confirmation is limited to the character’s name before game play starts. Then as soon as it becomes apparent how good someone is, patterns can emerge where the newer players might start to follow the lead of the more experienced player. The Proteus Effect allows for all different types of players to come and play without anyone knowing who they are. They can take over the identity of being an alien or a soldier and start killing immediately. Although the Proteus effect is shown to a certain extent, I feel that the much more significant effect is caused just by the avatar making the user anonymous even if they looked similar to others. In Halo, really the only part of the avatar that is quite distinguishing is the name. And although a specific name can inspire fear or self-confidence, it is not enough to significantly alter the way people act. In my case, I feel that the name ‘Godzilla1111’ may have inspired confidence in me, but I highly doubt it caused much fear in my opponents.
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I never really thought about Xbox games being interactive. I have friends spend hours and hours on Halo, and I never understood why they were so obsessed with it. They all have different names and avatars depending on the type of mood they’re in. From your perspective (which I definitely agree with) and based on the Proteus effect, the names that each person selected really dictated how they each acted in the game. When they decided to use tougher names, they were generally more aggressive. When they used funny names, they were generally less aggressive. By using aggressive names, the players seemed to inspire confidence in themselves, and played a better game.
Hmmm....
Truthfully speaking, I don't have an Xbox, nor did I ever played it. (afraid that it may be too addicting) haha
Anyways, it's interesting that the player's skill level actually override's the Proteus effect. In the online games, people are defined by more than their avatars. Although, it should be noted that Halo doesn't give you much avatar choice. If you could really be several stories tall like Godzilla, then I suppose you would feel differently.
One more thing: I think you should expand the theory explanation section and mention Yee & Bailenson to connect with the text more.
Great post by the way. It's good to see a non-Second Life post. =D
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