Essay Proposal

I'm going to write based on the suggestions numbers 1 & 2.  I'll further explore the blog on RPGs.  I'll do an ethnography of those who play CoD, and Sims, and if they were to make avatars, find out how they'd make them look.  I will also further examine Waggonner's essay to find more examples and help explain some terms he used.

Gamer Girls... Maybe not...

After watching the movie "Gamer" I saw that a lot of the actions in the movie were based on events that actually take place in real life.  One I'd like to focus on is the action of males taking the role of female characters in the game.  You see this in the movie when a real guy plays the role of Cable's wife in "Society," a virtual reality world where you control an "avatar," who is actually a human person with out control, and do what seems like just about anything.  This guy, who is a poor accuse for a "guy," is morbidly obese to the point where he needs a motorized wheelchair to get around, and is very disgusting as to how he lives in general, showing a severe lack in personal hygiene, and health.  This "guy" plays as Cable's wife, after she sold herself to the system.  She is a  character who is a normal looking woman among the world of "Society."  What he does to her is just outrageous though.  He controls her in a very perverse way, pretty much making her a hoe.  He approaches a male character as her, and flirts with him as his character, now keep in mind that this "guy" has no idea whether it is a guy or girl playing the other male character, then the male character proceeded to practically rape the female character.  This is how the "guy" gets off.  Now obviously this exact thing doesn't happen in real life, because people don't actually play real people in games, but some people playing the role of an opposite sex character does happen often.  An example of this is my friend, who is male, who almost always plays as a female character.  Before you start freaking out, there is nothing wrong with his brain, and he doesn't use this in a inappropriate way.  He does this because in some MMORPGs he plays, some male characters will often gift free items to female characters in hopes of something in return.  Luckily my friend knows better then that, and he just uses it to cash in.  

MOST BADASS KID EVER!!!!

            I read “Videogames, Avatars, and Identity” as a gamer, who plays many RPGs and have many different “Identities” or “Avatars.”  So while reading I was thinking about how some people play games to escape their real life, so what better way then to start a new life in a game whether it be “Second Life” or “WoW.”  As a gamer, I have never been so hooked on a game to the point that I get addicted and start living in game more then my real life.  This being said, RPGs, or Role Playing Games, are some of my favorite type of games, especially Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games, or MMORPGs.  I feel that when I play RPGs and make a character, I try to make that character look either really badass, funny, ridiculous, or look as close to me possible.  An example of the first 3 is my DC Universe Online character.  This game has you make a character who is either a superhero or super villain (which effects your story line, either good or evil), and you get to pick their powers and design their costume, to potentially make them look like anything, from a person who's just running around in their underwear or someone fully decked out in a futuristic mech suit.  You can customize body types such as tall, short, or average, weight such as heavy, skinny, or average, you can choose male or female,  you can choose different types or skin like, but not limited to fur, lava, metal, zombie, or normal flesh, you can choose different facial structures and age, customize hair and you can change the color of anything, I just listed. Obviously I picked villain because life is more fun when you don’t constantly have to be saving people, and I designed my character to be a perfect trifecta of badass, funny, and ridiculous.  He looks like a classic 90s looking kid, who looks to be about 10 years old, decked out with a red T-shirt, blue jean shorts, high white socks, sneakers, and of course a tiny back pack.  This makes him funny because people in the game often make adult looking characters, and don’t very often see a kid running around.  The fact that he is a villain makes him ridiculous, but on top of that he’s badass because he uses 2 hand guns as his weapons.  His name is Kid Pistol, which is a shame because after naming him that I realized Young Gun would’ve suited him just as well.  Kid Pistol is the perfect character in my mind because he is the trifecta of badass, funny, and ridiculous, and some might even say ironic.  I love running around the game world and people saying “WTF?!?! A kid?!?!” then getting their mind blown (figuratively, and also sometimes literally) when I pull out my duel hand cannons.  I feel in DC Universe Online, avatars are really just used to add to your experience in the game being able to put a face to a name, but also to help your interactions with people online, which Kid Pistol defiantly does.  In other games such as Skyrim, or Fallout 3 the character designs aren’t as important because you’re really the only one who sees it since these games aren’t online.  Don’t get me wrong though, I still enjoy the freak out of making my characters look badass, but it seems there isn’t much a purpose past the character customization menu.  Once you make your character, the only time you actually see it is when interacting with something in the world, or when you look at your character.  Also most the time within the first hour of game play you already find armor that just ends up covering up your character anyways.  One of the only reasons I could think of for the game makers to have you make your own character is so you feel more attached to it.  Maybe its because you took the time to make them just like you wanted, so you don't want to see it die.  When I'm playing I don't think that way, but I can see some people thinking like that.