In the Earthrise post awhile ago, I’d mentioned that some players were upset over the offline character skill advancement. Some players used the words “player advancement.” That’s the thing — you, the player, are not advancing anything more than your credit card bill and perhaps your waistline. It’s your character, not you, who is advancing his skills.
I recall a podcast months ago, most likely Shut Up, We’re Talking, where they discussed if they consider their characters to be a separate entity or an extension of themselves. I think the discussion ended with mixed results, some of the guys absolutely considered their characters as an extension of themselves or of their personalities, while the others were able to separate the two. As a former pen-and-paper guy, I’m firmly in the latter camp. I suppose that’s why I split hairs (yeah, laugh it up SmakenDahead 
) over the terms “avatar” and “character.” To me, an avatar would literally be a virtual version of me. Forum avatars, gravatars on blogs, or say in an FPS or 3D chat where it is a representation of me you’re seeing and often has my name or nick name attached, as opposed to a character with its own looks, abilities, skills and background that I created in an RPG environment.
I get a very similar fuzzy headache when I hear players complaining about “dumbed down” crafting in MMO’s, crying that the “Click and Create” crafting of WoW, LOTRO, etc. et al, take the skill and enjoyment out of crafting. Guess what? Your character is the one who has the crafting skill, not you. Your character is the one who is creating the item, not you. That being the case, why should you have any direct involvement beyond instructing your character to do it? While he’s busy at work crafting, you get to relax, have a drink, chat with friends, and watch your character’s progress.
In pen-and-paper RPG’s I might say my character is going to craft a bowl to sell at the bazaar in town. End of story. I’m not going to describe in detail every action of wedging the clay, sitting at the pottery wheel molding the bowl’s shape with my hands, painting designs and finally firing and glazing the bowl in a kiln. The other players would be snoring by the end of that.
Which camp do you fall in? That your characters are their own virtual person with you as their guide, or that each character is no more than a graphical representation of you?
Tags: MMO Gaming
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You casting Summon Ogre again?
I’m with you. In MMOs and P&P games, I always will and always have referred to the alter ego as a ‘character’. I think the only exception to this might be Second Life, but then I’d never bother subscribing to that so there goes that exception.
I am who I am. My characters are who I’ve created in games. Easy distinction.
Why do I go by “SmakenDahed”? It was a character, but it’s also an aspect of how I view myself sometimes (large, lumbering and clumsy.. sometimes having idiotic moments). The real intent was simply to have a form an anonymity because I wanted to vent, dump ideas or thoughts and not have to worry about repercussions.
Would I call it a ‘character’? No, probably not. I’m not playing at anything.
Would I call it an ‘avatar’? No, it doesn’t represent who I am in full (though I have been getting a little more into areas of my life I didn’t expect to go).
I think a better name for it might be ‘persona’.
Two more things:
1) why is there an American flag next to my name? I’m Canadian.
2) I actually enjoyed my recent travel, flying from Ottawa to Calgary then to San Francisco and then grabbing a shuttle to San Jose. Then the trip back, shuttling to San Fran (where I closed the hotel bar), from SFO to Chicago, then back to Ottawa. The trip back involved a lot more anxiousness, but overall it wasn’t painful. I actually had a wildlife conservationist seated neat to me most of the way and he was pointing out the various sites from a bird’s eye view.
Travel can be valuable.
I know you’re Canadian, but apparently this plugin is picking up a US IP? Dunno, it gets Darren as Canadian. Out of my control, man…
I miss Ottawa though, we don’t fly there anymore. Not that I care to be up there when it’s this cold (I moved to Florida for a reason!) although it was neat seeing the people ice skate on the frozen canal to and from work. And the coolest thing? The hotel the crews stayed at had heated bathroom floors! We’d run up to our rooms, strip and jump onto those floors and sigh in relief!
But in the summer, holy crap, I loved walking downtown to the shops, the pubs, that outdoor shopping area near the capitol… very nice city.
Ah.. I get it. The company I work for is American (likely using an American ISP - IPs registered to an American company maybe?) and I think I posted those from work while installing. We’ll see if this comes up with the Leaf
Yeah, the Market is pretty sweet. I don’t know if you’ve ever been near Preston, but that’s our version of Little Italy. One of my favorite places is on that street, Pub Italia - mix of Irish and Italian, home of the Beer Bible.
Speaking of cold, I’ll have to remember to take pictures of my front lawn snowbank.
I don’t remember which places we went to at the Market area. When we didn’t have time to get all the way down there we often went to the… Fox and Hound? Something like that. It was only a couple blocks from the hotels, lots of stuff along that street.
Ottawa was one of our all-time favorite overnights, we all really miss it.