Cybernetic Self Project Research

Network Self - How I as an individual present my self on the internet socially.

Sociomateral - Technology that encourages and helps social interactions.

Autopoiesis - Meaning a system that can reproduce and maintain itself, so in this case us as people developing and maintaining our self portrait by expressing ourselves through appearance and interests.

Something to think about: Present and demonstrate how people portray themselves in MMORPGs like World of Warcraft and compare it to their personality in real life and explore how they become some one they are not in a virtual world.

Or how people embrace and express their own personality in virtual world and through virtual characters.

Primary Research

How do I present myself in MMORPG as an individual?

I play “The Elder Scrolls Online” on the Playstation 4 which involves the player creating a character to play as in the game. The character creation scenario allows the player to choose a gender, a race (Human, Orc, Elf etc.), a play style (Archer, Mage, Fighter etc.) 

• As an individual I immediately go against my own personality and who am I by choosing the female gender for my character. 
• I choose a Wood Elf which is a race who are seen as keeping to themselves and only helping their own kind because of what they believe in, but me as a person I like to see my myself helping others no matter the race or religion, the keeping to myself is pretty accurate however.
• As my play style I chose an archer, a player who can be mistaken as a coward because how far away they can be from the fight, this is also true to my personality as I have never had a fight in my life and prefer to avoid any kind of conflict. E.g. if I chose a fighter this would completely go against my personality to avoid a fight or conflict. 

There are other MMORPGs if in the modern age “The Division” for example that allow me to express my real life personality mainly through digital appearance. A game called Dead Rising 2 has the element of allowing the player to walk into any shop in a mall during a zombie apocalypse and wear any combination clothes they want so they can express their look in co-op. Myself for an example prefers the character of the game to wear a skater outfit which defines my personality in real life of having an interest in skate boarding and listening to metal music which is the stereotype against people who like to ride skateboards.

What do I need in technology to accomplish communication with other players in MMORPGs?

• A gaming console or PC which is the basic requirement to at least play video games and use other types of social platforms.
• A modem to allow access to the internet.
• A headset and/or a keyboard to communicate with other players via voice chat or text chat (popular with PC)

With all this gaming online and communicating with other players is possible.

What is the difference between socialising on video games and socialising in real life?

I have found that I feel more confident and prefer to make friends through socialising on video games then maybe approaching someone in the street or in a shop and many other gamers would agree. The reason for this is because players online don’t have to reveal personal details to become friends with someone which makes it impossible for people to judge one another, players have a Gaming ID  they can hide behind and that is what other players will refer to them as so players don’t even have to reveal their real names to each other.