Even though I am not a huge video
gamer now, there is one game that has always had my heart. Mario Party. I love
the challenges and the fact that you can play your friends. Although, when I
was younger my favorite part of the game wasn’t winning, it was my character.
While
my brother and our friends would fight over who would be Mario or Luigi, I
always chose Princess Peach. The reason? I thought she looked like me. Princess
Peach became my avatar in the video game world. Like myself, she has blonde hair
and loves pink. When I played Mario Party as Princess Peach against all of the
boys it was amazing. Having many guy friends, I always got laughed at when I
would pick Princess Peach because she's a girl, but after I started winning, the laughs stopped.
Princess Peach represented me virtually, she could beat all the boys and she
always kept her hair perfect (I tried, but failed).
As I got older, Princess Peach
remains my go-to character; I don’t think I would be comfortable playing with
any other character in the game. For people who play games such as World of
Warcraft, their avatars represent who they are or want to be in the virtual
world. The avatars become an extension of the person playing and as a result,
can sometimes seem real. Second Life is another example, you can pick any
avatar you want that you think represents you. Avatars allow people to be
someone else in the virtual world for a little while. They allow people to be
creative and do things that they may not be able to in the real world. While it
is important to maintain open channels of creativity, it is even more important
to balance it with the real world. One of the issues with games such as World
of Warcraft is that the virtual world starts to consume all of a gamers time thus becoming immersed in the virtual reality world. The balance of real world priorities and video gaming is hard to do for some gamers who relate to their avatar so much that they choose to just remain in virtual reality mode and dismiss real world priorities and responsibilities.
In
the end, whenever I play Mario Party, Princess Peach will always be the
reminder of my youth, when I used to beat all the boys. Everyone should try
playing a game with an avatar, and if you want to play Mario Party, let me
know. I’m down for a challenge.
I also am not a gamer now, and I do not consider myself being much of a gamer as a kid, however, I also loved(and still love) all the mario games like mario party and mario kart. One of the points this post made me think of was that whenever I played one of the mario games, I, and all my competitors, would never choose the characters that were big/strong/mean/could most likely dominate in real life most easily, such as Wario. You even say that most of your friends would fight over mario or luigi, however, these characters actually appear to be quite weak. You chose Peach(who would also seem to be a weak character) because you thought she was like you, and she also embodies what you would want to be in an alternate world. I, on the other hand, would always choose Yoshi. I'm not sure exactly why, I always loved the way he looked, and I loved his name, but I don't think I ever put that much thought into choosing him to represent me in a virtual world. I just loved his character, and always wanted to be him.
ReplyDeleteThis post is so true, and I'd never really thought about it that way. I used to play Mario Party on N64 all the time, and I would always make sure I got Wario. I'm not really sure why, but he was always my go to character, even on other games including Mario Kart 64. I definitely agree with the avatar becoming an extension of yourself. There's actually a book I read for a different class called "What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy", where the author defines various learning principles that great games have, and the principle of identity is one of them, which essentially is what you describe occurring in your post.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with what you are saying; however, I have to say that I used to think about it the opposite way. I know how I look and act in real life, so I always chose Donkey Kong in Mario Party precisely for the fact that he is the total opposite of me! Donkey Kong was always the biggest and strongest, even though he was incredibly slow (and that was the opposite of me...not so strong but very fast). I never thought about these characters as avatars and extensions of self, but I guess they really are. Thats a cool connection you made!
ReplyDeleteI loved your thoughts because I can totally relate to what you are saying! The first time I played Mario Kart, I wanted to be Yoshi. My friend told me that her character is Yoshi and that I should be Luigi because "I'm funny." I took on the role of Luigi and didn't think anything of it until now. It's interesting how we just assumed that Luigi is the funny guy when in reality, all the characters kind of act the same in the game.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Mark, though, in which people have a tendency to choose players that are opposite from themselves. I used to play the 007 games with my cousins when I was younger, and I would not dare choose the female characters! Even now, when I play games such as "Temple Run" on my iphone, I tend to go for strong, buff male characters - the direct opposite from myself! All in all, I agree that the character you choose can really say something about yourself as a person - whether it's how you view yourself as a person or what you see as an adequate fighter to replace yourself.
I completely agree with your point about balancing the real world with the gaming world. I also agree with your idea of picking an avatar that resembles you. While princess peach never reflected my curly brown hair, I was always attracted to her because she was a girl. Part of me feels very sad for gamers that use an avatar as a mechanism to be someone else. While I understand it can be fun to reinvent your self with various features that you do not posses, sometimes I consider if that is a reflection of poor self esteem. Do gamers that create an avatar that is so different from themselves feel ashamed about who they are? Do they want to be someone else and feel conflicting emotions about their own identity? Or am I being absolutely too critical and avatar creation is pure recreation? In my opinion, it can be a mix of both. In particular, I often feel like the realistic games (such as Second Life) people can choose to let this avatar be who they want to be but who they do not feel like in reality. What does everyone else think?
ReplyDeleteI love this post. Me and my friends to this day still love playing Mario Party some of the old N64 games really are the best. I hardly ever play video games, but whenever I do I love some of the old ones. Mario Party and Mario Kart are two of the bests. Me and my friends have the similar argument over who gets to be what character because everyone always wanted to be Yoshi. I wouldn't say that it was because Yoshi reminded us of ourselves, but just because we thought he was coolest.
ReplyDelete-Brennan Ouellette - Team Fame
This post is very interesting and applicable to this class! Growing up, I also loved playing Mario Party and I was also always a Peach kind of girl. However, I do agree with Mark that we pick these characters based off who we emulate, whether they be the same as ourselves or the complete opposites. Virtual avatars give us a chance to play out multiple identities, thus I think it's fun to sometimes pick an avatar that is very different than me! Also, to add another point, it seems that every Halloween, several of my friends and other party-goers choose costumes like Mario. So years later, we still see teenagers and even adults holding onto their avatars from several years earlier. I believe this a sign of how much we value virtual avatars, since it's a chance to explore without making drastic changes to your "real life".
ReplyDeleteMario Party is one of the best games of all time. I loved playing it as kid and still enjoy playing it to this day. My character, like yours, has never changed. I've always been Yoshi and will continue to be him throughout my years. I'm not sure if I picked him because he represented myself, but more that I thought he was one of the best characters to play with. Being a competitive person, I always want to win. I always thought Yoshi gave me the edge, so I always played with him. I honestly am not a big fan of these new virtual world games. It's on a computer and you never meet these people. Mario Party was gaming, but at least you were with friends and others while playing, it was more of a social event.
ReplyDeleteYour post made me realize that I enjoy choosing my character too, and when I do so, I get emotionally involved in the game. I think that the characters we choose sometimes demonstrate what we aspire to be. Although I do not think about this beforehand, I do find myself choosing characters that I think appear more attractive, whereas I find my brothers choosing the stronger and bigger characters. I think that it is interesting that you believe that this enables us to balance the real world with the imaginary world. When I play a game such as Mario Party, I find myself so involved that I sometimes lose track out of the outside world and things around me. I feel as if I am actually this character and I am unstoppable. Games have gotten so creative that they are able to get us so emotionally involved.
ReplyDelete