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Originally Posted by DesR85  Isn't this article kind of pointless? They're just games for crying out loud.  |
I don't think it is pointless at all, it's an interesting question and it has certainly been discussed in some of our forums over the years. I can't really see becoming the character you play in something like a first person shooter as much, just because of the nature of such games.
But,
Role Playing games can lend themselves to this type of identification, I think.
For me, personally, the characters I play almost always resemble who I am in RL. For example, if I play a D&D based game, I cannot bring myself to play either "Evil" or "Lawful Good." Invariably, I end up as either "Neutral Good" or "Chaotic Good," or sometimes "Chaotic Neutral."
What I find interesting is that it seems easier to actually "roleplay," though, when you pick a non humanoid character. One of my favourite game characters ever created was actually an Argonian in Morrowind. There was something vaguely liberating about not playing a human or elf, because I did not identify in quite the same way.
I have even noticed something similar playing LOTRO. I have a two elven characters and a hobbit. Both elves are, to a point, reflections of certain aspects of my RL personality.
The hobbit, on the other hand, is very different... For instance, she's the ever, irrepressibly bubbly and cheerful type... Something I most definitely am not
