What question did this study set out to answer?

To examine whether player-avatar relationships can function as fully social and dialectical partnerships rather than purely one-way, parasocial interactions.

February 4, 2015First MondayOpen Access

Object, Me, Symbiote, Other: A social typology of player-avatar relationships

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Authors

JBJaime BanksWest Virginia University

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Implication

Qualitative interview study reveals fully social player-avatar relationships with shared agency and intimacy in online gamers, suggesting avatars act beyond passive objects.

Key Points

To examine whether player-avatar relationships can function as fully social and dialectical partnerships rather than purely one-way, parasocial interactions.
Conducted in-depth qualitative interviews with a diverse group of World of Warcraft players.
Applied interpretive thematic analysis to interview transcripts to assess the relational dynamics between players and their avatars.
Identified evidence of fully social relationship characteristics within player-avatar dynamics, specifically self-differentiation, emotional intimacy, and shared agency.
Formulated a four-point typology classifying player-avatar relationships across a spectrum from non-social to fully social: Object, Me, Symbiote, and Other.

Cite This Study

Jaime Banks (2015) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a1d33ec33e2df9c962f1c6a https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v20i2.5433

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Implication

Qualitative interview study reveals fully social player-avatar relationships with shared agency and intimacy in online gamers, suggesting avatars act beyond passive objects.

Object, Me, Symbiote, Other: A social typology of player-avatar relationships

Discussion

Member takes

Implication

Key Points

Cite This Study

Object, Me, Symbiote, Other: A social typology of player-avatar relationships

Discussion

Member takes

Implication

Key Points

Cite This Study

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