the virtual self

Ok so for this blog I want to do something random. I’m sure many of you are familiar with the popular m.o.r.p.g.’s (manual online role playing games) like World of Warcraft. We talked a little about them as a possible paper topic in class on Wednesday and the construction of the virtual self online. One of my favorite episodes of South Park deals with World of Warcraft and we can see the construction of the virtual self through the characters of South Park and the characters they play online.



If you ever get a chance to watch the whole episode I highly recommend it. There is one particular part of the episode where Stan’s dad is at the office and we see him talk about the way he built his avatar online. His exact words are “Outside I am a simple geologist, but in here, I am Falcorn defender of the alliance. . .” In the virtual world he made an avatar that was more muscular, better looking, and one that had an overall more interesting life.

This is also true for the main enemy that the boys are trying to defeat. At home the man is overweight, bald, and basically conforms to the kind of sci fi nerd that lives in his mom’s basement stereotype. In the game however he is strong, fast, and kills without provocation. Virtual games like WOW give the player is given the ability to gain power that they would not be able to gain without the game. The player can project the way they see themselves to the world often in a manner free of judgment from others since avatars can also include an alias name.