I Play, Therefore I Am
Why do you play games? For many, the quick response will be that games are fun. Others might answer that games help us relax, relieve stress, build relationships, develop skills…but what about their role in shaping who we are as people? As a media and identity scholar I will take you on a journey that demonstrates the role of games in players’ lives. While entertainment is a core facet of gaming, we shouldn’t overlook the transformative capacity of games to shape how we as players make sense of our place in the world and who we are—our identities. Our experiences in the games we play shape how we interact with one another and the kind of societies we build. In my talk, I thus invite game makers to consider how the design of your games impact how players encounter themselves or how they encounter other familiar or unfamiliar expressions of identity during play?
My talk will centre on how games, as procedural systems, shape the playground of identity in games through what is and isn’t possible in the game environment. I’ll argue for why acknowledging this power of games to shape identity is important, regardless of a developer’s intent. I’ll explain why simply talking about the need for identity representation misses the core of how games, as procedural media, work, and I’ll demonstrate why open-world or sandbox games with infinitely customisable avatars are surprisingly not always the ideal pathway to identity formation.
