ARTICLE REVIEW - NATASHA - WEEK 2

Me or Not me? The Avatar as Consumer Identity in Virtual Worlds

El Kamel L. (2016) Me or Not me? The Avatar as Consumer Identity in Virtual Worlds. In: Campbell C., Ma J. (eds) Looking Forward, Looking Back: Drawing on the Past to Shape the Future of Marketing. Developments in Marketing Science: Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Science. Springer, Cham

AIMS OF THE STUDY:

This research aims to understand VR as an experience where users reflect aspects of their identity. The researchers wanted to:

- “clarify the different dimensions of the identity construction project in the virtual world”

- understand what precedes the choice of these dimensions

- “clarify… the implications in terms of consumption”

For reference: the identity construction project was discussed in terms of the distance that the consumers perceive between their avatars and themselves

METHODOLOGY:

Qualitative research:

Using a model of inductive reasoning: Initially I did not understand what this meant. After some research I could find a definition that I like. First, I started to read that Inductive reasoning is the alternative to deductive reasoning; which made me like the concept more than its alternate simply due to the language used.

(Deductive reasoning already implied an undermining of reasoning through elimination, which I never really appreciated as a good tactic for getting answers. Turns out I was correct: deductive reasoning narrows generalised notions to more specific ones, which is not completely bad of course, it just reminds me of someone being in a witness stand being fed leading questions. Inductive reasoning works the other way, moving from specific observations to broader generalizations and theories, which I think is a solid sociological approach to understanding more philosophical ideas like identity.)

“The purpose of the methodology used was to approach the field without preconceptions and to develop a model from the analysis and interpretation of the data collected.”

80 interviews were conducted with participants and interviewer communicating through avatars, with the starting points of having some structure for guidance due to the exploratory nature of the research.

  

MAIN FINDINGS:

Findings show that there was a definite correlation between real world identity and online avatar. Reading the conclusion was not as easily and straight forwards as I expected and seemed a bit ambiguous, but what I realised is that this may be okay for a topic that does not actually have an acute answer. People seem to sway between the fantasy of themselves, an image/personality which they wish to be in real life and an accurate reflection of themselves. I think this speaks to the actual cause of gaming, much like film it is escapism that must have some part of its popularity. People seek more adventure or freedom (or anything, really) from the tedium of their real life, they seek change, and thus engage in alternate spaces where they are able to “live” differently. This is dependent on each users wants and so their behaviours and the results of their online avatars are not consistent (which I think is valuable information anyway because having absolute answers for all questions is not always the most effective way to understand the ways of the world). They provided these 2 figures in their conclusion which may be helpful to analyse: