Me and My Avatar: Player-Character as Fictional Proxy

The relationship between players and their in-game avatars is best understood not as a state of fictional identity, but as a dynamic of fictional proxy. While traditional theories suggest that players imaginatively merge with their characters, this perspective fails to account for the inherent asymmetry between a player’s real-world knowledge, emotional state, and moral framework and those of the avatar. Because players maintain a distinct mental life separate from their digital counterparts, the notion of total identification is philosophically untenable and fails to explain why players naturally describe gameplay in the first person.

The fictional proxy model resolves these contradictions by framing the avatar as an artificial person whose actions are authorized by the player through controller input. This distinction is critical for establishing moral accountability. Under this framework, players are responsible for the actions they actively initiate within the game environment, whereas they are not held accountable for non-interactive sequences such as cutscenes. By grounding responsibility in causal interaction rather than shared identity, this model provides a robust explanation for how agency functions within interactive media.

This analysis shifts the focus of game studies toward the mechanics of authorization and agency. By defining video games as self-involving interactive fictions, the proxy model clarifies the unique nature of player engagement across the global gaming industry. It successfully reconciles the first-person experience of gameplay with the objective reality that the player remains a distinct entity from the character. Ultimately, the proxy model offers a more precise philosophical foundation for understanding how players navigate, act upon, and bear responsibility for their experiences within digital worlds.