Restricted Affordances: Avatar Models and Capacities for Identity

The document examines how character customization interfaces (CCIs) in digital games restrict player identity, play, and performance, arguing that design choices limit the possibilities for self-representation and enforce normative ways of being online. The analysis draws on Goffman's theories of identity performance and social interaction, applying them to the digital game context.

Key findings indicate that while avatars offer aesthetic representation, game mechanics and CCI designs often hinder how players can perform in virtual spaces. Games like World of Warcraft present limited embodiment options, frequently defaulting to Caucasian male avatars and creating restrictive categories for player identity. Players are forced to actively deviate from these defaults to represent themselves as "Other," sometimes by matching limited clothing components to ethnicity, as seen in Jam City Rollergirls.

Research by Yee et al. (2011) on World of Warcraft demonstrates that avatar gender, despite being cosmetically defined, significantly influences performative characteristics, with male avatars favored in player-versus-player combat and female avatars in healing roles. This highlights how a gender binary in CCIs imposes normative expectations that restrict performative play. The document concludes that these design limitations lead to a stratification of individuals within digital spaces, placing players into pre-established roles through the affordances granted by avatar design, making perfect self-representation challenging. The scope of the analysis primarily focuses on online games, using examples like World of Warcraft and Jam City Rollergirls, and draws on existing academic literature and studies.