Virtually Visual: The Effects of Visual Technologies on Online Identification

Jennifer Martin's study examines how the visual design of online games shapes players' ability to identify with their avatars, using World of Warcraft as its case. The paper argues that visual rendering eases immersion and the sense of an online self, but that the pre-coded limits on character appearance, movement, and interaction can undermine the very identity play that visuality makes possible. Its central claim is that the fluid, boundless identity exploration described in earlier research on text-based worlds does not transfer cleanly to graphical environments, where bodies and actions must be built in advance.

The methodology combines participant observation, with the author playing 15 to 20 hours weekly and creating characters across races, factions, and two servers, with textual analysis of official World of Warcraft forums. Forum data spans December 2004 to April 2005 and includes more than 1,500 player complaints and suggestions about visual elements, which the author extrapolates to indicate substantial dissatisfaction across the player base. The sample is therefore qualitative and self-selected, and the extrapolation rests on an assumed ratio of responses to opinion-holders that the study does not independently verify.

The findings identify four principal sources of compromised identification: restricted character creation options, such as eight races, nine classes, and limited facial, hair, and body customization; the inability to create a desired appearance, which produces a sense of disconnect with the avatar; homogeneity among characters of the same race, which undermines individuality; and the absence of post-creation appearance changes, which can force players to abandon characters into which they have invested considerable time. Constraints on movement, where emotes are fixed and only some actions are available, add further limits, though players partly work around them through text-based emotes. The author frames these results as preliminary, with surveys and interviews planned to test the conclusions.