Title:	ELECTRONICS GAMES AND IDENTITY: A BAKHTINIAN ANALYSIS OF SUBJECTIVE PROCESSES INVOLVED IN THE ACT OF CHOOSING AVATARS
Author(s):	Márcia Duarte Medeiros, José Aires de Castro Filho
ISBN:	978-989-8533-22-7
Editors:	Katherine Blashki and Yingcai Xiao
Year:	2014
Edition:	Single
Keywords:	Electronic games; Subjectivity; Virtual Identities, Identity, Dialogism, Mikhail Bakhtin
Type:	Full Paper
First Page:	157
Last Page:	164
Language:	English
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Paper Abstract:	The current study seeks to understand the role of technological mediation in the formation of contemporary subjectivities and identities. The research question was: "how to form the identities of players under mediation of an avatar as a representation of themselves?”. We seek to understand the mechanism related to identity and subjectivity issues, focusing on young individuals within a game culture. We adopted the studies of Mikhail Bakhtin as points of reference. conducted A qualitative study was conducted with young people who experienced some games in which they have to make choice of avatar in the researcher´s presence. We used an ethnographic perspective that focuses on the human meaning of social relations, waged by subjects in a particular historical context and its elucidation and display by a researcher. The results indicates that the use of avatars for playing games can be a normal conscious shutdown, giving the individual a state of well being. The experience of being another (Avatar) brings the subjective desirable physical attributes such as beauty, fitness, freedom, happiness, status and social differentiation, fear and confrontation and not just cathartic possibilities or appeasing desires. Young players fall in an instance of ideals and lifestyles which actively participate in their processes of individuation and constitution of subjectivity. These findings point to the need for studies to examine impact of these experiences on other relational spheres of players’ life, as well as paving way for research into use of games as training tools for critically engaged citizens.
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