Virtual World Design

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12

Avatars and Nonplayer Characters

Henry Frankenstein: Look! It’s moving. It’s alive. It’s alive... It’s alive, it’s moving, it’s alive, it’s alive,

it’salive, it’s alive, IT’S ALIVE!

Victor Moritz: Henry—in the name of God!

Henry Frankenstein: Oh, in the name of God! Now I know what it feels like to be God!

Frankenstein, Universal Pictures, 1931, screenplay by John L. Balderston

12.1 AVATARS AND OUR SENSE OF SELF

Your avatar, no matter what manifestation you choose—human gure, re-breathing dragon, or anime

doll—is the center of your experience in the virtual world. As a human being with a self-reective mind

capable of observing your own thoughts and desires, the creation of your avatar in a virtual world gives you

the opportunity to experience social relationships in new ways, physical capacities that you may not have

(ying), and another perspective on self-identity/cultural identity (possibly as another gender). As you can see

from Figure12.1, the avatar is at the center of all things. As you log into the virtual world, the basic avatar

geometry takes on the body shape you have modied into your own virtual representation. Your virtual

body is stretched or compressed, tinted or made invisible. Meshes and objects are added to create interesting

things like wings and hooves. As you rez into existence, many layers are added. First, the shell of a shape is

put on, then a gender with its associated clothing and attachments, and nally the social and virtual barriers

that dene your visibility to others and availability for social contact.

Avatars are the common denominators, the hub of your subjective experience, and the heuristic frame-

work that allows you to observe relative scale and spatial qualities of the virtual environment. They are the

representative self through which you can participate in communication (text chat, voice chat), and they are

your cocreator (role-playing character) of the shared story in an MMORPG (massively multiplayer online

role-playing game).

Be careful about choosing an avatar in cyberspace. The psychological/physical connection to our virtual

selves runs deep in our minds. For many people, self-observation of their real body and thinking of their

avatar light up the same areas of their brains during scans [1]. Studies about the phenomenon of “body

transfer illusion” have demonstrated that a threat to your avatar’s body, no matter how differently it looks

from your actual body, will elicit the same physiological response as a threat to your real body [2].

At the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab (http://vhil.stanford.edu/), there are several research pro-

grams that study the body transfer illusion as well as other avatar/human-related events. In one experiment,

they found that people using avatars with superpowers to save a lost diabetic child in the virtual scenario

would demonstrate a faster response to helping one of the lab assistants pick up a bunch of spilled pens after

their virtual session was over [3]. The scientists at the lab have found that more ecological behavior (such as

using fewer paper napkins) will be demonstrated by people after they participate as virtual lumberjacks in

the toppling of a virtual tree. Testing results have also shown that composite avatars that blend your real-life

face with a politician’s face will make you more likely to vote for that politician.

238 Virtual World Design

Avatar silhouettes (clockwise order from the top right):

Linden Labs - Female Centaur (created by Erin Talamasca - Hoof It!);

Linden Labs Musician;

Linden Labs Dragonet;

Flower Fairy (created by June Dion - Bare Rose)

Avatars are at the Center of Experience in a Virtual Environment

You

Communication

Who in the world

am I going to chat

with today?

Relative Scale

How big/small am I?

Role to Play

Pirate or princess,

fireman or fairy?

Location

Spatial

Awareness

Where am I

standing now?

Subjective

Experience

What is my

avatar

experiencing?

Gender and

Movement

Social and

Virtual Visibility

Avatar Shell

FIGURE 12.1 Diagram showing the relationship of the avatar to the user in a virtual world. The avatar creates a

layered framework that encompasses a range of experience including relative scale observation, communication, spatial

awareness, subjective experience, and role playing.