Poster Information
| Title | Constructing Personas: MMO Games As Training Tools for Engaging in Digital-world Interaction |
| Presenter(s) | Oskar Milik |
| Session | Conference Reception, Game Exhibition, and Poster Session |
| Time | Thursday, October 11, 7:00p-10:00p |
| Location | MSU Union Ballroom |
| Format | Poster Presentation |
| Description | The playing of a digital game, even a single player one, is in many ways a social act: An individual is responsible for constructing or embodying an in-game identity and must interact with other players to complete some sort of purposeful action. This project looks at how a Massively Multiplayer Online game teaches an individual how to construct a social identity, and how the act of character creation and in-game interactions serve as an introduction to this type of symbolic thinking.
This project finds that when a player engages with online groups, they find themselves engaging in more complex forms of identity maintenance feel responsible for their categorization within these interactions. These skills can then be converted to other situations where social personas become useful, such as in the maintenance of social media accounts and identities, or in presenting a more "confident" version of oneself for interviewing purposes. |