Avatar and the self: interacting with digital and real world through the digital self

Date

2025-7-14

Author

Tatlı, Deniz Ezgi

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This thesis explores the relationships between avatars in FRP computer games and selfhood; the ways in which avatars relate to self, how players configure avatars, and the roles of avatars for the construction of selfhood in terms of the reflections on subjects and daily practices. Within the video game environment, individuals represent themselves and control game functionality through synthetic figures called avatars, i.e., digital visual representations within virtual worlds. Through examining various definitions of self developed within fields such as psychology, sociology, and anthropology, the transitional process of the real-life self to the virtual world is analyzed. To better investigate the impact through avatars in computer games, the life simulation game "The Sims 4" was examined, and data were collected by observing players as they played the game and applying a think-aloud protocol and conducting semi-structured interviews with 21 participants who are actively playing the game. The results demonstrate that seven main modes facilitate the interaction between the avatar and self in computer games. This study argues that experimenting with alternative lives constitutes one of these modes and suggests that actions such as self-therapy, self-evaluation, and creation, being through doing, and caring constitute the thematic categories of these modes. It is also stated that the self represents the unifying element between physical and virtual realms and exerts influence on relationships.

Subject Keywords

Avatar, Self, Computer Games, Virtual World, Materiality

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/115446

Collections

Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Thesis