Comments on: Avatars behaving badly

By: v arthur hammon

v arthur hammon — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 14:37:35 +0000

My study, “Participation and Communication in Virtual Teams using Representational Avatars” found that other avatar participants seem willing to confront bad avatar behavior, regardless of the gender of the “real” persons behind the avatar. See abstract:
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/123208001/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0
The virtual environment seems to “level the playing field”.
A children’s avatar-based website, “WHYVILLE.NET” allows participants to design their own avatar. But behavior-modifying tools allow participants to place a yellow “X” across the face of offending avatars, thus silencing them for that participant. If an avatar receives three “X”s, (one each from three different participants) the offending avatar is automatically removed from the site and must deal with “City Hall”, the real humans who run the website. Usually an apology, published in the website electronic newspaper, “The Whyville Times” is required for reinstatement on the site.
Art Hammon

By: Chris Benfer

Chris Benfer — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:07:41 +0000

Interesting results, and consistent with my personal observations from playing various video games. My wife accuses me of “cackling” with glee when using Dark Side Force powers in a Star Wars game, for example. On the opposite side, I will be kind to innocents and help others when playing a Jedi. While the connotations of these characters go beyond their mere appearance, I can easily see how appearance alone could influence an person’s behavior.

By: Marc Blasband

Marc Blasband — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:41:14 +0000

Can we extrapolate that a game or a TV program does influence our moods? The industry always pretended the opposite to justify their violent products. Does this study prove them wrong?

By: quickdraw mcgraw

quickdraw mcgraw — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 19:57:34 +0000

Automation – your comments are about how people treat you based on your outfit. This article is about how you behave based on your outfit (virtual in this case.) Two different things, right?

By: Automation

Automation — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 07:25:02 +0000

It’s interesting, but not unexpected. Dressing professionally for an interview is more likely to garner respect than a more casual outfit – we simply don’t have time to process every piece of information before making a judgment so we base much on looks. Why would the virtual world be any different?