Gamers' Relationships with Their Avatars & Fanfiction: An Exploration of Player-Avatar Relationships Through a Digital Project

Abstract

In this thesis, I discussed video game players’ relationships with their avatars, and how further differentiations can be made from the existing categories using fanfiction as an avenue. Past studies on player-avatar relationships and fanfiction surrounding the questions of identity and the process of identification have been examined. Among those studies, the player-avatar categories proposed by Jaime Banks and Nicholas David Bowman in their 2021 article served as the baseline for this project's development. Drawing upon Jon Robson and Aaron Meskin’s concept of “self-involving fictions,” or SIF, I proposed a new type of player-avatar relationship, “avatar-as-SIF.” This relationship emerges when players decide to embark on a journey with their avatar relationships beyond the original scope provided by the game, through fanfiction. This relationship manifests that which was previously digital into products that have impacts in the real world, for both the players and the audiences. This project then provides an actualization example of the “player-as-SIF” relationship through two videos composed of animated composited photographs between the avatars and the real world, featuring a narrative aligned with fanfiction.