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(Page 9 of 53) By this point it should be obvious that props make interacting easier and more efficient by providing a visual means to express oneself. They are very useful communication tools. On the simplest level, they act as conversation pieces. If you can think of nothing else to say, express an interest in someone's prop. Talking about props is one of the most common topics of discussion at the Palace. It greases the social interaction, especially with people whom you are meeting for the first time. It's like discussing the weather - except people are more personally invested in their props than they are in whether it's rainy or sunny. On a more complex level, changes in avatars convey changes in mood and intention, without the person necessarily having to speak (type). Many members have told me that what they are wearing affects how they behave, as well as influences how others will react to them. Wear a female seductive prop, or even just a pleasant looking female prop, and you will draw attention, whether you want it or not. If you're annoyed with someone and want to drive them away, put on that skull prop. One member said, “When I use my animated props” (props that show motion) “you can be sure I'm in a jovial mood.” Another commented, “The ability to adjust a prop in any situation to meet the needs of the individual at that particular moment makes the Palace unique as compared to the rest of the cyber chat sites.” | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In some cases the prop is used in a very specific situation to convey a very specific meaning. One member described how he uses a prop of a man with his hand in the air as a “high-five” to greet one of his friends. “I also have a white dog with a stick and a bandera on the end that I use to signify my exit... packing it in for the nite, if you will. Some of the regulars note the avatar's presence and immediately say goodnight to me.” The icon, he concluded, sometimes works much faster than key strokes. What follows is a log excerpt illustrating some typical cyberspace flirting behavior - in this case facilitated and amplified by prop play. The key participants are SweetyPie, whose well-dressed female avatar is positioned in the sky at the Palace front gates, and AsKi (hey!... I'm allowed. It's participant-observation research!):
Entire social events may revolve around specific themes that are highly amenable to avatar displays. Members may specifically create props for planned celebrations, as in a St. Patty's Day party or the historical Valentines Day party. Some special theme gatherings, like a Hawaiian get-together seem to pop up almost spontaneously, as if it was spontaneous theater. Showing off, trading, and talking about props is a big part of the festivity. At the Valentine's Party special visual events were planned, such as the Dating Game, the Props Contest and Showoff, and the rather mystical meeting at Nrutas , where Bumgardner displayed some his visual magic with iptscrae scripts. The wizard “flash light” induction ceremonies proved to be a fascinating blend of tradition and humor, thanks to graphical touches. All of these events were quite captivating, to a large extent because they were so visual. When the creator of another Palace site once asked me how he could draw people to his server, a few solutions seemed very obvious - prop contests, theme parties, and special visual events. These kinds of events now are springing up at Palace sites all over the internet. Avatars: Aberrant Av Behavior With the new visual dimension of cyberspace socializing comes new ways for people to be aberrant. Like all aberrant behavior, "deviant" behavior at the Palace ranges from mild to severe (see "The Bad Boys of Cyberspace" for a detailed discussion of deviant behavior and how wizards cope with it). Mischievous Pranks - As Bumgardner intended, people do try to "get away with something" by playing jokes on their fellow users. Usually the naive guests are the victims. Sometimes it's just a good-natured prank. Sometimes it has an edge of hostility. Using the brush for painting on the background room image, some users adorn the walls with graffiti, obscene drawings or words. Other mischievous members smear black over an entire room, or they fill the entire room with props, leaving newbies totally confused as to where they are or what's happening. Freud would want to label them "anal expulsive personalities." By "spoofing" someone with the "msay" command, you can throw your voice to make the cartoon text balloon pop out of someone else's head. Or you can make the words hang in mid-air with no body attached. A member, rather inappropriately, kept putting the words "I'm gay!" into the mouth of another user as he was trying to carry on a conversation with me. Using msay like this may indicate the person's inability to contain some thought or feeling, while also being unable to own up to that thought or feeling for fear of how others will react. Sometimes, it's hard even for sympathetic people to resist the antics and game-playing. One night, although trying to remain a neutral observer, I eventually found myself as an accomplice to another member in a prank where we set up an unmanned female prop in the spa pool. We used "msay" to talk THROUGH the prop while also talking TO it as if it were another user. Essentially, it was a virtual ventriloquist act. "Honey" (the prop) was rather seductive towards the guests, and the guests all thought it was a "real" person. It was quite funny, although perhaps a bit mean to the poor naive guests who were unaware of the msay command. Flooding - Users who make rapid, multiple changes of their avatars - especially large avatars - may flood the server, resulting in lag that makes it difficult for people to talk. Usually the person is not aware that he is causing a problem. But sometimes people do it on purpose. It may be a hostile attempt to gain attention, or a jealous ploy to disrupt the socializing in the room. Wizards will warn, pin, or, if necessary, kill for this offense. Blocking - Members consider it a social faux pas to place your avatar on top of or too close to another person's prop. Unless the person is a friend who's in the mood to be close, it's an invasion of personal space. "Please get off me!" and You're sitting on me!" are two common complaints. Again, some naive users do this without knowing it is inappropriate, or the person may be lagging and unable to move. But some hostile people deliberately accost others by blocking them. Wizards will warn, pin, or, if necessary, kill for this offense. Sleeping - Sleepers usually are users who have walked away from their computer. They are completely unresponsive when you talk to them. The social norm is to put up a "BRB" (be right back) sign to indicate your unavailability. Sleepers fail to do this. Although sleepers may be found in text-only chat environments, the experience of them is a bit different in multimedia chat. It feels much more eerie to SEE a person (avatar) in front of you, yet the person fails to react. Eavesdropping - By reducing their avatars to a single pixel and their usernames to only one character, members may try to become "invisible" and secretly listen in on conversations. As a type of "lurker," they are acting on voyeuristic tendencies to avoid intimacy and gain a sense of advantage and power over others. I wonder if chronic eavesdroppers last very long at the Palace. People enjoy so much the ability to express themselves visually through their avatars that it seems self-defeating to avoid this opportunity by hiding. Maybe that says something about eavesdropping. It *is* self-defeating and, literally, self-negating. Borderline Avs - There are very specific rules about what avatars are acceptable and what ones are not. Unacceptable avs fall into four general categories: overly sexual; overly violent and aggressive; hate avatars (evidence of prejudice concerning gender, homosexuality, religion, ethnicity, and nationality); avatars that promote illegal activities (e.g., drug use). Looking for loopholes or pushing the envelope as far as they can, acting out members sometimes test the limits of the rules. Flashing - Although nudity in avatars is not permitted at the Palace, some people nevertheless flash their naughty pictures. They may be goofing around with their friends, advertising their availability for cybersex, attempting to shock other people (like the typical exhibitionist), or defiantly and perhaps masochistically begging to be killed by a wizard. In private rooms, behind locked doors, people engaged in cybersex will display pornographic props to one another. Because this is not public behavior, it is not punished. Prop Dropping - Not quite as brave as the flasher, a prop-dropper will toss an obscene prop into an empty room and then run, so as not to get caught. The exhibitionist and rebellious psychology of the prop-dropper is probably similar to the flasher, with the exception that they attempt to dissociate themselves from their "dropping." In the mind of a Freudian, the scatological implications of this behavior are very signficant. Imposters - Stealing someone's avatar and wearing it is a no-no. Stealing someone's avatar, wearing it, and also using that person's name (or a variation of it) is a real no-no. You are abducting their entire identity. As a momentary joke to mimic your friends, this behavior is tolerated as fun. But some people are more insidious. I've heard rumors about a few people, in an act of revenge, snatching the identity of the person that offended them. Behaving inappropriately under that identity, they attempted to damage the person's reputation. Pretending to be a wizard or a god can get you into real trouble. Identity Disruption - One day in Harry's Bar I was greeted by someone I didn't recognize. Something about how he spoke made me uneasy. He acted as if he knew me, but his abstract avatar and name were unfamiliar. After a few minutes, he changed his prop to another abstract design. For some reason, this made me more uncomfortable. "Do you know this guy?" I whispered to another member. "It's Octagon," she said. "He's been changing his name and props lately".... About a week later, I heard that Octagon was hospitalized. He had been suicidal. This incident taught me something important about avatars. Unfortunate people suffering from disturbances in their identity may act out their turmoil in the props they wear. A virtual world where you can switch among alternate appearances might attract people suffering from "dissociation" - the splits in consciousness and identity as a result of trauma, as in the classic multiple personality disorder. There is a lesson here as well for the average Palatian. Playing with your avatar and username as a way to express yourself can be fun and creative. It's a fascinating, synergistic combination. But change your prop and/or name too often - especially if you are a relatively new member - and you run into trouble. People won't recognize you. Your identity de-constructs. In order to be treated like a solid individual, perhaps even to FEEL like a solid individual, you must maintain some level of continuity in either your avatars or username. Most people choose consistency in their username, perhaps varying it slightly for different occasions (e.g., HappyAsKi, McAski, Dr. AsKi). If they are going to experiment with identity expression, they do it mostly with changes in avatars. Despite this experimentation, almost everyone has a primary or home avatar that everyone recognizes as the "real you." The primary avatar provides the necessary continuity, the core self. It takes time to establish it. Switch avatars too often as a new member and you will probably slow down people's ability to recognize you. Once your username and a few of your avs are firmly recognized, you have more leeway to express other aspects of yourself through other avs, without your identity becoming too diffused. In fact, this may be the essence of a "healthy" Palace life - knowing how to handle that delicate balancing act of experimenting with who you are, while maintaining a stable baseline of public and personal identity.... Is this any different than "real" life? One afternoon at the Palace I happened to run into someone who was designing his own multimedia environment. He was visiting the Main Palace site to check it out, probably comparing this graphical environment to his own conceptual plans. Considering he was very interested in multimedia communities, I was a bit surprised by his underestimation of avatars and the graphics of the background rooms. "No-one has quite figured out what to do with an avatar to identify themselves," he said later to me in e-mail, "and the backdrops are largely that, wallpaper." At this point in this paper, I surely hope I've demonstrated the invalidity of his first point. As to his second, it seems to me that the background graphics that make up the Palace rooms are anything but "wallpaper" - a word which implies that the graphics are basically inconsequential. In fact, that's a bit of a devaluing attitude towards wallpaper as well. Would wallpaper even exist if it did not significantly influence people's attitudes, moods, perceptions, even how they behave? I'm sure that wallpaper does have this effect, as do the Palace rooms. For example, people are drawn to Harry's Bar, which is the social center of Palace life at Main. Why? The colors are warm, fuzzy, and inviting; there are chairs for people to sit down; it is a bar which people associate with get-togethers, partying and fun; there is a plush carpet in the middle of the floor which acts as a stage or even a dance floor for people to "get-down" and mix it up with one another. The psychological effect of Harry's Bar is not unlike that of the Study or Chess Room which also contain warm colors, luxurious chairs facing each other, and a fire place. Cohesive subgroups of members have formed in these rooms. Contrast these rooms with Grand Central where the mostly black and white color scheme feels cold, the floor is a stark checker tile, the sparse furniture is knocked over, and, quite bizarrely, a locomotive is crashing through the window. Fewer people gather there. Contrast these again with Nrutas, the outer space scene near a planet that looks like Saturn. You would think it's not a very hospitable place for humans. Yet people often do gather here, with the discussion often focusing on tech talk. A perfect spot for Star Trek fans. What are other popular rooms at Main? The Palace Gate, where users automatically are deposited when they sign on, which makes it the perfect place to greet people as they come in. The Spa, where people meet to "bath". The Hallway upstairs, just outside the guest rooms where people can talk in private and get intimate. A graphical pathway or corridor where people tend to walk (and gather along the way) extends from this popular hallway, down the stairs, through the Armory, Game Room, and Red Room, and into the similarly popular Harry's Bar. The Red Room often serves as a "waiting area" for people to socialize as they are waiting to get into the bar, since the room occupancy is limited. This graphical pathway, with Harry's Bar and the Guest Rooms at opposite ends, were the original design of the Palace, with the other rooms added on by links through pictures or fixtures on the walls. What have been the least populated rooms? The Void, a psychedelic swirl of colors that insults the eyes, looks like it's going to suck you up, and greets you with the message "Abandon Hope all ye who enter here." And let's not forget The Pit - a gloomy, fiery cavern that places horns on your head and a cigarette in your mouth.... Not exactly inviting places, except, perhaps, for trouble-makers who like the fact that the Pit's graphical theme matches their psyche. Anti-social gangs have claimed it as their home. Even these unsavory locales are preferred over nothing at all. On occasion, I've traveled to other Palace sites where some of the rooms were under construction, leaving nothing but a black box. When other people popped in and quickly realized there was nothing there but empty nothing, they left in a hurry. People find it boring, and perhaps even disorienting. Backdrops of rooms and scenery give people a sense of place and space. It creates a necessary visual grounding for their virtual experience. Some people avoid the usual text-only chat rooms for similar reasons. With only text scrolling down a window, they feel like they are floating in a void with no visual or spatial frame of orientation. At the Palace, users can place their avatars anywhere within a room - on the floor, walls, ceiling. But by no means do people move and position their avatars randomly. Even though there are no physical laws to restrict their movement, people behave as if there are. Responding to "gravity," such props as walking figures and cars tend to stay on the floor, while icons of flying or floating things remain up. Sometimes this is a purely unconscious reflex on the part of the user. Sometimes people deliberately play with the laws of physics and space - now obeying them, now defying them. Sit in a chair, or hang upside down from the ceiling. Whatever you like. It's part of the fun of Palace life. Rather than being static wallpaper, the background graphics are a playground. The positional props are a good example of how people consciously enjoy interacting with the visual features of a room. By providing tools for drawing on the background gif and the ability to place props into the scenery (flowers, bottles, artwork, etc.), the designers of Palace are encouraging this play. "Dr. Xenu," a longstanding member of the Palace community, offered some interesting observations on this phenomenon, which he calls "set-dressing:" There are now simple ways to automate such set-dressing. I have a friend who habitually decorates one or two particular rooms in the same way whenever we meet. There was also someone, for a while, who was relentlessly posting a pair of cherubs to the wall in the bedrooms of members' palace. I would find the cherubs there at all hours, and eventually began deleting them (though I liked them) to see when they would return -- sometimes in as little as 15 minutes! I never did find the unseen decorator. Such behaviors allow people to personalize the environment for themselves and friends, or perhaps feel some sense of personal impact or "ownership" by leaving one's "mark" on the territory. There are a wide variety of other ways that people intuitively respond to the spatial qualities of the rooms, as if they were "real" spaces. People like to "walk" the path from the Bar to the upstairs hallway - rather than using the "goto" command to pop right into their destination - because it feels like a real-world, architectural corridor. At the Spa, members actually bath in the pool, adding reflections of their avatars into the water to make the scene more realistic (perhaps, according to Rorschach inkblot research, a sign of an introspective personality). Some people frequently place their avatar at the same specific spot in a room - a favorite chair, or perch, or perhaps the corner of the screen - almost as if that spot is their "territory." There seems to be an implicit norm that the carpet in Harry's Bar is for old-timers who want to be physically close as a group, while others gather at the periphery of the room to converse in pairs or occasionally chime in with the conversation on the carpet. Even the patterns of where people place their avatars follow familiar principles in group dynamics theory. Dyads, triads, isolates, alliances, leadership patterns, and fluctuations in group cohesion are clearly visible. At meetings of the Palace User Group, the visual format of the room - an auditorium with a stage and neatly aligned rows of seats - helps create order and structure for the group's behavior. Palace users are not limited to the standard background graphics. The creators of Palace intentionally designed it as a virtual world where users could express themselves by shaping the environment. At the Member's Only Palace site, people could create their own room using any background image of their choice. Cooperative "set-dressing" in these rooms developed into a complex art form. These custom rooms became the focal points of friendship subgrouping and cliques. If you are ambitious, you can create your own Palace site on your own server, which gives you total control over the look of all the rooms. Each new space -whether it is a single customized room or a whole new site - will reflect the personality of its creator and will draw people of similar temperament. In order to attract people to a site, attempts are made to make the new environments as psychologically appealing to as many users as possible. Finchy, an old-timer at the Palace, describes her site, the "Nest:" "In creating the Nest, we thought about the fact that people love a spatial relationship they can "fit" into. The rooms are designed with that thought in mind. Our goal was to create a space where people felt "at home". The Goddess Theater is considered exceptional by many, as the perspective is highly unusual. But it works perfectly for groups of participants. Jbum said `The Finch Nest gets the award for the Palace that is most habitable, yet Finch-like.'" From a social psychological perspective, this flexibility in creating new graphical spaces is resulting in the formation of separate communities and subgroups within the Palace "universe." Issues of immigration, territory, recruitment, intergroup cooperation and competition, loyalty and betrayal are all beginning to surface in this universe. Let's Get Physical The visual and spatial qualities of Palace lead to something that is not found in text-only environments on the internet - something that has a subtle, yet profound impact on socializing. Human interaction feels PHYSICAL. Users have at their disposal not only words to communicate, but also non-verbal behavior that can create almost tangible sensations. So far in this paper, there have been numerous examples of this “physicality.” Blocking or crowding someone's avatar feels like a palpable invasion. Maneuvering one's av back and forth in synchrony with another creates the intimate sensation of “dancing.” When someone is excited or agitated, their av may fidget and bounce around the room. Someone who parades back and forth while displaying fancy props looks and feels like a strutting peacock. Animated avatars can mimic all sorts of real and surrealistic movements. While users in IRC may imitate such non-verbal behaviors with action command descriptions (“Sally gives Bob a push”), the effect is not the same. Visually SEEING the behavior has a much greater psychological impact. A key component of this physical awareness involves the dynamics of personal space, not unlike face-to-face relationships. Users instinctively feel that the area on and immediately around their avatar is THEIR personal zone. Step on it without invitation, and they quickly ask, then demand you to get off. Persist, and some people will holler for a wizard to discipline you. If members don't interpret your behavior as an invasion, they will experience it as an intimate advance. Simply to move towards and stand next to someone is seen as an act of friendship, or more. Snuggling and climbing onto someone's icon (“piggybacking”) may convey warm, sexual, or romantic feelings. They can very subtlety create emotional bonds. If someone's snuggling goes on for too long, or is not what you want at all, you may feel restricted, suffocated, and hesitant to move away for fear of hurting feelings. Right or wrong, other people may think that you two are an “item.” The emotional depth of these non-verbal behaviors can be quite amazing. As in face-to-face interactions, they may provide glimpses into underlying feelings and attitudes that are not being expressed verbally. After one member read this article, she told me about one of her incidents with snuggling which she did not experience as indicating any intimate relationship between her and the other person. Instead, it simply felt like playful fun - a kind of “playing to the room” or “public theater.” She did add, though, that snuggling probably won't occur unless there is some measure of friendship between the participants. It's also interesting that she clearly remembered this particular incident - which suggests that it did have an impact on her. Being able to get close visually (“physically”) in cyberspace does indeed have a significant psychological effect on people. Some avatars are designed specifically to snuggle, piggyback, or somehow interact with other avatars. One member, for example, has a pair of upside legs that he inserts down the cleavages of unsuspecting women, giving the illusion of the rest of his body being inside their dresses. This typically is a harmless prank played only on people he knows will enjoy the joke. The correct response, one female member informed me, is “oooh, that tickles!!” Evidence of the physicality of the Palace can be very subtle. Once in a while you will enter a room where two other users are sitting, motionless. Perhaps their avatars are next to each other, perhaps not. You speak, they give a minimal reply, or don't reply at all. It's very hard to shake the feeling that these people are telepathically linked to each other, especially if they are sitting side by side. They may indeed be using the private messaging feature called “whispering.” It's very hard to shake the funny feeling that they are somehow PHYSICALLY connected as a pair, as if they are sitting together on a couch - and that you are NOT part of that dyad. Two is company, three's a crowd. Confronted with this uncomfortable dilemma, most people leave the room very quickly. Even the simple act of giving someone a prop can be very meaningful development in a relationship. On a symbolic level, it is a sign of generosity and friendship (unless you don't want it, which makes the gift feel like an intrusion or a manipulation). On a more basic kinesthetic level, the act of “giving” someone a prop physically joins you to that person. It feels important because it feels like a tactile connection. Props as objects also allow you to physically DO something with someone. HoBob and Amber, for example, joined together in creating a garden out of flower icons . If you get tired of playing with props, you can always go for a walk together through the Mansion - what some members call “cruising the Palace.” These kinds of non-verbal, collaborative activities can solidify a relationship, much like “doing something” with friends in the real world. It's not just talk, it's a shared “physical” experience. Inside Your Av, or Out Some multimedia worlds are 3D. Usually the view also is first person, so you live “inside” your avatar, looking out into the world much as you do in real life, without seeing your own avatar (body). You have to move through the graphical space in order to see other avatars and objects that may be hidden from view. 3D advocates like the feeling of “immersion” that such worlds create. You feel like you are really there, in the environment. Some advocates claim that this 3D living creates heightened emotional reactions because it mimics the sensory experience of the real world. Things come towards you, or withdraw. You don't know what's around the next corner. There is an element not only of realism, but even suspense. The problem with a 3D graphical experience is that it requires a lot of computing power and speed that cannot (yet) be handled too well by internet band width. The result may be a slow, jerky experience that feels disjointed, unreal, and that jars the brain. Even under ideal conditions, some people don't feel comfortable with the “head in a box” or “tunnel vision” view of 3D, first-person worlds. Lacking peripheral vision, some people feel closed in, claustrophobic. The Palace is a 2D, third person experience. You look down onto the scene that includes your avatar and everyone else's avatar. Some people like this transcendent and somewhat paradoxical experience of being above but also in the scene. You get to see yourself, the way other people do. You move yourself about in the environment and then sit back to see what happens. Your perspective of the scene and what people are saying may seem more “objective.” You may feel more free. There may even be a magical, mystical sensation to witnessing oneself within the world. Many mystical traditions emphasize the transcendent awareness that is the “observing self.” The 2D worlds may address an archetypic need for such transcendence. This observing awareness is paradoxical. It simultaneously exists within the world and transcends it - a paradox that is manifested in the 2D virtual setting. Some Palace members take delight in the objective/subjective fluidity of being in the scene and above it, at the same time. The avatar appears as an independent entity that actually is a manifestation of your personality and will. Separate but connected. It can be like an artistic creation, a self portrait. It's an “out there” expression of what's inside. “It's me, it's not me.... it's both.” It's possible that when first person, 3D worlds becomes more sophisticated with the advance of technology, people will prefer them. On the other hand, some people may always favor third person, 2D environments. These differences in preference may reflect differences in cognitive and personality style. What Lies Ahead The wonderful, and sometimes frustrating, thing about computer technology is that it never stands still. Where are multimedia environments like the Palace headed? What advances in the world of avatar-populated environments wait for us around the bend? 3D, morphing, audio/ video /tactile /olfactory-enhanced avatars? Are contemporary multimedia worlds the earliest forerunners of the Star Trek holodecks? Gimmicks and flashy features may add some novelty to the experience. But the most successful advances will stick to basic rules that has made Palace unique and popular. Give users the opportunity to express themselves as they wish - to explore and experiment with their interpersonal identity. Give them the ability to participate in the creation of their environment. Offer a world that can stimulate sensations of space, action, and physicality. It doesn't have to be a world that exactly imitates the “real” world. In fact, it probably would be better if it didn't. Offer a world that is an experientially robust alternative. Fantasy can be more entertaining, educational, and, paradoxically, more “true” or “real” than the real world.
About the Author John Suler, Ph.D. is Professor of Psychology at Rider University. This article comes from his online hypertext book The Psychology of Cyberspace which describes his ongoing research on how individuals and groups behave in cyberspace. His work has been reported by national and international media, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, the BBC, and CNN. www.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/ More by John Suler, Ph.D. |
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