‘‘Blacks Deserve Bodies Too!’’: Design and Discussion About Diversity and Race in a Tween Virtual World

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate racial diversity in avatar design and public discussions about race within a large-scale tween virtual world called Whyville.net, with more than 1.5 million registered players of ages 8-16. One unique feature of Whyville is the player's ability to customize their avatars with various face parts and accessories, all designed and sold by other players in Whyville. Our findings report on the racial diversity of available resources for avatar construction and online postings about the role of race in avatar design and social interactions in the community. With the growing interest in player-generated content for online worlds such as Teen Second Life, our discussion addresses the role of avatars in teen/tween identity development and self-representation, and the role of virtual entrepreneurs and community activists in increasing the diversity of avatar parts available.

E is for Everyone? Best Practices for the Socially Inclusive Design of Avatar Creation Interfaces

“…Lastly, while not surprising, the problematic representation of race in games has been a recurring topic in game studies literature [4,16,18,21]. This topic ranges from issues of lack of ethnic diversity in games and virtual worlds [16,18], problematic (often racist) representations of race in games [21], and the seemingly benign design decision to have character creation interfaces "default" to a particular ethnicity [4].…”

“…This topic ranges from issues of lack of ethnic diversity in games and virtual worlds [16,18], problematic (often racist) representations of race in games [21], and the seemingly benign design decision to have character creation interfaces "default" to a particular ethnicity [4]. Mobilizing these and other critiques, we look to existing character creation interfaces to identify these common issues in a systematic manner and produce a set of best practices for the design of avatar creation interfaces in games.…”

“…The topic of avatar customization in computer and video games has been widely studied, but work in this area is largely anthropocentric, offering critique on avatar customization in the context of user choice (e.g., see [9,18,19,26,38]). When creating an avatar, users are presented with hundreds, if not thousands of options to customize their avatar's appearance, for instance, selecting their avatar's hairstyle or skin colour.…”

Race-Based Fantasy Realm

“…In the case of Humanity, these default features are distinctly Caucasian (Pace, 2008). WoW is not alone in this; prior research has noted a similar trend in the avatar construction of other cybercommunities (Kafai, Cook, & Fields, 2010;Nakamura, 2002). Avatars of color are given fewer options, and players are often left feeling as though they are merely playing White characters with dark skin (Pace, 2008).…”

Mediated Intercultural Dialectics: Identity Perceptions and Performances in Virtual Worlds

“…Furthermore, an analysis of avatar representations shows a systematic over-representation of males, Whites, and adults and an under-representation of females, Hispanics, Native Americans, children, and the elderly (Williams, Martins, Consalvo, & Ivory, 2009). Kafai, Cook, and Fields (2007) observed that in Whyville, a virtual world for youths aged 8Á16 years, players of color posted messages that complained about the lack of Black avatars or mismatched bodies, in which black-faced avatars had white bodies.…”