Identifying with in-game characters

Abstract

This chapter explores the concepts of identification and presence in videogames by drawing on interview data from players playing a first- and third-person ‘violent’ game. Other than the more uniform relationships between perspective and identification claimed in game violence effect research, our data suggest that identification is a more complex and selective process. The third-person perspective allowed for an assessment of, and identification with, the character’s physical characteristics and fostered a greater interest in the game’s narrative unfolding (narrative involvement), while the first-person game allowed for identification with the character’s point-of-view encouraging players to adopt the character’s spatial position as their own (spatial presence). This chapter thus calls for a reassessment of the complex relationships between perspective, identification and presence.