How Video Game Characters Can Alter Our Self-Image
A new article offers a shift in perspective from typical studies of the processes whereby video game players identify with video game characters. Specifically, Christoph Klimmt at Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany, and his colleagues offer a social psychological framework for focusing on characters’ effects on players’ self-perceptions rather than on the often-utilized approach of focusing on players’ relationships with the characters. Klimmt and colleagues outline the psychological mechanisms through which characters can alter self-image.
Reference:
Christoph Klimmt, Dorothée Hefner, & Peter Vorderer. (2009). The Video Game Experience as “True” Identification: A Theory of Enjoyable Alterations of Players’ Self-Perception. Communication Theory. Volume 19 Issue 4, Pages 351 - 373.
