Designing the Lost Self

Abstract

Older adults are increasingly engaging in online activities, including games, with other people. Many online environments require the user to create some form of selfrepresentation, ranging from a simple user name through to a full body avatar. These self-representations not only enable access to online activities, but also provide an opportunity for expressing both the real and ideal identity. We wanted to better understand the impacts of later life on the construction of self-representations when playing online games. Our study used gameplay observations and semi-structured interviews with 10 older adult gamers aged from 65 to 95 years. We found they designed their player selfrepresentations to project aspects of their lost (former) self and to embrace their present older selves. This engagement with self-representations as a form of self-expression suggests that designers need to consider older gamers, and their diverse preferences, when creating tools for customizable self-representations in online games.

Playing Blind

“…One topic that did not appear in our findings was any desire on the part of the interviewees to present themselves as a blind character in-game, although Carlos commented that there are stereotypical blind characters in AHC and Blind Legend. It was unclear whether this was due to the desire to present an idealized self (as shown by some older adults [26]), whether it was an oversight, or whether it was due to a lack of in-game supports for blind characters. Research with young people using powered wheelchairs suggests that although users with a disability might not prioritise representation of that disability in an interface, they may nevertheless value that representation if it exists [49].…”

“…Extensive research has explored the role of avatars as mediators of interactions with virtual worlds [25,26,62,87]. Visual aspects of avatars have driven much of this research [38].…”

School's Back

“…Research suggests that older adults view social virtual worlds as useful for inter-generational communication [45,49], as places to collaborate with other older adults [40,48], and as venues for the exploration of identity by customising avatars [10,11,45]. However, only a handful of studies have examined the use of social VR by older adults.…”