Hello Star Wars: The Old Republic community

 

I have posted this survey here as part of an academic case study for my undergraduate degree that I am currently undertaking. The case study is based around exploring the significance of the avatar in relation to gender, identity, and the player-character relationship throughout the lenses of World of Warcraft and Star Wars: The Old Republic.

 

If you are interested in assisting with research for this study, which in this case is in the form of a survey/questioner, then please take a look at the questions below.

 

Below I have provided a brief description of important terms within the questions:

 

• ‘Gender-bending’ is a term used for creating and playing with an avatar of the opposite sex to the player

 

• The player-character relationship refers to the relationship of, and feelings between the player and the avatar. This impacts other factors such as dissonance, immersion and presence.

 

• Dissonance refers to a disruption in the harmony of the player-character relationship. An example of this would be if the player feels one way about an in-game task and the avatar (or character) feels the complete opposite. This can be seen in Portal 2 (2011) where Chell is trying to escape the torturous experience as fast as she can, whereas on the other hand the player is having a great time solving the puzzles and would do it all day if they could.

 

• Immersion and presence refer to how involved or immersed within the game world or game play task the player is. The more immersed with the game world or task a player is, the more of a sense of presence (being in the game) they will have.

 

• Fantastical refers to fantasy aspect of an object.

 

Now on to the questions

 

For privacy and reasons surrounding intellectual property rights I am refraining from using any account, character, or player names within my study.

 

o Gender

o Do you ‘gender-bend’ within Star Wars: The Old Republic or know somebody that does?

o If you yourself ‘gender-bend’ within Star Wars: The Old Republic how does it affect your social interaction with other players?

o For other players you have ventured with who ‘gender-bend’ within Star Wars: The Old Republic how does it affect your social interaction with them?

 

o Player-Character Relationship

o If you ‘gender-bend’ why do you?

o What effect do you feel that gender has on the (your) player character-relationship?

o How do you feel playing an avatar with no personal narrative (World of Warcraft) versus an avatar with a personal narrative (Star Wars: The Old Republic), and how do you feel this gets affected by avatar gender?

o While ‘gender-bending’ do you or anyone you have spoken with feel as though there is a dissonance, or break in immersion and/or presence in relation to the player-character relationship due to their avatar’s gender?

 

o Identity

o When creating your avatar do you make them as fantastical as possible, or as similar to you as can be? Why do you do this?

o In relation to your avatar do you feel as though certain attributes they display within the game world can/or do affect your (real life) identity? If so how do they, and why do you feel they do?

 

Thank you for your time

 

Nedanth

 

 

The above questions can now be accessed on SurveyMonkey by following the link below

 

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/XDKPDRJ

Edited March 27, 2012 by Nedanth
Added a link to the questioner on SurveyMonkey

Hello Star Wars: The Old Republic community

 

I have posted this survey here as part of an academic case study for my undergraduate degree that I am currently undertaking. The case study is based around exploring the significance of the avatar in relation to gender, identity, and the player-character relationship throughout the lenses of World of Warcraft and Star Wars: The Old Republic.

 

If you are interested in assisting with research for this study, which in this case is in the form of a survey/questioner, then please take a look at the questions below.

 

Below I have provided a brief description of important terms within the questions:

 

• ‘Gender-bending’ is a term used for creating and playing with an avatar of the opposite sex to the player

 

• The player-character relationship refers to the relationship of, and feelings between the player and the avatar. This impacts other factors such as dissonance, immersion and presence.

 

• Dissonance refers to a disruption in the harmony of the player-character relationship. An example of this would be if the player feels one way about an in-game task and the avatar (or character) feels the complete opposite. This can be seen in Portal 2 (2011) where Chell is trying to escape the torturous experience as fast as she can, whereas on the other hand the player is having a great time solving the puzzles and would do it all day if they could.

 

• Immersion and presence refer to how involved or immersed within the game world or game play task the player is. The more immersed with the game world or task a player is, the more of a sense of presence (being in the game) they will have.

 

• Fantastical refers to fantasy aspect of an object.

 

Now on to the questions

 

For privacy and reasons surrounding intellectual property rights I am refraining from using any account, character, or player names within my study.

 

o Gender

o Do you ‘gender-bend’ within Star Wars: The Old Republic or know somebody that does?

o If you yourself ‘gender-bend’ within Star Wars: The Old Republic how does it affect your social interaction with other players?

o For other players you have ventured with who ‘gender-bend’ within Star Wars: The Old Republic how does it affect your social interaction with them?

 

o Player-Character Relationship

o If you ‘gender-bend’ why do you?

o What effect do you feel that gender has on the (your) player character-relationship?

o How do you feel playing an avatar with no personal narrative (World of Warcraft) versus an avatar with a personal narrative (Star Wars: The Old Republic), and how do you feel this gets affected by avatar gender?

o While ‘gender-bending’ do you or anyone you have spoken with feel as though there is a dissonance, or break in immersion and/or presence in relation to the player-character relationship due to their avatar’s gender?

 

o Identity

o When creating your avatar do you make them as fantastical as possible, or as similar to you as can be? Why do you do this?

o In relation to your avatar do you feel as though certain attributes they display within the game world can/or do affect your (real life) identity? If so how do they, and why do you feel they do?

 

Thank you for your time

 

Nedanth

 

The only thing you need to do now is ask for people's in game money and I would have flashbacks of Amarr and Jita trade hubs in EVE Online.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/

 

use that and I'll consider ;-)

The above questions can now be accessed on SurveyMonkey by following the link below

 

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/XDKPDRJ

I think you are confused, The Gender Bender was a persona of the RFL (Robot Fighting League) fighter Bender.

I took the survey. I am happy to help out!

 

I found it quite interesting. Very good topic for a research paper!

Filled out.

Answered, hope you don't mind that I went outside the purview of just TOR or WoW (i don't play WoW).

Good survey. Will there be any way to read the paper when written?

Thank you to those so far who have taken a look at and filled out the questioner

 

For those who would like to take a look my paper once it is completed I will upload it somewhere and place a link to it in the comments.