Ready Player One Assignment

     When we were deciding on what video game to play in order to interview a random avatar, we had no idea what to do. None of us play video games at all, and were unsure of what games were even available to chat on. I remembered all of the games I used to play as a kid, and ones I revisited recently due to the boredom of lockdown, so we decided to play Movie Star Planet. The game is about completing several tasks that continually boost your fame and popularity within the game. Although the game has fun mini games you can play, you can also chat with everyone playing on the same server as you. We were the most interested to see if we would be able to tell if we were communicating with a kid playing the game now, or if someone our age was playing for the nostalgia since this game is not relevant to kids today. I think either perspective would have been really interesting to consider. I think it would be super cool to hear about the inner motivations of playing online chat games from a child, but also interesting to hear from someone who is reminiscing on a game that was very popular during their childhood. Our responses from the person didn't make it super clear on what age group we were talking to, but they did give some very interesting insight on creating avatars and why people like online chatting. The person we interviewed made it clear that they use the creation of the avatar to truly express what they wish they could in real life. The girl avatar had pink hair, wore a lot of makeup, and had a super elaborate outfit. She said she wouldn't;t feel comfortable or accepted if she looked like that in real life, but that is what she wished she looked like. Her remarks on avatar appearance made us reconsider what our society deems as acceptable and why we think those things compared to others are better. When did humanity silence freedom of expression? Why do we go out of our way to comment on someone who may not look exactly the way we do? Additionally, the person we interviewed talked about how online chatting was much easier and less stressful for her. If you "mess up" during a conversation online, you can easily leave the chat room. She mentioned how socialization in real life makes her very anxious in real life, and believes that the friends she makes online are more genuine than people she has met in real life. Overall, I think it is really interesting hearing people's opinions on video game chatting especially since I do not do it and have never really thought about it.