WoW and Identity
Posted 08-27-2008 at 09:23 PM by Thireas
I've noticed something when people are talking or writing about WoW, and in particular their own characters. People tend to talk in the first person about their toons - I'm sure you've all noticed this. But what fascinates me is that they tend to set a point of reference at one character, speak in the first person when referring to that character, and then refer to other characters on their account in the third person.
For example, say I'm talking about my warrior. I will say things like "I need to get 5 more badges to get my next upgrade, but I'd like to play Iaria some more. She needs to hit 70 before the expansion."
It's an interesting mixture of first and third person, as well as multiple references in the first person. The "I", as well as the first "my" in the sentence refers to the character, but the second "my" refers to me, the player. The "she", in the third person, refers to my shaman, from the reference of me, the player.
Now, it could be that the first "I" does not reference the character at all, but instead references the player. However, it is not necessarily the next upgrade for the player, as there is obviously another character that could potentially get an upgrade.
It's convoluted, I know, and a little arcane, but I find it interesting. I guess I'm just a sucker for interesting language constructs.
For example, say I'm talking about my warrior. I will say things like "I need to get 5 more badges to get my next upgrade, but I'd like to play Iaria some more. She needs to hit 70 before the expansion."
It's an interesting mixture of first and third person, as well as multiple references in the first person. The "I", as well as the first "my" in the sentence refers to the character, but the second "my" refers to me, the player. The "she", in the third person, refers to my shaman, from the reference of me, the player.
Now, it could be that the first "I" does not reference the character at all, but instead references the player. However, it is not necessarily the next upgrade for the player, as there is obviously another character that could potentially get an upgrade.
It's convoluted, I know, and a little arcane, but I find it interesting. I guess I'm just a sucker for interesting language constructs.
Total Comments 23
Comments
 | its a bad habit to get into referring to yourself in the first person. "I need a heal" on vent is not always the best thing to be said  its usually followed by "WHO THE F**K ARE YOU?" |
Posted 08-27-2008 at 11:24 PM by Sanelora  |
| |  I love how that works. I'm really bad about it. "I need to get bere" or "bere needs" is just as common out of my mouth as "I need..." once every now and then I'll catch myself saying "(my real name) needs..." in the company of my friends who know me both irl and in wow.  |
| Posted 08-27-2008 at 11:54 PM by Alent |
| |  The only metric for a game holding the title "Role Playing" is that the players are referring to themselves in the first person. It means the developer has done it right. |
| Posted 08-28-2008 at 12:13 AM by Ciderhelm |
| |  I am Klimpen. |
Posted 08-28-2008 at 01:54 AM by Klimpen  |
| |  I use the "I" but I don't say my characters name in third person, I usually call them by their class. |
| Posted 08-28-2008 at 02:26 AM by Edge |
| |  I do it with the classes I have 70s in. Whenever I'm talking about one of those four classes, I often refer to the class as a whole as "us" and "we". |
| Posted 08-28-2008 at 04:00 AM by Norrath |
| | I tend to refer to the character I'm currently playing as "I" and my other characters by their class. I have a wierd exception though, that being my paladin who almost always gets referred to in the third person by his actual name "Brakis". All my other characters are "my warrior" or "my rogue" or "my shammy". As for Vent, I refer to myself as I as well, but it doesn't really confuse anyone as I'm the only one in the guild with a foreign accent |
| Posted 08-28-2008 at 04:45 AM by Arrivan |
| | During an event in game, I try to refer to myself as Gehn to avoid confusion. "Gehn needs Kings." "Gehn is melted." If there is no action going on. I will use I more often as an explanation can more readily be given. |
| Posted 08-28-2008 at 05:20 AM by Gehn |
| | My name is Jeremiah and my character's name is Jere, which is a shortened version of my name that I use anyways. So in a sense I guess I am cheating, but I think I can safely refer to my character in the 1st person and be ok |
| Posted 08-28-2008 at 06:25 AM by jere |
| |  I've used the moniker Salihe for so many years, it's pretty much an alternate name. There was one time that I moved in with a couple people whom I'd only known previously online, and they continued to call me Sal, even in person, and it felt perfectly natural. So yah, with that in mind, when I'm on my main, Salihe, I refer to him as "I" and my lil' baby mage as "she", but when I'm on her, she changes to "I". I've pondered the same thing you've written about, actually, and found it pretty amusing. Like Cider said, it's a pretty good indication that Blizz is doing something right. |
| Posted 08-28-2008 at 07:18 AM by salihe |
| |  I'm an altaholic but 'Horacio' is me. Even when I played my druid for 7 months as a raiding main recently. People in the guild called me 'Tree' even when I was on the warrior or another character. It actually bothered me because that became my identity for that guild. Quite frankly, I played my druid long enough and itemization/mechanics considered, I am currently a better resto druid than prot warrior. I can step in and perform better in a raid on the druid than the warrior.....and its kinda weird, tbh. But yes....I identify with my warrior. He is me....and I have a retarded number of days played on him.... |
| Posted 08-28-2008 at 07:49 AM by Horacio |
| | Yeah, I definitely agree that it means Blizzard is doing something right, in terms of the roleplaying and identifying with your character aspect of the game. Even those that 'never RP' do it to some point, when they refer to their characters in the first person. Good job, Blizz! |
| Posted 08-28-2008 at 07:52 AM by Thireas |
| |  Hmm. Never thought about this before. I think I refer to whatever character I'm on at the time in the first person and all other characters (except my main) in the third. If I'm on my paladin, I'd say I still need Myrmidon's Treads when referring to my warrior. People who were around when I originally had my rogue still call me Gaets (quite a few actually) but those who only joined up after TBC when I played my warrior exclusively call me Caulle. |
| Posted 08-28-2008 at 07:55 AM by Caulle |
| | I haven't played my mage for a year, but I still get called Stormy  |
| Posted 08-28-2008 at 08:12 AM by Finelle |
| | hehe, I'm one of those people who yells "I need healing" but as the only girl tank in my guild, it was kinda obvious who I was If I'm feeling awkward I tell people off for saying things like "Shorty will stand here and then she will ..." - after all Shorty's a male gnome!Our druid MT actually changed his character name when he could, we all called him a shortening of his mage's name (we met him while levelling) and despite going through a warlock main with a completely different name and then settling on the druid we still called him by the same original name, so after some confused new healers who were asked to heal someone who they couldn't find in their raid panel and because he didnt like his druid's name he changed it, and even managed to get the exact nickname that we used to shorten his mage too |
| Posted 08-28-2008 at 08:12 AM by Shorty |
| |
I know at one point, I was playing my shaman - female draenei - and a player I was grouped with for SM referred to her/me as a 'pretty cool girl'. It was kind of awkward, being male in RL, but I couldn't really say anything about it, due to my female character. Side note: It would be kind of fun if Blizz were to add an item to the game that would allow you to switch the sex of your character. | |
| Posted 08-28-2008 at 08:31 AM by Thireas |
| | Yeah....its really rare for a female player to play a male toon but the opposite is quite common. It gets a little confusing sometimes, heh. I make calls referring to 'me' in vent alot but everyone knows my voice pretty well so its not an issue but it can be annoying when its not someone with a distinctive voice. |
| Posted 08-28-2008 at 10:04 AM by Horacio |
| | Eh, I choose the gender of my character based off looks/animations/name usually. If I can't make a female character I'm happy enough with, I can usually make a male that I'm easily happy with. Thus I tend to just start lately with male characters. LotrO for example. I really didn't like the females, especially their jump animation, but I loved my male character. However, in WAR I will easily role female characters over male (pending I actually can seeing as how half of Destruction can't be female). WoW has some fantastic females as well. |
| Posted 08-28-2008 at 10:48 AM by Caulle |
| |  I love these great threads that make me chuckle in the mornings. When I read Thireas' initial post I laughed out loud while nodding my head..."that is me." "I" am whichever character is being played and "he" (or name of character) refers to others in my collection that are not being played. Thanks for the post...very entertaining! |
| Posted 08-28-2008 at 11:23 AM by csmgt |
| | Glad you liked it! |
| Posted 08-28-2008 at 11:33 AM by Thireas |
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