Thursday, April 9, 2009

Self=Cyberself?

Just thinking about identity and MMO gaming. I came across Wertheim (1999: 250) who critiques the postmodern view of the
cyberself:

Role playing at being a squirriloid or a Klingon, whatever its genuine value, is simply not an identity-changing experience. I can play any number of online characters without suffering fragmentation of my ‘archived’ self. ‘I’ – that is, my ‘self ’ – can play any number of different personae online and off, but that does not mean I become fragmented. In every one of these situations, I am still me, unless I become a true split personality like Sybil.


It makes me wonder if gaming can really change or fragment our 'true' selves.

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