Feminine gamification viewpoint: game names
In the world of gaming some ladies choose to play under avatars that are male rather than female and their game names don’t give away gender at all. With a lot of side chat aimed at known female players that is let’s say less than flattering. Personally I have always chosen royal female related game names and apart from the very rare side comment, it has never caused any problems. Yesterday in a forum a question was raised by a lady about taking on her husband’s surname after marriage and how that would affect perception in business and on social media platforms. Most of the guys in the answers really found it hard to relate to the question, which was funny to see.
In Sweden both men and women can take on their partner’s surname and I believe in a few other countries this is also the case, which makes the choice an equal one. In some cultures however taking the husband’s name is quite an important cultural point and rejection may cause trouble very early in the marriage.
This interesting phenomenon made me reflect on the use of avatars in corporate gamification platforms. It made me wonder when total freedom in the choice of avatar was given from gender to looks to even type of being, what would most people do? In the virtual world Second Life you had to design your own avatar to wander around, most people chose a modified version of themselves to play. In social media platforms we could put up random images, but most of have our own picture up most of the time. As soon as it is business and work related even the images become more professional looking. There are some current platforms where you can attend meetings with a virtual avatar, which allow you to choose gender, looks and your name.
I would stick to female and a similar (possibly a little bit enhanced) version of myself, if I had to choose an avatar, I might consider a certain superpower or superhero body, but nothing massively different. I am happy with my name and gender, which is why I don’t see the need and frankly I have no desire to change i drastically. I like to have fun with the cards I have been given.
What would you do if given total freedom to choose and design an avatar? I would love to know in the comments.
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