Race and Identity

Before the internet and participation in virtual communities were not as actively used as now, many scholars predicted virtual world as the place that would be the closest to Neoliberalism ideals because of the thought that avatars would generate and produce "one's "self" without any type of constratint or limitation, such as gender, size, body shape, or skin color (Nakamura 2). However, unlike previous beliefs that virtual communities like social networking sites and virtual workds (MMOs) will be a place of "raceless, genderless, and disembodied space", problems regarding race and identity are apparent in virtual worlds. As Professor Nakamura suggests that "microracism and sexism" are even part of a virtual world.

Problems of racism and sexism can be found even from the starting of making one's own avatars in virtual world. Professor Nakamura suggests that "avatars are often constructed from a fairly narrow ranged of faces, bodies, and features...which creates a normative virtual body" (Nakamura 2). I believe one of the biggest problems of this limited-portrayal of avatars contribute to "false" standarization of beauty. Whites are often considered as physically attractive even in virtual worlds just like in the real world contribute whites as the standard of beauty while placing other colored-races as less-attractive.  This limitiation of choice in creating avatars is not only a problem in MMO games. For example, when we create profiles for ourselves in online communities and social networking sites, most of them only give us options of choosing between male or female. This can be looked as stereotyping of genders and not giving enough consideration to transgenders and bi-genders. Professor Nakamura gives an example in MMO World of Warcraft where "players are often assumed to be men unless proven otherwise" (Nakamura 4). Because of the stereotypical belief that more men play games than women construct sexism idea in virtual worlds. Also while black and Latino users are the "heaviest users" of video games, limitation in choices of selecting characters in many games is "highly unrepresentative of the actual population and even of game players" (Nakamura 5). This example also poses a problem of racism in virtual worlds.

Professor Nakamura also talks about "gold farming" in many online games such as World of Warcraft and Lineage II. Because of the fact that most "gold farming" occurs in Asia, especially in China, the illogical belieft that all gold farmers are Chinese and thus, Chinese are gold farmers is apparent in virtual world among gamers. Many gamers believe "gold farmers" do affect negatively in gaming environement and this claim might be true. However, the hatred against gold farmers lead to the hatred toward Chinese population is a racial problem that is important to take a look at. For example, when I participated in a raid in World of Warcraft, I once introduced myself as a Korean (in American server). There, not all, but some players who are ignorant of Asian countries related me as a gold farmer. In a way, issues of racism and sexism are dealt more seriously due to the fact that players are not communicating face-to-face. The anonymity in virtual worlds is also the cause of the treatment of racism and sexism in more violent manner among some players.

As we can see from the game "Against All Odds", there are some edutainment games that are made for the purpose of teach cross-racial and cultural empathy. While I was playing this game, I acknowledged the purpose of the game that "works to teach players "the importance of treating refugees with tolerance and respect" by "letting you experience what it is like to be a refugee" (Nakamura 9). However, the lack of entertainment element in the game prevented me from concentrating on playing the game. The expereince of playing the game was more like reading a manual of how refugees are treated in the world. Here, I noticed that the entertainment element is also very important in attracting more people to play the game and letting them fully focused on playing the game. In order to utilize this type of game, more resources are needed to make the game educational and entertaining at the same time.

Question: What do you think about lack of choices in selecting gender in most games and virtual spaces? (most games, social networking sites, and other virtual communities let users to identify themselves as either male or female) Do you think this causes a problem in shaping transgenders and others who don't consider themselves as neither male nor female to be viewed as less-human in today's society?