It's time (Option to Hide other players Glamour)

[Iscah]

It's a video game for crying out loud. Why does it bother you so much that the pixels on my screen may be different than the pixels on yours? I mean, this is going beyond the realm of the absurd to be so worried about how your character appears to others to this degree.

I care about those pixels when those pixels are representing my character-the-player-avatar, which is how I appear in and interact with the game world and hypothetical-you via your avatar.

I've gone into this before. It's different approaches to how people think about player avatars. On the one hand, yes in the immediate sense they're just "pixels on a screen" but those pixels are being piloted by a live human being just as much as your personal character is.

I don't want to forget that. I don't want to think of other people in the game as nothing but pixels.

And no, this isn't [insert preferred "trapped in an MMO" anime here] where they're literally in the game, but simply that at some level by playing a multiplayer game - any game really - some part of your mental self is inserted into that bundle of pixels.

You don't say "I input a series of button commands to instruct the game to reduce the boss's HP". You say "I killed the boss".

While you are playing, your character is "you" and there's nothing strange about talking about your character in the first person.

Therefore if you are on my screen, I am seeing you.

If I see someone I know, I think "there's my friend X", not "there's the set of pixels representing X". Interacting with them is, to my mind, interacting with a real person - because ultimately that's what I'm doing.

So that is how I interpret other people in the game, and therefore how I feel about other people seeing me in the game.

[Joven]

le snip

The reason you say "I killed the boss" is because you're the one who did all the work by pushing buttons and inputting commands. Your character is just a representaion of those commands on the screen. They don't actually accomplish anything. I say "I" do something in a game, not because I see myself as the character, but because I'm the one at the helm. When you play a game with an established character like Sonic or Mario or Geralt you still say "I beat the boss" because you're the one doing the work, not the character.

When it comes to interacting with friends it's basically just a glorified chat room. You refer to them by their screen names because that's either all you know them by, or because being an online arena you don't want to give out real names lightly. Your avatar is essentially your profile pic.

[Zabuza]

Imagine this situation. You have a roommate, and two televisions in the house. You both want to watch TV simultaneously. She wants to watch a chick flick and you want to watch an action movie.

You turn on the TV in your room just to have your roommate pull you out by the arm and force you to the other TV to watch their chick flick with them. You protest and say you wanted to watch your action movie, but she insists you must watch this chick flick with her.

'But there's another TV back there', you say. 'I can watch my action movie and you can watch your chick flick, everyone wins.'

'No!' She replies. 'I don't care, you have to watch this chick flick with me because I want to show my preferences and life experience through this movie.'

'You can still watch your show out here though and enjoy it and I can enjoy mine in the other room.' You point out again.

'Stop trying to censor me!' She shrieks.

[Iscah]

...

That is a phenomenally tortured metaphor.

You're talking about two people watching completely disconnected movies.

This is about a game world being shared by both people.

[Zabuza]

That is a phenomenally tortured metaphor.

You're talking about two people watching completely disconnected movies.

This is about a game world being shared by both people.

It is not tortured at all. This is, in a nutshell, what this thread has been about. In my scenario, the apartment is shared by two people. One person decided that their need to have the other person see what they wanted them to see was paramount. That is the argument of those in this thread. You insist people have to see the outfit you've compiled, even though what they argue would pose no harm to you, and you would not even know about it.

[Joven]

It is not tortured at all. This is, in a nutshell, what this thread has been about. In my scenario, the apartment is shared by two people. One person decided that their need to have the other person see what they wanted them to see was paramount. That is the argument of those in this thread. You insist people have to see the outfit you've compiled, even though what they argue would pose no harm to you, and you would not even know about it.

I think the argument is that they *would* know about it by dint of the knowledge that feature exists in the first place. That someone would be using it because it's there.

[Iscah]

It is not tortured at all. This is, in a nutshell, what this thread has been about. In my scenario, the apartment is shared by two people. One person decided that their need to have the other person see what they wanted them to see was paramount. That is the argument of those in this thread. You insist people have to see the outfit you've compiled, even though what they argue would pose no harm to you, and you would not even know about it.

No it is not my argument.

My argument, to insist on your metaphor, is that I want to watch my movie and you can either watch it or walk away and not watch it. You can see my character or you can go somewhere else and not see my character.

The metaphor runs out because you watching your separate movie is completely disconnected from my movie. There is no equivalent I can conceive of, except perhaps that the two people are trying to watch different movies in the same room with the sound overlapping and affecting the other person's experience.

[Ibkee]

No it is not my argument.

My argument, to insist on your metaphor, is that I want to watch my movie and you can either watch it or walk away and not watch it. You can see my character or you can go somewhere else and not see my character.

The metaphor runs out because you watching your separate movie is completely disconnected from my movie. There is no equivalent I can conceive of, except perhaps that the two people are trying to watch different movies in the same room with the sound overlapping and affecting the other person's experience.

Stepping away from the metaphors for a second, you know it's entirely possible for anyone to see your character as however they choose already, right?

So tell me, is this fact affecting your experience in any way, shape or form?

[ItMe]

It's true.
Thanks to the wonders of 3rd party software you could make everyone run around in jobgear already.

[Iscah]

Stepping away from the metaphors for a second, you know it's entirely possible for anyone to see your character as however they choose already, right?

So tell me, is this fact affecting your experience in any way, shape or form?

Yes. I don't like the thought of it at all. I try not to think it.

And as I said earlier, the fact that people have to deliberately break the rules of the game to do so is still a different precedent to an officially implemented invitation to do so.


Once again I am falling into the trap of posting here and having to say all the same things over again and it only makes me feel miserable.