The day I understood..

Given the assignment I decided that if I was going to enter a online multi-player gaming environment, I thought I might as well take this assignment as an opportunity to play a role that I would never take on in "real life." I entered the environment of an online game titled: " The Mafia Boss." http://www.themafiaboss.com. Here I was asked to create a "mafia name" for myself; I became known to the Mafia Boss world as Tre. Not only was I using a fake name but I took part in active gender swapping.


After I gave myself a name, I was directed the "black market," where you were suppose to buy drugs and alcohol to keep you "guys" ( i.e. your team/gang) happy. Additionally you were suppose to develop a supply of defensive weapons whose purpose was also to keep the men happy ( the weapons were useless, but the attitude of the "guys" was of utmost importance). If you failed to keep your gang happy you would start to lose them fast and without this backup become very weak.
Next I began my money making activities by collecting money from casinos, brothels, loan sharks and gambling dens. All of these terms were quite new to me but I played the part as if these terms were of second nature. After you gain enough turns collecting money you were suppose to use these to purchase more operatives and defensives and repeat from the beginning. When you felt that you had collected enough weapons and built a strong base you could go and attack other "mafiosos." The game warns that this is " the real mafia" and anyone you attack will not suffer without revenge. You were warned also to not use up all your money and to put a good amount aside so it was not up for swindling by other players. In order to survive you had to also join a family or create your own.
Each round consisted of 10days in which you were to increase your reserves and thus your net-worth. Everything you owned ( bootleggers, whores, hustlers, carddealers...etc had value). The goal of the game, was to have the highest net worth.

In connecting my experience with the ideas of Yee & Bailenson (2007) discussed in COMM245 Lecture, I find many areas of The Mafia Boss that are representative of their ideas. First of all when I was trying to enter my name for the game it became apparent that all my initial tries were taken. This supports the idea that when we are online we do produce/try to emulate what we consider stereotypical aspects of the being we are transforming ourselves into.

Second, when I was interacting with various other avatars on the site I found myself acting more and more "mafia-like" (i.e. intimidating, short, confident and mysterious). The more other avatars seemed weary of me, the more intense my actions became. This directly represents Yee & Bailenson's idea of Behavioral Confirmation. The fact of the matter is that because I was perceived by some as more mysterious and scary, the more mysterious and intimidaitng I acted. Similarly this also supports the findings that "behavioral measures and different representational manipulations self-representation are altered on behavior" ( Yee & J.Bailson, 285). The more mysterious and "mafi-like" I made my avatar appear the more scary and mysterious I acted. Additionally the scarier I acted and more confident I became, I interacted with more participants on the site and became extremely comfortable taking their money and family. It was as if the more people believed I was "Tre" the more I acted and became this avatar. My avatar and behavior also supported the third hypothesis in the paper " The Proteus Effect," H3: Particpants in taller avatars would behave in a more confident manner and negotiate more aggressively than participants in short avatars. Not only was Tre intimidating because of his name and his attire ( brown leather coat, dark glassed and hat) but he was tall and muscular. ( See picture above)

My actions on the Mafia Boss site are also representative of the idea of self-perception theory and deindividuation theory which posit that when people are made to believe their actions are a result of the characteristics of those with which they interact, there fore we believe what those we interact with believe and the more interactions we have the more extreme our perceptions of our own interactions.

In sum all these aspects of the "Mafia Boss" support Yee & Bailson's proposed "Proteus Effect." With Emphasis on conformity to individual identity cues, the proteus effect is ever present on the site as avatars rely on the names, gender, and behavioral actions that result from confirmation of others behavior expectations.

Without this assignment I would probably never have entered any of these environments and honestly probably never will again. However, the experience proves to support many of the ideas which we have discussed in COMM245 and provide proof for many of the interactions that provide the ingredients for problematic internet use. The more we become a part of these environments, the more we become the people that we create, and the less we associate with our true selves. I question whether the ability to interact in these ways causes us to not only become further disconnected from our real-life environments but also become more unsure of who we really are as well as less comfortable with ourselves.