[Presentation] Restricted affordances: Avatar models and capacities for identity

For many digital games, a player is able to construct their digital identity with an avatar. Digital games often prescribe character customization interfaces (CCIs) which allow the player to create or customize their avatar. Yet, the range of possibilities given to a player is restricted by the design choices placed by the game’s interface, ultimately limiting the “possibilities a certain [avatar] has to interact with the game mechanics” (Tronstad 2008, 253). This means that while avatars can aesthetically represent the player and offer them a virtual existence, mechanics can hinder the ways in which the player plays and performs in the virtual space. In these cases, there is very little negotiation accessible to the player, as the restrictions are unidirectional with no reciprocity between user and the hard-coded user interface affordances.