1/02/2011-Avatar's and how our identity changes?

Avatars are a great way of immersing the gamer into a latest crazes.From the longing hours of producing an avatar or being your favourite heroin,there is no doubt that the virtual world has captured the emotions of all gamers around the world.But is the 'mii' really an avatar on does the nintendo wii trick the gamers into being immersed by the virtual interaction of the gaming world?

The nintendo wii allows the user to edit the appearance of their avatar to ensure the feeling of acceptance in the gaming world.   

'www.mrcloud.com'

Staffan Björk stated the four stages of immersion whilst in a gaming experience;

-Spatial Immersion

-Emotional  Immersion

-Cognitive Immersion

-Sensory-Motoric Immersion

'Staffan Björk and Jussi Holopainen,Patterns in Game Design-2004'

These four immersions link well into showing the ways in which users are able to immerse themselves into the experience,and whether games are now created to immerse the user rather than entertain?

'www.treehugger.com'

The Omaticaya clan (Na'vi name: Omatikaya meaning "Blue Flute clan") is a Na'vi tribe of the forest. They formerly lived in a Hometreein one of Pandora's huge jungles.

'james-camerons-avatar.wikia.com'

Immersion is a great way of targeting various audiences,whether it is the latest gaming craze,such as World of War Craft or the virtual world of Second life.In 2009 James Cameron's showed us what immersion really is in his phenomenal blockbuster,Avatar.The fascinating thing about the film Avatar is the way in which the body of the real life person to remain is able to stay in real world but enabling them to control the avatar with their mind rather than body,by doing this it enables the human to be immersed into the avatar's natural habitat.Although this immersion is able in the movie,this type of immersion is unable to happen in video games mainly down to the gamer only being able to interact with the gaming world via the controller rather than their body and minds.

But are there any other ways of immersing ourselves into becoming an avatar?

From researching identity in previous blogs and seeing how it plays a huge role in the way social networking sites are portrayed online.Is our identities really showing our try colours or are we moulding ourselves into an 'avatar' on social networks.
'http://katyredmond.blogspot.com/2010/11/does-our-identity-change-in-cyberspace.html'


From posing for your latest display picture to ensuring that every minor detail of your personal life is portrays correctly on the internet seems to be the concern of the majority of social networking users .From checking in to your destination on Facebook to updating your micro-blog on twitter.The social networking scene have consumed all modern day human beings.

But are we really showing our true colours or are our avatars talking for us?