The Imitation of Life
by SealWyf, HSM Editor
A dog, a showgirl and a zombie walk into a bar.
This is not the setup to a joke, though it very well could be. It’s just another evening in PlayStation Home, a place where you may be seen as a noob if you’re not hovering on fairy wings or riding a lion. The surreal is normal here, and it’s part of the charm. “Where did you get that?” is a normal Home greeting, as people check out each other’s costumes, and take notes.
You would think that in Home you could be anything at all. But you would be wrong. Spend some time in a real-world place where you see a lot of people — a mall, a museum, a Starbucks, or on public transit. Look at each person you see, and ask yourself if you could really reproduce their appearance in Home. There will be a surprising number of cases where the answer is “no”.
Some of the omissions are obvious, and they are there for good reasons. Although the minimum age for Home is thirteen, it is virtually impossible to create an avatar that looks that age. The closest you can come is seventeen or so, and most avatars really look about twenty. Home’s makers were justifiably wary of doing anything that would encourage sexual predators. There may be bona fide children on Home, but they look like everyone else.
A more problematic absence is old people. Here, I think it’s simply an economy on the part of the programmers. The avatar engine can’t accommodate all possible body shapes, so why include the ones that nobody would want? Except, for those of us who actually are old by Home standards, it can be frustrating not being able to create a self-portrait.
Not a face you’ll see in Home — even without the birds.
I was born in 1950, and my body no longer has the shape of a Home avatar. (Whether it ever did is a topic which I’m not going to explore.) Female bodies age in predictable ways. The breasts sag, the neck wrinkles, and weight accumulates in places that render the basic silhouette less “hour-glass” than “pear”. Even your posture changes. I have tried to make a self-portrait avatar in Home, by setting the hair color to white, increasing facial wrinkles, and adding a bit of weight. It’s a reasonable approximation, but it doesn’t really look like me. It can’t, given the limitations of the avatar generator.
And what about people who are really old? The oldest Home player I know is 72, and she has done an excellent job of recreating her real-life body. (It helps that she’s a lot thinner than I am.) But what if I wanted to create a portrait of my 92-year-old mother? It simply can’t be done. Is this a problem?
Forget the extremes of age. Let’s look at normal body variation. People aren’t all shaped the same, and they don’t carry extra weight in the same way. One thing that I find incredibly annoying in Home is that female breasts are not adjustable — they are a fixed feature of every shirt design. And the size provided is usually larger than I would pick. Reducing the avatar’s weight doesn’t really help. I’m sure males enjoy the show, but they aren’t the only people here. Is this a problem?
Even options that are definitely within the capability of the current avatar engine are not included. How many male hairstyles in Home display even a hint of male pattern baldness? By contrast, how many bald men do you see in real life? Should there be more choices for showing hair loss? What about bad comb-overs? Would anyone want these options?
A possible locomotion?
Let’s return to our thought-experiment of watching people in a public place, and thinking how we could create them in Home. In most places, you are going to see people in wheelchairs. You can win a wheelchair in the Digital Leisure Bingo Parlor, but it’s just a chair. You can’t go anywhere in it. Now that we have locomotions that let us fly with wings, scoot around on skateboards, and ride bicycles or even horses, it should be simple to create a working wheelchair. Should this happen?
When I mentioned this to a friend who has a background in the gaming industry, her immediate reaction was, “Developers only create what people will buy.” And that’s a very good point. Home is not a charity. Products are created with an eye to potential sales. We all know Home users who use wheelchairs in real life. But they can walk in Home. In fact, they revel in it. Would they even want to use their real-life appearance here, with all its painful reminders? Would the people with normal mobility purchase wheelchair locomotions as a political or fashion statement? Or would they be purchased by trolls, and used to create insulting stereotypes? Is it better simply not to provide the temptation?
There are other degrees of mobility impairment short of paraplegia. Locomotions could be created for crutches, canes or walkers. We can already carry canes, but they serve no function — the avatar never leans on them. The new locomotion technology could change that. Should it? We could now have blind avatars, complete with a seeing-eye dog. Would that be a good idea?
Disability is a complex subject. It’s charged politically, and excites strong emotions. Let’s set it aside, and move on to some normal human conditions that also excite strong emotions. Conditions that are also not currently represented in Home.
Not a choice in Home.
In your people-watching experiment, you’re going to see pregnant women. They’re in all stages, from barely-detectable “baby bumps” to the full nine-month expansion. In real life, pregnant women are simply part of the landscape, like women with strollers. But they are completely absent from Home. Yes, you can make your avatar fat. But it’s a different effect, an all-over bloating. Should female avatars be given a pregnancy option? Or would the potential for abuse outweigh the possible benefits of being able to signal a real-life condition?
Pregnancy is somewhat controversial. But now let’s look at a really charged subject: visible expressions of religion. Many religious groups require or encourage a particular style of dress. Here in the DC area, we frequently see Muslim women wearing the hijab head scarf. But there are no suitable headscarves in Home. Should there be? Would a Muslim girl feel more at ease in Home if she could dress in a way her faith considers modest and appropriate?
Muslims are not the only faith that includes a dress code. Should males in Home be able to wear a yarmulke to signal they are Jewish? Or would this just create problems? Home’s tolerance of difference often seems quite shallow. Maybe it’s better if we all look alike.
“Number 12 Looks Just Like You.”
Many years ago, I saw a “Twilight Zone” episode set in a future society where everyone looked like one of a few ideal physical types. When a person reached adulthood, they chose which appearance they would have, and were transformed by plastic surgery. Predictably, the point-of-view character chose to keep her own appearance, and suffered the consequences of non-conformity.
Here in Home we have the opposite problem. We can choose to look like almost anything — the more extreme, the better. In my own wardrobe, I have dog and cat costumes, a mummy, a mermaid, a flying saucer, a cartoon princess, a wide variety of wings, and many other beautiful or outrageous choices. During much of the week, I look like a bald-headed space alien. But what I don’t have, despite my best efforts, is an avatar that really looks like me.
Is this a problem? Would I be happier if I could create an accurate self-portrait? Would Home be a better place if we all had such options?
I have no answers. All I have is questions.
January 22nd, 2013 by SealWyf_ | 9 comments
SealWyf is a museum database programmer, who has been active in online communities since before the Internet, and in console gaming since the PS1. In games, she prefers the beautiful and quirky, and anything with a strong storyline. She is obsessed with creating new aesthetic experiences in PlayStation Home.
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That’s a nice article with questions with no definitive answers… or maybe even no definitive opinions.
Once I looked at Home as a piece of fiction mixed in with reality or a movie. But a movie didn’t make any sense because where’s the fat people, the skinny people, the short people and the basketball players.There aren’t any, or many anyway.
I tried making an avatar that looked like me based on a picture of myself and having posted the picture some people said I did it. But other avatars of mine while somewhat representable of myself aren’t good enough to make a wanted poster. And others are completely made up such my my Disco Turkey outfit from the Thanksgiving Day reward in Central Plaza years back.
Home almost seems to strive for normalcy as in the mentioned # 12, I mean, like come on! Where’s fatty, baggy and skinny?
And yes, there should be Muslim head scarves. Or at least some that are similar. I think they’re pretty. I think we’ve got everything but them… or so it seems at times.
6+8=14 (that’s a test, right? If so, I’m passing so far.)
Yeeeah… I was laid into by what appeared to be Nazi extremists yesterday in EU Home. At first I found it funny that anyone could possibly think that they might actively hurt someone’s feelings by telling them their avatar has a big nose lol. But once the gas-chamber insults started and each new member of their group that joined in the “fun” (trolling me) would ‘heil’ the others, I realized they were actually offended by my avatar’s appearance.
I’d say my avatar is a fairly close approximation of my own likeness, yeah I got a nose on me lol, but the anti-Jew stuff was just such a shocking development! I’m not Jewish I must say, but what happened to them at the hands of the Nazis during the war makes my blood boil. Sorry, going off on a tangent again, lets leave that for a different discussion…
Appearance in Home is an odd thing for sure, and it’s generally always a case of being as extreme as possible, which I’m personally not a fan of. I mean hey, if you wanna ride around on a lion wearing a g-string go ahead, have fun.
I cant speak for every Muslim girl obviously (or indeed, for any of them!) but I’d imagine they’d rather throw off the clothes they’re TOLD to wear rather than embrace them, and that’s really the reasoning for such weird looking costumes in Home; you can get away with anything at any time.
As for the avatar customization options I completely agree with you, we need way more options and body forms. Even though I’m very happy with my own avi, I still think we need more options to better reflect our real humanities. After all, if like the Nazi scum I met we can be ugly on the inside, we should be able to reflect all our shortcomings on the outside too.
These things are complex, KrazyFace. As a Western woman, I find the Islamic dress code emotionally uncomfortable. But there is an ongoing controversy in France, where some girls are fighting for the right to wear the hijab in public schools. My own view is that people should be allowed and encouraged to dress as they wish, as long as their choices are not overly offensive. But offense, of course, is very much an individual judgement call, and difficult to legislate.
More information on the Islamic scarf controversy in France from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_scarf_controversy_in_France
To tell the truth I doubt many people would make their avatars look exactly like themselves, that is why many use plastic surgery in real life. I might, and I have created as old an avatar as I can on occasion, but for a real purpose, not to run around in it.
It can be hard to recreate yourself in any case, there are too many variables involved. Home is all about fantasy and fun and being whatever you want to be. I have friends who never wear anything but costumes, some of which they made up from parts. Home is a place of escape from reality for many people for many reasons, and I think that can be a good thing, especially for those with physical handicaps of some sort. Nice read seal.
“Predictably, the point-of-view character chose to keep her own appearance, and suffered the consequences of non-conformity.”
Interesting that you should cite that Twilight Zone episode. As I remember it, in the end, the non-conformist succumbs to the pressure and is altered into one of the standard bodies, with a mind to match. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.
Well, that’s what made it a Twilight Zone episode, isn’t it? Continued rebellion would have been less interesting storytelling. It’s also what made it realistic, psychologically speaking.
If we ever manage to get you onto the PSN, JJ, we shall have to find you a spectacular and appropriate avatar. There are no human-sized mice as yet, but we can probably create an excellent Victorian Gentleman, with or without tasteful steampunk accessories.
Remember in the movie the Matrix, they talked about residual self image. It was what you looked like in cyber-space, based on who you felt you were to yourself. Home is kind of like that I think, we make ourselves there based on who we feel we are rather than what we might happen to look like in this narrow slice of time. Great Read!
I loved reading your article, so many points that you make (And valid also)
Myself, i am personally uncomfortable in my appearance in real life and would gladly change my shape, my hair to be a huge contrast to what i really look like.
Home has given people the freedom of being what they want to be and enjoying the fantasy of being in another body somewhat, even if its just for a few minutes, or a few hours. They get that chance to be the Hot chick, or the popular guy.
There are probably many people out there that feel really uncomfortable with themselves or even their appearance, and So home can act as a boost to their self Esteem. I’ve known many people that use virtual worlds for this purpose.
And it can help them on a variety of levels .
As a girl, I loved playing with paper dolls. I love the clothes, although most I wouldn’t wear in Real Life. Not all clothes look good on the same avatar. I change my avatars (usually female but sometimes male)to look good in the clothes. I tried creating an avatar that looked like me, but without success. Anyway, if you put weight on an avatar, the clothes wrinkle. Apparently the devs don’t know even overweight people can get clothes that fit properly. BTW, you don’t know me but I’m 75 reaching out for 76. My older daughter got me hooked on Home 3 yrs ago and I love having avatars who are fully mobile—and now, even riding!