Videogames

This weekend I played two videogames on my ipod touch. One called Crash Kart and the other was pac man. I must say the pac man one on the itouch is frustrating, if you are used to playing the old arcade version.  Crash Kart however, was really fun. Actually it was addictive. All I wanted to do was race and win every game. I had fun with both games. Perhaps, it was because I was not an avatar this time that I enjoyed them. Second Life was a little too complex for me. I like the simpler video games better, where you know the objective. I don’t know if this means I am just not a gamer or whether identity is a real factor. We’ve talked about in class the argument that online personas are an extension of the self. These online avatars are just another facet to a individual’s personality. Well, on the assumption that this is true, I would like to know what it means, if you don’t have an online avatar. This doesn’t mean that you lack other aspects to your personality that people don’t see, right? In other words, does this mean that non-gamers are more grounded in reality, or have less technological computer knowledge? Perhaps, they lie some where in between? I don’t necessarily argree with either statement, but I am trying to understand what draws some people to games like second life and others to simpler videogames or no video/computer games at all. To what extent is identity a factor?