Virtual me: Gender and Identity in World of Warcraft
Directed by Jennifer Torson, Sarah Prothero, Trent Monahan
Synopsis
Virtual Me’ examines the experiences of players of the online game World of Warcraft, focusing specifically on their experience and understanding of issues surrounding gender and identity within their virtual communities and during gameplay. While four of our participants chose to embody characters within the game that aligned with their actual world gender identities, two male players opted instead to play female characters, and the film explores the consequences of both choices. The film consists entirely of in-game footage along with animations of each participant’s character paired with audio interviews in order to focus on the participants’ in-game representations and identities, rather than on their actual world identities and bodies.