Thursday, 23 May 2013

Game Player Identities - Carl Gustav Jung

  Game Player Identities

 

As a child I generally started my ‘gaming experiences’ in a family of brothers. Looking into Carl Gustav Jung’s archetypes, I explored many different aspects of my unconscious personality through games. As I often played with brothers I matched their masculine traits through the animus archetype, the animus is the opposite of the anima, the animus is when females project a male personality- “in the unconscious of every man there is a hidden female personality and in that of every woman a masculine personality” (Carl Gustav Jung page 284 – see reference). Generally as my brothers would, I would always choose male characters on a multiplayer game and imitate the same level of competitiveness and put on a persona.

Whilst playing alone all the characters I played were male however this probably had more to do with the lack of female protagonists. Most game protagonists are some sort of hero so it could be said that anyone that plays video games lives out a more courageous version of themselves through the character. For me personally I often chose to play games which were not like real life, for example I would choose to play games like Spryo or Jak and Daxter rather than Sims or GTA. So I always preferred more of an escapist experience into something unfamiliar rather than a simulation of a world similar to that we live in. This could represent both a persona and shadow archetype suggesting a secret part of my personality (shadow) that feels to escape.

 

References


Boeree, Dr. (1997, 2006, - -). Personality Theories - Carl Jung. Retrieved from Webspace: http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/jung.html

C.G.Jung. (1968). The ARCHITYPES and the COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS Second Edition. New York: Routledge.

C.G.Jung. (2002-2013, Jan 23). Jung's Architypes. Retrieved from Changing Minds: http://changingminds.org/explanations//identity/jung_archetypes.htm

Jung, C. G. (2013, - -). Concept of Arhitypes at Carl Jung. Retrieved from Carl Jung Architypes: http://www.carl-jung.net/archetypes.html

 

No comments:

Post a Comment