Proteus Effect: You! Are! Avatar!

 Proteus Effect: describes a phenomenon wherein the behavior of an individual operating under a digital persona, adapts to conform to that persona. This is an effect associated with digital self-representation.  Source

In 2012 (the year our world ended) a study was done titled, The embodiment of sexualized virtual selves: The Proteus effect and experiences of self-objectification via avatars

 The study took 84 women from 18 to 41 and placed an HMD (head mounted device) on them.  Looking into a virtual world they were presented with a digital character to control (in some cases they resembled the player and were referred to as "virtual doppelgangers.") 

"We wanted to determine whether self-resemblance of the embodied avatar moderates the Proteus effect. Thus, in this study, participants were embodied in an avatar that was either sexualized (wearing tight and revealing clothing that accentuated a voluptuous body) or nonsexualized (wearing conservative clothing on a non-voluptuous body). Additionally, the face of the avatar was manipulated in that participants either saw their own face (Self) or someone else's face (Other) on the virtual body." (Fox et al., 2012)

After the virtual experience a questionnaire was given to the test subject in regards to the woman's perceptions on rape myths: the belief that when a woman is raped she is in some way responsible, because of the way she dressed, her behavior, etc.  The study found that the women who played as the sexily dressed avatars were more likely to agree with the absurd rape myths.

Let's walk it back some to the 2009 study  The Proteus Effect Implications of Transformed Digital Self-Representation on Online and Offline Behavior.   The study featured Nick Yee and Jeremey Bailenson who first coined the phrase Proteus Effect in 2007.  Building on their prior research they monitored online worlds such as the ever popular World of Warcraft and discovered an interesting find:

   "Overall, the findings suggest that avatar height and attractiveness do play a role in an online game, and tall attractive avatars do outperform other avatars... these findings show that an avatar’s appearance can influence a user’s behavior in an online environment." (Yee et al., 2009)

Damn, no wonder the dude in Avatar was so confident.  His was like ten feet tall!

I would definitely like to see research like this be expanded as it is only in it's infancy (hell, MMO gaming itself is still a fairly new phenomenon). An article on the 2012 study on NBC News says of the researchers, "Fox and Bailenson said that these are preliminary findings, emphasizing that critics of video games should not jump to hasty conclusions before more research can be done on the subject."


 My question for the 2012 Proteus Effect study is, would the results be different if all the women selected were experienced gamers?  Could they better differentiate between reality and fantasy?

It may be tempting to think that a gamer might be more susceptible, but could the opposite be possible?  We've played as Tommy Vercetti, Lara Croft, Commander Shepard, the list goes on.  Could trying on various skins and wearing many hats weaken the Proteus Effect?

In World of Warcraft it doesn't matter if the player is a hulking tauren or a squat dwarf--they'll hit you in the face with a blunt object all the same.

An interesting aside, the 2012 study also found that women who controlled the sexy avatars often felt the same physical insecurities as women who tried on swimsuits in real life body image studies.

Which is why TECMO decided to combine these elements into DOA Xtreme Beach Vollebally: The coup de grace to female self-esteem!

Oculus Rift--Plug into The Matrix!

For so long gamer-kind has been teased with the idea of virtual reality.  Some of us remember Nintendo's attempt with their system The Virtual Boy.  With its odd red and black image display, and the burning sensation players would feel in their eyes after 30 minutes of use. It was clear--we weren't viewing video games through those ruby lenses, but the blazing depths of Hell. 



Virtual Boy Born: July 21, 1995  Died: March 2, 1996

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                    Rumor has it that the Virtual Boy's creator, Gunpei Yokoi, was punished for the system's failure by being made to man a booth for the dead system at a 1996 gaming convention.  Despite the appearance and title of the console, it was in no way virtual reality.  The experience was more akin to sitting really, really, close to your TV while playing your Super Nintendo--after having been punched in the eyes.


The only other bit of virtual technology I could recall was back in the way rad early 90's.  When I was a little kid on a trip to Disney World I was lucky enough to be selected to beta-test a virtual reality game based on the movie Aladdin.  I remember putting on the virtual goggles and flying through the streets of an animated Agrabah on a rig that reminded me of a stationary motorcycle.  Thankfully a blog post by one of the men who worked on the project, Avi Bar-Zeev, confirms that the project was real and not one of my childhood hallucinations. 

Fast-forward to present day.  Not a lot has happened with virtual technology--that is until one hell of a Kickstarter project occurred in 2012.  Enter The Rift!  The Oculus Rift's goal was to reach $250,000 in pledges...it made it to $2,437,429 within 30 days.  It gained an additional $16 million in funding from Matrix Partners and Spark Capital.


Much like Gangnam Style and Miley Cyrus antics, The Rift has even attracted The Today Show's attention.  The system will be the first affordable virtual reality set to be used in households.  It should be interesting to see how this will change gaming, as well as other aspects of our lives.  An article on the Medical Device and Diagnostic Industry site explains future healthcare possibilities,
"The idea behind using VR for healthcare is to completely immerse patients in a computer-generated world where they can undergo therapy and training in a safe, artificial environment controlled by a clinician."

Some major games will be supporting the device.  Imagine how much creepier Ravenholm will be in Half-Life 2 when you walk through a dark room, turn your face, and see a headcrab leaping at you!

Virtual reality will allow us to immerse our selves in fantasies.  Some light, some oh so dark.

How realistic will VR become? What other sensations will we one day feel beyonds sights and sounds?        Throw in the omnidirectional treadmill and we're that much closer to having Star Trek's holodeck.

Speaking of sensations...not two seconds after the whole, "Hey they'll probably make porn out of this thing," joke was made, it stopped being a joke.  A naughty little Japanese title called Custom 3D Maid will be Oculus Rift compatible and will come with a special controller called Ju-C Air which can only be piloted by males--if ya know what I'm sayin'!  

Ah the human sex drive, well I believe Jeff Goldblum said it best in Jurassic Park "Life, uh... finds a way."

First we resurrect long-dead prehistoric beast, then we make sex with dead-eyed, virtual characters a reality.  For this we must endure the judgmental gaze of Goldblum!

Metal Gear Rising: Revengance--Our future wars pt. 2

Raiden is the Robin to Solid Snake's Batman...okay he's more of a Nightwing--a Robin who grew up and came into his own acrobatic heroics.

"I am my own man--I AM!"

Raiden (it's a codename, his real name is Jack) made his first appearance in Metal Gear Solid 2 where he upstaged Solid Snake in the role of main protagonist.
Metal Gear Rising is an action game that takes a departure from the Metal Gear Solid series.  Stealth is possible, but it's way more fun to engage the enemy and chop them into tiny little robot chunks with your samurai sword.

Raiden's childhood was a traumatic one, raised as a child soldier in Liberia by the evil Solidus Snake (not to be mistaken for his fellow clone from the Les Enfants Terribles project, Solid Snake), Raiden was such a vicious fighter in his youth he earned nicknames like "The White Devil" and "Jack the Ripper."  Fortunately he was able to get away from his sinister adoptive father and move to the United States.

Raiden: Child soldier, PTSD victim, cyborg-ninja, and... African American

Growing up Jack could not escape from the horrors of his past, displaying symptoms of PTSD (on top of constantly suppressing his Jack the Ripper persona), he felt the only thing he could do was be a soldier so he enlisted in FOXHOUND--who he would eventually leave for a private military security organization known as Maverick, as the lovable crazy-ninja-cyborg he is today.

Four years after Metal Gear Solid 4, Metal Gear Rising is set in the year 2018.  Things have escalated since MGS4--anybody who's anybody on the battlefield has been fitted with cyborg enhancements.  It makes sense considering this is a world were armies have robots with advanced AI's and Metal Gears: bipedal tanks capable of launching nuclear missiles.

There are futurist who believe that as technology advances around us at exponential rates, the only way humans will be able to keep up with it will be by integrating the technology within ourselves.  This future moment is called The Singularity.   In a way the story of Rising can be seen as a very physical version of The Singularity as soldiers must upgrade their bodies to stay in step with battlefield technology, as well as their enemies.  In the introduction of the game Raiden takes a major thrashing from rival sword swinging cyborg, Jetstream Sam.  Upon losing the fight (and some body parts) Raiden's first realization is--he needs to upgrade.  It's a funny thought, someday in the distant future we might be upgrading ourselves like we do our cellphones. 

As far as implementation in warfare, robotics are starting on the outside.  Exoskeletons, like the HULC, meant to increase a soldier's strength and endurance are in development.

And what of the other technology that is so prevalent throughout the Metal Gear franchise?  What about "Nanomachines son?" 

The final boss in Metal Gear Rising, who happens to be a U.S. Senator and 2020 shoe-in for the presidency, Steven Armstrong, is loaded with nanomachines making him a nearly indestructible foe.   

The Nanotechnology Initiative defines the science on their website:  "Nanoscience and nanotechnology are the study and application of extremely small things and can be used across all the other science fields, such as chemistry, biology, physics, materials science, and engineering."

In the Metal Gear universe the abilities granted by nanomachines in the blood stream range from the practical: monitoring the body's vitals, releasing painkillers and other medications, and links to personal devices; to the freakish: telepathy between soldiers, telekinesis, enhanced strength and healing, and just about every move Raiden's archnemesis Vamp makes.

It's impossible to say what the limits of nanotechnology will be:  Will they be able to perform micro-surgery?  Can someday nanorobots be injected into a patient to attack cancer cells?  Most importantly, will they allow us to stick to walls like Spider-man?

We have to keep an open mind when it comes to science even if certain achievements seem impossible in the present.  As science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke once said,"If an elderly but distinguished scientist says that something is possible, he is almost certainly right; but if he says that it is impossible, he is very probably wrong."

Keep an open mind, or Arthur C. Clarke will return as a cyborg-ninja and kick your ass.
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The Metal Gears keep on turning--Our future wars pt. 1

The Metal Gear franchise has been with us since 1987 making it almost as old as The Mario Bros. series.  It wasn't until 1998 when it added the tag Solid (in reference to going 3D and to the main protagonist Solid Snake) to the title that it gained the popularity it still enjoys today. 

The creator of the series Hideo Kojima, is credited for inventing the stealth genre of video games (and has the Guinness World Record to prove it) where instead of constantly engaging in combat, the character must remain hidden from patrolling enemies. While he has made many sequels and prequels to the Metal Gear Solid franchise, it is the concept of war machines in Metal Gear Solid 4 :Guns of the Patriots (2008), and continued in Metal Gear Rising: Revengance (2013) that feels almost prophetic as technology marches forward.

In the opening of MGS 4 Solid Snake gives this now classic quote: "War has changed. It's no longer about nations, ideologies, or ethnicity. It's an endless series of proxy battles fought by mercenaries and machines. War - and its consumption of life - has become a well-oiled machine. War has changed. ID-tagged soldiers carry ID-tagged weapons, use ID-tagged gear. Nanomachines inside their bodies enhance and regulate their abilities."  Set in the year 2014, how far off are we from the world Solid Snake describes?



"The ants go marching one by one hurrah, hurr....oh god please don't step on us!

 The idea seems far fetched at first,  scientifically enhanced soldiers fighting on the battlefield along with killer war machines.  Proxy battles being fought by machines?!  Kojima does the science fiction well but maybe he should dial back a little on the fiction and......

Oh...oh wait...those guys.

PBS.org recently published an article titled Empathy for military robots could affect outcomes on the battlefield.  Soldiers have grown used to having robots in war zones, and are even empathizing with them.

Drones of course are still controlled by humans unlike the robotic units, like the Gekkos, seen in MGS.  X-47B--the first autonomous strike plane--intends to change that.  As described in an article by Bernie Lopez in the Philippine Daily Inquirer:  "In the past, US drones launched in the Middle East were mainly controlled via satellite thousands of kilometers away at the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. But recently, for the first time, the United States showcased the new carrier-based superdrone X-47B. That it has a longer range than existing drones and that it is based on mobile carriers mean it can achieve deep penetration of enemy territories."

X-47B--like the movie Stealth only people will actually want to see it.

What makes the X-47B special is it isn't automated, it is autonomous.  While most robots are automated, capable of doing the same repetitive task over and over, the autonomous X-47B will be capable of making it's own decisions thanks to A.I.   

How will robots reshape the battlefield in terms of ethics?  On December 1st 2012 a policy review was written by professors Matthew Waxman and Kenneth Anderson titled Law and Ethics of Robot Soldiers.  Here's the money quote in regards to our future, shiny, robot soldiers:  "As lethal systems are initially deployed, they may include humans in the decision-making loop, at least as a fail-safe — but as both the decision-making power of machines and the tempo of operations potentially increase, that human role will likely slowly diminish." 

"Ethics schmethics, I nailed it down to three rules."

MGS4 serves as Solid Snake's swan song.  The result of a cloning experiment in the 1970's known as Les Enfants Terribles, his body is breaking down prematurely and he is old beyond his years.  As an old school soldier he appears a bit outclassed next to the robotically enhanced enemies he faces (though I'm sure he's grown accustomed to that by now).  Snake's protégé Raiden however is all about getting jiggy with the cyborg enhancements.  Next week I'll discuss Raiden and his spin off game Metal Gear Rising and what happens when we do more than fight along the robots--we become them.

to be continued.....