I’ve talked in the past about how people can be who they want to be in this game, and we all are used to it by now. Sure, there is the occasional “Woah I didn’t expect that voice to come out of that model” but it's far and few in between for me. Something that is interesting though, is that with time, stigmas have been born on their own, causing us as players to stereotype the person based on the avatar they’re wearing. I thought it was just me at first, my first impressions on what people would be like based on what they’re wearing and how they carry themselves. And, as time went on, I learned that not only did everyone have preconceptions on who you are from your avatar, but they’re all pretty similar.
But first, what is a stigma? According to Erving Geoffman, a Stigma is an attribute that is deeply discrediting. He has a paper that goes on to talk about different types of Stigma, some being easy to see, like your race or body art, while others are invisible, but cause stigma to arise when brought to the public, like mental illness and criminal history. Erving believed that every person deals with stigma in one way or another, and that it complicates life because it gives people unjustifiable reasons to judge someone without taking the time to know them. Even if that person was given a chance, every move they made would be blown up out of proportion compared to their coworkers. A minor mistake from one person could be seen as an excuse to someone else that their stigma was justified. This is incredibly relevant to our lives today, since there are so many walks of life that almost everyone has a stigma of their own.
For example, during the pandamanda if you saw someone without a mask, you’d have a stigma towards them, and instantly assume who they were and what they stood for. And sometimes your assumptions would be correct, solidifying the ideal. This can be divided into many different micro-stigmas, that all help build up a person and their possible negative (and positive) qualities. Stigmas are categorized into three sections by Erving, which are known as:
Tribal Sigma: Race, Ethnicity, and Religion
Physical Deformities: Blindness, Deafness, and Leprosey
Blemishes of Character: Homosexuality, addiction, and mental illness.
With time, researchers continued to learn about stigmas and what they do to not only the community, but the individual. Two more researchers by the names of Link and Phelan then continued Erving’s research, but started to break it down even further on the sociological side. They came up with the basis of how stigmas are processed and what is needed to create a stigma in a person. These are:
- Label the human differences compared to them
- Stereotyping such differences based on their own personal knowledge
- Separating “them” from “us”
- To have those who are discriminated against lose status or social rank because of their differences.
VRChat isn’t the first game to have stigmas appear based on player choice, games all over the world have cultivated player based stigma. Some examples of this are how people treat you based off a character you play, your gender, and even your age.
An old photo of Nuoance and her friends.
It may not seem like a big deal at first, sure, you could be a girl playing a shooty shooty bang bang and one jerk makes a joke about the sandwich thing, or instantly expects defeat because “girls don’t play video games”. And whatever, that one guy's opinion doesn’t matter, so block him and move on. Except, that's not what happens. Instead of a bad apple, a stigma can grow and become extremely problematic for everyone. People who think they’re anonymous in a video game now think they’re invincible, and result in harassment to people who did nothing wrong.
An important disclaimer before we get into the meat of this discussion: Stigma in a video game will never replace the seriousness that stigmas cause in our waking life. They can however, point out glaring issues that need to addressed to the community as a whole.
Finally returning to the base point of this article, I dived into VRChat for a few weeks and had a board with 15 different avatars for players to look at.
In order: Booth, Femboy, Default, Casual, Wolf Boy, Small Furry, Non-Humaniod, Big Girl, E-Boy, Loli, Meme, Media, Robot, E-Girl, and Large Furry.
I then interviewed players from a variety of backgrounds and worlds to see if people’s ideals were similar when regarding the looks of a certain avatar. If you want to watch the interviews, check out the link at the end of this article!
When I planned for these interviews, I had a certain set of people in mind that I wanted to talk to. Two of the main groups were quest users and furries. Furries get the most harassment for who they are, and it was actually very eye opening to join public furry lobbies and see people join, only to harass the other players. It's like going to a BBQ and saying you’re vegan! I think I visited about a total of 20 different FurHub instances, or other furry related worlds, and in at least a quarter of them someone would join to just bully the people minding their own business. The group of furries that I spoke to did say it best though, people like that usually just want a rise out of you. They’ve lost control of their own life, and now take it out on others as a way to feel like they still have some semblance of control. It's a depressing thing when you think about it.
Clips from the interview shown in the original video: Stigmas in VRChat: Judgement is Skin Deep
I was also surprised at how nice a few of the interviews were. I expected the negativity that would come with this topic, but there were a few individuals who didn’t feel any animosity towards any particular avatar. It just goes to show that a positive interaction with anyone could change people’s opinions on certain looks.
I’ll be leaving a link below for anyone who wants to look more in depth at the questionnaire and see in detail what people answered, but something that I wanted to point out was a theory I had at the start of this all. I added two specific types of furries because while I do not see myself as one, I do occasionally use furry avatars just because they’re cute and small. And I’ve never had a single negative experience with it, no matter what world I’m in. I know people who legitimately do not like furries, but never ask me to switch avatars because it “doesn’t count”. And I find that very interesting, because it seems that quite a few people feel the same somehow.
Wolf Boy
On top of that, the third most popular model to get such scathing reviews was the wolf boy model, which I do feel like there's an easy explanation for that one. Crashers back in the day, and probably still some today, used to use models that were popularly black with some kind of rainbow shader, or something similar. The color scheme probably reminded quite a few people of their less than positive experiences, and it showed through their answers.
You may wonder why I skipped what would have been the second most infamous model, but honestly could any of us be surprised at the extreme distaste Knuckles models bring? They have a whole myriad of meanings, either a memey character who just wants to have fun, or someone who plays god to crash “annoying players”, to finally the little ones who’ve watched some youtuber make the meme and wanted to recreate it. Although now it’d be more the toothbrush man wouldn’t it?
The point I wanted to make using Knuckles as an example is that sometimes, an avatar is chosen to be worn BECAUSE of the context it has in the game, not because the player likes how it looks. To some, VRChat is just a place to build another personality, and make a new them, something that I can understand and respect. It is a very inclusive game when looking at the core players who help uplift the experience, where someone could be the kind of person, or creature, they wanted to be. I’ve linked a few videos in the description, go give them a look if you have the chance. They both talk about player’s experiences with who they are in the game, and why its pretty much a norm to not assume what someone identifies themselves as just because their voice “sounds” a certain way. And I do fully believe that by taking this small step in the right direction, we can open up the minds of those who maybe don’t hate, but were ignorant or unaware of the details because of their circumstances. And this could lead us to more understanding and patience in the real world. I may be a little idealistic, but isn’t it a nice thought? We don’t have to be so negative and angry all the time, take a little joy into your life and learn about something or someone new. VRChat is a game that opens people to so many different possibilities and cultures, don’t waste your chance to get real authentic knowledge on something you know almost nothing about!
Reference Links:
https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/matthewclair/files/stigma_finaldraft.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5VN48n28Vs&ab_channel=HAWXXISRIPPIN
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5v_Dl7i4Bcw&ab_channel=Straszfilms
Original Video: