1up asks the question: Are we what we play?
1up has an interesting feature about what the roles we play in videogames have to say about ourselves and the conception of self. This is my favorite one, but they’re all worth reading.
My reaction to the question is that it’s a complicated one, and also one that tabletop gamers have been considering for decades. I’m not sure what games tell us about yourselves, and part of the reason I like Sean Molloy’s piece linked above is that the answer to that question, if there is one, is most likely to be an intensely personal one.
When I play a game like Oblivion, I’m very cognizant of creating a character: the power mad warrior king, the adventurer who yearns to discover the secrets of elven tombs, etc.
I am not often interested in playing someone like myself; rather, I want to play someone new, to have some experience that I haven’t experienced before, even if it’s in a setting that I have. This is why, I think, I’ve made so many different Oblivion characters, many of which have only received two hours or so of play. I just want to try different characters out. This, by the way, reminds me of Jim Rossignol’s excellent article about why he still plays STALKER. Go read that, too.