Call of Duty 3
First person shooters are among some of the most popular games in the gaming world. They allow users to participate in real-time scenarios with complete control of the avatar. Rehak actually describes the avatars as the “human player’s double” as he provides his own analysis of the avatar’s affect on the world of gaming. Basically, the avatar and its uses consist of a set of important elements that most games use; including player control of the avatar throughout the interface as well as the destruction and “reestablishment” of the avatar. These traits all allow the user to endure a gaming interaction that allows him or her to essentially have the avatar mirror their every thought and reflex. One game that provides for a good example is Call of Duty 3—a first person shooter that consists of great environmental interaction as well as a very nice development of enemy artificial intelligence to give the game more variety.
The basic game play of Call of Duty 3 consists of epic military battles from history. Players may choose campaigns in order to fulfill mission requirements as well as play head to head battles with each other—all in real-time of course. The significance of the avatar in Rehak’s opinion is its ability to mirror the actual human playing the game. This means that everyone who plays Call of Duty 3 will have different responses and reflexes to their environment. Each person prefers a different gun, or grenade, or military fighting style, or running, or strafing. Thus, allowing the player to essentially narrate his story in his own way.
In a sense, videogames in the first person shooter genre seem more cinematic than life-like. Of course we have the real-time game play, but we also get short clips of storyline that we must follow. So when thinking about it, each player becomes the narrator of his own “epic military stories”. The story becomes possessive to the user because in essence, he is almost in complete control of what goes on in the game and how it happens. Unfortunately, games such as this one are weakened by the fact that there is only one way to win each mission. This means that players may accomplish each mission with different weapons or tactics, but each objective is in the same place every time. In some aspects it takes away from the ambiguousness of the victory, but this is a major characteristic of the story style gaming.
The characteristics that the avatar has in games such as this one include a player identification of the avatar—allowing the player to give his avatar a name(in a sense, he is personifying it by giving it actual human characteristics). Another characteristic is one already talked about and that is the ability for the player to maneuver the avatar physically throughout the interface. This characteristic is linked with the player’s (or human’s) role, meaning how he controls the avatar and how it reflects his own personality.
Another idea Rehak presents is the idea of an avatar being destroyed and then regenerated as one of the most distinct and engaging features of the avatar. Chiefly, its death is just as important as its birth. Once the avatar is gone, it must come back to the game, and thus results in the actual “reflection” of the player making a mistake or bad decision. We have previously stated that the avatar reflects the human’s actions and decisions—but this aspect of death and regeneration also shows the human that there has been a fault in decision making. Consequently, the avatar engages the human (or player) to correct himself in order to complete the story the way it is supposed to be completed.
I believe that Call of Duty 3 serves as an excellent example to Rehak’s analysis of avatars and their affect on gaming. The first person shooter avatars are able to mirror the human batter than any other type of avatar because it directly reflects the impulses and reactions of the human. Not to mention, the artificial intelligence in Call of Duty 3 allows enemies to react to sight and sound. This great feature allows different humans to use different tactics because of their own strategies with respect to the reactions and styles of the enemies. All these features convey the human influence onto the avatar. This influence allows for more distinct game play, more variety, and most importantly more challenge.