Identity Of Virtual Reality

In the digital era reality and virtuality continually appear to overlap and become indivisible. Consequently, the idea of identity is being increasingly questioned and requires revision. This becomes especially evident by investigating virtual environments (VE) such as multiplayer or role-playing games. Through the creation of avatars and interaction, identity is no longer bound to the physical body. Moreover, in 2016 virtual reality technologies like the Oculus Rift became available to the public at affordable prices. Although virtual reality (VR) has a long history in itself it was only last year that it slowly started to become integrated in the daily life. Thus, VR presents a compelling case for identity due to its fully immersing nature

In order to underline the different layers of identification I will distinguish between virtual environments and virtual reality. Virtual environments then refer to computer-generated representational spaces of interaction (Hillis, 1999). This also includes role-playing games (RPG) in which players take on characters in fictional settings as well as virtual simulations like Second Life or The Sims. In comparison, virtual reality can be understood as "an interactive and immerse (with the feeling of presence) experience in a simulated (autonomous) world" (Mazuryk & Gervautz, 1996, p. 4) constituted by technology in form of for example head-mounted displays (HMD). Dividing these virtual spaces is necessary to show in how far VR provides a unique case for extending identity beyond the physical body and adds to the creation of multiple

90). Here people act, communicate and follow principles of the "real world" and at first glance it appears as if they do not differentiate in their behaviour between these two realities. ? Boyd's (2014) exploration of identity in social media already proposed that dealing with numerous social context calls for a "struggle to effectively manage social norms" (p. 34). Transferring this to VEs suggests that players have to find a middle ground between the expectations of the platform and other users, while also managing to express themselves in a world which at least in theory establishes its own conventions and thus does not have to conform to the physical world. Accordingly, there is a visible contradiction between claiming the freedom to create any life, reality and identity one could want and adopting the same ideologies of the natural