The Role of Avatar in Interactive Fictional World of Video Games

In third-person video games, players are able to move and progress in the interactive world of the game while watching their avatar from an external point of view. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of avatar in the interactive imaginary world of video games using double vision theory. This article is based on descriptive-analytical methods and the use of library data and images taken from the game in question. The video game player considers his avatar - like a puppet - to be both a virtual inanimate object and a living body in the game world. The world presented to the audience, although interactive and responsive to users’ input, is continuation of the imaginary world tradition. Due to the interaction in videogames world, the boundry between performer and the audience is vanished and the player becomes at the same time the actor and the audience. This in itself leads to the emergence of new meanings in the concept of the imaginary and fictional world.