Outlandish Outfits for Reasonable People: The Translation of Avatars within the Electronic Game ‘Rock Band’
Following the success of the single-player game Guitar Hero, the multi-player Rock Band entered the multi-billion dollar U.S. video game market in November 2007. Players create avatars called “Rockers” to represent themselves within the game as a drummer, vocalist or guitarist. Then, players use game controllers shaped like full sized instruments to strum, beat, or sing along with some of the most popular songs in the rock genre. A band can play together in the same room. More fascinating, band members can also play online through their game console’s network, so the Rockers meet in a virtual performance space, though players’ physical bodies may be thousands of miles apart.
According to Rockband.com, music downloads (for new songs to play within the game) have surpassed 2.5 million in eight weeks. Poised to enter the European market in the first quarter of 2008, Rock Band’s exponential popularity in the U.S. nods to the possibility that the players find the game wildly pleasurable—but, why?
In the translation of the material-semiotic space of Rock Band, the moment of Interessement holds implications for the human actors who will perform the songs and build the relationships with non-human actors in the game. Players interact with the affordances of the virtual representation of self, and negotiate their own involvement with the game. The physical body chooses how it will represent a virtual body, selecting gender, skin tone, physical build, hair style, clothing, and essential mode of gesture. What systemic forces shape the very choices for avatar bodies within the game? This paper analyzes these affordances, seeking to understand why a Rocker cannot be disabled, fat, or old. The goal here is to unpack the fantasy of rock-stardom, and using tools borrowed from Ian Bogost’s theory of Unit Operations, understand the inequitable pleasure of virtual rebellion.
