The Formative Elements of the Sense of Presence and Its Impact on the Identity of the Users of Video Games

Abstract

Nowadays video games have provided an enriched environment for their users to make a sense of presence in interactive media. A sense of presence in the virtual space of video games leads to some sort of twin-concept or even further the unity of the user with the character within the game. This unification brings virtual identity for the user. As time goes by, through the presence in the virtual space of video games, real identity is complicated with virtual identity and it has to be influenced by the virtual elements. The way of making a sense of presence for the users of video games in which leads them to a virtual identity in the new-born medium, and the consequence of the sense of presence above in the real identity of users is the problem this paper is going to seek. Hence, the paper, according to the views of interactive media theorist and data collection of using library research method through descriptive–analytical explanation, suggests the assumption that cinematic aesthetic form, interactive narratives, and the use of the unique capabilities of the media in which video games take the advantages of them and suggest them as well, provides an enriched environment that brings a sense of presence for the user and will alter his real identity.

Keywords

• video games
• sense of presence
• virtual space
• virtual identity
• real identity