Audition Online

Audition Online a downloadable multiplayer online casual rhythm game which was extremely popular around 2007 and 2008. During this period, many of my girlfriends were playing it. “This online music and dancing game allows players need to compete and cooperate with players from around all over the world. The objective of the game is to dance your way to virtual stardom by syncing avatar’s moves with the beat of today’s hottest pop music” (MMOBOMB).

There are two traits in this game that I think are contributed to its success. The first one is in the game there are a variety of game modes that are available to the players to choose from, which makes this game can be played by all kinds of players (no matter you are a beginner or a skilled player). Personally thinking, the single-player mode is important to a game, not only because it can make the game keep attracting new players since it allows them to be familiar with the gameplay, but also because it allows all the players to improve their skills through practicing. The single-player mode in a game can help to contribute players’ confidence when playing the multiple-player mode. In the virtual game world everyone is anonymous and faceless, which allows everyone to directly and truly express themselves.  So if your skills of playing are terrible, others may curse you in the chatting room. It definitely will weaken the beginners’ self-esteem in the game world and even his or her confidence in the real world. Besides, the single-player mode also can satisfy players’ vanity. Almost all people kind of want to be “the center of the stage” at some moment in their lives, so even if they cannot acquire that kind of feeling in their real lives at least they can get it from a virtual world. After practicing a lot in the single-player mode, you can be the spotlight in a multiple-player mode. The second main reason is the fashion elements in the game. From the perspective of music to discuss, in this game there is a fully-fledges song list with today’s hottest pop music. From the perspective of characters to analyze, girls are beautiful and boys are handsome, and all the in-game clothing and accessories are really stylish. So this game definitely can attract the players, especially who always want to be in the trend of fashion. When you play the game, you may have the feeling of “I am a fashion girl/boy”.  In this role-playing game, you are allowed to create yourself based on your ideal image: be beautiful/handsome, and be fashionable, which may to some extent improve one’s self-awareness in the real world. The virtual world allows you to hide the real you and pretend to a person that you want to show to others. Right now, it seems in this dancing and music world there can be no any social discrimination such as class discrimination, gender discrimination etc., since any discrimination can be avoided because of the gameplay, but is it? Actually, there is some class discrimination that not be avoided through the gameplay, but on the contrary they are caused by the gameplay. To be specific, in this game many of the better clothing and accessories that can be used to customize your avatar need to be purchased from the cash shop using real money, so it means if you are rich in the real world, you can be also rich in the virtual world, and vice versa. Overall, I have explore the issue of players’ self-identity in a game world through analysing the two traits of Audition Online.