I don’t play RPGs, I don’t play video games, and I do not create avatars. I have never played them and I have never really been interested in them. I don’t plan on starting to play these or to create avatars and to live in a virtual world. The idea of creating an avatar and creating a world and getting sucked into it is not appealing to me. A lot of people are addicted to these games and it kind of seems like, it’s highly possible for me to get addicted to it too, so I’d rather not play them. Although I don’t play RPGs and video games, I have friends who love playing them. They are always talking about the avatars they have created and they always mention the virtual worlds. They usually play this during their free time. Most likely they play it after school or work. It kind of allows them to forget about reality for a while and to go to another world. It also apparently releases stress. They really like playing RPGs and videogames but they are not addicted to it. My friends identify themselves with their real world identity (thank God!). Once they stop playing the games, they get back to their own personalities. It’s not like they’re always identifying themselves as the avatars when they are in their bed and they really want to jump back into the fake world, just like in Waggoner’s essay. My friends always have a sense of reality once they aren’t playing games. The real world identities and the virtual world identities of my friends are really different. In the virtual world, their bodies are very different and they do so many things that they wouldn’t do in the real world. They’re probably tougher in the virtual world (not that they’re weak in real life ha ha). They are also stronger and have so many powers that aren’t even possible in our world. Overall, the real world identities and the virtual world identities of my friends are immensely different. I believe in many cases, videogames play can impact identity formation, but from what I have seen (from my interview with my friends) is that it is possible to not get impacted. They are able to not play the games and not act like the avatar. They are able to stop themselves from turning into the character. They can tell the difference between the two worlds. Basically, video game play can impact identity formation, but in most cases it should not.