The [Object, Me, Symbiote, Other] in the Machine: Insights from Video Game Psychology for Teleoperator-Robot Relations

Abstract

Avatars serve as embodied representations of user agency in physical, digital, and mixed realities, extending our physical, cognitive, and perceptual abilities into those spaces. From this perspective, there is a tendency to presume that as users assume control of an avatar, they necessarily psychologically merge with and identify as that entity. Borrowing from video game psychology research into player-avatar relations (PAR) and player-avatar interactions (PAX), we present an argument for considering a broader range of sociality regarding user relations with avatar robots: Seeing avatar robots as Object, Me, Symbiote, and authentically social Others. We extrapolate from PAX measurements to tentatively offer a scale for teleoperator/robot-avatar interaction (TARX) and discuss implications of this extrapolation for more comprehensively understanding a future in which avatar robots are more common.