Identity Transformation in Real and Virtual Worlds: The Overlapping World View

Of late, digital game-based learning has attracted game designers, researchers, and educators. Immersion in the virtual environment of a game may affect K-12 students' cultivation of self. There are two opposing views related to game-based identity formation: separate world view and identical world view. The purpose of this paper is to bring a third-party view, the overlapping world view, into this discussion. This third view says that a player's virtual and real world identities are neither entirely separate nor identical. The identities overlapping depends on social consistencies between virtual and real worlds. This paper also points out two key questions for further exploration of identity transformation in these two worlds.