Apparently grownups have finally turned on to something kids have known about for years—the selfie phenomenon. The word “selfie” has even made it into the Oxford online dictionary.
I have to admit I’ve been taking selfies for a while, but not of my real self. Like this blogger, I’ve been taking selfies of my World of Warcraft avatars.
Trala, my WoW avatar.
Apparently, I’m not alone, especially now. With the advent of Kinect motion-capture technology, it’s almost too easy to take and share selfies. Now you can even make little statues of yourself from Kinect-captured data.
People have been taking Grand Theft Auto selfies for quite some time, though they probably don’t advertise them much, except to other Grand Theft Auto players. “It’s less of a I-want-to-connect-to-the character thing and more of a I-wonder-what-ridiculous-shot-I-can-get-today thing,” says occasional GTA player Bradley Stafford.
There’s a new selfie game in town, though, that does emphasize connecting with your character. The game is Tearaway. It’s on the PlayStation Vita, and it’s a sensation. In Tearaway, the player is a sort of god of the Tearaway world, helping an adorable torn-paper character complete his quest. Because of the way the Vita’s camera works with the game, an image of the player’s face appears game in the center of the sun. (That’s Simone’s face in the photo at the top of this post.) And you can share the selfies with others. “In Tearaway, it feels like I’m really connecting with the character when I take a selfie. We’re buddies,” says devoted Tearaway player Simone de Rochefort. “There are Instagram-style filters and lenses. They even have macro settings so you can take pictures of flowers. I’m in love.”
