‘PBS Game/Show’ Explores How Changing a Video Game Avatar’s Appearance Changes In-Game Behavior

PBS Game/Show host Jamin Warren explores how changing a video game avatar’s appearance changes in-game behavior in a recent video. Warren specifically looks at how the video game Rust recently assigned random skin tones and faces to players–ones that can’t be changed–and how people responded to that.

Videogames have always prized themselves on letting you, no matter who you are, experience something totally different from reality. They’re marketed as something separate from our real lives, and instead, a sandbox for us to play in. But we have to wonder, is what we’re doing, and who we’re playing as in those games, affecting how we act or think in real life?