I’m doing a research around the topic of communications and behaviors in a mmo. We were allowed to choose which game we wanted to research on so I thought why not Minecraft!
So with the research, the main questions that I am trying the answer is: Do players treat other players differently when chatting if they have a certain skin? If skins play a factor in how you approach someone?
Thank you so much for reading this and I would love if everyone gives reasonable answers and not troll please!
We live in a physical reality, and one that is bound by time. These two factors matter. To some degree there is some importance placed on visuals, and this is often especially true up front. First impressions are important, and all that. For example, we can reason that two people might find out they are good fits for one another if they spend the time to try and find out, but a lot of that often relies on their being an initial physical pull to even bring it to that point to begin with, right? All because we live in a world with both physical and time restrictions. Unbound by time or place and such things don't matter, but to us, such restrictions NOT existing are probably too wild to imagine.
Anyway, the point I'm getting at is while I don't play online and thus can't answer on what I do, to some degree, I would expect that yes, there is some impression made by looks. If I DID play online, I wouldn't say I'd personally go so far as to treat someone differently. Other players are all equal people to me until they DO something to move themselves one way or the other (either towards more positive or more negative). Initially, they would be neutral to me. That would change only by any direct chat/interaction made towards me, not solely their skin. At best, I might be thinking "this person likes X" if I identify the source of their skin, but that's about it.
I just realized my answer can seem contradictory, because I said that yes it's natural to expect SOME level of first impressions, well... making an impression. But then I went on to say I would align people based on how they act/what they say, not just their skin. Uh... make of that what you will, I guess.
"I already answered this in the java section, but yes I do judge by skin, you choose it and it says a lot about you for what kind you have. My skins are chosen for me by my friends as one of them bought me my account and I then gave it to another for some time while I was gone - but they picked ones that they know fit me, a purple and then a yellow enderman-person thing."
I copied over the version of my reply on the bedrock copy of this topic, and I did that because you seemed to be bouncing off my reply. I wanted to elaborate why I judge by skins.
If we go by example, I will assume someone with a silly skin is silly, flashy skin flashy, etc. Call a duck a duck. If they act nice, cool, but usually the skin represents the person's self image as it is a choice.
Do players treat other players differently when chatting if they have a certain skin?
I've played on a fair amount of servers and have only seen the topic of skins come up whenever someone has a particularly interesting one, or when people who are friends bring them up during conversation.
However, I mostly used to play on survival servers where the focus is on gameplay and there are limited opportunities to look at other players' skins.
Do skins play a factor in how you approach someone?
They don't. I usually don't notice other people's skins until I start spending time with them.
I copied over the version of my reply on the bedrock copy of this topic, and I did that because you seemed to be bouncing off my reply. I wanted to elaborate why I judge by skins.
If we go by example, I will assume someone with a silly skin is silly, flashy skin flashy, etc. Call a duck a duck. If they act nice, cool, but usually the skin represents the person's self image as it is a choice.
Oh... okay. I just saw you mention my name and was confused. I wasn't sure if you were trying to tell me I should have posted it elsewhere or something. This was the only thread I saw.
Oh... okay. I just saw you mention my name and was confused. I wasn't sure if you were trying to tell me I should have posted it elsewhere or something. This was the only thread I saw.
Oh no, sorry. I just wanted to clarify my answer. Yes, there is a copy of this thread on the Bedrock discussion subforum.
Do players treat other players differently when chatting if they have a certain skin?
I haven't played on servers for a long time but I recall that there was sometimes distrust of people who didn't use a skin as they were considered more likely to be hackers or griefers. If someone couldn't be bothered to take five minutes to customize some pixels did they value that account at all or was it merely a throwaway to be used for nefarious deeds...
There were "crazes" that came and went and people who wore the current craze would sometimes be treated differently. Creeper in a suit, slime in a suit, emo boy/girl with headphones--it wasn't that those skins were looked down on exactly, but there might be eyerolling or a snide comment.
There could be a moment of connection when someone recognized a skin someone else was wearing and that could spark a relationship ingame. I once based with someone wearing a Robocop skin solely because I was wearing a Predator skin at the time - that common ground instantly made us 80s action movie buddies. Pony people especially were all about that fandom recognition when MLP was really big. "Hey, you're a Rainbow Dash! I'm an Applejack!"
---
Do skins play a factor in how you approach someone?
I'm very much into building, especially fantasy-medieval style, and looking back I'm sure I tended to be warmer towards people wearing fantasy-themed skins because they'd probably like the same stuff I liked. Someone wearing an Intricately Detailed Elf Warrior skin is surely going to be more into fantasy-medieval stuff than someone wearing a Drooling Donut Person style of skin. That would've been my inclination though of course it's not necessarily true.
I wonder if someone into hypercompetitive factions/anarchy would pass by my Intricately Detailed Fantasy Dwarf skin at spawn and seek out the Drooling Donut Person as someone more likely to be compatible with their chosen style of play..? That's an interesting thought!
I haven't played on servers for a long time but I recall that there was sometimes distrust of people who didn't use a skin as they were considered more likely to be hackers or griefers. If someone couldn't be bothered to take five minutes to customize some pixels did they value that account at all or was it merely a throwaway to be used for nefarious deeds...
In retrospect, I can recall this being the case as well. Using the default skin could have caused suspicions to arise.
I am almost saddened by this because I have genuinely grown fond of the default Steve skin. It was the look I embraced during my final year of online play when I just wanted to be as unassuming as possible.
I personally cannot look at Steve's silly face and think of anything other than a new player experiencing Minecraft for first time.
So I guess I do have one bias when it comes skins, although I have never assumed that anyone the default skin is actually a new player. It's just the feeling I get when looking at it.
There were "crazes" that came and went and people who wore the current craze would sometimes be treated differently. Creeper in a suit, slime in a suit, emo boy/girl with headphones--it wasn't that those skins were looked down on exactly, but there might be eyerolling or a snide comment.
That reminds me of when there used to be discussions of some of the specifics of skins back when the forums were more active, so while my experience on servers is slim, I can definitely see that happening in game.
Some of the examples I remember...
The 2x2 girl eyes that tried to do shading of the iris around the (colored) pupil instead came across as four different pixel colors (generally three shades of one color and one White for the sclera) which got called "bug eyes". Admittedly, while it could have been done better, and it was later, it was largely a limitation of the skin sizes. It was trying to fit too much detail into limited space.
The later trend did away with that and just had sclera on the outside and two more closely similar colors for the pupil, but it also lowered the eyes (offset one pixel from the bottom) with no mouth. This was also seen as bad by some for "trying to be cute" too much.
No hair over the eyes was considered good. It was "emo" if it had it, especially the boy skins that did it.
If it didn't have headphones, gloves, a hoody, a suit, or wasn't an in-game mob, people would humble brag about not having those things.
Mostly, it boiled down "doing trendy thing is bad". And skin Minecraft skins are limited in size, certain templates or styles would be common at given times, so mostly a large portion of the skins were just frowned upon for some reason or another. It was disappointing to see, even if some of the criticism had some merit.
Above all else, if your skin was self made (or edited enough to be largely unique), it was a serious brag, especially if it was self made and didn't follow any of the major trend pitfalls of the time.
I imagine people would presume someone using a skin with trendy features lacked creativity (or otherwise skill).
I'm very much into building, especially fantasy-medieval style, and looking back I'm sure I tended to be warmer towards people wearing fantasy-themed skins because they'd probably like the same stuff I liked. Someone wearing an Intricately Detailed Elf Warrior skin is surely going to be more into fantasy-medieval stuff than someone wearing a Drooling Donut Person style of skin. That would've been my inclination though of course it's not necessarily true.
I generally love medieval fantasy stuff (if my name isn't a clue, I love stuff like Final Fantasy [well, older ones], Dragon Quest, Lord of the Rings, and basically most media that involves the two), yet my current skin isn't in that style. An initial impression of me based on my skin probably wouldn't be that I lean into that stuff? Though, while my skin has been edited by me to the point it's completely different now, I did start with a base skin for some things, and that one was a bit of a medieval fantasy style one. I wish I remember exactly what it was, but I don't. What I remember is it was largely White (I think?) in color and attire and it MAY have been some sort of "warrior princess" type of skin. I didn't specifically look for anything like that; I just happened to be looking at skins at it was one that I came across.
I just tried searching a few skin websites and didn't see any that looked like the right one, but... (!) in my searching, I did find a few that appealed to me. Two in particular...
Well it's mostly just the first one (I love that dark Teal), but the second is worth mentioning because I like how the hair doesn't obstruct as much of the face/eyes and is otherwise good too. I... might be changing my skin, and to prove my earlier statements correct, I like the idea of sticking with my current one because it's self edited enough to be entirely unique. But I like those two better (again, largely like the first, but I might consider editing/mixing a bit if I decide I want more of the face shown, which I think I do). Great, now I might change it, and I totally blame you if I do, by the way.
Your post is sort of an example of what I was saying. Yes, I think we ultimately have impressions made based on skins, even if we don't "consciously treat others different" based on it. It's just how we are, and a result of living in a reality where time and physical matters are things. Our simple minds are made a way to try and form an impression fast. Just how our minds work.
I am almost saddened by this because I have genuinely grown fond of the default Steve skin. It was the look I embraced during my final year of online play when I just wanted to be as unassuming as possible.
I personally cannot look at that goofy face of his and think of anything other than a new player living Minecraft experience for first time.
So I guess I do have one bias when it comes skins, although I never acted under the assumption that anyone using it was actually a new player. It's just the feeling I get when looking at it.
Another good example/way of putting what I was saying. We don't always consciously, at a high level, "treat others different" based on such factors, but we still have initial impressions formed based on, well... anything and everything, which can include visuals (or specifically, skins in a video game).
I think as long as you don't make that opinion set in stone, then there's nothing wrong with it happening. All part of how we are and we can't change it. You should just be flexible about it and allow it to be "updated" in accordance with later interactions, and not hold an initial impression against someone.
Also, personal comment as someone who seldom played online; it's interesting to hear both of you mention the "players might be treated with caution if they have no skin" because I never would have thought of that, but it makes sense in a way. I always saw no skin sort of how you put it at the end; just a part of being a new Minecraft player.
The particular ones isn't too important (though I was just listing some for examples). I was mostly highlighting that the very thing this thread is asking, is something that did happen in threads here on the forums, and a lot of boiled down to "your skin qualify for trend thing #6, therefore it's bad". It was an example of how people might... well not treat others differently, but at least form opinions based on first impression, which is a often an underlying basis for that.
The particular ones isn't too important (though I was just listing some for examples). I was mostly highlighting that the very thing this thread is asking, is something that did happen in threads here on the forums, and a lot of boiled down to "your skin qualify for trend thing #6, therefore it's bad". It was an example of how people might... well not treat others differently, but at least form opinions based on first impression, which is a often an underlying basis for that.
Well yeah derpy and saccharine skins look derpy and saccharine. You could've also picked a better one or just stuck with the default, I'd rather someone be a noob than a tryhard, etc.
Well the people who pick those things must want or like them, so that's reason enough for them to use them, no?
People shouldn't chose only all or nothing, just because some random person things they shouldn't pick anything else. People should ultimately choose what they want. People are going to, on some level, make impressions off of whatever they use anyway. And no skin will be something everyone favors. So may as well just pick something you like, others' approval be darned, right?
I suppose that there are things that are of better taste and that is a lot of people agree, there's a reason. But I do feel bad for new people who struggle to find or make good skins. I have no idea how to do so myself and sometimes my skin resets to Steve or Alex anyway.
Hello fellow Minecrafters!
I’m doing a research around the topic of communications and behaviors in a mmo. We were allowed to choose which game we wanted to research on so I thought why not Minecraft!
So with the research, the main questions that I am trying the answer is: Do players treat other players differently when chatting if they have a certain skin? If skins play a factor in how you approach someone?
Thank you so much for reading this and I would love if everyone gives reasonable answers and not troll please!
Yeah I judge people off their skins. It sends a message. My skins are picked by other people and are typically unexpressieve enderman-based ones.
I don't really play online, but...
We live in a physical reality, and one that is bound by time. These two factors matter. To some degree there is some importance placed on visuals, and this is often especially true up front. First impressions are important, and all that. For example, we can reason that two people might find out they are good fits for one another if they spend the time to try and find out, but a lot of that often relies on their being an initial physical pull to even bring it to that point to begin with, right? All because we live in a world with both physical and time restrictions. Unbound by time or place and such things don't matter, but to us, such restrictions NOT existing are probably too wild to imagine.
Anyway, the point I'm getting at is while I don't play online and thus can't answer on what I do, to some degree, I would expect that yes, there is some impression made by looks. If I DID play online, I wouldn't say I'd personally go so far as to treat someone differently. Other players are all equal people to me until they DO something to move themselves one way or the other (either towards more positive or more negative). Initially, they would be neutral to me. That would change only by any direct chat/interaction made towards me, not solely their skin. At best, I might be thinking "this person likes X" if I identify the source of their skin, but that's about it.
I just realized my answer can seem contradictory, because I said that yes it's natural to expect SOME level of first impressions, well... making an impression. But then I went on to say I would align people based on how they act/what they say, not just their skin. Uh... make of that what you will, I guess.
Copy over from bedrock section @Princess_Garnet:
"I already answered this in the java section, but yes I do judge by skin, you choose it and it says a lot about you for what kind you have. My skins are chosen for me by my friends as one of them bought me my account and I then gave it to another for some time while I was gone - but they picked ones that they know fit me, a purple and then a yellow enderman-person thing."
I'm confused.
I copied over the version of my reply on the bedrock copy of this topic, and I did that because you seemed to be bouncing off my reply. I wanted to elaborate why I judge by skins.
If we go by example, I will assume someone with a silly skin is silly, flashy skin flashy, etc. Call a duck a duck. If they act nice, cool, but usually the skin represents the person's self image as it is a choice.
Do players treat other players differently when chatting if they have a certain skin?
I've played on a fair amount of servers and have only seen the topic of skins come up whenever someone has a particularly interesting one, or when people who are friends bring them up during conversation.
However, I mostly used to play on survival servers where the focus is on gameplay and there are limited opportunities to look at other players' skins.
Do skins play a factor in how you approach someone?
They don't. I usually don't notice other people's skins until I start spending time with them.
Oh... okay. I just saw you mention my name and was confused. I wasn't sure if you were trying to tell me I should have posted it elsewhere or something. This was the only thread I saw.
Oh no, sorry. I just wanted to clarify my answer. Yes, there is a copy of this thread on the Bedrock discussion subforum.
Do players treat other players differently when chatting if they have a certain skin?
I haven't played on servers for a long time but I recall that there was sometimes distrust of people who didn't use a skin as they were considered more likely to be hackers or griefers. If someone couldn't be bothered to take five minutes to customize some pixels did they value that account at all or was it merely a throwaway to be used for nefarious deeds...
There were "crazes" that came and went and people who wore the current craze would sometimes be treated differently. Creeper in a suit, slime in a suit, emo boy/girl with headphones--it wasn't that those skins were looked down on exactly, but there might be eyerolling or a snide comment.
There could be a moment of connection when someone recognized a skin someone else was wearing and that could spark a relationship ingame. I once based with someone wearing a Robocop skin solely because I was wearing a Predator skin at the time - that common ground instantly made us 80s action movie buddies. Pony people especially were all about that fandom recognition when MLP was really big. "Hey, you're a Rainbow Dash! I'm an Applejack!"
---
Do skins play a factor in how you approach someone?
I'm very much into building, especially fantasy-medieval style, and looking back I'm sure I tended to be warmer towards people wearing fantasy-themed skins because they'd probably like the same stuff I liked. Someone wearing an Intricately Detailed Elf Warrior skin is surely going to be more into fantasy-medieval stuff than someone wearing a Drooling Donut Person style of skin. That would've been my inclination though of course it's not necessarily true.
I wonder if someone into hypercompetitive factions/anarchy would pass by my Intricately Detailed Fantasy Dwarf skin at spawn and seek out the Drooling Donut Person as someone more likely to be compatible with their chosen style of play..? That's an interesting thought!
Journals - Gregtech New Horizons | Tree Spirit Challenge [current]
Yes, I got it now. I was just confused initially.
In retrospect, I can recall this being the case as well. Using the default skin could have caused suspicions to arise.
I am almost saddened by this because I have genuinely grown fond of the default Steve skin. It was the look I embraced during my final year of online play when I just wanted to be as unassuming as possible.
I personally cannot look at Steve's silly face and think of anything other than a new player experiencing Minecraft for first time.
So I guess I do have one bias when it comes skins, although I have never assumed that anyone the default skin is actually a new player. It's just the feeling I get when looking at it.
That reminds me of when there used to be discussions of some of the specifics of skins back when the forums were more active, so while my experience on servers is slim, I can definitely see that happening in game.
Some of the examples I remember...
The 2x2 girl eyes that tried to do shading of the iris around the (colored) pupil instead came across as four different pixel colors (generally three shades of one color and one White for the sclera) which got called "bug eyes". Admittedly, while it could have been done better, and it was later, it was largely a limitation of the skin sizes. It was trying to fit too much detail into limited space.
The later trend did away with that and just had sclera on the outside and two more closely similar colors for the pupil, but it also lowered the eyes (offset one pixel from the bottom) with no mouth. This was also seen as bad by some for "trying to be cute" too much.
No hair over the eyes was considered good. It was "emo" if it had it, especially the boy skins that did it.
If it didn't have headphones, gloves, a hoody, a suit, or wasn't an in-game mob, people would humble brag about not having those things.
Mostly, it boiled down "doing trendy thing is bad". And skin Minecraft skins are limited in size, certain templates or styles would be common at given times, so mostly a large portion of the skins were just frowned upon for some reason or another. It was disappointing to see, even if some of the criticism had some merit.
Above all else, if your skin was self made (or edited enough to be largely unique), it was a serious brag, especially if it was self made and didn't follow any of the major trend pitfalls of the time.
I imagine people would presume someone using a skin with trendy features lacked creativity (or otherwise skill).
I generally love medieval fantasy stuff (if my name isn't a clue, I love stuff like Final Fantasy [well, older ones], Dragon Quest, Lord of the Rings, and basically most media that involves the two), yet my current skin isn't in that style. An initial impression of me based on my skin probably wouldn't be that I lean into that stuff? Though, while my skin has been edited by me to the point it's completely different now, I did start with a base skin for some things, and that one was a bit of a medieval fantasy style one. I wish I remember exactly what it was, but I don't. What I remember is it was largely White (I think?) in color and attire and it MAY have been some sort of "warrior princess" type of skin. I didn't specifically look for anything like that; I just happened to be looking at skins at it was one that I came across.
I just tried searching a few skin websites and didn't see any that looked like the right one, but... (!) in my searching, I did find a few that appealed to me. Two in particular...
https://www.minecraftskins.com/skin/12570756/princess-of-thunderhaven/
https://www.minecraftskins.com/skin/8540545/warrior-princess/
Well it's mostly just the first one (I love that dark Teal), but the second is worth mentioning because I like how the hair doesn't obstruct as much of the face/eyes and is otherwise good too. I... might be changing my skin, and to prove my earlier statements correct, I like the idea of sticking with my current one because it's self edited enough to be entirely unique. But I like those two better (again, largely like the first, but I might consider editing/mixing a bit if I decide I want more of the face shown, which I think I do). Great, now I might change it, and I totally blame you if I do, by the way.
Edit insert: A bit more searching turned out worthwhile after all. I think this may have been the original one I used as a template to edit.
Anyway...
Your post is sort of an example of what I was saying. Yes, I think we ultimately have impressions made based on skins, even if we don't "consciously treat others different" based on it. It's just how we are, and a result of living in a reality where time and physical matters are things. Our simple minds are made a way to try and form an impression fast. Just how our minds work.
Another good example/way of putting what I was saying. We don't always consciously, at a high level, "treat others different" based on such factors, but we still have initial impressions formed based on, well... anything and everything, which can include visuals (or specifically, skins in a video game).
I think as long as you don't make that opinion set in stone, then there's nothing wrong with it happening. All part of how we are and we can't change it. You should just be flexible about it and allow it to be "updated" in accordance with later interactions, and not hold an initial impression against someone.
Also, personal comment as someone who seldom played online; it's interesting to hear both of you mention the "players might be treated with caution if they have no skin" because I never would have thought of that, but it makes sense in a way. I always saw no skin sort of how you put it at the end; just a part of being a new Minecraft player.
The default eye size and simple long hair if needed seems sufficient for me, I don't understand the trends either.
Trends come and go, and many have their reasons.
The particular ones isn't too important (though I was just listing some for examples). I was mostly highlighting that the very thing this thread is asking, is something that did happen in threads here on the forums, and a lot of boiled down to "your skin qualify for trend thing #6, therefore it's bad". It was an example of how people might... well not treat others differently, but at least form opinions based on first impression, which is a often an underlying basis for that.
Well yeah derpy and saccharine skins look derpy and saccharine. You could've also picked a better one or just stuck with the default, I'd rather someone be a noob than a tryhard, etc.
Well the people who pick those things must want or like them, so that's reason enough for them to use them, no?
People shouldn't chose only all or nothing, just because some random person things they shouldn't pick anything else. People should ultimately choose what they want. People are going to, on some level, make impressions off of whatever they use anyway. And no skin will be something everyone favors. So may as well just pick something you like, others' approval be darned, right?
That's how I'd see it anyway.
I suppose that there are things that are of better taste and that is a lot of people agree, there's a reason. But I do feel bad for new people who struggle to find or make good skins. I have no idea how to do so myself and sometimes my skin resets to Steve or Alex anyway.
Until you actually talk to someone or at least observe their actions for a while, their skin is really your only insight into their personality.
So yeah, skins definitely influence how players are perceived.