I interacted with “dark_ages_agent” over several games of Yahoo! Pool. He is an 18 years old male from Singapore, studying at MDIS (Management Development Institute of Singapore). He is interested in business as well as the Medieval ages. He is Asian and not a native speaker of English. He is a seasoned veteran at Yahoo! Pool and he is willing to forgo sleep in order to play it. He also plays a lot of pool with his friends. He is cool and reserved, maintaining the “dark, mysterious” sort of appearance. He is a very emotionally stable individual, rating low in terms of neuroticism. He is mostly calm and collected, showing great control and emotional reserve in various situations. Although, he was easily confused at times. At first, he is bit extraverted, showing reserve in using the chat feature. However, he gradually seemed more introverted. His style of play showed high marks for conscientiousness and low marks for openness. Throughout our time together, he showed high characteristics in agreeableness. The preceding impression of “dark_ages_agent” was formed over the course of about an hour and a half of engaging him in conversation and playing games of pool.
I discovered most of his social information by probing him for answers. He responded to my inquiries for age, sex, location without much hesitation. I revealed that I knew someone who went to school in Singapore in order to attain information regarding his school and major. From his Yahoo! Games profile, I learned that he has played 1035 games, winning 614 and losing 421, with 21 abandoned games. By checking all game statistics, I learned that he plays Yahoo! Pool exclusively. As a basis for comparison, I have played 40 games, winning 10 and losing 30. Obviously, he was not a newbie at this game. From his profile page, I was able to view his posted profile pic:
I initially formed a cool, dark personality model, on which my later observations might have been biased.
Many of my conclusions were made by analyzing his sentence structures and textual communications. I came to the conclusion that he didn't speak English at the native level through awkward use of words such as “i gt a pool clan outside which i am inside too.” At first, I spent most of my time trying to maintain active conversation with him, while he gave me concise, short answers. This led me to his extraverted appearance. I decided to give up conversation midway into the duration of my observations as a test for his response. This time he sent longer lines of communication, leading me to his more introverted rating. Throughout the game, I complained about my awful shots. He responded with lines such as “gd try.” Consequently, I rated him high for agreeableness.
The rest of my conclusions drew from his style of play and situational behavior. When I was clearing the table, with only the 8 ball left to sink, he responded with a cool “gg” and accepted his defeat. When he won, he answered in the same way. This emotional moderation during victories and defeats lead me to his low mark for neuroticism. In addition, his straightforward shots and apparent planning showed his conscientiousness in his drive towards victory and his lack of openness in his uncreative shots.
I found that I was more in line with Walther's hyperpersonal model. When he first answered “asl,” my first impression was the stereotypical, reserved Asian male teenager. In this case, my initial assessment was close. In the end, he was more social than I initially thought. That was a direct result of getting to know him more over time, as described in the developmental aspect. His choice for a profile picture is an example of selective self-presentation. He is maintaining the image of a darker personality. With respect to reallocation of cognitive resources, I felt that I gave much attention to his style of play in place of the cues in face to face interaction. As I mentioned previously, my later observations may have been affected by my initial impression. However, it might also be the case that those observations serve as a confirmation.
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