ABSTRACT Video game avatars have been understood as a key site of players’ “affective investment” in play and games. In this article, we extend this conversation to explore the avatar’s role in engaging players with gaming platforms. Through a case study of Team Fortress 2 (Valve Software, 2007) and the Steam platform, we demonstrate the avatar’s function beyond gameworlds as a tool for encouraging certain kinds of play. Team Fortress 2, we argue, is a crucial testing ground for Valve’s experiments with gaming economies via the Steam platform. By extension, we show the importance of video game avatars for encouraging affective investment in platforms more broadly, including Microsoft’s Xbox Live, PlayStation Network and even workplace dashboards.

中文翻译：

---

阿凡达经济体：从游戏到平台的情感投资

摘要 电子游戏头像已被理解为玩家在游戏和游戏中“情感投资”的关键站点。在本文中，我们扩展了这一对话，以探讨虚拟形象在吸引玩家使用游戏平台方面的作用。通过对军团要塞 2（Valve Software，2007 年）和 Steam 平台的案例研究，我们展示了虚拟形象在游戏世界之外作为鼓励某些类型游戏的工具的功能。我们认为，军团要塞 2 是 Valve 通过 Steam 平台进行游戏经济实验的重要试验场。通过扩展，我们展示了视频游戏头像在更广泛的平台上鼓励情感投资的重要性，包括微软的 Xbox Live、PlayStation Network 甚至工作场所仪表板。