Thursday, February 21, 2008

Avatars, Names, Bodies, and More...

I had a chance to glance through Mark Bell's blog for a bit. He has some interesting thoughts on VE and on identity. One statement he makes is that the name a person chooses as a "display name" is important to examine in relation to identity. Bell then states that some people view this as a "throw away" name. (sorry, no exact quotes and my system is too slow for me to go find it right now). We talked briefly about the importance of choosing a name you can live with for SL because it cannot be changed. Does the choice become more identifying when you know you'll be "stuck" with it.

Also, he mentions the choice of Avatar is related to the idealized version of self. Therefore, I wonder if the physical appearence of an avatar is the representation of an idealized version, then is the personality of an avatar also idealized - the way you would want your personality to be? It has interesting implications for griefers, doesn't it?

1 comment:

Donna Z Davis, Ph.D. said...

I'm obviously spending WAY too much time in SL... because I have too many stories! but... one of them that relates to your discussion was that as I (my avatar) was having a peaceful contemplative moment in a lovely garden by the beach (love that you can do that)... I noticed someone (thing) had come near. As I looked at it, still at a distance, I noticed the avatar's name was "Darkly Lurking"... and it was in the shape of a spider. I had decided that if it had begun to move any closer, I would leave. First time I experienced "fear" from an avatar, that probably could have done no harm... Found it curious. Second story was an attempt to listen in on a "spirituality" discussion this past weekend. Got there and found the presenter... of spirituality... was in the form of a very intimidating wolf figure. I couldn't listen to what he had to say, simply because I couldn't imagine the big bad wolf discussing spirituality! Perhaps he was a very spiritual wolf... I'll never know.