Avatar, The alter ego (Proj 1)

Our first project brief told us to 1) to create a 3D avatar 2) to explore online avatars. To explore these online world environments, I will need to create a 3D avatar on one of them. An example being second life. But first a little back ground.
The Sanskrit word "Avatara" means "the descent of God". Or understood easily as "an incarnation". So, this means an avatar is just a copy of one’s self, another image of how we perceive ourselves.

A definition of Avatar:

“A digital alter ego in cyberspace, or assumed identity used in online chat environments. Some people use several avatars related to different aspects of their on line personality.”

Is this to say that avatars look and relate to aspects of an individual’s own personality and traits?

Thoughts about the concept of an avatar

Reading http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3683260.stm, it shows this may not always be the case. People who participate in online games, also known as massively multi-player online role-playing games (MMORPGs) choose different avatars to how they look and act in real life.


However here is a good example of a boy who has taken his real life attributes into the game world.


He has taken his ailment of the real world transposed it into the game world as hard metal casing.

That aside, I’m interested why people make an avatar of themselves completely different to how they really are. I think it’s because it’s an escape from reality. Something you can create which can empower you in these online domains, or give you a completely new alter ego which you have always wanted to live out and control. It gives the ultimate freedom and control over how you wish to be perceived and treated.

Something else I have noticed in my time on MMORPGs is the amount of respect and control you have over other avatars. You seem to carry some type of aura depending on how you look and how you act. Clearly since nobody can see the real person behind the avatar, they don’t know what you actually look like or how you act in certain situations. It is therefore possible to act anyway you wish.

An example of this is World of Warcraft. This game probably has the most online users at this point in time, with blizzard (the company running the game) claiming 10 million active users. I myself used to play this game, and would otherwise be using it to explore the concept of avatars, would it not be for that fact that it’s now broken on my computer :( But from what i was saying earlier, the better your avatar looks and acts, the more socially respected it will become between other players. I remember starting out at lvl 1 in the game. As I progressed to lvl 10, 20, 30 and upwards, it was a constant struggle to gain respect from other players. Once at lvl 70, the tables turn and people start to take notice of your character, start to have better conversations with other members and so on. It’s a very odd hierarchical system.

So time to research where I will be doing my online avataring!