Evolution of an Avatar
If you read my blog at all then you know I’m infatuated with the concept of identity as it appears in virtual worlds and especially as it appears in Second Life. I recently developed an alt avatar to explore some of these concepts. The image above (click on it to see a larger image) shows the evolution of this avatar over the span of a couple of weeks and the expenditure of a few thousand L$.
Whether it’s through the maturation of the user’s skill or the spending of larger amounts of money, avatars seem to mature in their use. You can see that the avatar was somewhat flat and without personality in the beginning but now has a more realistic skin, more personality in accessories, and more realistic hair and clothing. Each element adds to the avatar’s self-expression and thus my own self-expression (or at least the version of me present in this avatar).
Intellagirl developed the same way until she became what she is now, which is more of a walking-talking logo than a realistic version of me. Both avatars feel comfortable to me but in different ways. I suppose they express not only my business and personal selves but also differing elements of my intellectual interests and my personal interests. It’s fun and informative to play with this kind of self-expression. Try it and see what you learn about yourself. One thing I learned, no matter how hard I try to create an avatar that looks different, they always end up looking at least a little like me and somewhat similar to each other. I’m not sure what that says about me.
December 10th, 2006 at 12:27 am
In a world where anyone can look like they want, it is pretty interesting what people come up with. For example, I’m more comfortable in my penguin AV… but other people sometimes feel odd talking to a penguin, so I shift shapes to make it easier for them.
December 13th, 2006 at 2:40 am
It’s a fascinating area, and one that we are chatting about in our group at The Open University. I started in SL and quickly went about developing an avatar I liked the look of, in my case this now involves having a few outfits to swap between, but I’m currently settled on a nice smart “suited” look.
Coming from playing pretty much all the MMORPGs out there I’ve journeyed through all kinds of avatars, male and female, human, troll, bull…. the list goes on. It’s really interesting to see how other people represent themselves. I was going to say “how people you know” represent themselves, but reflecting on it most of my real-life peers represent themselves as typical humans (apart from one who loves her fluffy tail), so maybe its meeting those you don’t know, who have less hang-ups about expressing themselves in a different way, that makes for the most interesting experiences.
February 8th, 2007 at 9:12 am
How do you know if you’re getting good skin with good facial features before you spend so much hard earned L$?