Saturday 15 March 2008

Avatar



If you met your second life Avatar in your real life, what would you say to them?

Avatars fascinate me. How do you feel about yours?
Do you see them as separate from yourself? a part of yourself? a relative, friend, child? a simple picture or a game piece/pawn.
Could you give up your Avatar? how would you feel if you did?.

I have two Avatar's (secrets out!) Wren being my main one, and another (who shall remain nameless) with whom I come online when I want some peace to explore.
Personally Wren and I are very similar and I tend to think of her pretty fondly, like a close friend. She carries parts of me in her , but I don't think she is fully me. Wren allows me to explore parts of myself that perhaps I cannot normally use. She speaks some of my words, but strangely has her own things to say also.
If I had to say goodbye to her forever, it would be very sad.

My alt is a simple game piece, a useful tool when things get too much, but I don't have an emotional connection to her, well not yet. If she had to go, it would be no great loss.

How strange to feel emotionally connected to a virtual character of my own creation. Perhaps its like a computerised piece of art. Artists put much of themselves into the work they do. They often express parts of themselves in their paintings or sculptures, and I am sure they feel sadness when some pieces have to go to new homes.
Perhaps we are all virtual artists, with our moving, speaking, interactive creations.
What do you think?

3 comments:

Camilla said...

I am my avatar. There are not two of us; we simply inhabit different worlds. Princess tends to often represent my younger more playful self. That self is not seen in RL anymore, so I am glad there is somewhere like SL for her to inhabit, and where she can share that playful self with Alphonsus once again.

Anonymous said...

I am very fond of my avatars. I see them as creations of me... each expressing parts of my personality, but as time goes by, they get a bit more independent.

If I met a ranger, I would want to ask him all sorts of questions about nature so that I could learn as much as I could. I really want to know so much more. If I met a cleric, I would want to have a philosphical discussion. If I met a little halfling, I'd probably take him to the pub and have a chat. :-)

Anonymous said...

I view my avatar as an extension of myself, for whatever we do with our avatars comes from within us and is a part of ourselves.

Like princess, I am younger and more playful in SL than RL - but the dreams and feelings and actions are very much the same.