Initially I was poking around looking for the maximum reported avatars owned by a person, didn't manage to find an article regarding that, thinking back now, that is rather idiotic, as creating avatars online is not exactly a difficult task, anybody can own avatars up to hundreds, even thousands. It's more of actually assuming these identities online. I think it's quite safe to assume that if say Kelvin has 300 hundred different avatars online, it's possible, but if Kelvin's to assume 300 different identities one after another, he will either go crazy, self-induce Schizophrenia, or fail at the attempt to assume different personas.
The DITF experiment sounds appealing. MMORPGs fans if you have done it right, the marketplace's yours for the picking! Brillant way to make $$ huh? By making a big, impossible request, before coming up with a moderate one after being rejected.. However, it never seems to work out for me =(. Lack of Ethos, Pathos, Logos there?
Disappointing looks like i better pay more attention doing communications classes.
As mentioned in the article, appearance, race, gender too affects such decisions too... 'Numerous studies done in the real world show that people are more uncomfortable with minorities and are less likely to help them' Morale of the story practice gender-bending if you are a male, and go with the flow with regards to appearance, unless you've managed to create a character that's hot/appealing in cyberworld terms, not to mention carful with the skin color there, lest one is subjected to some form of racial discrimination, etc.
Thank you all for the comments and help metted out.. Hope you've enjoyed the entries I've put up for you there =)
Kelvin
Kelvin
Hey chanced upon your blog, and was fascinated by the picture. Personally I'm quite an avid gamer myself, and i feel that after awhile, appearances of the other party tend to affect me lesser and lesser, even to the extent that I'm quite capable of disregarding pleas for help. I mean if i were to help everybody I meet in game wouldn't that decrease the amount of time I have left for my hunts, rushes etc? So what you've posted could be with regards to first impressions only.
ReplyDeleteonline identities.
ReplyDeletethere are definitely tons of people with multiple online identities around. from what i see from my friends who are avid gamers(including myself), they have multiple avatars from several reasons. one of the most dominant one lies with money. for example, friends of friends that i know, create accounts for their 'clients', and power level them(speed leveling) and in turn receive money for doing so. there is especially rampant in MMORPGs.
just fyi (:
Actually creating different identities on the web is pretty fun, not that I do so, but it gives people the idea of being someone else when physically they cant. I am pretty fine with these people doing so, and it does get pretty addictive after awhile, seeing how my friend actually pays money to upgrade themselves, but then we can argue it would be a loosing business if no money was involved.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure if I am getting the last paragraph correctly, but I didn't know that people would be so concern about racial discrimination online too. Guess no matter how much people try to hide behind their computer screens, assuming different identities and all, they are in some ways still insecure.
Wow! Great image for the physical manifestation of multiple identities!
ReplyDeletePersonally, I use an online alias for myself, but I do not develop a separate identity for that alias, for I think I'm pretty much two-faced myself in real life already. :P
Anyway, I think people develop alternate identities because they are unsatisfied with who they are in real life, or at least, what they can do. So basically, it's like a form of escape for them.
As for me, I'm not saying I'm totally satisfied with my life, but it's just that I'm too lazy to handle multiple 'lives' at one time, when I'm already busy with just one!! :D
Wow, figures the first post I'd see on your blog would include 2 pictures of women. Ooo.. and look! the next post has pictures of food. Definitely the inner cavern's of kelvin's mind..
ReplyDeleteAnd we're all schizo, just to different extents. Right Charlie2?
Yup. Definitely.
Mmmmm... food..
interesting article abt mutiple identities, in real life, there are many ppl who takes on diff identity on the virtual world to "hide" from their trouble in RL, but to take on hundreds or thousands identities is just extreme, each and every identity is unique to a extent. Makes me wonder whether the other gamer or stranger i chat with is actually their true self or just a random ideal image they wish to protray.
ReplyDelete-Communicazion->It'd be quite weird to find out one day ur online mates have completely changed as they sold their accounts to their clients huh?
ReplyDelete-Anonymous-> Haha what about the nice seasoned veterans of the games that actually go around helping others level? I remembered playing this MMORPG called MU online, and there were people offering to help me level! Then again it could be the gender i was assuming too =P proving the fun article right!
-Valerie-> Guess the morale of the story's to becareful when one's creating his/her avatar huh? pay-to-play MMORPGs are actually a lucrative business as atested by WOW(world of warcraft) even to a certain extent, FFO(Final Fantasy Online), Phantasy Star Online etc. But I would like to question the people playing these games though.. What's the reason for choosing them? Are they actually paying $$ for the brandname itself? (Sorry for digressing here)
-Maverick-> Do you think it's possible for one to actually forget his/her real life whilst assuming their virtual identity/ies? Imagine how would they feel when they actually come back to reality? I guess the truth does hurt in some cases huh? I feel that one should always make do with what they actually have, and make the most out of it instead of escaping reality, and assuming their constructed identities etc.. What say you?
ReplyDelete-CharlieMoo-> Thanks for dropping by mate, =) haha do you reckon a disclaimer warning the public in general to keep away from my deep dark thought caverns would suffice? Haha clearly you're spending too much time online =P
-Mokymouse-> Perhaps a mixture of both I'd say? No matter how unhappy one's with him/herself, there's bound to be an area in which he/she perceives to be flawless, or at least their best point this point/s would at some stage manifest in their virtual-selves at some point in time. Do keep a look out for some traits of friends which are constant?
It's rather a brillant way to keep boredom away =D
perhaps the success of such virtual worlds in which one can assume any identity is largely due to two factors: the dissatisfaction of people with their current lives leading to their desires to create new identities for themselves and their desires to become the 'perfect people' that societal norms dictate.
ReplyDeleteyes i doubt that people have more than a few avatars each. after all, they probably have few variations of what they consider to be 'perfect' or 'ideal'.
interesting point regarding the racial and gender bias. I haven't actually considered that before but I guess people also practice such bias even while they're selecting their avatar and not just when they're responding to people's.
ReplyDeletealso, although the article mentions that worries may be inflated regarding interaction in virtual versus real life.. there definitely exists a substantial difference between the two.. the way you can choose to react/respond irl and virtually is vastly different. I'm not referring to the racial/gender bias, but rather when it comes to.. relating to people on a deeper level after the first impression.
hoping this makes sense :P
Well I feel that it's perfectly understandable why gender/racial bias occurs even in the virtual world. Such forms of biasness have already been ingrained into the person's life, subconsciously they just do it.. There are alot of decisions made just be using the subconscious mind, we usually term these decisions as 'instinct'. It really makes one wonder if man is a creature of instinct, or thought yea? =)
ReplyDelete