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One of the most exciting aspects of people being able to come together via the internet is choosing an avatar to represent you in an online world (once you’ve managed to choose the online world you wish to inhabit that is, there are over 120 according to wikipedia at the time of writing).

My last article was on body modifications - when the body you’re modifying is made of pixels, well, I guess the modification is going to be a whole lot quicker, easier, cheaper and versatile. I was recently given a great book on this subject - Alter Ego; Avatars and their creators. It explores the identities of a few chosen characters who inhabit such metaverses - who are they, where do they live, what do they do for a living and crucially, why did they choose the online world that they did, and what drew them to their character?

The book shows a photograph of the person on one page, with their avatar on the opposite page, here is my favourite, Jason Rowe from Crosby in Texas:

From the book: “in Star Wars Galaxies I can ride an Imperial speeder bike, fight monsters, or just hang out with friends at a bar”. That’s just so cool - good work Jason (Rurouni Kenshin), maybe I’ll meet you online one day…

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 15th, 2007 at 9:56 am and is filed under Social Networking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.