Identity is Everything

There is a reason I have saved my identity blog for last of the mandatory entries. The reason is simple: Identity is Everything. Not just in real world, but also in cyber worlds.

• Identity is everything about a person:
  Gender
  Profession
  o Sexuality
  o Beliefs and Values
  o Religion
  o Race
  o Ethnicity
  o Physical Appearance: short, tall, skinny, fat, genetic attributes
  o Education
  o Skills and Handicaps/Weaknesses
  o Friends & Family
  
  

In a cyber world a person’s and I do say person since there have to be a person behind the creation of an avatar’s identity, any way back on topic. At the heart of all virtual avatar identities are the games they are played in. Before a player even begins to think about their avatar, they first have to choose a game or a world they want to play in.

• An avatar’s identity is a culmination of the player’s choices about:
  • Game being Played
  • Gender
  • Physical Appearance/ Genetic Attributes
  • Race
  • Skills, Talents and Weaknesses
  • Avatar’s Name
  • Language
  • Sexuality
  • Avatar Isolation
  Do you have to play as an individual or as part of a group
  

All of these factors and choices a player has to make about their avatar build and create their avatar’s identity.

The game the player chooses is the single most important factor in an avatar’s identity. Different virtual worlds offer different experiences for players. Pixie Hollow/Disney Fairies gives players a very positive, bright, colorful fantasy world. Barbie World lets girls all of ages be what they have always wanted to be on some level, a Barbie doll. Players shop, shop, shop ‘till they drop and live in a world of pink and pink accessories. Second Life offers a no holds bar do whatever you want, be whoever you want, good or bad experience to its players. World of Warcraft gives its players a fantasy mystical world, full of creatures, monsters and quests of slaying and raising mayhem. World of Warcraft also encourages the formation of guilds and out of game player interactions.

Cyber identities can influence and reshape “real world” identities. The way a person approaches and experiences a virtual world sometimes goes out of world. Even things said and experienced within a game can impact a player. Players develop relationships with other players that they do not want to depend on a game to maintain, so they exchange personal information and have real world relationships. As these real world relationships develop, a person’s beliefs, values, sexuality among other things can change or develop based on communication within the new relationship.

Playing Disney Fairies/Pixie Hollow as a man has led me to question some things about myself. I did know/expect that to happen, but it did. So a player’s avatar can change a person’s identity.

If a person is questioning or uncertain about who they are or want to be, the internet and virtual worlds are a perfect place for them to find themselves.

Question: If you could make the real world into any virtual world for one day, which world would you choose? Why this world?