Avatar (computing)

Last updated

An avatar in the virtual world Second Life Style - Wouldn't It Be Nice.png
An avatar in the virtual world Second Life
A Twitter post, with the user's profile picture My first tweet! (3344952812).png
A Twitter post, with the user's profile picture

In computing, an avatar is a graphical representation of a user, the user's character, or persona. Avatars can be two-dimensional icons in Internet forums and other online communities, where they are also known as profile pictures, userpics, or formerly picons (personal icons, or possibly "picture icons"). Alternatively, an avatar can take the form of a three-dimensional model, as used in online worlds and video games, or an imaginary character with no graphical appearance, [1] as in text-based games or worlds such as MUDs.

Contents

The term avatāra ( /ˈævətɑːr,ˌævəˈtɑːr/ ) originates from Sanskrit, and was adopted by early computer games and science fiction novelists. Richard Garriott extended the term to an on-screen user representation in 1985, and the term gained wider adoption in Internet forums and MUDs. Nowadays, avatars are used in a variety of online settings including social media, virtual assistants, instant messaging platforms, and digital worlds such as World of Warcraft and Second Life . They can take the form of an image of one's real-life self, as often seen on platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn, or a virtual character that diverges from the real world. Often, these are customised to show support for different causes, or to create a unique online representation.

Academic research has focused on how avatars can influence the outcomes of communication and digital identity. Users can employ avatars with fictional characteristics to gain social acceptance or ease social interaction. However, studies have found that the majority of users choose avatars that resemble their real-world selves.

Origins

The word avatar is ultimately derived from the Sanskrit word (avatāra /ˈævətɑːr,ˌævəˈtɑːr/ ); in Hinduism, it stands for the "descent" of a deity into a terrestrial form. [2] [3] It was first used in a computer game by the 1979 PLATO role-playing game Avatar . In Norman Spinrad's novel Songs from the Stars (1980), the term avatar is used in a description of a computer generated virtual experience. In the story, humans receive messages from an alien galactic network that wishes to share knowledge and experience with other advanced civilizations through "songs". The humans build a "galactic receiver" that allows its users to engage in "artificial realities". One experience is described as such: [4]

You stand in a throng of multifleshed being, mind avatared in all its matter, on a broad avenue winding through a city of blue trees with bright red foliage and living buildings growing from the soil in a multitude of forms.

The use of the term avatar for the on-screen representation of the user was coined in 1985 by Richard Garriott for the computer game Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar . In this game, Garriott desired the player's character to be their Earth self manifested into the virtual world. Due to the ethical content of his story, Garriott wanted the real player to be responsible for their character; he thought only someone playing "themselves" could be properly judged based on their in-game actions. Because of its ethically nuanced narrative approach, he took the Hindu word associated with a deity's manifestation on earth in physical form, and applied it to a player in the game world. [5] Other early uses of the term include Lucasfilm and Chip Morningstar's 1986 online role-playing game Habitat , [6] and the 1989 pen and paper role-playing game Shadowrun .[ citation needed ]

The use of avatar to mean online virtual bodies was popularised by Neal Stephenson in his 1992 cyberpunk novel Snow Crash . [7] In Snow Crash, the term avatar was used to describe the virtual simulation of the human form in the Metaverse , a fictional virtual-reality application on the Internet. Social status within the Metaverse was often based on the quality of a user's avatar, as a highly detailed avatar showed that the user was a skilled hacker and programmer while the less talented would buy off-the-shelf models in the same manner a beginner would today. Stephenson wrote in the "Acknowledgments" to Snow Crash:

The idea of a "virtual reality" such as the Metaverse is by now widespread in the computer-graphics community and is being used in a number of different ways. The particular vision of the Metaverse as expressed in this novel originated from idle discussion between me and Jaime (Captain Bandwidth) Taaffe ... The words avatar (in the sense used here) and Metaverse are my inventions, which I came up with when I decided that existing words (such as virtual reality) were simply too awkward to use ... after the first publication of Snow Crash, I learned that the term avatar has actually been in use for a number of years as part of a virtual reality system called Habitat...in addition to avatars, Habitat includes many of the basic features of the Metaverse as described in this book. [8]

Types and usage

2016 Facebook post from Barack Obama, with his photo next to his name at the top of the post President Obama facebook post on Merrick Garland to Supreme Court (cropped).jpg
2016 Facebook post from Barack Obama, with his photo next to his name at the top of the post

An avatar can refer to a two-dimensional picture akin to an icon in Internet forums and other online communities. [9] [10] This is also known as a profile picture or userpic, or in early Internet parlance, a 'picon' (personal icon). [11] With the advent of social media platforms like Facebook, where users are not typically anonymous, these pictures often are a photo of the user in real life. [12] [13]

Alternatively, avatars can also be three-dimensional digital representations, as in games such as World of Warcraft or virtual worlds like Second Life. [14] [15] In MUDs and other early systems, they were a construct composed of text. [16] The term has been also sometimes extended to refer to the personality connected with the screen name, or handle, of an Internet user. [17]

Internet forums

Despite the widespread use of avatars, it is unknown which Internet forums were the first to use them; the earliest forums did not include avatars as a default feature, and they were included in unofficial "hacks" before eventually being made standard. Avatars on Internet forums serve the purpose of representing users and their actions, personalizing their contributions to the forum, and may represent different parts of their persona, beliefs, interests or social status in the forum.

Example of an avatar image on an internet forum Orion forum post.jpg
Example of an avatar image on an internet forum

The traditional avatar system used on most Internet forums is a small (80x80 to 100x100 pixels, for example) square-shaped area close to the user's forum post, where the avatar is placed in order for other users to easily identify who has written the post without having to read their username. Some forums allow the user to upload an avatar image that may have been designed by the user or acquired from elsewhere. Other forums allow the user to select an avatar from a preset list or use an auto-discovery algorithm to extract one from the user's homepage.

Some avatars are animated, consisting of a sequence of multiple images played repeatedly. In such animated avatars, the number of images as well as the time in which they are replayed vary considerably. [18]

Other avatar systems exist, such as on Gaia Online, WeeWorld, Frenzoo or Meez, where a pixelized representation of a person or creature is used, which can then be customized to the user's wishes. [19] There are also avatar systems (e.g. Trutoon) where a representation is created using a person's face with customized characters and backgrounds.

Another avatar-based system is one wherein an image is automatically generated based on the identity of the poster. Identicons are formed as visually distinct geometric images derived from a digest hash of the poster's IP address or user ID. These serve as a means to associate a particular user with a particular geometric representation. When used with an IP address, a particular anonymous user can be visually identified without the need for registration or authentication. If an account is compromised, a dissimilar identicon will be formed as the attacker is posting from an unfamiliar IP address. [20] [21]

Internet chat and messaging

GIF avatars were introduced as early as 1990 in the ImagiNation Network (also known as Sierra On-Line) game and chat hybrid. In 1994, Virtual Places offered VOIP capabilities which were later abandoned for lack of bandwidth. In 1996 Microsoft Comic Chat, an IRC client that used cartoon avatars for chatting, was released.

America Online introduced instant messaging for its membership in 1996 and included a limited number of "buddy icons," picking up on the avatar idea from PC games. When AOL later introduced the free version of its messenger, AIM, for use by anyone on the Internet, the number of icons offered grew to be more than 1,000 and the use of them grew exponentially, becoming a hallmark feature of instant messaging. In 2002, AOL introduced "Super Buddies," 3D animated icons that talked to users as they typed messages and read messages. The term Avatar began to replace the moniker of "buddy icon" as 3D customizable icons became known to its users from the mainstream popularity of PC Games. Yahoo's instant messenger was the first to adopt the term "avatar" for its icons. Instant messaging avatars were usually very small; AIM icons have been as small as 16×16 pixels but are used more commonly at the 48×48 pixel size, although many icons can be found online that typically measure anywhere from 50×50 pixels to 100×100 pixels in size.

More recently, services such as Discord have added avatars. With a paid subscription, users can select individual identities for different communities. [22]

Online assistants

An avatar used by an automated online assistant providing customer service on a web page Automated online assistant.png
An avatar used by an automated online assistant providing customer service on a web page

Avatars can be used as virtual embodiments of embodied agents, which are driven more or less by artificial intelligence rather than real people. Automated online assistants are examples of avatars used in this way.

Such avatars are used by organizations as a part of automated customer services in order to interact with consumers and users of services. This can avail for enterprises to reduce their operating and training cost. [23] A major underlying technology to such systems is natural language processing. [23] Some of these avatars are commonly known as "bots". Famous examples include IKEA's Anna, an avatar designed to guide users around the IKEA website.

Such avatars can also be powered by a digital conversation which provides a little more structure than those using NLP, offering the user options and clearly defined paths to an outcome. This kind of avatar is known as a Structured Language Processing or SLP Avatar.

Video games

The player character picks up a sword in the 1989 video game Prince of Persia Prince of Persia 1 - MS-DOS - Level 1 - Sword.png
The player character picks up a sword in the 1989 video game Prince of Persia

Avatars in video games are the player's representation in the game world. The first video games to include a representation of the player were Basketball (1974) which represented players as humans, [24] [25] and Maze War (1974) which represented players as eyeballs. [26]

In some games, the player's representation is fixed, however many games offer a basic character model, or template, and then allow customization of the physical features as the player sees fit. For example, Carl Johnson, the avatar from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas , can be dressed in a wide range of clothing, can be given tattoos and haircuts, and can even body build or become obese depending upon player actions. [27] One video game in which the avatar and player are two separate entities is the game Perspective , where the player controls both themself in a 3-dimensional world and the avatar in a 2-dimensional world.

Aside from an avatar's physical appearance, its dialogue, particularly in cutscenes, may also reveal something of its character. A good example is the crude, action hero stereotype, Duke Nukem. [28] Other avatars, such as Gordon Freeman from Half-Life , who never speaks at all, reveal very little of themselves (the original game never showed the player what he looked like without the use of a console command for third-person view).

Many Massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) also include customizable avatars. Customization levels differ between games; for instance, in EVE Online , players construct a wholly customized portrait, using a software that allows for several changes to facial structure as well as preset hairstyles, skin tones, etc. [18] However, these portraits appear only in in-game chats and static information view of other players. Usually, all players appear in gigantic spacecraft that give no view of their pilot, unlike in most other RPGs. Alternatively, City of Heroes offers one of the most detailed and comprehensive in-game avatar creation processes, allowing players to construct anything from traditional superheroes to aliens, medieval knights, monsters, robots, and many more. Robbie Cooper's 2007 book "Alter Ego, Avatars and their creators" pairs photographs of players of a variety of MMO's with images of their in-game avatars and profiles; recording the player's motivations and intentions in designing and using their avatars. The survey reveals wide variation in the ways in which players of MMO's use avatars. [29] Felicia Day, creator and star of The Guild web series, created a song called "(Do You Wanna Date My) Avatar" which satirizes avatars and virtual dating.

Xbox NXE avatar.png
Default Miis.jpeg
Universal animated avatars from the Xbox 360 (shown left) and Nintendo Switch (shown right)

Nintendo's Wii, 3DS and Switch consoles allow for the creation of avatars called "Miis" that take the form of stylized, cartoonish people and can be used in some games as avatars for players, as in Wii Sports . [30] [31] In some games, the ability to use a Mii as an avatar must be unlocked, such as in Mario Kart 8 . [32]

In late 2008, Microsoft released an Xbox 360 Dashboard update which featured the introduction of Avatars as part of the console's New Xbox Experience. [33] With the update installed users can personalize the look of their Avatars by choosing from a range of clothing and facial features. In October 2018, Microsoft launched a new version of their Xbox avatars for Xbox One and Xbox on Windows 10, featuring increased detail and having a focus on inclusivity. [34] PlayStation Home for Sony's PlayStation 3 console also featured the use of avatars, but with a more realistic style than Nintendo's Miis or Microsoft's Avatars. [35]

Non-gaming online worlds

Avatars in non-gaming online worlds are used as two- or three-dimensional human or fantastic representations of a person's inworld self. Such representations are a tool which facilitates the exploration of the virtual universe, or acts as a focal point in conversations with other users, and can be customized by the user. Usually, the purpose and appeal of such universes is to provide a large enhancement to common online conversation capabilities, and to allow the user to peacefully develop a portion of a non-gaming universe without being forced to strive towards a pre-defined goal. [36]

Avatars socialising in the 2003 virtual world Second Life Second Life 11th Birthday Live Drax Files Radio Hour.jpg
Avatars socialising in the 2003 virtual world Second Life

The earliest avatars of this form were text-based descriptions employed by players within MUDs. These often allowed players to express an identity disparate from their public one within an interactive environment. For instance, LambdaMOO allowed a choice of 11 different genders, which could be changed at the user's will. [14] The visually-based game Habitat also used the term to refer to players within the game world. A later example is Linden Lab's Second Life , which has the player use a custom avatar to interact in a virtual 3D world; after peaking in 2007, its user count declined due to the encroachment of more traditional platforms such as Facebook. More recently, the concept has been combined with virtual reality; VRChat allows the user to interact with other avatars in custom environments, and Mark Zuckerberg's Meta Platforms has promoted it as part of his vision of a metaverse. [37] [38]

Many modern virtual worlds provide users with advanced tools to customize their representations, allowing them to change shapes, hair, skins and also genre. Moreover, there is a secondary industry devoted to the creations of products and items for the avatars. Some companies have also launched social networks [39] and other websites for avatars such as Koinup, Myrl, and Avatars United.

Lisa Nakamura has suggested that customizable avatars in non-gaming worlds tend to be biased towards lighter skin colors and against darker skin colors, especially in those of the male gender. [40] In Second Life avatars are created by residents and take any form, and range from lifelike humans to robots, animals, plants and legendary creatures. Avatar customization is one of the most important entertainment aspects in non gaming virtual worlds, such as Second Life , IMVU, and Active Worlds. [41] Some evidence suggests that avatars that are more anthropomorphic are perceived to be less credible and likeable than images that are less anthropomorphic. [j 1] Social scientists at Stanford's Virtual Human Interaction Lab [42] examine the implications, possibilities, and transformed social interaction that occur when people interact via avatars.

Social media

Another use of the avatar has emerged with the widespread use of social media platforms. There is a practice in social media sites: uploading avatars in place of real profile image. Profile picture is a distinct graphics that represent the identity of profile holder. It is usually the portrait of an individual, logo of an organization, organizational building or distinctive character of book, cover page etc. Using avatars as profile pictures can increase users' perceived level of social presence which in turn fosters reciprocity and sharing behavior in online environments. [43] According to MIT professor Sherry Turkle: "... we think we will be presenting ourselves, but our profile ends up as somebody else – often the fantasy of who we want to be". [44]

Motion capture

Another form of use for avatars is for video chats/calls. Some services, such as Skype (through some external plugins) allow users to use talking avatars during video calls, replacing the image from the user's camera with an animated, talking avatar. [45] Through the use of facial motion capture and a webcam, an avatar can be configured to mimic the motions and expressions of the user. This can be integrated directly into games, such as Star Citizen , and via standalone software such as FaceRig. [46] [47]

Both 3D and 2D avatars have been used in Learning and Development content for education, onboarding, employee training and more. Photorealistic 3D AI avatars have been used as stand-ins for real actors via video editing tools like those made by Synthesia among others. [48]

Virtual YouTubers use animated avatars designed in software such as Live2D, which often resemble anime characters. [49] A whole ecosystem of talent agencies and investors exists to manage these online personalities, which often differ from the creator's real-life persona. [50] YouTube's 2020 Culture and Trends report highlighted VTubers as one of the notable trends of that year, with 1.5 billion views per month by October, [51] and in May 2021, Twitch added a VTuber tag for streams as part of a wider expansion of its tag system. [52]

Miscellaneous

Samsung's AR Emoji which comes on Samsung Galaxy smartphones lets users create animated avatars of themselves. [53] [54]

Cartoons and stories sometimes have a character based on their creator, either a fictionalised version (e.g. the Matt Groening character in some episodes of The Simpsons ) or an entirely fictional character (e.g. Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter series has been said [55] by J. K. Rowling to be based upon herself). Such characters are sometimes[ citation needed ] known as "author surrogates" or "author avatars".

Customisation

Early examples of customizable avatars include multi-user systems, including MUDs. [56] Gaia Online has a customizable avatar where users can dress it up as desired. [57] Users may earn credits for completing sponsored surveys or certain tasks to purchase items and upgrades to customize their avatar. [58] Linden Lab's Second Life creates a virtual world in which avatars, homes, decorations, buildings and land are for sale. [59] Less-common items may be designed to appear better than common items, and an experienced player may be identified from a group of new characters before in-game statistics are seen. [56]

Generators

To meet the demand for millions of unique, customised avatars, generator tools and services have been created. [60] Many of them, such as the website Picrew, are based around works by original artists. [61] The 2021 Electronic Entertainment Expo featured an avatar creator, to align with its new all-digital nature. [62]

Awareness avatars

Example user image with a rainbow flag across one corner Userpic with rainbow ribbon.jpg
Example user image with a rainbow flag across one corner

Some people add visual details or effects to their avatars to show support for a movement or issue, in a similar way to a physical awareness ribbon.

The awareness avatar may have first been used in the New Zealand Internet Blackout, to protest copyright law changes in New Zealand. Globally, protesters replaced their icons with black squares to show solidarity. The protest was successful and proved the method effective at both raising awareness and effecting change. Campaigns have used this method include:

Academic study

Avatars have become an area of study in the world of academics. According to psychiatrist David Brunski, the emergence of online avatars have implications for domains of scholarly research such as technoself studies, which is concerned with all aspects of identity in a technological society. [j 2] Across the literature, scholars have focused on three overlapping aspects that influence users' perceptions of the social potential of avatars: agency, anthropomorphism, and realism. [j 3] According to researchers K. L. Novak and J. Fox, researchers must differentiate perceived agency (whether an entity is perceived to be human), anthropomorphism (having human form or behavior), identomorphism [70] (how much the form of the avatar resembles the player), and realism (the perceived viability of something realistically existing). Perceived agency influences people's responses in the interaction regardless of who or what is actually controlling the representation. An earlier meta-analysis of studies comparing agents and avatars found that both agency and perceived agency mattered: representations controlled by humans were more persuasive than those controlled by bots, and representations believed to be controlled by humans were more persuasive than those believed to be controlled by bots. [j 4]

Additionally, researchers have investigated how anthropomorphic representations influence communicative outcomes and found that more human-like representations are judged more favorably; people consider them more attractive, credible, and competent. [j 5] Higher levels of anthropomorphism also lead to higher involvement, social presence, and communication satisfaction. [j 6] Moreover, people communicate more naturally with more anthropomorphic avatars. [j 7] Anthropomorphism is also tied to social influence, as more human-like representations can be more persuasive. [j 8]

For the Harvard Business Review , Paul Hemp analysed the effects of avatars on real-world business. He focuses on the game "Second Life", demonstrating that the creators of virtual avatars are willing to spend real money to purchase goods marketed solely to their virtual selves. [71] In addition, research in data collection via Second Life avatars suggested important considerations related to research participant engagement, burden, and retention, as well as accuracy of the data collected. [72]

Representation of identity

The Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication published a study of the reactions to certain types of avatars by a sample group of human users. The results showed that users commonly chose avatars which were humanoid and matched their gender. The conclusion was that in order to make users feel more "at home" in their avatars, designers should maximise the customizability of visual criteria common to humans, such as skin and hair color, age, gender, hair styles and height. [j 9] Researchers at York University studied whether avatars reflected a user's real-life personality. [73] Student test groups were able to infer upon extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism, but could not infer upon openness and conscientiousness. [73]

Researchers have also studied avatars that differ from real-life identity. Sherry Turkle described a middle-aged man who played an aggressive, confrontational female character in his online communities, displaying personality traits he was embarrassed to display in the offline world. [74] Research by Nick Yee of the Daedelus Project demonstrates that an avatar may differ considerably from a player's offline identity, based on gender. [75] However, most players will make an avatar that is (proportionately) equal to their height (or slightly taller). [75] Turkle has observed that some players seek an emotional connection they cannot establish in the real world. She described a case in which a man with a serious heart condition preventing him from ordinary socializing found acceptance and friendship through his online identity. [74] Others have pointed out similar findings in those with mental disorders making social interaction difficult, such as those with autism or similar disabilities. [76]

See also

Related Research Articles

A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game.

<i>Snow Crash</i> 1992 novel by Neal Stephenson

Snow Crash is a science fiction novel by the American writer Neal Stephenson, published in 1992. Like many of Stephenson's novels, its themes include history, linguistics, anthropology, archaeology, religion, computer science, politics, cryptography, memetics, and philosophy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virtual community</span> Social network of individuals who interact through specific social media

A virtual community is a social network of individuals who connect through specific social media, potentially crossing geographical and political boundaries in order to pursue mutual interests or goals. Some of the most pervasive virtual communities are online communities operating under social networking services.

<i>Second Life</i> Online virtual world

Second Life is a multiplayer virtual world that allows people to create an avatar for themselves and then interact with other users and user-created content within a multi-user online environment. Developed for personal computers and owned by the San Francisco-based firm Linden Lab, it launched on June 23, 2003 and saw rapid growth for some years; in 2013 it had approximately one million regular users. Growth eventually stabilized, and by the end of 2017, the active user count had fallen to "between 800,000 and 900,000". In many ways, Second Life is similar to massively multiplayer online role-playing video games; nevertheless, Linden Lab is emphatic that their creation is not a game: "There is no manufactured conflict, no set objective."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virtual world</span> Large-scale, interactive computer-simulated environment

A virtual world is a computer-simulated environment which may be populated by many simultaneous users who can create a personal avatar and independently explore the virtual world, participate in its activities, and communicate with others. These avatars can be textual, graphical representations, or live video avatars with auditory and touch sensations. Virtual worlds are closely related to mirror worlds.

<i>Furcadia</i> 1996 video game

Furcadia is a free-to-play MMOSG/MMORPG or graphical MUD, set in a fantasy world inhabited by magical creatures. The game is based on user-created content with emphasis on world building tools, exploring, socializing, and free-form roleplaying. Furcadia hosts a large volunteer program called the Beekin Helpers, allowing players to help with community moderation, welcoming new players, handling in-game technical support, running in game events, creating art for the game itself, accessing and updating the game's website, and bug hunting. Furcadia holds the Guinness World Records title for the longest continuously running social MMORPG and, in addition to being one of the first games to heavily encourage modding and let users build virtual worlds for themselves, it was also one of the first freemium online games. In 2008, Furcadia was reported as having over 60,000 players.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gaia Online</span> Anime-centered social media and forum website

Gaia Online is an English-language, anime-themed social networking and forums-based website with Chibi-style animations. It was founded as go-gaia on February 18, 2003, by Derek Liu, Long Vo, Josh Gainsbrugh, and the name was changed to GaiaOnline.com in 2004 by its owner, Gaia Interactive. Gaia originally began as an anime linklist and eventually developed a small community, but following a statement by founder Derek Liu, the website moved towards social gaming and eventually became forum-based.

<i>Habitat</i> (video game) 1986 video game by LucasArts

Habitat is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by LucasArts. It is the first attempt at a large-scale commercial virtual community that was graphic based. Initially created in 1985 by Randy Farmer, Chip Morningstar, Aric Wilmunder and Janet Hunter, the game was made available as a beta test in 1986 by Quantum Link, an online service for the Commodore 64 computer and the corporate progenitor to AOL. Both Farmer and Morningstar were given a First Penguin Award at the 2001 Game Developers Choice Awards for their innovative work on Habitat. As a graphical MUD it is considered a forerunner of modern MMORPGs unlike other online communities of the time. Habitat had a GUI and large user base of consumer-oriented users, and those elements in particular have made Habitat a much-cited project and acknowledged benchmark for the design of today's online communities that incorporate accelerated 3D computer graphics and immersive elements into their environments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Online text-based role-playing game</span> Role-playing game type

An online text-based role playing game is a role-playing game played online using a solely text-based interface. Online text-based role playing games date to 1978, with the creation of MUD1, which began the MUD heritage that culminates in today's MMORPGs. Some online-text based role playing games are video games, but some are organized and played entirely by humans through text-based communication. Over the years, games have used TELNET, internet forums, IRC, email and social networking websites as their media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metaverse</span> Collective three-dimensional virtual shared space

The metaverse is a loosely defined term referring to virtual worlds in which users represented by avatars interact, usually in 3D and focused on social and economic connection.

Internet identity (IID), also online identity, online personality, online persona or internet persona, is a social identity that an Internet user establishes in online communities and websites. It may also be an actively constructed presentation of oneself. Although some people choose to use their real names online, some Internet users prefer to be anonymous, identifying themselves by means of pseudonyms, which reveal varying amounts of personally identifiable information. An online identity may even be determined by a user's relationship to a certain social group they are a part of online. Some can be deceptive about their identity.

Virtual crime, can be described as a criminal act conducted in a virtual world -- usually massively multiplayer online role-playing games, MMORPGs. To grasp the definition of virtual crime, the modern interpretation of the term "virtual" must be assessed to portray the implications of virtual crime. In this sense, virtual crime describes those online acts that “evoke the effects of real crime” but are not widely considered to be prosecutable acts.

Social interactions in MMORPGS take the form of in-game communication, virtual behaviors, and the development of interpersonal and group relationships. In massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), cooperation between players to accomplish difficult tasks is often an integral mechanic of gameplay, and organized groups of players, often called guilds, clans, or factions, emerge. Sometimes the relationships players from within the game spill over into friendships or romantic relationships in the material world. In other instances, romantic partners and groups of material world friends find that playing together strengthens their bonds.

Technoself studies, commonly referred to as TSS, is an emerging, interdisciplinary domain of scholarly research dealing with human identity in a technological society focusing on the changing nature of relationships between the human and technology. The self is a key concept of TSS. The term "technoself", advanced by Rocci Luppicini (2013) aims to avoid ideological or philosophical biases inherent in other related terms including cyborg, posthuman, transhuman, techno-human, beman, digital identity, avatar, and homotechnicus- though Luppicini acknowledges that these categories "capture important aspects of human identity". Technoself is further elaborated and explored in Luppicini's "Handbook of Research on Technoself: Identity in a Technological Environment".

<i>AVATAR MUD</i> 1991 video game

A.V.A.T.A.R. MUD is a free, online, massively multiplayer, fantasy, text-based role-playing game, set in a real-time virtual environment. It combines elements of role-playing games, hack and slash style computer games, adventure games and social gaming.

<i>VRChat</i> Virtual reality social platform

VRChat is an online virtual world platform created by Graham Gaylor and Jesse Joudrey and operated by VRChat, Inc. The platform allows users to interact with others with user-created 3D avatars and worlds. VRChat is designed primarily for use with virtual reality headsets, being available for Microsoft Windows PCs and as a native app for Android-based headsets such as the Meta Quest, Pico 4, and HTC Vive XR Elite. It is also usable without VR in a "desktop" mode designed for either a mouse and keyboard or gamepad, and in an Android app for touchscreen devices.

<i>NeosVR</i> Virtual reality application

NeosVR is a free-to-play, massively multiplayer online, virtual reality application created by Frooxius and operated by Solirax. It was released for free on Microsoft Windows via Steam on May 4, 2018, with support for several VR headsets.

<i>Horizon Worlds</i> Virtual reality platform developed by Meta Platforms

Meta Horizon Worlds is an online virtual reality game with an integrated game creation system developed and published by Meta Platforms. On this multi-player virtual platform, players move and interact with each other in various worlds that host events, games, and social activities. They can also build and publish worlds similar to Rec Room. Horizon Worlds works on Oculus Rift S, Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest Pro and Meta Quest 3 headsets.

In the context of video games, a multiverse can refer to:

Steve (<i>Minecraft</i>) Fictional video game character

Steve is a player character from the 2011 sandbox video game Minecraft. Created by Swedish video game developer Markus "Notch" Persson and introduced in the 2009 Java-based version, Steve is the first of nine default player character skins available for players of contemporary versions of Minecraft. Steve lacks an official backstory as he is intended to be a customizable player avatar as opposed to being a predefined character. His feminine counterpart, Alex, was introduced in August 2014 for Java PC versions of Minecraft, with the other seven debuting in the Java edition of the game in October 2022. Depending on the version of Minecraft, players have a choice of defaulting to either Steve or any other variant skins when creating a new account. However, the skin is easy to change from the game itself or website. He will be portrayed by Jack Black in A Minecraft Movie, set for release in 2025.

References

  1. ↑ Salamone, Frank A. (2004). Levinson, David (ed.). Encyclopedia of Religious Rites, Rituals, and Festivals. New York: Routledge. p. 300. ISBN   0-415-94180-6.
  2. ↑ Paez, Danny (August 24, 2020). "How gaming turned a Hindu concept into the internet's most common feature". Inverse. Retrieved November 5, 2021.
  3. ↑ "avatar". Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary .
  4. ↑ Spinrad, Norman. Songs from the Stars . New York: Pocket Books, 1981. p. 218.
  5. ↑ "Coining Term "Avatar"". insights from the greatest minds in video games. Retrieved December 15, 2017.
  6. ↑ Morabito, Margaret. "Enter the Online World of LucasFilm." Run Aug. 1986: 24–28
  7. ↑ Gerhard, Michael; Moore, David; Hobbs, Dave (2004). "Embodiment and copresence in collaborative interfaces". International Journal of Human-Computer Studies. 61 (4): 453–480. doi:10.1016/j.ijhcs.2003.12.014. ISSN   1071-5819. It was first used in the context of virtual worlds in the pioneering Habitat system of the mid 1980s (Morningstar and Farmer, 1991) and popularized by Stephenson's (1992) science-fiction novel Snow Crash.
  8. ↑ Stephenson, Neal. Snow Crash. New York: Bantam, 2003 (reissue). pp. 469–70.
  9. ↑ Fink, Jeri. Cyberseduction: Reality in the Age of Psychotechnology. Prometheus Books, 1999. ISBN   1-57392-743-0
  10. ↑ Blackwood, Kevin. Casino Gambling For Dummies. For Dummies, 2006. p.284. ISBN   0-471-75286-X
  11. ↑ Kinzler, Steve. "Picons". Picons Archive. Retrieved May 24, 2014.
  12. ↑ Lee, Kevan (March 25, 2015). "What Research Says About the Best Profile Picture | Buffer". Buffer Marketing Library. Retrieved May 11, 2020.
  13. ↑ Golby, Joel (July 9, 2016). "What Your Facebook Profile Photo Says About You". Vice. Retrieved May 11, 2020.
  14. 1 2 Evans, Claire L. (September 16, 2019). "Quest of the Avatars". LA Review of Books. Retrieved November 5, 2021.
  15. ↑ Lessig, Lawrence. Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace. Basic Books, 2000. ISBN   0-465-03913-8
  16. ↑ In Mulligan, Jessica; Patrovsky, Bridgette (2003). Developing online games: an insider's guide. New Riders., Randy Farmer is quoted (p.454): "It is important to realize that the term 'avatar' was used in another game later [??] in that period (Ultima IV) and that the concept of an 'avatar' was in several works of fiction prior to the development of Habitat including Vernor Vinge's True Names and John Brunner's Shockwave Rider ."
  17. ↑ Jordan, Tim. Cyberpower: The Culture and Politics of Cyberspace and the Internet. Routledge, 1999. ISBN   0-415-17078-8
  18. 1 2 Designing Isometric Avatars
  19. ↑ "Virtual World Games Like OurWorld - Find Me Similar". May 15, 2014. Retrieved September 5, 2023.
  20. ↑ "Identicons!". August 15, 2013.
  21. ↑ Don Park. "Visual Security: 9-block IP Identification". Archived from the original on July 3, 2008.
  22. ↑ "Server Avatars - Discord Help". Discord Help. October 16, 2021. Retrieved November 5, 2021.
  23. 1 2 Implementing an online help desk system based on conversational agent Authors: Alisa Kongthon, Chatchawal Sangkeettrakarn, Sarawoot Kongyoung and Choochart Haruechaiyasak. Published by ACM 2009 Article, Bibliometrics Data Bibliometrics. Published in: Proceeding, MEDES '09 Proceedings of the International Conference on Management of Emergent Digital EcoSystems, ACM New York, NY, USA. ISBN   978-1-60558-829-2, doi : 10.1145/1643823.1643908
  24. ↑ Video Game Firsts, The Golden Age Arcade Historian (November 22, 2013)
  25. ↑ Basketball Flyer (1974), Arcade Flyer Museum
  26. ↑ Damer, B. F. Avatars! Exploring and Building Virtual Worlds on the Internet. Berkeley: Peach Pit Press, 1997.
  27. ↑ "IGN: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas". Archived from the original on June 20, 2013. Retrieved March 17, 2007.
  28. ↑ Duke Nukem 3D
  29. ↑ Maria Popova, Brain Pickings, December 14, 2011, "Alter Ego, Portraits of Gamers next to their Avatars"
  30. ↑ Zell-Briefer, Sam (June 7, 2021). "The True Origin Of Nintendo Miis May Surprise You". Looper. Retrieved November 5, 2021.
  31. ↑ Casamassina, Matt (November 13, 2006). "Wii Sports Review". IGN. Archived from the original on October 12, 2007. Retrieved January 31, 2008.
  32. ↑ Parkin, Jeffrey (May 3, 2017). "Mario Kart 8 Deluxe unlockables". Polygon. Retrieved November 5, 2021.
  33. ↑ Christian Nutt (July 22, 2008). "GameFest: Inside Avatars For The Xbox 360". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on July 26, 2008. Retrieved July 23, 2008.
  34. ↑ Warren, Tom (June 19, 2018). "Microsoft starts testing new diverse Xbox Live avatars". The Verge. Retrieved November 5, 2021.
  35. ↑ Agnello, A (April 4, 2015). "There's no longer a place like PlayStation Home". Engadget. Retrieved November 5, 2021.
  36. ↑ Damer, Bruce. Avatars: Exploring and Building Virtual Worlds on the Internet. Peachpit Press, 1997. ISBN   0-201-68840-9
  37. ↑ Brown, Abram (November 3, 2021). "What Is The Metaverse—And Why Does Mark Zuckerberg Care So Much About It?". Forbes. Retrieved November 5, 2021.
  38. ↑ Sung, Morgan (October 8, 2021). "What it's like to dance at a VR strip club". Mashable. Retrieved November 5, 2021.
  39. ↑ Sterling, Bruce (September 28, 2007). "Get a First Life". Wired .
  40. ↑ Nakamura, Lisa. Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet. Routledge, 2002. ISBN   0-415-93836-8
  41. ↑ Meadows, Mark Stephen (2008). I, Avatar: The Culture and Consequences of Having a Second Life, New Riders, ISBN   0-321-53339-9
  42. ↑ VHIL: Virtual Human Interaction Lab - Stanford University
  43. ↑ Teubner, T.; Adam, M.; Camacho S; Hassanein K. (2014). Understanding Resource Sharing in C2C Platforms: The Role of Picture Humanization (PDF). Australasian Conference on Information Systems. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 27, 2016. Retrieved March 22, 2015. Retrieved 23 March 2015.
  44. ↑ Turkle, Sherry. "Alone Together: Why we expect more from technology and less from each other" Basic Books (2011): 153.
  45. ↑ Skype Extras Archived October 24, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  46. ↑ "U.S fund invests USD 2 mln in Romanian animation software developer". Romania Insider. January 8, 2018. Retrieved September 1, 2021.
  47. ↑ "This is the easiest way to pretend to be an octopus pretending to be a human". VG247. July 1, 2014. Retrieved September 1, 2021.
  48. ↑ "Create professional videos with 140+ diverse AI avatars". October 17, 2023. Retrieved October 17, 2023.
  49. ↑ Nagata, Kazuaki (July 17, 2018). "Japan's latest big thing: 'virtual YouTubers'". The Japan Times. Retrieved December 14, 2020.
  50. ↑ Lufkin, Bryan (October 2, 2018). "The virtual vloggers taking over YouTube". BBC . Retrieved February 14, 2018.
  51. ↑ "YouTube Culture & Trends – Data and Cultural Analysis for You". YouTube Culture & Trends. December 15, 2020. Archived from the original on December 18, 2020. Retrieved December 16, 2020.
  52. ↑ Marshall, Cass (May 27, 2021). "Twitch introduces more than 350 new streamer tags, including Vtuber, transgender, queer". Polygon. Retrieved September 1, 2021.
  53. ↑ Carman, Ashley (March 26, 2018). "Everyone's making digital avatars, and none of them are great". The Verge. Retrieved October 18, 2023.
  54. ↑ "Galaxy AR Emoji SDK for Unity". Samsung Developers. Retrieved October 18, 2023.
  55. ↑ "A Good Scare". Time. October 30, 2000. Archived from the original on February 28, 2010. Retrieved December 5, 2010.
  56. 1 2 Bear, Amy (April 27, 2010). "Me, My Self, My Character, and I: Role-playing Identities in Ludic Space". Online Conference on Networks and Communities. Archived from the original on July 27, 2012. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
  57. ↑ Au, Wagner James (April 22, 2007). "Move over MySpace, Gaia Online is here". GigaOm. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
  58. ↑ Morgan, KC (March 10, 2010). "What's So Great About IMVU?". Website Marketing. Archived from the original on February 3, 2019. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
  59. ↑ Hopkins, Curt (April 28, 2010). "Second Life Economy At Record High". ReadWritePlay. SAY Media, Inc. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
  60. ↑ Pariah S. Burke, Macworld.com (September 21, 2009). "Cartoon You: Creating Easy Avatars". PC World. Archived from the original on February 21, 2010.
  61. ↑ Leishman, Rachel (May 27, 2020). "What Is This New Picrew Avatar Trend?". The Mary Sue. Retrieved November 5, 2021.
  62. ↑ Parrish, Ash (July 6, 2021). "E3 Avatar Creator: The Kotaku Review". Kotaku. Retrieved November 5, 2021.
  63. ↑ "Join the Internet Blackout - Protest Against Guilt Upon Accusation Laws in NZ — Creative Freedom Foundation (Creativefreedom.org.nz)". Archived from the original on April 29, 2009. Retrieved June 27, 2009.
  64. ↑ Menendez, Ed (June 29, 2009). "Ed Menendez Blog - Bush + Obama Debt = Slavery". Archived from the original on March 30, 2010. Retrieved November 5, 2021.
  65. ↑ Kraskin, Michael. "Going Green for Iran". Politics Daily. Archived from the original on June 20, 2009. Retrieved November 5, 2021.
  66. ↑ Sanders, Sam; Mutnick, Ally (November 21, 2015). "#MemeOfTheWeek: French Flags On Facebook". NPR. Retrieved February 1, 2022.
  67. ↑ Guynn, Jessica (April 1, 2021). "How to add 'I got my COVID vaccine' frame to your Facebook profile". USA Today. Retrieved November 5, 2021.
  68. ↑ Fiener, Lauren (May 14, 2021). "Facebook races to remove anti-vaccine profile picture frames". CNBC. Retrieved November 5, 2021.
  69. ↑ Dewey, Caitlin (June 29, 2015). "More than 26 million people have changed their Facebook picture to a rainbow flag. Here's why that matters". Washington Post. Retrieved May 11, 2020.
  70. ↑ Virk, Riz (August 18, 2022). "Threads of the Metaverse — A Comparative Framework". Medium. Retrieved August 21, 2022.
  71. ↑ Hemp, Paul. "Avatar-based marketing." Harvard Business Review 84.6 (2006): 48–57.
  72. ↑ Cook, Sarah L.; Sha, Mandy (March 15, 2016). "Technology options for engaging respondents in self-administered questionnaires and remote interviewing". RTI Press. doi: 10.3768/rtipress.2016.op.0026.1603 .
  73. 1 2 Gregoire, Carolyn (January 14, 2015). "People Can Predict Your Personality From Your Online Avatar". The Huffington Post. Retrieved January 17, 2015.
  74. 1 2 McCorduck, Pamela. "Sex, Lies and Avatars". Wired. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
  75. 1 2 Yee, Nick (February 17, 2008). "Our Virtual Bodies, Ourselves?". The Daedalus Project. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
  76. ↑ Harris, Stephen (April 23, 2010). "Working Through Personal Identity Issues Using Virtual Communities and Networks". Online Conference on Networks and Communities. Archived from the original on March 20, 2012. Retrieved December 15, 2012.

Academic sources

  1. ↑ Nowak, Kristine L. (2004). "The Influence of Anthropomorphism and Agency on Social Judgment in Virtual Environments". Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. 9 (2): n.p. doi:10.1111/j.1083-6101.2004.tb00284.x.
  2. ↑ Brunskill, David (December 2013). "Social media, social avatars and the psyche: is Facebook good for us?". Australasian Psychiatry. 21 (6): 527–532. doi:10.1177/1039856213509289. PMID   24159052. S2CID   7526092.
  3. ↑ Nowak, K. L.; Fox, J. (2018). "Avatars and Computer-Mediated Communication: A Review of the Definitions, Uses, and Effects of Digital Representations". Review of Communication Research. 6: 30–53. doi: 10.12840/issn.2255-4165.2018.06.01.015 (inactive November 2, 2024).{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of November 2024 (link)
  4. ↑ Fox, J.; Ahn, S. J.; Janssen, J. H.; Yeykelis, L.; Segovia, K. Y.; Bailenson, J. N. (2015). "Avatars versus agents: A metaanalysis quantifying the effects of agency on social influence". Human-Computer Interaction. 30 (5): 401–432. doi:10.1080/07370024.2014.921494. S2CID   21235038.
  5. ↑ Westerman, D.; Tamborini, R.; Bowman, N. D. (2015). "The effects of static avatars on impression formation across different contexts on social networking sites". Computers in Human Behavior. 53: 111–117. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2015.06.026. S2CID   43018984.
  6. ↑ Kang, S. H.; Watt, J. H. (2013). "The Impact of Avatar Realism and Anonymity on Effective Communication via Mobile Devices". Computers in Human Behavior. 29 (3): 1169–1181. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2012.10.010.
  7. ↑ Heyselaar, E.; Hagoort, P.; Segaert, K. (2017). "In dialogue with an avatar, language behavior is identical to dialogue with a human partner". Behavior Research Methods. 49 (1): 46–60. doi: 10.3758/s13428-015-0688-7 . PMC   5352801 . PMID   26676949.
  8. ↑ Gong, L (2008). "How social is social responses to computers? The function of the degree of anthropomorphism in computer representations". Computers in Human Behavior. 24 (4): 1494–1509. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2007.05.007.
  9. ↑ Nowak, K. L.; Rauh, C. (2005). "The Influence of the Avatar on Online Perceptions of Anthropomorphism, Androgyny, Credibility, Homophily, and Attraction". Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. 11 (1): 153–178. doi: 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2006.tb00308.x .

Further reading


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.