Re: [-empyre-] Re:[-empyre-]:An Avatar Manifesto::final

["Melinda Rackham" <melinda@unsw.edu.au>]

j.klima:
> and 99% of the 2.5 million players *want* to be george clooney or cindy
> crawford, not a 12 legged robot.

am i a social misfit cause i  find neither of these people remotely
attractive and the thought of wandering round as a avatar of them makes me
shudder..? now where are the wierd slimy creatures ...

> i was a beta tester for everquest, which had a wide variety of
> characters, human and non, to choose from, and you had pretty good
> latitude as far as dress-up. prior to everquest, i was an avid and early
> player of ultima online, which also had its real world avatar market.  i
> power gamed a mage (the hardest character to be) for a year and got her
> to grand master (the highest skill level) before i quit. i could have
> sold her for 2k easy, she was a rare, powerful and of course beautiful
> (she wore a very sexy magic bustier) character, but i could not stand
> the idea of some high school kid from greenwhich connecticut running
> around masquerading as bix redux. so yes it would have been like selling
> my baby to the highest bidder, so i just killed her instead. hmmm.

thats a good story im putting it in my thesis..
need a new term for  avatar termination....... **avaticide**
i had a similar experience with one of my avatars "quincy" who was really
unpopular and never got picked by users.... i was going to kill him off but
i couldnt delete the file.. i had a real investment in his "existance" - so
i changed the name to "quincy-san" and as a japanese avatar he got popular
again... some  signifiers of desirability are pretty simple.. but  the
experience  convinced me the little critters do have a life or a presence of
thier own..

the real crime here is of course that Sony et al makes billions and beta
testers do it for the fun of it..