Who are we when we go online? On my daily rounds to Kill Ten Rats, I stumbled this photo essay in the New York Times that answers that question by looking at the people behind their avatars in a range of online games.
From Second Life to Ever Quest II and few more in between, these photos give us a unique look at the alternate online identities we take on when we delve into the virtual worlds of mmos. Unfortunately, early into the photostream there’s the typical young, overweight male geek who spends 55 (!) hours a week in game and gives the rest of us gamers a bad name. No fault to the gamer in question, it’s just, well . . . sheesh. I guess it wouldn’t be a cliche if there wasn’t some element of truth to it.
The people I find most interesting are the young serious business dude straight out of the Matrix and the all-star basketball player who looks like he spends as much time in the gym as he does fighting crime in City of Heroes.
Whether you’re into online games or not, these photos are definitely worth a look, if you want to see the face of today’s modern gamer and the early pioneers of these synthetic worlds.
Glad to have writer friend out there. *wave* I have not been to any Canadian conferences, but if you ever come down (to sign/speak) at an American Libraries Association conference, we might run into each other.
Thanks for dropping by Zubon and thanks for the great writing on KTR. I think we’ll see a lot more gaming influences in kids books in the future. From what I’ve seen, it seems to be one of the first places that young people get to experience storytelling and the idea of being “a hero”. I’d definitely love the chance to attend or speak at an ALA conference in the future, so indeed we might run into each other.
Interesting man..wheres the dude that always plays wee-men and is a childrens writer by day?
lol – i was thinking about posting some of my avatars, but then I thought better of it. But you never know, I could change my mind . . .