What Lies Within

by Nyllone

 

 I bet most of us have been curious, one time or another, about the RL appearance of the avatars we encounter.  Especially if they do not have a RL pic on their profile. (Ok, I don’t have a RL pic there as well, but I used to have one out for a couple of months or so when my profile was private.) Since it’s not required to put a RL pic on our profile, we have the choice to put one out or not.  But have you thought of the possibility, as someone injected in my mind some months back, that the pic they put out there could be someone else’s instead?  ‘Hmm. Puts me to thinking… (My RL pic then was 100% mine though. :p)  But for those who do not have a RL pic to check out with, the curiosity grows as we get to know the person more. Thoughts like, do they somehow look like their RL counterparts or do they look exactly the opposite of their avatar?  Are they even playing their own gender at all?   

 

I’ve seen black-haired avatars with blonde RL alts. Caramel-toned avies but are actually Caucasians.  Well-endowed hot girl avies and hunk male avies with skinny RL alts, or vice versa.  Rationale:  Childlike fantasy. There is where we live out our fantasy. And who has the right to contest that?  I, for one, go from Starry Night Eva to Starry Night Pixie in seconds when I feel like wanting to have a RL haircut as daring as that. Wear sexy clothes I won’t be able to wear in RL at all. Or gain some weight in a jiffy, even though I am sick and have been losing a lot of weight in RL. 

I’ve seen and heard via voice chat, girl avies played by guys in RL, or vice versa.  One hilarious incident was when a “sexy girl” avatar was asked for a kiss by a new male avatar.  But when “she” talked on mic, she turned out to be a guy!  Of course, the new member couldn’t hear it, and they went on kissing anyway.  Rationale:  Clean fun.  There is just a game for them.  And they just want to have some laughs.  Who can contest that?  At some point in our There Lives, There has become our escape world, and we just wanted to have some harmless fun and good laughs as well.   

Somehow, despite how we customize our avatar’s appearance, the fact that it is somehow an extension of our selfhood is a given.  We may be projecting a different personality with our avies at the start, but as time passes by, the RL and VL just mix up and we don’t know anymore which starts where and which ends where.  It just intertwines.  It just meshes in, like two separate entities merging as one.   

Whether or not our avatar reflects our appearance in RL or not, the character of one avatar is an impression of who controls it.  Some can’t be a socializer in-world if they are kind of a loner in RL.  Some can’t be a hopeless romantic in-world if they are scared of commitment in RL.  Or a war freak griefer in-world but totally peace-loving in RL.    But of course, there is also the Jekyll and Hyde Syndrome explanation. 

But generally, we are like the soul of our avatars, breathing life into it.  And you can only pretend so much, for the real you carries you through There and beyond.

 

 

I wonder what she looked like in person… :O