The Avatar World Essay

Submitted By dsusoni
Words: 891
Pages: 4

Have you ever imagined being in a world outside of reality? The internet provides that with thousands of websites for online gaming. There is no exact number for the amount of social sites or online games that are out there. However, according to an article on Techcrunch, “217 million people worldwide play online games, and over 3 million obtain a Facebook account,” (Riley). Most of these sites were made up so users can create something bigger than themselves, and that is what they did. With all these new high technology, users are given the opportunity to create an alter ego for themselves. On Facebook, account members can form a profile. However, sometimes they don’t say who they really are. Various Facebook accounts are ‘fake’ meaning others are trying to impersonate or pretend to be someone else. Some of this is similar to online gaming avatars. Users are able to dream up their fantasy character. However, some users don’t play as themselves. In Dibbell’s “Alter Egos: Avatars and their Creators,” Choi Seang Rak describes how he plays as a girl. He stated the reason to be: “people buy more from my little girl dwarf compared to the old male dwarf I used to have” (Dibbell 55). Players often switch genders in games, in order to receive ‘special treatment’ according to their gender online. For example, girl players get more attention, because they are seemed to be more helpless. This relates to maintaining a Facebook page, because women on Facebook are also being hit on and targeted at. Having a Facebook account is like having an avatar, because in some ways, the avatars reflect the lives of some players. When people create their avatars, they put a bit of themselves into their characters. In Mrigaa Sethi’s “Facebook: Editing Myself,” she explained that an online profile is like putting a lamp on the official shrine to yourself (Sethi 62). When creating an avatar, users have the chance to make them whoever they want them to be. As Sethi described, players are able to create their avatars in a way that they become a bigger outlook. In the online gaming world, there is no limit to how far players can go, such as a boy playing as a girl or vice versa. Designing the dream character, players are able to change their faces, their clothes and shoes, and even their body shapes. On Facebook, users may be limited to what they can edit and there is no fantasy world on the site. The page includes photos, status posts, videos, and even notes. Facebook has no creativity whatsoever. Online games give players a world outside reality. Anyone who chimes in to play, have others to play with. In a fantasy world, no one judges anyone or ‘harasses’ others, unlike on Facebook. Facebook is one of the websites that has been known to contain online bullying. However, MMORPG’s give players the chance to escape the world. There are so many players out there who even wish to be inside their creative world; like in Sword Art. In an anime called Sword Art Online, the Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (VRMMORPG) game, Anicrad Online, sold out in the first ten minutes of release in the year 2022. Players went home and tried on the Nerve gear, which is a helmet that stimulates the five senses via their brain.