Avatar (virtual reality)

Among people working on virtual reality and cyberspace interfaces, an avatar (sometimes AV or av) is an icon or representation of a user in a shared virtual reality. The term is sometimes used on MUDs, in computer role-playing games, and shared non-gaming universes such as There, Second Life, The Palace, and The Manor.

This definition has recently been applied to online virtual communities and Internet forums in particular, as a picture that a member/user of such a community/forum has elected to display alongside his or her contributions in order to represent him or herself. Avatars have also become popular in Instant Messaging, and are sometimes referred to as Buddy Icons By Instant Messenger users.

Contents

1 Origin 2 Avatars in Forums 3 Avatars in Games 4 Avatars in Instant Messaging 5 Avatars in Non-Gaming Universes 6 Virtual model 7 See also 8 External links

Origin

The term "Avatar" was first coined by the designers of the role-playing game Shadowrun, the online role-playing game Habitat and was popularised by Neal Stephenson in his cyberpunk novel Snow Crash, where it was used to describe the virtual simulation of the human form in the Metaverse, a virtual reality version of 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.

Avatars in Forums

Due to the now frequent use of avatars on Internet forums, it is currently unknown as to which Internet forum was the first to use such an avatar representation system. All avatars used on Internet forums serve the purpose of representing a user and his/her actions, personalizing their additions to the forum, and may represent different parts of their persona or social status in the forum. The traditional avatar system used on most Internet forums is a small square shaped area close to the user's forum post, where the avatar is placed. Such an avatar system is varied as to how a style of avatars may be used. One type of such an avatar system is where the user designs their own avatar on their personal computer before uploading it to the forum for use. With the release of this system has come many avatar providing websites where you may choose a pre-prepared avatar to upload to that forum. Other forums may allow the user to select an avatar that has already been created by the webmaster(s) of the forum or website of which the forum has been connected to. While such avatar options are available to all members of the forum involved, some forums using this system allow the user to use more exclusive avatars by performing a specific action, usually conducted on the website that the forum is connected to. Other avatar systems exist in different styles of forums, such as using a pixelized representation of a person or creature that can then be customized to the user's wishes. However, some forums have not yet adopted an avatar system, and continue to use merely the user's chosen public name to represent them.

Avatars in Games

Typically referring to a user's character in a MUD, MMORPG, or other game, such an avatar can be enhanced or changed as various events or experience is gained. Such a character will often frequently change over time, whether in appearance or abilities, and can usually be customized by the user upon entering the chosen game for the first time.

Avatars in Instant Messaging

AOL Instant Messenger was the first popular Instant Messaging program to use avatars, picking up on the idea from PC Games. However, AOLIM (and many IM Users) commonly refer to avatars as Buddy Icons. Today, many popular instant messaging programs use Avatars, including MSN Messenger and Yahoo Messenger.

Avatars in Non-Gaming Universes

Avatars in Non-Gaming Universes are used as two-dimensional or three-dimensional human or fantastic representations of a person's self. Such representations can explore the virtual universe with which they are in using their avatar, add to it, or conduct conversations with other users, and can be customized by the user. Usually, the purpose and appeal of such Non-Gaming 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.

The criteria avatars in non-gaming universes have to fulfill, in order to become useful, can depend to a great extent on, for example, the age of potential users. Research suggests that younger users of virtual communities put great emphasis on fun and entertainment aspects of avatars, as well as on their practical functionalities (e.g. whispering). Younger users are furthermore interested in the simple ease of use of avatars, and their ability to retain the user’s anonymity. Meanwhile, older users pay great importance to an avatar’s ability to reflect their own appearance, identity and personality. Additionally, the majority of older users want to be able to make use of an avatar’s expressive functionalities (e.g. showing emotions), while being prepared to learn new methods of navigation, in order to handle the use of more complex avatars.

Avatar-based non-gaming universes are usually populated by those age groups, whose requirements concerning avatars are fulfilled. The majority of users of Habbo Hotel, for example, are of the age of 10 to 15. The reason for this might well be found in the properties and functionalities provided by the avatars of this virtual community. In contrast, There has a target audience ranging from the age of 22 to 49. The avatars incorporated into this immersive environment allow for a wide range of social interactions, including the expression of emotions. Another example is The Palace, where the majority of users seem to belong to an older age group. Here, users have the option to use their own images as avatars. This functionality turns the avatar into a direct reflection of their real-life appearance, a feature most desired by members of older age groups. Again, the population of the non-gaming universe seems to be largely determined by the properties and functionalities of its avatars.

Virtual model

Digital fashion models have been promoted, using the latest in Computer-generated imagery, but these are usually not avatars, since their creators and/or the operators of Motion capture systems which are often used to make them move are kept in the background or ignored, as if the model had its own invented personality.

Many digital models using simpler Computer-generated imagery techniques are used in Web commerce to model fashion corresponding to a user's body shape, size and look or to give an idea of the results of exercise and diet. They are relatively static but fully interactive avatars of their users.

Large U.S. retailers such as L.L. Bean and Sears use virtual models as a way to have their customers "try" their clothing in their digital stores. An international company such as Lands' End uses virtual models on its British, Japanese and German sites as well as its U.S. one.

See also

• Favatars
• NotesBuddy
• Picons
• Vismon
• Display picture
• Buddy Icons

External links

• jill/txt digital avatars
• First print reference to this usage of Avatar