Alter Ego: Avatars and their creators

This book was especially fun to read because my friend was heading off to the NY Comic-Con this week, so I felt like spirit of this book was there. We talked about whether or not we would create our own avatar. And both of us agreed that we probably would not, but that leads into a discussion about all the friends that we have that have multiple and what that means to us. Both us agreed that part of the beauty of the Internet is that is the one place where everyone starts on an even playing field. When a person is on the Internet they are not defined by sex, race, age, size, sexual preference, or anything. People can be whomever they choose or nothing at all and that is the same for every person when they first log on. There is not a different log-on for people who are less than 5 feet tall and have red hair. And if I wanted to be that when I went online no one would ever be the wiser unless I wanted him or her to know. We also talked about the international and familial aspects of being an avatar. People are playing and communicating with each other from all over the world and making connections with people they may never had the want or means to do.

Both us found it fascinating to look at the professions and ages of the people in this book and then to see what their avatars were. We had a couple personal favorites like Cassien Guir/ La Blonde. My friend thought he was perfect example of what was so great about the Internet and being able to be whomever you choose without public or private repercussions. No one would ever have to know that Cassien was a man. I thought it was really brave of these gamers to expose themselves in this book. Now, anyone who reads it could know who they are and they could face all of the issues that having an avatar can save them from.

This would be a great book for teens if you could get them to read it. My concern would be that only teens interested in gaming would think about picking up this book and checking it out. Also, I don’t know if non-gamers would be able to read it without judging and thinking that gaming is only for geeks as many of them do. I would like to think that it would open their eyes and show them that gaming is for more than just nerds or geeks.