Avatars

This paper explores the animation of supernumerary avatars, what are called 'alts', in Massively Multiple Online gaming.  While all players typically have one avatar in the game world with which they identify and which they play most often, called a 'main character', they also use a variety of 'alternate characters' or 'alts' for various purposes.  When an alt is being played ‘as a main’, that is, directly controlled by the player, the alt appears to be fully vivified, an alternate identity or persona (in ‘persona-play’) or at least an ‘alternate character’ in roleplaying performances.  But when alts are used at the same time as main characters by a single player, the alt increasingly is treated as a non-persona, a silent, empty presence. The relationship of such alts to main characters are not explored in terms of  identity and performance, but instead such silent attending alts are compared metaphorically  to 'servants' or even tools.  Such alts neither speak nor are spoken to, and they are identified with kinship or ownership relations to a main character, which they are often linked to by having a rhyming name.    But more than anything else, it is the alt's movements that give its 'altness' away. The actions of an alt are often parasitic on the actions of the main character. The alt normally follows the main character, the visual effect mirrors its servant status, the alt follows behind the main character like an obedient servant.  The analytic problems such alts present are not those of performance of alternate identities, for they have no identity, they live in the shadow of the identity of the main, the problems they present are those of  their parasitic agency and control,  of animation, which foreground the non-identity between the animated object (the avatar) and the animating human player.  This paper explores the animation of alts in one online world, Ryzom, where alts are an ubiquitous ghostly absent presence and discourse about alts and animation is equally ubiquitous
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

A text about the virtual personas of Gazira Babeli, Helen Carmel Benigson, and Miri Sehgal.

We live today in a constructed world, in which human relationships have been increasingly mediatized and in which most of our knowledge of reality relies on media. In this environment, it doesn't make sense anymore to distinguish between virtual and real, and between a real person and her digital representation: they are both real, either they choose to be one or two different personas.

Bu çalışma dijital avatarların iletişimdeki rollerini iki farklı şekilde ele almaktadır. İlk bölümde avatarların kullanıcıları için ne tarz anlamlar taşıdığı tartışılmaktadır. Bu soruya yanıt vermek için Saussure ve Lacan’ın semiyotik teorileri baz alınarak yeni bir önerme getirilmiştir. Saussure’ün gösterge teorisi ile Lacan’ın özbenliğe giriş için göstergeler zinciri teorisi birleştirilerek yeni bir bakış açısı sunulmuştur. İkinci bölümde avatarların dijital iletişimde alıcılar için anlamları Berger’in belirsizlik azaltma teorisi üzerinden tartışılmıştır.

Dieser Aufsatz diskutiert die Beschaffenheit und Qualität der Lehre in virtuellen Klassenzimmern unter besonderer Berücksichtigung von Online-Identitäten. Als Fallbeispiel dient insbesondere eine Lehrveranstaltung, bei der Studierende im Industriepraktikum online supervidiert werden.

When discussing what happens when a player acts into the game world by using an avatar, many people may refer to the feeling he or she experiences as “identification”. But while identification may indeed occur during play, it's far from being the one and only type of psychological response that the player can have. Different kind of games, characters, and points of view induce different reactions in the player. This article discusses the matter, introducing the concepts of empathy, sympathy, projection, and detachment and suggesting taking them into account when examining the relationship that forms between a player and an avatar. Finally, a case study of Heavy Rain (Quantic Dream, 2010) is presented to summarize the content of the article and demonstrate how often and how easily a player can shift from one feeling to another while interacting with characters.

La  relación  entre  performance  y  redes  sociales  es  un  tema  poco  explorado,  transformándolo no solo en un espacio potente para la experimentación y la creación, sino también en un asunto a analizar desde el punto de vista teórico. Uno de los aspectos menos  discutidos  en  dicha  relación  es  el  de  las  piezas  de  performance  cuyo  registro  teatral  son  las  redes  sociales,  considerando  además  que  dichas  herramientas  pueden  expandir las perspectivas de los creadores en el área, más aún pensando en el creciente uso de ellas por parte de la población en general. Ante este panorama, el presente trabajo desarrolla  un  marco  analítico  tentativo  para  aproximarnos  a  dichas  piezas,  apoyado  en  conceptos  provenientes  de  la  cibercultura  y  de  la  teoría  literaria  como  el  avatar,  el  pacto referencial, y el pacto autobiográfico. Aplicaremos dicho marco a algunas piezas de interés, esbozando cómo pueden utilizarse esos conceptos en los ámbitos teórico y creativo.

The average Hardcore ΜΜORPG Gamer (HCG) has an equally strong feeling of two realities, that is, the in-game reality and the out-of-game reality, albeit with more effective expression of cognitive and social skills as well as with better emotional functionality when being in-game. Recent research findings about the out-of-game environment demonstrate low quality of social and I-thou relationships. Most research focuses on the psychopathological characteristics of HCGs, while their positive personality traits are rarely described. In this analytical framework, we set out to examine the main differences between the in-game and the out-of-game profile of the HCG, as well as the general HCG profile's relation to the profile of the non-Gamer (NG), focusing on the positive personality traits. The present work is in progress and further analysis is undergoing.

Durant les années 2006-2007 et 2007, Eva et Franco Mattes explorent les lieux populaires du monde virtuel multiparticipatif Second Life à la recherche des avatars les plus glamours. Ils conçoivent ainsi la série de portraits 13 Most Beautiful Avatars présentée à Ars Virtua en 2007, clin d'œil aux projets de Warhol intitulés 13 Most Beautiful Boys (1964) et 13 Most Beautiful Women (1964), qui ont vu le jour à la fameuse Factory quelque quarante années plus tôt. L'exposition des Mattes se manifeste une seconde fois deux semaines plus tard dans la salle bien réelle de la Italian Academy of Columbia University à New-York. Contrairement à ce que pourrait laisser croire l'ordre chronologique des deux événements, la salle virtuelle d'Ars Virtua a été conçue d'après celle de la Columbia University. Nous avons toutefois l'impression que l'exposition est passée de la virtualité à la tangibilité.
http://ciac.ca/documents/magazine/no_31/oeuvre4.htm

Video games allow people to assume identities through avatars, reducing the cognitive and environmental difficulties present in identity development. They also shape our perceptions of self and our sense of identity. The concept of self-identity is important in the education as it affects how students view frustration and difficulty in pursuit of complex tasks. Video games could serve as tools to enhance or repair an adolescent's self-identity through safe exploration, improving academic and/or emotional growth. Through interactions with an avatar, an adolescent can explore and develop their understanding of ideal behaviours. The avatar itself presents a unique topic in the development of serious games and identity. Current theories in pedagogy and identity, as well as research into the human-avatar relationship can better guide the development of avatars in serious games. The avatar can thus become an idealized self that an adolescent can project idealized characteristics onto in the process of creating a conversation between one's real life self and one's ideal self. Traditionally, self-identity is built through educational interventions and planned programs, but it could be possible for technology to offer new benefits in making these programs more efficient and effective in teaching a new generation of digital natives.

Helmcken Falls is a 141 m (463 ft) waterfall on the Murtle River within Wells Gray Provincial Park in British Columbia, Canada. The protection of Helmcken Falls was one of the reasons for the creation of Wells Gray Provincial Park in 1939.

-Gray/Grey- ref.note.

Helmcken Falls is the fourth highest waterfall in Canada, measured by total straight drop without a break. Higher Canadian waterfalls are Hunlen Falls in Tweedsmuir Provincial Park, Takakkaw Falls in Yoho National Park, and Della Falls in Strathcona Provincial Park, all in British Columbia.

There are six other waterfalls on the Murtle River, upstream from Helmcken Falls. The others are The Mushbowl, Dawson Falls, Majerus Falls, Horseshoe Falls, Meadow Falls and McDougall Falls.

The Canadian Pacific Railway surveyors in the 1870s passed to the north and made no mention of seeing the falls. Credit for discovering Helmcken Falls goes to Robert Henry Lee (1859–1935), a land surveyor working for the British Columbia government. In 1911, Lee was awarded a four-year contract to survey lands in the North Thompson and Clearwater Valleys. By 1913, he was working south of the Murtle River laying out lots for homesteaders. On July 24, 1913, he walked west along the Murtle River from his remote camp and reached the top of the waterfall.
He was so impressed that he wrote a letter to Sir Richard McBride, Premier of British Columbia, requesting that the falls be named "McBride Falls".
Three weeks later, Lee received a reply from the Premier stating that the waterfall was instead to be called Helmcken Falls.
This name honoured John Sebastian Helmcken, a physician with the Hudson's Bay Company who arrived in Victoria in 1850. He helped bring British Columbia into Canadian Confederation in 1871.

Dr. Helmcken died in 1920 at the age of 95, but never actually saw the falls himself.

Tianmen Mountain National Forest Park
Tianmen Mountain National Forest Park, the second national forest park in Zhangjiajie City, is located in the north western Hunan Provice of China, only 8 kilometers from the city proper of Zhangjiajie. The park is a super holiday resort integrating with miraculous geomorphologic landscapes, temples, local culture, relics of humanity, wild animals, primitive forests, and so forth.
Tianmen Mountain
Standing at 1518.6 meters, Tianmen Mountain is the first recorded mountain in the history of Hunan Province and has been revered as the "Soul of Zhangjiajie". The mountain boasts intact primitive forest, numerous rare tree species and medicinal herbs, and abundance of fauna.
Tianmen Mountain Temple
Tianmen Mountain Temple was first built in the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907) as a center of Buddhism in the area of western Hunan. The present Tianmen Mountain Temple is rebuilt on the basis of the original site with a plot area of more than 10,000㎡. It adopts an official style of the Qing Dynasty(1636 - 1912) and the buildings in the Temple compare well with the famous classical houses at home. The Temple is located in the mountain hollow with a broad vision. If one gazes into the southeast, all the hills seem to be so small that the Temple is really like an overlord.
Tianmen Cave
Tiamnen Cave, or Tianmen Gate  is the natural water-eroded cave with the highest elevation in the world. In 263 AD, the thousand-meter high cliff of Songliang Mountain suddenly broke open into a door-like cave which became a rare wonder of the world. Hence Songliang Mountain is change to Tianmen Mountain.
Tianmen Cave runs south-northward with a height of 131.5 meters, a width of 57 meters and a depth of 60 meters. It rises above the ground and nears the sky with a lofty and towering posture. The shadow of it reaches the north of the vast sea, the clouds over it near the south of the handle of the Dipper. It's much like a gate towards the heaven. The wonder attracted the visits and appreciations by emperors, officials, sages, hermits, dignitaries and men of letters of different dynasties. After the accumulation over the dynasties, the unique profound Culture of Heaven is built up.
Garden in the Air
Tianmen Mountain is an integrated synclinal geological unit which has the landform of middle-mountain karst platform with peak groups and canyons. The top of Tianmen Mountain is a cliff sight of karst platform. The karst hillocks and karrens spread wildly to form wonders of stone forests in the air. Moreover, with moss spreading all over the ground, wild vines twining and twisting, what come into sight are natural bonsais like grand gardens which were as if created by the immortals.

This paper will discuss two student projects, which were developed during a hybrid course between art/design and computer sciences at Sabanci University; both of which involve the creation of three dimensionally embodied avatars whose visual attributes are determined by data feeds from “Real Life” sources.

In 1999 Frank Biocca's asked several questions on how the representation of the body in virtual environments might affect the mind states of avatar handlers: The effects of embodiment on the sensation of physical presence, social presence, and self-presence in virtual environments; and the effects of avatar representation on body image and body schema distortions. Today, with the wide spread usage of three dimensional online virtual worlds and the extended abilities to manipulate the visual representations of the inner persona, Biocca’s questions would appear to have acquired even greater urgency. While such efforts usually seem to be expected to work towards the concealment of identity and/or inner states of being; can a second approach, one involving revelations of the inner ‘self’ that may in fact go beyond what is available to our physical bodies also be contemplated? Can such ‘revelations’ bring about change, both in terms of human interaction but also in terms of self-perception?

Following up from Biocca's seminal text, The Cyborg’s Dilemma (Biocca, 1999), this paper will describe the creative and technological processes which went into the materialization of these two avatars.

A falta de sociabilidade e calor humano das plataformas de venda na Internet tem sido apontada como um dos principais entraves à sua adoção generalizada. Vários estudos demonstram que a introdução de estímulos sociais aumenta a confiança apercebida e a credibilidade das lojas online. Estes fatores têm um impacto determinante na adoção de comportamentos de compra e fidelização por parte dos consumidores. Esta dissertação aborda o tema da introdução de avatares como estímulos de sociabilidade e calor humano em sítios de comércio eletrónico e as suas implicações para o marketing digital. Simultaneamente tenta levantar perspetivas de aproveitamento do enorme manancial de conhecimento sobre relacionamento personalizado com os clientes que as empresas de comércio tradicional possuem e aplicá-lo a esta tecnologia. A combinação da tecnologia de avatares com a expertise destas empresas, aplicada numa loja online, pode tornar-se numa vantagem competitiva para elas. Levamos a efeito uma experiência online onde três grupos independentes de sujeitos foram expostos, cada um, a uma loja eletrónica correspondente a um nível de sociabilidade distinto: loja com texto e imagem apenas, loja com Avatar naturalista e loja com Avatar foto-realista. Este estudo empírico permite-nos concluir que a introdução de avatares, em particular os fotorealistas, em sítios de comércio eletrónico tem efeitos positivos nas perceções de sociabilidade e calor humano, tal como na confiança para com o comerciante e na credibilidade da loja online.

The lack of sociability and warmth of human interaction on the Internet sales platforms has been pointed out has one of the main obstacles to its widespread adoption. Several studies have shown that the inclusion of social stimuli increases the perceived trust and credibility of online stores. These factors have a decisive impact on the adoption of purchase behaviors and consumer loyalty. This dissertation addresses the theme of the introduction of avatars as stimuli of sociability and human warmth in sites of electronic commerce and its implications for digital marketing. Simultaneously it attempts to rise new perspectives on how traditional commerce can use the immense knowledge on personalized relationship it already possess, and on how to apply it to this technology. The combination of avatar technology and these companies’ expertise, applied to an online store, can definitely become a competitive advantage to them. The empirical study carried out consisted of an experiment performed online, where three independent groups of subjects were exposed each to one of three electronic stores corresponding to three distinct levels of sociability: images and text only online shop, online shop with naturalistic avatar and online shop with photo-realistic avatar. The study allows us to conclude that the inclusion of avatars, in particular the photo-realistic avatars, in sites of electronic commerce has positive effects on the perceptions of sociability and human warmth, such as in the trust towards the merchant and in the credibility of the online store.

We investigate how the Proteus effect, which is players changing their way of communication based on characters with which they play, is associated with players' champion usage in the popular online game League of Legends, where champions are the characters that the players control. First, we create two sets of variables: (a) objective champion characteristics based on information from the game developer, which we further enrich by semiotic coding, and (b) subjective champion characteristics based on crowdsourced opinions about the champions. Then, we analyze 13.6 million in-game chat messages to measure whether the players' vocality (character counts of messages), valence (negative versus positive scores of language use), and toxicity (frequency of toxic word usage) change depending on the characteristics of the champions they employ. We find that champions' body type, role, and gender are associated with players' higher vocality, toxicity, and negative valence. We also find that the players' communication significantly changes in toxicity and valence when they play using different champions. We discuss our methodology and results in detail and propose design directions and other implications based on them.

This essay studies the covert, market driven forces at work in our choices of images for the avatars inhabiting cyberspace, in order to understand the dangers of the exchange of self-images for advertisements. To forge a set of alternative resistant and forceful conditions for imaging what SherryTurkle has termed "the second self," tactics based in imaging, language, and psychology can be opposed to the insidious and covert co-optation of the self by commodities. This essay is an attempt to examine the construction of alternative figures as models of resistance. The Manifesto for Avatars offers a formal set of oppositional strategies for constructing unconsumable self-images. The apparent freedom of identity and gender enjoyed by the participants in multi-user domains and the Internet in general (Langley, Stone) is a dangerous illusion, masking the corporate agendas dominating the nature and spirit of the construction of cyberspace and avatars. Imagine an internet chat room wherew e are all represented by the commodity of our choice. Much like the large, recognizable logos that corporeal jackets, sneakers, tee-shirts, and hats model, in this virtual environment our veryr epresentation, our self image, becomes an emblem of the production and accumulation of goods. The irony in the physical world is that we choose to wear these commodities and we willingly pay multi-national corporations for the privilege of advertising their products. Through this transaction we express personal fantasies, achieve a fleeting sense of democracy and individual expression, and fulfill various levels of desire.

Originally published in 2008, this book documents the life and work of Gazira Babeli, the avatar artist active in Second Life between 2006 and 2010. In about 4 years, Gazira Babeli has created a vast body of works which address the world she lives in, and which have lent her such a solid, recognizable image that she has become a household name in Second Life. She acts like a virus, unleashing earthquakes, tornados and storms of images, deforming the bodies of other residents and constructing metaphorical machines; a capricious deity, she herself is a work of art, a “constructed identity" which ably generates its own legends.

This monographic publication tells her story, and presents and analyzes the most significant areas of her work, with contributions from writers such as Mario Gerosa and Domenico Quaranta, and Americans Patrick Lichty and Alan Sondheim.

In this blog post, I attempt to define the feelings that impress binary gender expectations in place with the concept of hetero-comfortability from my ongoing ethnographic work in VRChat. Hetero-comfortability is a process of recognition, where feelings of familiarity — historically established through hetero-conditioning — create impressions that allow one to find comfort in the continuing appearance of hetero-signifiers. As Sara Ahmed (2004b) notes, “To follow the rules of heterosexuality is to be at ease in a world that reflects back the couple form one inhabits as an ideal.”

ground<c> is a metaverse environment for art education, inspired by 'The Groundcourse'; Roy Ascott's educational methodology developed during the 1960's; the aim of which was to shake up preconceptions and behavioral patterns through exercises, games, role-play and the implementation of educational 'irritants', in accordance with constructivist theories and Cybernetics. However, ground<c> will also incorporate novel educational theory as well as the findings of cyber psychology into its methodology. The design of an experimental architecture of both changeable/unpredictable components; as well as static spaces designated for gathering and learning, is a crucial component of the author's research. A description of the design process, a visual documentation of all design phases, currently under way in 'Second Life', alongside a description of educational precedents and methodology will constitute the content of this paper.

One of the tropes of these early years of the twenty-first century is that of the avatar, a virtual representation of a human being used for entertainment , educational, technical, or scientific purposes. The avatar is a product of digital culture, but its origins are coeval with those of the human being and its evolution is affected by material conditions and the level of technology currently achieved by a given society. The origin of the word " avatar " has a spiritual connotation: It was associated with Hinduism and used to describe a deity who took a terrestrial form. More generally, however, whether in terms of religion or computing, we could define the avatar as a surrogate, a body—real or virtual—that replaces another. The origins of the avatar in Western societies date back to the modern era, which was founded on mechanical technology and marked by the birth of urban culture. At that time, between the nineteenth and early twentieth century, a typical surrogate for the human body was the mannequin. Mannequins were displayed in shopping windows, bearers of fashion trends and styles. They later became a symbol of conformity that reached a peak under totalitarian governments, embodying those values of efficiency that put the human body on the same level as machines, both the machine of industrial production and the war machine. As a substitute, the mannequin in society played a purely functional role, taking the place of the human body in activities that the human being, out of dignity or resistance, wouldn't perform. These included mannequins used for commercial purposes as well as those later used for testing in the automotive industry and military engineering. Other mannequins, meanwhile, had a completely different fate: They became the subject of photographs and paintings, employed as cultural artifacts, fetishes or symbols of a mass culture that artists were either fascinated by or wanted to criticize.

This study examined the influence of gender, the Big 5 personality factors, and self-esteem on virtual self-representation in the form of avatar-self discrepancy. To examine this, participants designed characters to play in a video game, spent 20 min playing the video game, and then had their actual pictures taken. Our results indicated that, consistent with predictions, men and women generally selected self-representations consistent with ideal male and female bodies. This finding was pronounced for men and women high in agreeableness. Conversely, some results contradicted the normative prescriptions often associated with self-presentation. For instance, men did not build taller avatars than did women. Men who were high in openness to new experiences were more likely to select avatars with skin tone variations. Introverts – both male and female – and women high in neuroticism were more likely to build attractive avatars. Moreover, those with low self-esteem were more likely to select lighter skin tones than those with high self-esteem. Thus, the effects of gender and personality have considerable implications for online self-presentation and self-representation.► We examined the influence of gender, personality, and self-esteem on avatar creation. ► Men and women created avatars consistent with ideal male and female bodies. ► However, men did not create avatars that were taller compared to women. ► Introverts, male and female, and neurotic women selected more attractive avatars. ► Participants with low self-esteem picked avatars with lighter skin tones.

There is a predominance for cute characters among Japanese virtual YouTubers (VTubers). Men who publicly use feminine avatars to conduct online entertainment are called babiniku in Japan. This research paper investigates whether embodying cute avatars impacts males' perception of self. Examining the process leading some online performers to turn into outwardly feminine characters, we address the reasons why babiniku reproduce gender stereotypes. Our presumption is that such role-play is part of a strategy with purposes yet to be deciphered. We deployed quantitative and qualitative methods, such as survey and semi structured interviews, to collect first-hand testimonies from 24 babiniku participants. This article contributes to an existing literature about digital gender swapping with avatars and Japanese cross-dressing from an anthropological perspective. As stressed by the babiniku who took part in this research, digital cross-dressing enables them to create a world where they can indulge in fancy and fantasy. All together with their fans, babiniku build a notion of femininity that allows users to act and live outside of societal pressures.

Creating convincing representations of humans is a fundamental problem in both traditional arts and modern media. In our digital world, virtual avatars allow us to simulate and render the human body for a variety of applications, including movie production, sports, human-computer interaction, and medical sciences. However, capturing digital representations of a person’s shape, appearance, and motion is an expensive and time-consuming process which usually requires a lot of manual adjustments.

This paper reviews literature in virtual environments, virtual reality and game studies that discuss ‘virtual embodiment’. What embodiment signifies is not often made explicit. A phenomenological analysis was employed to examine themes of virtual embodiment and describe its essence. Technology allows us to use our bodies to access virtual environments. At the same time, software connects us with another body, an avatar. We use virtual embodiment to interact in various virtual environments, present ourselves, and have real experiences that affect our identity, view of the world and real-world skills. Indications of these findings are explored for research and development.