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[shereads]

The theme, characteristics, or interpersonal impact of an avatar may be closely associated with one of these specific types.


narcissistic - themes of power, status, perfection, grandiosity; draws for admiration and praise; feelings of being "special" and "privileged"

schizoid - themes of interpersonal detachment and indifference, perhaps combined with evidence of abstract or intellectual thinking; little evidence of warmth and tenderness; the "loner" themes

paranoid - distrust, isolation, hypervigilance, blaming or finding fault with others; cold, humorless, argumentative characteristics

depressive - gloom, darkness, loss, low self-esteeem

manic - energtic, grandiose, impulsive

masochistic - self-destructive, themes revolving around the "bad self" or "woe is me"

obsessive/compulsive - seriouis, formal; themes of control and perfection; shows evidence of a concern about details and rules

psychopathic - antisocial, violates rules; little evidence of shame or guilt; takes advantage of others; possible superficial friendliness or charm

histrionic - attention-seeking and seductive in flavor, dramatic, emotional, vain; themes involving dependency

schizotypal - themes of being aloof, indifferent; evidence of magical thinking or superstitious beliefs; peculiar characteristics"

I don't get your meaning, McKenna.

 

[Liar]

Another realted thing.

I am an old school Internet nerd, one of those that used a usenet reader and chatted on IRC and local BBS systems before that. All text based, no cartoonish emoticons and no graphical representation of yourself on any AVs. Everyrghing you had to define your style and person was an alias name, and what you typed. I still don't think we did such a bad job back then.

The IRC chat was a particualry complex ground to tread. I was an inrequent visitor to those, and only in channels with slow traffic, since i just typed too slow back then (still do). But the semantic maze and sozial gameplay that went on in those places was quite fascinating, and actually in some places quite alien from how online communication works today.

The tools in IRC are pretty simple, and the favourite one except just plain open dialouge must had been (still is, I guess) the /me handle. You type /me to define a physical, visual action ("/me runs around screaming."), and in the chat log window it would show up as ">Liar runs around screaming.". It gace the chat channels a physical dimension, one that today is mimicked by them kids by using **, as in:

*runs around screaming*

It seems that we want to pretend that we're in a physical room all the time. But...

/me wonders if we, given that chance in a future VR meeting place, wouldn't find that limiting.

I mean, as long as we're in front of a screen of typed words, the room can be whatever our imagination makes it. On IRC, at least in the scenes that I was a part of,, certain clichés soon crystalised. The Python-inspired /me slaps Bogger around with a large trout. But as you all realise, we don't need no bloody trout present. We type it and there it is.

Ok now, this post has already strayed off it's own topic. I hope it rings a bell for some other old-skool nostalgic git at least.

#L

 

[jeanne_d_artois]

On another thread, someone posted a link and this theory about avatars and what they say psychologically about people who use them. It's interesting reading:

Link is HERE.

It seems to me to be self-justifying research. If avatars represent only the negative aspects then they must be negative.

It is like the question "When did you stop beating your wife?" - unanswerable.

Jeanne or Og or whoever I am at the moment.