abstract

            Abstract draft:

How does having an online avatar affect ones personality in their first life?  The article ''Alter Egos in a Virtual World'' describes how people, more and more, are now experiencing online role-playing. They do this by playing online games in which they make and avatar to be one's digital self. Ketzel Levine (author of the article ''Alter Egos in a Virtual World'') traveled the world and interviewed all kinds of people that are into this type of entertainment.   

For those of us who are involved in this type of online gaming, "The online world offers participants new freedoms - a chance to act away from the constraints of the real world. Avatars can walk, talk and shop but they can also fly, kill, and be re-born" (Cooper). People often create avatars to break away from the norm of the real world. "But stay in costume long enough -- whether a general in a Civil War re-enactment, or a wench at a Renaissance fair -- and the lines may blur between who you are and who you're pretending to be" (Levine). Whether good or bad, pretending to be someone else does affect your self-regard. The people included in this paper (along with many others all over the world) all have experienced some sort of change to their personality because of the time spent with online role playing.