Alter-egos, and where to set them free...

It's a funny place, the web.

Many of us spend an awful lot of time on here. It's a community in the real sense of the word and while here, we make friends with the people we meet, often real friends who, when the chips are down and we're in need of someone there for us, often turn out to be true friends: as true as any we might meet face to face.

But even though we may often learn a lot about the characters and personalities of those that start out as 'virtual' friends, it's rarer that we find out exactly who they are. Whether we display a picture of ourself all over the web, or represent ourself with an alternative image, badge or avatar, is more down to our own confidence in ourselves or our need for some level of privacy, rather than any desire for us to deceive people.

On places like Facebook, we may display the most embarrassing pictures of ourselves, but when we do, that's less due to our desire to share those images with the world, and more because we know someone else in possession of the same pictures will probably publicise them if we don't. (Sometimes you just can't trust real friends!)

On twitter, we tend to get into the habit of relating people with a particular image, whether it be realistic or representative. Our friends and followers get used to seeing that image and relating it to us. It doesn't always seem like a good idea to change it, well not permanently at least. Try changing it temporarily, then see how many people congratulate you when you change it back again after a while.

Of course there are other places apart from social networking sites, where we have a 'presence'. There are blogs, but these are more concerned with what we have to say, rather than what we look like. In fact it's not unusual for people to reproduce the images from their Facebook or Twitter identities on their blog, or indeed to have no image present at all. (This blog is an example of that: seven of us, contributing so far, and none of us willing to put a face to the name.)

There are various interactive games on the internet, and I've been involved with one or two of them from time to time. Now you may have the opportunity to set up an image for yourself or an avatar to represent you in any computer game, though it doesn't carry the same importance when you're just playing alone in an offline game.

With interactive games, the image we show other players becomes more important: it's how people recognise us and becomes just as important as it is in social networking, if not more so. Within a game, you're not being yourself, so by definition the image you assign to yourself is likely to be more characteristic of who you are in the game specifically, rather than the real life you.

Lardy Doboy, my Second Life avatar

I don't play Second Life any more, but I did for quite a while from around autumn 2006, and it's come a long way since then. People will often tell you that you can make a fortune in Second Life, and I'm certain that some people have done, but most people don't. It's free to download and to play SL, though it can end up costing you real cash to play, since the opportunity to buy 'lindens' (the in-game currency) is there, and the opportunity to spend them within the game is always there.

One of the ways people make money is by offering upgrades to the standard issue avatar in the form of more realistic body shapes, skins, hair, clothes, add-on body parts (use your imagination,) etc. If you know where to look, you can obtain most of these for free and often of a quality approaching those you'd have to pay for. I upgraded my avatar, as did most of the people I knew, and I ended up with an avatar I was happy with.

Calypso Crystal,
one of my wife's Second Life avatars 

There's a lot more scope for female avatars, and you'll often find that women players get into that aspect of the game to a greater extent. (One of my acquaintances on there even used to describe her experiences there as 'dressing up dollies'.) Many people have numerous different avatars, (so you have to be careful what you say about someone, since you may just be speaking to them in one of their other guises.) My wife had a number of different characters on Second Life in the days when we played, some better than others, but all of much better quality than those you're issued with to begin with.

Second Life doesn't describe itself as a game; it calls itself a 'user created 3D, virtual world community' and that's as good a description as any, because it isn't really a game, in as much as there's no playing objective, and virtually no rules.

Incidentally, though I didn't make a fortune in my Second Life days, I did actually make a small profit. I 'bought' virtual land and built virtual residences on it, charging other players rent to 'live in them'. When I finally sold up and cashed in my lindens for hard cash, my return was slightly more than I'd spent in the game over the time I'd played. If you'd like to give Second Life a try, or would just like to take a look at what it's all about, you can follow the link here to The Second Life Website. I still know many of the places where free stuff is available, and became a dab hand at adjusting body shapes etc. If you get involved in SL at some point, I might be able to help you out a little.

Fray Bentos, Tauren hunter in World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft is a different matter altogether. This is a role playing fantasy game, technically a MMORPG (massive multimedia online role playing game) where objectives are defined, quests are available and a fixed progression is there for players to follow. It's big, and I mean REALLY big, and though some of the quests can become monotonous, there's always the opportunity to 'do your own thing', to wander the world according to your own agenda, forming alliances with friends and vendettas with enemies. Your character can be created to be a member of a number of races, with a number of character types. When I played WoW I controlled  various characters; my main one was Fray Bentos, a hunter of the Tauren race.

"Cuddles"

There are opportunities to branch out from your character in WoW too, since certain character types can also have companions. As a hunter, Fray Bentos had two companions: Cuddles (his gorilla) and Snagglepuss (his mountain lion) who provided aid in hunting and  an extra bit of help during battles.

One occasional problem that people might find with World of Warcraft is the incredibly long time that the game itself takes to download, as does every system update that comes along. You can buy the software on disk from your local games shop, but this is rarely up to date, so if you do, be prepared to put up with hours of upgrade downloads as soon as you've installed it.

"Snagglepuss"

Of course, the biggest drawback with World of Warcraft is the expense of playing. The original software isn't cheap, and then on top of that there's a monthly fee to be paid for as long as you play. It was the expense that finally put paid to me playing, but I still have my account, the software is still installed on my computer, and maybe one day when finances allow, I'll go back online and see how Fray Bentos and all my other characters are getting on.

For those of you who may want to give it a try, there's a 10 day free trial available at various sites on the internet, one of which being here: World of Warcraft

Angit Shennby, Elven warden in Runes of Magic

As an alternative to WoW, there are various free to play role playing games on the web; some of them require you to buy the software first, but with no additonal playing costs. Some are totally free, with the software being downloadable, and the best of these (and closest in format to World of Warcraft, for any skint ex-WoW players,) is Runes of Magic. This follows a similar style to WoW though the quests are simpler, the world involved is a little less vast, and there are only two races to choose from (Humans and Elves.) That said, it's a very good implementation considering it's 100% free.

The graphic interface often struggles with older computers or with those with limited graphic capabilities, but it still runs, even if you have to reset screen size or resolution every so often. Again, there's no limit to the number of characters you can control, though interaction with other players is a little more difficult if you're an English speaker. The game itself has various language options including English, though none of the servers are located in the UK, and most of the players you'll meet are foreign, usually German speaking.

My main character in RoM is Angit Shennby, an Elven warden, who was progressing nicely, the last time I played. To be honest, the lack of people to converse with was what put me off my gaming a little, since to me, interaction is an important part of the game. I haven't played for a while, but may return eventually.

If you want to try out Runes of Magic, start by downloading it here: Runes of Magic. My characters are in the Riocht universe (Riocht 1 or Riocht 2 servers,) as Angitshennby, Greyaxe, Buttercup and Reyalde, so if you do decide to give it a try, and if you set your character up there, give me a shout and I'll get one of them to meet you to show you the ropes.

So wherever you are on the web, if you bump into me, whatever picture identifies me, you can be sure it's really me, and my behaviour will be defined by my interaction with you & the respect I show you. The things I say, the stuff I write and the way I behave defines my personality, not the way I look, and if you ever bump into Lardy, Fray Bentos or Angit Shennby, you may find their behaviour a little out of character with what you expect from me, but bear in mind, that's because they're game characters and their personalities are geared toward the environment they exist in. Underneath the outward appearance though, they're still really me, and I suspect the real me will still show through.

STOP PRESS: Another world to set your alter-egos free - for free!

Gilthaliad, an Elf of Middle Earth

Recently, another MMORPG switched over from pay-to-play to play-for-free. Fans of Middle Earth will be particularly pleased because this is Lord of the Rings Online.

The gameplay here covers the timeframe of the first part of The Fellowship of the Ring, but concerns characters other than those involved in the main story, and follows the events of the book quite closely; though limiting variety in gameplay a little, this actually makes the whole game familiar if you've read the books or seen the films

Doldo, a Hobbit of the Shire.

There are still premium accounts to be had, which offer more flexibility, but you need to pay a subscription to pay for these.

You can play as either human, elf, dwarf or hobbit, in a number of different classes, and a free account allows you to have two characters per server.

The game is free to download here: Lord of the Rings Online though it's a hefty 10.2GB file so prepare yourself for a long wait.