Ponderings on Virtual Worlds - About Identities

There have been many postings on the discussion board on what it means choosing a particular avatar in a 3d virtual reality multiuser environment, be it in a role-playing game such as World of Warcraft or an environment such as Second Life which allows social interaction and self-expression. Moving on from the default character acquired at 'birth' what makes us choose who we want to be represented by? Do we want to replicate our RW identity as close as possible (a bit younger and slimmer perhaps?), or do we have the urge to improve considerably on our perceived imperfections of our RW bodies?Do we want to be someone else entirely, the other gender, another race, even disabled, or something more playful like an animal? What are we portraying by these choices: our inner feelings, our desires, our talents, our professionalism, our interests ....When we choose avatars do we have a tendency to hide ourselves and remain as anonymous as possible? Why do we want to do that and has this a bearing on our RW identity?
The answers lie of course in the RW and the different representations and identities we take therein. Or as Gee would phrase it: we assume the 'virtual/real/projective in different ways, in different contexts – there is just no fixed selfhood'.
Someone may be a pinstripe suite wearing insurance broker in the city during the working day, transposing into a slob around the house after work, becoming a silly playful entertainer with this children, an eccentric in his hobbies or a pervert in his sex life – same person nevertheless.It's all there and we may play it out – but usually in the absence of anonymity.
The beauty of virtual worlds is that you can change your characer at will, every day, every hour or even every minute, finding new expressions on the way – and remain anonymous throughout. And you may have a sense of owership with every one of these characters, at any particular point in time matching any particular mood expression.
Currently I have three different avatars, the original build which is resembling me most, the second creation being a self-deluded beau, the antagonist of myself and finally a creation which will fall in the category 'identity tourism' – a skin representing something completely different which in RW I would never think of emulating.
Which one of these characters to choose is often a spontaneous decision, dependent on fancy and context. Any particular of these metaphorical embodiments may be interpreted by others as who I am in the RW – whether it concerns me or not.