What it is, Part One
Mark Meadows states that an avatar is “an interactive, social representation of a user.” I definitely agree with this statement. I automatically think of a little 3-D person that moves and talks when I hear the word “avatar.” Sims 2 is all about interaction and representation. The user creates a character that goes on to interact with its surroundings. The avatar allows the user to be a part of the virtual world. Another thing that Meadows mentions is the ability to customize your avatar. People may create avatars that look just like them or one of their friends. On the other hand, they could also create an avatar that looks nothing like anyone they have ever seen before.
What it is, Part Two
In this section Meadows somewhat contradicts his depiction of avatars in part one. At first I was skeptical about youtube videos being considered avatars, but after reading the section I changed my mind. An avatar is not only a representation of a person, but also a representation of ideas and views. Meadows also showed how easily people are lead on by avatars. I agree with this idea. If I would be chatting on AOL with someone who had a masculine screen name, I would automatically believe that the person was a male. Sometimes things like this can be misleading.
What it is, Part Three
This section deals with avatars and perspectives. Meadows talks about the “baseball card” type of avatar- a profile. I never really considered a profile to be an avatar, but if a youtube video can be one, why not? Meadows goes on to describe avatars in different video games, like Mario. I think it is a stretch to consider Mario an avatar because there is little to no level of customization. How can an avatar socially represent someone if there is no way to put your own personal twist on the avatar?
What it is, Part Four
I definitely agree that avatars are social characters, but you are not always interacting with other real people. In Sims 2, for example, the game is not played online. The user’s avatars interact with each other and other nonplayable characters. Interaction is what fuels our avatars, whether they are interacting with other users online or with their own environment.
