Putting a Face on Things - Putting a Face on Things - page 20

An anecdote from the world of networked gamers illustrates the invitation of a virtu-
al identity and its limits over time. A game blogger, SirBruce posted on the subject of
his cross-gender exploits in “Confessions of an MMOG Cross-Dresser.” 28 His saga out-
lines a “lesbian” relationship his female avatar had online with another female avatar,
who turned out to also be a man. SirBruce describes the titillation of the lesbian ro-
mance, but does not discuss any possibility that it might also be a gay relationship
between the two men. Once the relationship leaked over into their actual identities, the
love affair was over. (SirBruce explains that after the avatar couple outed each other as
men, they became very good friends, noting that he even hired his “buddy” for a job.) 29
I am suggesting that avatar identity works within a space of the actual as an X-reality
phenomenon. We are, in effect, neither purely role playing (pretending to be someone
else), nor are we left untouched by our engagement of a persona. In keeping with the
findings of the media equation, SirBruce had an experience particular to appearing fe-
male online: he was taken at face value. But the limits of his second self, his female
avatar, surfaced when it came to a deepening friendship with a player. If we address
the question of avatar identity, the first level of response may be to the representational
persona. But to comprehend more deftly whom we are addressing, we must find a mesh
of the actual—a networked portrait of an interlocutor—and speak to that identity.