Avatars and Nonplayer Characters - Virtual World Design - page 239

12.2 THE IMPORTANCE OF AVATARS
Your own individuality is your most precious commodity. Even if you have an identical twin, you are still
an individual personality with a unique collection of remembered experiences and interests. Your avatar
provides you with the opportunity to relect on this and add to your personal dimensions and self-identity.
You may be putting on a character, playing a role, changing your gender or even your species, but at the core
is your basic identity.
The following are some of the most important characteristics of an avatar:
1. Images . Avatars are your image, your relection in a virtual world.
2. Identiication . Avatars are how others will identify you, recognize you.
3. Self-image . Avatars relect the self-image you have chosen.
4. Icons . Avatars can be icons or symbols of your beliefs.
5. Aspirations . Avatars can represent what you want to be.
6. Body modiication . Avatars allow you to experiment with body modiication.
7. Nostalgia . Avatars can be the mythological or cartoon characters of your childhood.
8. Scale . Avatars let you explore the scale variations of the body.
9. Communication . Avatars let you communicate and modify your voice.
10. Storytelling . Avatars let you tell stories and play roles in them.
12.3 DESIGNING THE LOOK OF YOUR CHARACTER
In essence, you need to get into your avatar's “character,” which is part core personality, part projected
values, and part reaction to outside forces. When you study theatrical acting, especially “method acting,” you
will encounter the GOTE method. Developed by Robert Cohen [4], this acronym helps remind actors about
the qualities they should consider in developing their character. Briely, here are those four qualities redeined
for an avatar's character development.
1. Goal: What does your character want to do in this virtual world? For example, your character wants
to be a great, wise teacher.
2. Obstacle: What obstacles will your avatar encounter? For example, the great wise teacher would
encounter the obstacle of narrow minds and ignorance.
3. Tactics: How will your avatar attain goals? For example, the great wise teacher may start giving out
topics or scrolls illed with wisdom.
4. Expectation: What expectations of success does your avatar have? For example, the great wise
teacher may realize that overcoming the obstacle of ignorance is a long, hard struggle, so the avatar
will prepare accordingly.
By now, a picture of this great wise teacher may have formed in your head. Perhaps this avatar resembles
Confucius (551-479 BCE) or Annie Sullivan, who taught Helen Keller (1866-1936), or perhaps this avatar
resembles your high school physics teacher. Whatever visual image you have in your mind's eye can be
developed in further detail by thinking like a costume designer. A costume designer will do research into
the period of the character and will consider the socioeconomic status of the character as the costume is
designed. These are valuable insights because they enrich the complexity, color palette, and overall shape of
your avatar's outward appearance.