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I, Avatar: The Culture and Consequences of Having a Second Life
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I, Avatar: The Culture and Consequences of Having a Second Life

by Mark Stephen Meadows
December 2007
Beginner
144 pages
4h 22m
English
New Riders
Content preview from I, Avatar: The Culture and Consequences of Having a Second Life

Chapter . What It Is, Part One: Mario, The Sims and World of Warcraft

The avatar landscape is rocky and full of strange flowers. Here’s a page now. I am looking at a small image of a man punching himself in the head. Next to him is Che Guevera. The other images are of lightning striking; a woman with large breasts; a 1950s cartoon of a dancing pig; bouncing breasts (no woman is attached to them this time); a sombrero; Adolph Hitler eating a watermelon; a Pokemon rabbit playing Dance Dance Revolution; someone’s butt.

These are all avatars.

But what are they?

An avatar is an interactive, social representation of a user.

Avatars are interactive, come in different dimensions, and—like people—they view the world from different perspectives. Sometimes an ...

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9780321550231Purchase book