Does Your Avatar Look Like You?
by Burbie52, HSM team writer
How many times has someone asked you this question in Home? It’s been asked of me many times. It is an interesting idea — if you could make your avatar look exactly like you, would you do it?
The avatar creation options in our wardrobes are fairly limiting. We can approximate our looks if we choose to do so, but we can’t make perfect copies of ourselves. However, I believe most of us choose to create avatars that are not copies of ourselves for many reasons. Age, weight, hair, and other personal details all play a part in our choices. Many create avatars that look nothing at all like themselves, even to the point of becoming the opposite sex.
This subject of cross dressing has been addressed here a few times before. This article isn’t really about that, though — it is about what we would do if we could make any kind of avatar in Home. What if you had the ability to take a picture of yourself and automatically recreate it in Home, similar to Twinity? Would you do that? Or do you use your avatar as a representation of what you wish you could look like in real life?
Before and After
In my case, I tried to get as close as I could to a younger version of myself. I am sixty years old, and there are few choices to really make yourself look older in Home. You can add grey hair and a few wrinkles, but in real life I don’t have grey hair, and my face isn’t as wrinkled as many my age. So I opted for a younger version of myself. I also do things in Home that I have never done much in real life, such as wear earrings and high heels, and change my hair color. In real life, I don’t like high heels and I have never had my ears pierced.
So in a sense, our avatars are extensions of ourselves whether or not they are “true to form”. They can represent our inner selves, or they can be the total opposite of who we are. The choice is totally up to us. The only limitations are our imagination and the tools we have been given.
I have a few friends who never look anything like themselves when they are in Home. They wear the most outlandish outfits they can come up with, and you never know what they will look like when you see them next. I even have friends that I have never seen in a “normal” avatar that looks the least bit human. They seem to get a lot of fun out of being as wild as possible. For them it is a part of their creativity, using the tools Home has provided.
Ready to get reported?
There are people in Home who create outrageous avatars for a darker purpose as well, to hassle others, trolls. I don’t know why people do this, though there have been many articles and discussions about this behavior and the reasons behind it. But why create an ugly or over the top avatar to go along with it? For fun, I guess, though if you want to bother people and you approach them dressed like that, you are sending up a red flag saying, “Here I am, the troll about to harass you!” They now know you are coming and can prepare to report you.
The thing about creating avatars is that they can be anything our hearts desire, and they are as varied as the individuals behind them. In my club, the Grey Gamers, we have been experimenting a bit with our avatars this year. We had a celebrity look-alike night where everyone tried to emulate a famous movie star or rock star. I did mine by looking at images of my choice on Google, then using the wardrobe tools to get as close as possible to her physically. It was a daunting task that took me an hour or so, and I was still wishing for more options to make her look more like the “real thing”.
Who do you think she is?
Another way that many are using the wardrobe options is the making of machinima. The fact that you can change your avatars to create the characters in a film or even in a Homic, as I did in the one just published here, is a great deal of fun. I love the challenges involved when asked to recreate a real person, or make one up to suit a role I am playing, and I am sure many of the others involved in this new artistic medium in Home will agree. Creating these avatars and clothing them is a lot of the fun I derive from Home.
When I see a new person in Home in default clothing and a preset avatar I always try to help them. I ask if they are new and give them some advice: change your avatar! The way you look in Home is like the first impression you give in real life when meeting people. With the hostile attitudes that many new people experience in Home, looking like a “noob” is not the way to go. I think it is sad that this is true, but it is what it is. Avatars are the “faces” you use to represent yourself in Home, and the way you adjust and change them should be considered carefully. It doesn’t take all that long to make an avatar your own, whether you choose to look like your real self or create something that is new and unique.
July 14th, 2012 by Burbie52 | 19 comments
Burbie52 is a 62 year-old published author and founder of the Grey Gamers group within Home. Born and raised in Michigan, she has lived there her entire life, with the exception of a twelve-year residency on the Big Island of Hawaii. She enjoys reading and writing, as well as video games, especially RPG's. She has one son in his twenties.
great article. I Completely agree with you. =] and so true about the “noobs”.I feel that some of them are shun out because of the way there avatar looks. its sad.
I myself have tried to make and keep my avatar close to how I look myself. When i first came onto PsHome i kinda thought that was what were was all suppose to do. Of course now I know thats far from the truth in most cases. Still I try to have my avi look how I do, and treat ppl how I do in my real life. To each his or her own. Good read!
I agree completely, I made my avatar similar but honestly a little thinner and stuff like that. But really here on Home, To each their own.
Yes and no as to does my avatar look like me. But that’s subjective.
I did try to make my face and body as realistic as I could however while I wouldn’t wear a hairpiece in real life I do wear different hairstyles and beards on Home.
Also I wear a pirates outfit which I only did once in real life as a child on Halloween. Nor do I wear some of the “outrageous” clothes nor do I look like a robot in real life.
I once posted a real life picture of myself and of my avatar and was told they were similar.
I have an Eye for the PS3 which I’ve only used so far for Fight Night 4 and it is capable of creating a reasonable look alike of out facial looks. For better or worse, it doesn’t work on avatars. Too bad.
Sometimes I put out avatars with clothes that look as close as me as I can do and if people don’t like the way I look no matter what I wear, too bad.
I think “she” is Julia Roberts. Did I win the prize?
Sophia Loren, eyes and lips. She did wear short hair.
So what if I cheated a little. I still might be wrong
LOL. There is no prize but if there was Kid would have it, it is indeed Sophia Loren. I don’t know why I picked her to emulate for our celebrity look alike event, except maybe that she was extremely beautiful and has an interesting face to try for. I couldn’t get the nose quite right because of the limitations we have but I had fun trying.
As to how you would cheat on guessing this I haven’t a clue Kid, unless you looked at pics of her and that still wouldn’t be cheating as you would have to kind of know who you were looking for. I used Google images to do this as it has several poses and closeups there. Like I said, avatars can be very fun to play with if you take the time.
My avatar looks ‘nothing’ like my real self, lol, in fact my avatar is much more handsome and taller and maybe easier on the eye. In the real world I don’t look attractive, I have gained weight, I am one of those people that are ‘invisible’ in the real world, people really do not notice me at all. I’m the guy that really doesn’t get the girl, (I’m usually pushed to the side) but I make up for it when it comes to opportunities. When I arrive on Home, I’m popular, I’m needed and people really want to talk to me. Sometimes I come into home as a female avatar, I find that fun, an opportunity to explore the ‘other’ side of the coin. But I’m mostly found on Home in my male form.
You are a cutie in real life and on Home Cheeks, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise! I am glad you are my friend, looks can be deceiving, and people rely on them way too much I think. In real life and on Home it is what is inside of us that counts, but sadly many people won’t allow themselves to get past the outside rough exterior to get to the sweet interior that is truly who we are. Love Ya!
At first, I tried to make copy myself. Between my lack of skill and Home’s limitations, I couldn’t. Now I make my avatar wild, or elegant or whatever the mood of the day is. Often I pick clothes and build an avatar to display them. Just as in RL, no avatar looks good in all colors and styles. I have 1 male avatar always tucked handily away: my troll bane. I have run a male avatar from time to time to help out Friends in machinima or foto shoots but mostly I run a female. One reason I’m in Home is to stretch my zone of comfort: wearing clothes I’d never put on in real life and occasionally running a male avatar is part of that. For me (not all my Friends agree with this) my avatar isn’t “me” any more than a chess piece is. It does represent me, meaning my “actions” and “interactions with others” are me, even though the avatar-of-the-moment’s appearance also says something about driver, or the
mood of the moment.
I choose to be the ‘me’ that I was at the age of 45. And I managed to do that with the DarthGranny avatar. Ironically, in real life, I looked better at 45 than I did at 25! And, throughout eternity, I hope to look that way -- although with a halo and wings, of course.
I keep one self-portrait avatar saved, in case I need to show people exactly who they are messing with. But my usual avatar looks like the alter ego I used in my adolescent fantasies — a petite, dark-haired young woman who looks a bit like Dora the Explorer all grown up.
And then there are my Homeling selves, the “White Seal” in Echochrome and John Lennon glasses, wielding a giant Cotton Swab, and the “Black Seal” in scary General’s Black, with glowing green eyes. They’re all me. I see no reason to make my avatar match the person in the mirror.
Simple answer to the initial question is NO! LOL, while my avatar does resemble my real height at 6’1″ as well as my facial features including hair and eye colors, her figure in no way resembles the one I am currently living in. Simply put, she isn’t fat and I am.. so she resembles what I look like on the inside
She embodies all I currently am, everything I wish I was, as well as all I hope to be if I can ever afford plastic surgery. In my case, beauty is beyond skin deep, it is displayed in 3 dimensional pixelation for all the world to see and I think it is totally awesome!
My avi and I share a few similarities. Grayish hair,a deep brow, but my male avi also represents a me that I am not. Slender for one. My avi is a noble jedi, as i don’t use the ways of the force. I like my avi and did spend huge amounts of time creating both my male and female avis. I believe that it is fine to make an avi look like yourself, remembering that yes the tools are limited and one will never really make an accurate representation of one’s self. With that limitation I choose to allow some freedom and latitude in how I make my avis. I make one master face and run wild with the clothes. This is one of those places where really there is no wrong (unless the intentionn is to dupe folk)and we should all have fun just being who we are, however we represent ourselves. Good write Burbie, and that party was a blast.
I spent ages on mine! Used photos and even a mirror lol! I found the advanced settings within the facial reconstructions of the Home characters detailed enough to recreate my slightly squint nose, eyes and ears just fine, though it did take me nearly forever. The problem I found though, was that regardless of the effort put into making your avatar exactly like you, this only ever shows when zoomed in within the wardrobe. Zoomed out and in public, the face seems to become simplified somehow. Except my wrinkle lines, there’s some tragic lighting in Home that makes my face look like a melted welly at times lol.
As for the body well, I guess I’m lucky; I’ve not much changed since my school days. I’ve been waiting on middle-age-spread to come along and start giggling as it expands my waistline etc but, it’s just not happened… yet.
So yeah, generally what you see of me in Home is what you get. I mostly wear clothes that I would in RL too, unless I’m having a silly day, then you might find me running around in a giant baby-grow clutching an axe or something but for the most part, I am me in Home.
Loved this article BTW Burbie
Do I look like my avatar? Hrmm…
Yes, at least a resemblance and that’s the best we can do. Well done.
Indeed, my avi is pretty much my alter-ego.
I am alway changing my avatar around but for the most part I try to stay within’ the limits. If they had longer hair for the women and had more details in the facial aging, perhaps some of us older folks would look more like our age.
BTW, great pic Burbie…lol.