Guest Post by Eva Marie
An avid reader of fiction since the age of six, I have always sought out virtual worlds to immerse myself in in and explore. Whether Narnia, Azeroth, Hogwarts or Tortall I breathe the environments and the moods of these worlds. These places that are so unlike my own world.
I don’t feel the need to be the character when gaming or reading. I’m not creating a separate identity for myself.
The draw for me has always been the world itself. When reading I gobble up description. I hoard adjectives and adverbs in my mind, memorizing entire pages to savour when I’m unable to physically read a word. The tiny details are what makes a description decandent.
Imagery has been important to me my entire life. I was given my first camera at the age of nine and have never stopped taking photos. I tend towards taking pictures of details. Of tiny things and tiny worlds.
Taking and sharing images of these worlds are huge for me. The ability to capture what I am seeing – the light, the textures, the colours – so other people might be able to understand how I see an object or a place. We all see these places differently. I believe that sharing our views of these worlds are critical, they are part of the human experience.
Agnes Sharple
Botgirl Questi
Bumblebee (Wendz Tempest)
Canary Beck
Carissa Arthurine Somerset
Eva Marie
Fuschia Nightfire
George Coghill
Ironyca Lee
Jeremy Owen Turner
Joseph DeLappe
Kathleen Cool
Katie Vizenor
Krista Hoefle
Kristine Schomaker
Lizzie Gudkov
Aero Bigboots
RMarie Beedit
Marmaduke Arado
Isabella Medici
Nadya Tolokonnikova
Nathan Shafer
Pixel Reanimator
Ravanel Griffon
Scarlett Luv
Strawberry Singh
Tabitha Raincloud
Toni Tyldesley
Trilby Minotaur
Vanessa Blaylock
Xue Faith
Yordie Sands
Indeed very nice!!! Cheers Nonoy Manga
Oh hi nonoymanga! thanks for visiting iRez! 🙂
Your attraction to “the world itself” is a great point of view, Eva. I think that’s how it all begins for me as well, an attraction to the world.
Perhaps that’s how it began for me too, Yordie / Eva, but I’ve been thinking so much about Avatars & Identity for so long that it’s interesting / refreshing to hear / think about this take on it.
I wonder how many other peeps “Care about World+Details vs Avatar+Identity??
I think it must be both, for some people. I have friends that it is both their Avatar and the world that are the draw towards certain worlds.
When I first began playing MMOs years ago, it was certainly the idea of an avatar that attracted me. I remember rolling multiple characters – one for each mood I was feeling. I’d play whichever one I felt like “being”.
haha, IRL we wear different clothes for different moods… and I guess in MMO you can wear different avatars for different moods.
Thankyou so much! 😀
Hi EVA!! Welcome to the iRez Virtual Salon!!!
Yay!!
Wonderful post and amazing pix! That first image of the floating rocks is so wonderful.
Really interesting that you aren’t so interested in the Avatar / Identity as you are in absorbing, immersing in the World. We think so much about avatar and identity here, so yours is a fresh perspective.
I hope we can explore this more – really interesting!
Thanks for joining us Eva!!!
Indeed very nice!!! Thank you very much for this post shared with us. Have a nice day!
Thankyou! 😀
Thankyou for the opportunity! I had hoped to open up another non-identity-focused train of thought with this post!
Nice post!
I can sometimes miss the places more than I miss a certain avatar.
I liked the note about various avatars for various moods and in a way I guess you can attribute that to places too. There are places that are fiery and destroyed (I’m leveling in Badlands at the moment), there are beautiful and serene places, there are dark and brooding places and so on. Sometimes for me it’s more about visiting a certain place than doing it vicariously “through” an avatar, who is then functioning more like a vehicle in these cases.
That’s an interesting way to put it Ironyca — I actually used to be “embodied” in my SL “Vaneeesa” avatar more – that is walk around and do stuff and interact with people… so that was a lot about the avatar…
Lately it’s been more project work… so I might login… maybe even be on for hours… but it’s go to place X, take a photo… then photoshop it, then put it on the blog… then go back to in-world, write someone a notecard, send that.. maybe give them the link to the photo, etc… so in this “functional” way… “who” my avatar is doesn’t much matter… I’m not really looking at myself (I remember how obsessed you were with looking at yourself over in Blue Mars!! 😛
or looking at others… in a way it’s detached and brittle… but it is a way to get projects that feel worthwhile done…
Anyway, these are kind of as you said about the place more than the avatar… I need to go to the skydiving sim and snap a photo, it’s not really to “be” there, but to get some work done that “meta-me” needs.
MEANWHILE
Eva’s an awesome photographer… I hope she’ll (haha, poor Eva, I’m third-person-ing you! 😛
I hope YOU will do some World Todays, in addition to any posts you want to do. It’s really up to you and Ironyca to hold up the WoW end of iRez against all these “Second Life” peeps hogging the teeter totter!
So do stick some WoW pix up for World Today if you like. And your RL pix are welcome too if you want to post them.