What Role Are You Playing Today?
My Spider Guest
My newly installed doorbell rang when I was in SL the other day, and when I opened the door a spider came scrambling in. I must admit I was a bit startled at first, having expected an upright avatar.
After a few friendly hellos were exchanged, I looked down at my spider guest and a whole lot of questions about self image and the roles we play came to mind.
Come to find out, the person behind this spider avatar owned some 50 other kinds of avatars, many of which were non-human. Many of the people I met in SL are surprised by my open profile (admitting who I am in-person) and that I hadn’t role played (RP) at all.
Well, that’s not entirely true. In person, we all play many roles in our lives, and a part of my Buddhist practice is identifying those roles and loosening my grip on them. After all, roles are bound to change or disappear because of circumstances, and any attachment or identification to a role is going to create suffering when that role has to dissolve. I’ve experienced that recently when my job as Sun employee fell out from under me.
So, Spider and I had some interesting discussion about RP in SL versus in person, and how various people come into it.
After he left, I pondered this issue for awhile, and then decided it was time for to me to pursue this area of SL. Having a non-human avatar, or an avatar that looks vastly different than your in-person looks is one method of role playing, but there are also a lot of official role playing areas in SL. For instance, there are places that imitate fictionalized stories from fantasy or scifi novels, some of which even include slaves and masters.
With my love of scifi, I decided to go avatar shopping. I thought about a female Predator, but when I saw there were whole areas dedicated to Star Wars I realized that was my best bet. After all, I’m a huge fan, know the characters, and the various worlds.
Me, standing with a Storm Trooper
I chose a Shaak TI. When she sits, she meditates, and she seems to have this calm about her that I really liked. So, donning my avatar, I set off for the Upper City of Taris. There I donned a data pack that allowed me to do a beginner’s quest.
Not far into this quest, someone recognized my name, and another avatar found my profile fascinating. After reading the profiles of a few characters walking around, and seeing they were truly “in the role”, I realized that in order to do this RP thing properly, that I’d have to sign up for a different SL account and go into Star Wars as the avatar I had chosen with no trace of Oceanlane or Nourie.
So, this morning I turned Oceanlane back into the avatar she was, and got another account that I can use for RP. I have discovered in this Star Wars RP environment that I can get involved in combat games with the use of certain HUDs, I can walk around socializing, or I can follow quests and see how far I get. I’ve already discovered that quests take a lot of time, but they are fun. I don’t think I have the skills or inclination to do combat, though I was advised that I should find a Jedi or Sith to train me. That could possibly be fun, but we’ll see.
I must admit I feel strange lying about who I am, pretending to be something I’m not. Is childhood that far behind me that this role playing has become such a challenge? Some people, grown ones, seem to slip into so easily. The Renaissance Fair is proof of that. Can this end up an area of stickiness, attachment? What are the ramifications for getting lost in one’s character, or do people always slip out as easily as they slip in?
It’s definitely worth further investigation.
Tags: Role Playing