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BOOKS Alter Ego Avatars and their creators by Pollywog Gardenvale
Robbie Cooper’s work has appeared in Libération, the Sunday Times magazine, Geo, GQ, and Esquire. His Alter Ego photographs have been exhibited in London, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Berlin, Paris, Portland, Shanghai, and
Second Life. The book includes an introduction by Julian Dibbell, author of My Tiny Life: Crime and Passion in a Virtual World and profiles of each subject by Tracy Spaight, COO of game company RapidReality and author of Who Killed Miss Norway?
The photo on the book cover is a lenticular double image, like a “wiggle picture” that you might find at the bottom of Cracker Jacks box. The picture shows a couple strolling hand-in-hand down a busy street in South Korea. However, turn the book slightly to one side and you see the couple’s alter ego avatars emerge.
In the United States, the sale of games now outnumbers the sale of books. Europe, however, is considered to be a more lucrative gaming market than either the U.S. or Japan. And then of course, there are the professional gamers of Korea, who enjoy rock star status while making a living playing games. All this adds a new dimension to the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” In fact, many thirty-somethings who grew up playing games like “Dungeons and Dragons” are now living out a good part of their lives inhabiting the online world of their choice. World of Warcraft is by far the most popular game with over 8 million players world wide. Then there are many others with names such as Lineage, Final Fantasy, City of Heroes, and EverQuest.
What for some might appear to be an escape from reality is for others the first chance to lead a normal life. One of those profiled in the book is Jason Rowe, who—although confined to a wheelchair—spends up to eighty hours a week immersed in “Star Wars Galaxies” as human marksman and rifleman, Rurouni Kenshin. He explains: “I play online games because I get to interact with people. The computer screen is my window to the world. Online you get to know the person behind the keyboard before you know the physical person.” While attending a real world convention of gamers, he found that he was treated as an equal—rather than as someone with a disability. “We were all just gamers.” For more information, visit: www.alteregobook.com * * * Sponsored Links |
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Alter Ego-Avatars and their creators was launched in London on May 15th, followed by a virtual exhibit in the region of 
According to Vedic tradition, the term “avatar,” which comes from the Hindu word for “descent,” refers to the incarnation of a god on earth. In recent years, the term has been adopted for the graphical representation of an Internet user—particulary those who inhabit the 3D worlds of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG).