We were at a CNN meeting in Second Life, and it had got under way when another avatar joined us. Nicole ireport who was taking the meeting greeted the newcomer and we all looked at who this person was as we read her profile. She was new, just a day old, and she came in asking what was going on and even started bumping into one of the ireporters on purpose to annoy him. She was brash, dressed badly, her flared jeans poking through the tops of her boots and all her clothes clearly obtained from one of the many free stores in SL. In fact she was so over the top trying to look new, that I guessed she wasn’t what she seemed, and the fact she had found her way to CNN island at only a day old added to my suspicions that she was someone who used multiple avatars. What we would call alternative avatars (alts). In fact I would go so far as to say this was probably a man behind the keyboard as his idea of what a woman should look like looked like a man’s idea of how a woman would want to dress, not a clue!! Alts with a recent SL birth date generally know too much about SL and give themselves away! Also it is unlikely that a day old avatar would have found the free clothes shops so soon. If someone had helped her they had not done a very good job.
Why do they do it? well I suppose there are many different reasons why people create more than one avatar. I would imagine it is most likely for a little bit of privacy, to be able to explore without other people contacting them while they are off looking at new places. Others may lead a double life, having more than one romantic relationship in SL and keeping it a secret from both (or more!) partners. Some people feel they have messed up their first avatar’s life and decide to start all over again with a fresh new avatar and a new virtual life. Then there are those who use a second avatar to get close to people they don’t like to try to find out more about them and see if they can upset them in some way. Alts are used for griefing too, many griefers are only a day or two old and disappear very soon as people report them and they get banned.
Most newbies, no matter how old in real life, have a sort of childlike innocence about them. As they do not know all the arts of getting around SL, either how to dress themselves in new clothes, or to find decent places to explore, they appear wide eyed and amazed at most of the things they find out, as they take their first tentative steps into a virtual environment. For some reason I always want to help them if I can, and I think that is why people became Mentors, it’s the good feeling you get from assisting someone to make things a little easier for them.
I think we can all remember our first days of venturing into an unknown 3D location where we were suddenly face to face with real people from real countries who have all shared the experience of being newbies. If you see a newbie, be kind, but always have it in the back of your mind that they may not be all that they seem, you may be talking to someone you already know who is using another avatar for whatever reason only known to themselves!