References

1. Bartle, A. R. (2003). Designing virtual worlds. Indianapolis: New Riders Publishing.

2. Kokswijk, J. van (2007): Digital ego. Social and legal aspects of virtual identity. Delft: Eburon.

3. Carr, Paull & Pond Graham ( 2007 ): The Unofficial tourist guide to Second Life. Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin.

4. Rymaszewski, M., Au, W. J. Wallace, M. Winters, C., Ondrejka, C., Batstone-Cunningham, B., et al. (2007): Second life. The official life. Indianapolis: Wiley Publishing. 

How much of " real " do you take into the " virtual" ?

      The main accomplishment in terms of virtual worlds is that they enable their members to redifine themselves simply by letting them be what they want to be. Who would of ever thought it was that simple?Even considering all the advantages cyberspace brings to our lives, it could on the other hand generate a deep crisis. One of the reasons could be the fact that not everybody is eager to find out who he really is. What even if others are keen to explore their personality, in the end they get dissatisfied with their discoveries? In those cases the dissapointment may alarmingly increas and even transform into anger. Judging by the perspective of our diveristy as human beings, not every one of us wants to change or enjoys challenges. However, doesn’t it sound tempting to be free to express your identity in a space without tangible boundaries?

      Richard A. Bartle points out that are the cyber worlds who encourage internet users to show different aspects of themselves in an unlimited environment. The ability to face challenges does nothing but to enable individuals to reflect their actions upon those intended tasks. Step by step, over time, everybody is going to develop a greater understanding of themselves, resulting into a mixture between the virtual and the real personality. Surprisingly, this openes the gates to one’s so-called “ alter ego ”. ( Richard A. Bartle, 2003, p.158 – 162 )

      As we can see,the tendency is that people get influenced in their real life by the virtual experience phenomenon. With the two worlds fusing one into the other, possibly as a result of the modern internet era, the personality traits extend. Cyber world, as each and every single thing in life, has its positive and negative sides. A clear advantage that can be drawn out as a conclusion of how virtual worlds affect us is that they enable persons to constantly discover themselves and eventually be satisfied with their personality. Still, bearing in mind the fact that virtual dimension is considered to be a generally unprotected environment, it is easier for individuals that activate within it to loose control over their activities, that could be very dangerous in matters of personal development as an individual.

      Consolidating identities still remains a controversial topic and, by the visions we propose, we did not even come close to the depletion of this topic, leaving you the means to analyse some of its sides. 

Dare to be confident with yourself

      What actually turns to be fundamental for the virtual world is the celebration of personal identity, which is not only decisive for our own representation -  as actions, objects or structures have a deep impact on everyone’s identity, keeping it in a constant change. Usually, virtual world’s users act differently when they are “ on line “ than in real life. As they have to hold the balance between their different identities, it occurs they gain or loose several attributes. For instance, on line gamers are considered to show deeper contrasts between their virtual and real personality than most of the persons, even if eventually this turns to be a generally shared concept. Reflecting on this distinction, they will end up in making judgements about themselves , resulting either in the complete change of one of the two personalities, or the opposition between them until the conflict is being solved. In a virtual world, on line identity is potentially much more flexible than real identity. It easily allows changes in gender, age, nationality or even material status.

      People who are too shy to get to know other people or be outgoing, can find virtual worlds as social environments where their deficit is not considered to be crucial. They would actually improve their skills through the process of virtual interaction. So,an introvert could absolutely express himself in the online space. What happenes is that as familiarized as you get with the virtual identity, as more self – confidence you gain in reality. From this point of view it may seem ironic, that a 50-year old manager of an international corporation is willing to emerge as a little girl in the virtual space. As you will notice, switching identities is all about maintaining an illusion! During this process, the character of a person is being consolidated.

      Individuals are not perceived to have a unitary personality, simply because they share multiple types of identities. Cyberspace gives people the chance to explore their every single facet. The phenomenon of a splitted “ online self “ appears in numerous computer – based activities. Imagine how you behave in public platforms, compared to instant messengers or private e-mails. What happens is that you can actually develop, express or highlight special character features while concealing your disabilities.

      I would advice though to care of the shared influences that everybody transfers inside this virtual space. Even considering it a free spot in matteres of self expression, the truth is nobody is entirely uncoupled from specific duties. As a result of the blend between fellow users and the social environment, individuals in virtual worlds face several challanges. Put to react to these challenges, they do nothing but to define and develop themselves. In fact,as a reaction to the different situations in cyber space, individuals get an insight of the person they transform into. Of course, we cannot deny the fact that persons are constantly confronted with similar problems in their day- to- day real life, as for instance the way they handle their personal relationships, the way they deal with strangers or the way they turn failure into success. 

Task: Just leave the real world behind. Give it a try!

      Today we promise you a challenging emersion into a parallel world, a world that simply is “ whatever you want it to be “. We would like to give you some hints in order to see how good you are at guessing!! We try to present you “ an online version of the known world” that “ attempts to replicate many of the basic elements of your First Life”, aka Real Life. Its distinctive feature is that people like you and me make it expand when they “ interact with each other in the virtual space and, crucially, create new virtual content themselves.” ( Paull Carr & Graham Pond, 2007, p.18 )

       It is more than a simple “ virtual world created by computer programmers “ and actually Mr. Philip Rosedale, Ceo of the company stresses the fact it isn’t an online game – “ I’m not building a game, I’m building a new country. “( Paull Carr & Graham Pond, 2007, p.21 ) He best explains it as “ a parallel, immersive world which simulates an alternate universe, which thousands of people inhabit simultaneously for communication, play, and work, at various levels of role – playing with their avatars.” ( Paull Carr & Graham Pond, 2007, p.20 ) 
      You probably got it by now: it’s the amazing world of Second Life! Second Life comes to rescue the individuals we’ve been trying to present previously, having a great potential to transform identities. It’s basic concept is that it attracts individuals who, enabled to transform into whoever they feel like to, can finally fulfill their reality- know- as “ long lost “ dreams. Second Life’s population is so diverse, as you are given the possibility “to choose your avatar ranging from very ordinary, to very glam, to alternative, and finally, to furry.” ( Paull Carr & Graham Pond, 2007, p.25 ) In this extremely versatile environment, you constantly reinvent yourself in the most various ways imaginable. Ever wanted to dress like a punk with a mohawk hairstyle, tattoos all over your body and piercing in your nose? It’s only a few mouse – clicks away! ( Rymaszewski, et al. 2007, p.72)
                                                                            

Is everything under control.....?!

      Starting from the idea that as different as we can be in matters such as culture, geographic location, gender, race, education, etc. we posess the power to build our own world, so we have to admit the purpose of the virtual identity is to virtually represent individuals, entirely autonomous from human control. (Jacob van Koksvijk, 2007 , p.53 ).
      Having a double life is more possible than ever. This stands for a parallel society where different individuals can fulfil their dreams and long lost desires or where simply live out their wildest fantasies in a framework that guarantees oblivion and that absolutely differentiates itself from the daily life’s well known restrictions. In the virtual dimension you get instantly acquainted to words such as pseudonyms, because they are the shelter for personal exposure. This gives space for plenty of anonymity, but a negative trait is the unreliability of virtual identity.
      From a macro level perspective, there are two ways of describing the use of virtual identity. Firstly, it is the ongoing use in identity – related software applications that we talk about and secondly, about the ways of representing the own personality with the help of on line contacts. 
      We've talked about why individuals feel pressured to exit reality, but I would like to insist on the versatile face of the Internet and explain how it swifts from it’s fundamental role towards this playground where participants redefine their personality and fearlessly project their hidden feelings. What happens when a person suddenly rejects his daily life as a citizen, family member or why not, as a friend? Well, he could simply rely to creating a virtual identity as a way to express himself by transferring emotions and ideas inside an on line space. ( Jacob van Koksvijk, 2007 , p.95 ).The most important role of virtual identity is that it comes to your aid in terms of personal convenience.

      According to Jacob van Koksvijk, a growing number of people, especially the ones that are lead by a shadowy existence put a lot of hope into this “ virtual gate “, wanting to transform their lives. Their emotional stability could be achieved simply by creating an image of themselves, exchange messages or being given the possibility to choose a place to stay. A person that is incapable of creating sustainable social structures in real life could perhaps reach the desired attention through the projection of his ” fake “ portrait on numerous worldwide scenes. To give you another example of “ virtually – solved case “ of social mismatch, I will ask you to imagine a person who feels bad about his sluggish typing skills. His virtual representation helps him take part into chat – room fast discussions without being pointed at for his well known problem. These are only a few cases within a large amount of examples that stand for evidence in cases such as the shift of communication, self – representation, identity. ( Jacob van Koksvijk, 2007 , p.57 ).

First thing's first.....

      We are back again, this time here to deeply emerge you into the virtual mystery. Ready  to swift identities? All right, before doing so it might be polite to give some explanation why people like you and me simply feel better in cyberspace. 
      It is common that we represent our personality throughout the brands we buy, the career we pursuit or by our outer appearance. Does that change in outer space? Who would we want to be represented by? Would it be by the same person as in day – to – day reality or share a complete different outlook, from modified age, gender, personal background? Just imagine how monetary standards, social status and physical appearance become marginal in a world ruled by the lack of materialism.

      We’d like to propose a turn into the history of mankind. We familiarize ourselves with worlds invented by people that actually totally differ from their origins. Maybe all they wanted was to get rid of their daily routine, flee from problems or satisfy desires they couldn't fulfil in their social community. What about young individuals pressured by the society, peer groups or by their own families? It is more common they find their entities in between worlds. For them, switching between the physical and virtual reality becomes easier than ever and it actually reveals to be one of the best strategies to get rid of all the constrictions encountered on the way and simply experiment their personality. Mostly teenagers have the capability to easily establish this hybrid space, where they express themselves throught online personalities, feeling the urge to jump from a reality to another. ( Jacob van Koksvijk, 2007 , p.29 )

      The Internet of course makes all that possible. Why? Think of an open structure without a centre.  Everyone is welcome to partecipate in this kind of playground called “ world wide web “. It offers an extremely communicative platform for the existence of different types of media. Another interesting side of the Internet is that it possesses no certain identity. That leaves plenty of room for constant transformation. Let’s try to put it this way: do you feel you always know the person that you are talking to and his thoughts? What about the way he looks like or what he does? It is generally known that we are simply not constantly honest about our opinions, self descriptions and statements. The Internet is the means throughout which we substitute our regular personality with the virtual identity.

      

Welcome!!!

      The desired moment arrived for us to introduce you to the endless enigmatic world of cyber space, in correlation to the invisible link between all the mysteries that stick around cyber world and the vibes that digitised identities send us.
      By having that said, my colleague and I do not wish to give you a strict vision about what you are supposed to expect inside cyber world because everything is so elusive, subjective and most important: constantly changing! 
      We're trying to present you, the best we can, without falling into the escapeless trap of subjectivism, some components with the help of which the path towards the so called " virtual " is possible. We try to examine the origin and transformation of the identity shift, a phenomenon which is more and more spread in today's globalised world. 
      For the reason we as well are new in this field, but rather determined to arise your curiosity for this topic and simply incite you into this amazing world, we need of course the helping hand of the so called " forefathers " of cyberspace. 
      A proper introduction to virtual worlds will be given by Mr. Richard Bartle, " British writer, professor and game researcher, best known for being the co- creator of MUD and the author of the seminal Designing Virtual Worlds."      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Bartle
      Mr. Bartle, in a rather intriguing interview, will give you a glance over the way he constructed his world, in the book " Designing Virtual Worlds ", known to be " the bible for those who do and for those who populate them." 
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPAhrF2xPCI
      You will be able to form an opinion regarding what had pushed him towards designing it and what is his perception in terms of what is known to be " the real world ". What does exactly " real world " stand for and why are people discouraged to exit it for. Do they feel the urge to abandon it in order to find themselves elsewhere? Is it a matter of appreciation? What are the mysteries that lay behind the " virtual world " and what makes it so " appetising " ?