How Second Life (virtual worlds) effect your identity, Part 1

"Avatars develop their own personality," John Jainschigg, chief editor of Dr. Dobbs Portal on the Web and chief architect of Dobbs Island in Second Life, told me. "There's something about the team of human and avatar that kicks off the human reflex to create a new personality."

Jainschigg got me into SL to attend Dobbs' first Life 2.0 Summit conference, and his avatar, John Zhaoying (pronounced "J-ying" with a kind of soft "J" sound), was the first "person" Yazzara Robbiani (that's me in SL) met. This conversation took place in May, while we were discussing how to build a business around Second Life, or virtual worlds in general, for my former employer, CMP Technology.

Wow. I HAD noticed that my experience of Zhaoying was kind of different from my experience of Jainschigg, but I had assumed that was because of the cartoon nature and out-of-body-ness of SL. How is Zhaoying different from Jainschigg, I asked. "He's funnier, and more unafraid," Jainschigg said.

And he's right! I think it comes in part from a limitation inworld, which is that not only could you communicate (at that time) only in text, but you had to use a terrible one-line text editor with an incredibly soul-crushing time lag. In RL, Jainschigg is incredibly eloquent, and can discuss deep and abstract concepts while tossing around the largest vocabulary of anyone I know. But he doesn't try to be funny (like I always do). In SL, he simply COULDN'T be himself, at least not in terms of self-expression, without driving himself insane. It turns out Zhaoying's expression is no less useful or insightful, but it is sure as hell simpler and more fun.

But will the experience change Jainschigg? Does what happens in Second Life stay in Second Life, or does it effect who we are in the real world?