Plentiful of Avatars

My Yahoo Avatar

My Self Portrait

MY Southpark Lollipop Loving Character

The latest version of Yahoo Messenger comes complete with the capability to create your own avatar which appears next to your nick. Above is what I created in my Yahoo Messenger. Before all that, what does Avatar really means? In the Geek world, it’s a word very often used, but rarely understood.

The Wepopedia defined the word as “A graphical icon that represents a real person in a cyberspace system. When you enter the system, you can choose from a number of fanciful avatars. Sophisticated 3D avatars even change shape depending on what they are doing (e.g., walking, sitting, etc.). ” How did this word came about? It actually came from the Sanskrit word “Avatara” which meant the incarnation of god in the Hindu belief. The English had sort of changed its meaning to a description of an actual physical person in an abstract way, in this case, a cyber/virtual representation of our self as a cartoon, so to say.

Therefore, looking at my three representations of myself, you would wonder which is most similar to the real me. I definitely do not think the Yahoo Avatar look anything like me. I was just trying to find the best combinations with their limited choices, but none came close. Firstly, the characters all look cool and right out of MTV. Then, there aren’t exactly any Asian kinds. They do include some stereotypical kind of sharp eye supposed Asian eyes, but I didn’t choose that one, simply because I do not think I have very sharp looking slanted eyes.

The self portrait was one I did for a project, which I think looked pretty much like me. My southpark character has all the colors and stuff I love most, complete with a not too fantastic complexion. Care to vote for the best?