OLR: Exercise 1 – Topic 5

Through out the many virtual worlds that I visit I tend to keep the same personality.

My current online identities are as follows:

World of Warcraft – Online Roleplaying game. – Guild leader, Class leader and Webmaster

Gaming forums – e.g. www.cursegaming.com I try and offer advice on technical issues and game issues. I try and help new people.

MOO – Part of this course! POD Group member and all round nice guy!

I keep these personalities the same as my Real Life one as I have many real world friends In them. The thing I have noticed is that online personalities allow people to be a bit more outgoing then they may be in real life. I tend to try and be helpful and caring to other people as well as good for a laugh. I try and keep any real life issues out of online personalities as this is a place of fun and friendship.

I aim to make my online personality bring out the good in me. Meeting new people and having fun are the main aims to me.

From what I have seen many people take advantage of an online identity to live out fantasies, and test out different aspects of their personality that they might be too shy to do in the real world. This can be both good and bad as it may hurt people but can be a great tool for allow people to grow and open up socially.