I suppose what makes this so interesting to me is that people assume if you're good and don't use voice, you're male. It doesn't matter what's on your profile or bio or what you tell them. In particular, if you happen to excel at something male dominated like a shooter game -- that makes you male. It fascinates me. In particular because on another note, I have male friends who excel at imitating female behavior (for years). Since online gaming is an escape from the real world for most people, I never understood what was the big deal with gender.
When Social Networking became en vogue many people weren't comfortable using their own photographs on their profiles. With the many security leaks and issues as to who owns your content I understand. Personally, I use both an avatar and a nickname on the great majority of my social media. Unlike many other people, it's not to hide my identity. I would be doing a very poor job if that were the case. It's a very deliberate way to associate myself with familiar things from my past that people I know would recognize.
Ana is my name. Yes really. It's on my business card. My friends call me Ana. On the reverse side of my business card is my family during beta in Glitch the game. My oldest daughter started playing during college. She invited myself and her sisters. It was a great way to stay in touch while we were apart. We still game together. Technology is a great way to facilitate communication when we're apart. Glitch is special to us. This is why I placed it on my business card and use it on some of my social media.
I use @blastkat or /blastkat or blastkat because I use blastkat for all my social media. Blastkat is a childhood nickname. My favorite book as a child was "Alice in Wonderland" by Lewis Caroll. My favorite character was the Chesshire Cat. I identified with it. For awhile I was Chesshire Cat because I was quiet and I came and went from room to room without people noticing as if I was vanishing. As children we didn't cuss. My Grandmother wouldn't have it. "blast" or "blast you" was as close as we came to cussing until Battlestar Galactica came out on television and we added another non-cuss word "frack" to our vocabulary. One year on vacation, I shot one of my cousins with a cap gun. I didn't mean to have the toy so close to his skin. He cussed at me the only way we could as children. He yelled, "blast cat"! It stuck. When I started using the name on regular arcade games, it was usually taken. Most arcade games after all did involve blasting. I changed the c to a k and have used it since. I was around eight when that happened.
The avatars I use on my profile are both custom designed by me. The profile photograph is one of my Second Life avatars: Andilynah Lorefield. There is a story behind nearly all my avatar names. Andilynah is Andi: a misspelling of Andy which is short for Andrew who is one of my best friends. Lynah is a misspelling of Leenah which is short for Arleenah who is my daughter. The background photograph is my guild during beta in Lord of the Rings Online. Our names are strictly Sindarian from the region from whence we hailed. I own all the books, several related books, the Sindarian dictionary and book of names. I don't think people realize how much effort is placed into games pre-release. I chose an appropriate name for my original hunter. Her name is Alannor Greystone. We take too many server wipes to count before the game is ready. Most people aren't cut out for testing. If you're at all curious, during beta we kept our original guild name Anarchists of Destruction [AoD] but I changed it during the first day of open beta to be more lore specific to Alliance of the Devoted. From left to right in the photograph: Jamie on Theodraine, Me on Alannor, Scott on Heinrich and on the table is Brad on Lejund.
Not that it matters but most of my social media accounts have real photographs of me. Almost all my social media accounts are listed on each of the bio's or personal information of whatever social media account of mine you're viewing. Real photographs of me are available if you're that curious. I choose not to use my own photograph as a profile pic or a cover photo. That's my decision to make.
Some people try to hide online. My advice to those people is don't try so hard. If someone wants to find you badly enough, he or she will because in all honesty it's not that difficult. Your online presence is like a horse drawn carriage. It's far better to be at the reins in control of how you're perceived online than to allow your online presence to wander around aimlessly or worse go crashing about unattended. Choose your brand. Associate yourself wisely. Remember an error in judgement isn't the end of the world. However, allowing an error in judgement run rampant like a wild black stallion could be detrimental to your reputation both on and offline. Times are changing. Evolve and adapt or be left behind.
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