Psychology of SL - Alts

I have an alt. Her original intent was to be an escort but for some reason, it just didn't work out for her, and really, that's ok.

But the interesting thing that I have found with her is that...her personality is significantly different than Honey's. She tends to be a bit more aggressive, where Honey is firm, but gentle (unless pushed hard).

I know that I'm not instinctively trying to play them differently...it just kind of ends up that way. *frowns*

There are three men that know Honey well, and that have met the alt...surprisingly to me, because I thought she was gorgeous, they all prefer Honey and don't like the alt at all - said she's too bitchy and pushy and that Honey's look appeals to them more.

They have the same skins, although the body is different, as is the hair. My personality isn't split, confused, or anything else...I just don't get why she plays off the way she does.

Is this happening with anyone else??

I don't bother myself too much with what my RL agent gets up to but I do know they created a testbot alt some time ago, to help meee! That alt, as far as I know, remained looking like a newbie until they became a silver ball. I guess a silver ball doesn't have much in the way of personality!

Yes, my alts are very different than me.
Chris Norse is just an over the top version of me in RL, younger and better looking of course.


One alt is very aggressive, not a very nice man. I have an alt that is much more sub, weaker in spirit and will. (no insult intended to the subs out there)

Hm...maybe she should become a silver ball then.

*remains perplexed*

My alt has barely seen the light of day, so her personality hasn't developed much but I can see her being very different from Stormy. The way I look at it is that no matter how many alts you have or how different they are in personality from each other, they are all pretty much some aspect of who you are in RL. I know that not everyone in SL plays their Avvies as themselves and create a character of some sort, but I think a lot of people basically play off from their own personalities with less barriers, for the most part. I think we all have a little bit of this and a little bit of that personality in RL, but one is more dominate then the other. Though completely unintentional, each alt might take on one dominate feature of your personality while the other ones take on another. I don't know if I'm explaining my thought quite right. I'm not a Psych expert or anything, but that's my take on it.

Interesting. There is another alt, however, her purpose is just to be a money holder. She's dressed, head to toe, in freebies, and her skin was on sale for 25L at Alady. I consider her to be quite passive indeed.

Thanks Chris - I was beginning to get nervous that I was the only one out there!

Honey,
This is so weird because the same exact thing happened with my Alt. I created her as a CSI player cause I didn't want to have Becca going to NY. Anyway, the first day she was attacked in NYC and she morphed into a hunter/killer. She has the same shape as me in the face, but the rest evolved into a sexy, wild creature. The guns, the tats, the drinking... I didn't know I had those tendencies at all.

The Alt is quite beautiful, all my friends say so, but they love Becca, and she is the cute one. Five months and the Alt had taken over my SL time. In fact I was getting ready to retire Becca and my Rezday Party came up. Afterwards several close friends really talked to me about my retirement. I sat down and examined my split personalities (the two of us are so different) and have come to the conclusion the Alt was created in a time of great pain. Ah Ha......an escape so I can inflict pain on others or to hide from myself while I heal?

This revelation is so new I am still working it out. And trying to find myself again.

I think you may be spot on Stormy! I'm not the type to run around in alien skin, or really, a silver ball (no offense, Conifer). Human I am, and shall remain. But yes, I can see that each girl is carrying a *part* of my RL personality, although together, they don't make up the whole "me".

When things were going kind of rough in my SL a year-and-a-half ago, I logged onto my oldest alt as a form of escape. Some say you come to Second Life to escape First Life, and I was escaping my Second Life with my alt.

Anyway, she was all about having fun, and for some reason I played her kind of like an idiot. She said stupid things in a stupid way, and was sickeningly naive- but always friendly. Somehow she really connected with people. I'd go down to the welcome areas and people would friend her within minutes of starting up a conversation. I almost became jealous of my own alt, because people don't really approach Wildefire unless it's for business reasons or they want something else for me. People spoke to my alt simply because they enjoyed her company.

EDIT: Appearance-wise I experimented a lot with this alt, making many different shapes and changing skins a lot. These days she has Wildefire's shape, but different skin and hair, and has a much more colorful and casual wardrobe.

I have alts I use for modeling mostly plus building or when I need private time. I've waited to see if they develop personalities of their own, but it hasn't happened. They haven't taken on Bradley's personality either. Surprisingly they are nothing but mindless drones to me. Nothing but cameras. Even when I need quiet time and go out and exploring in them that's all they are. If along the way I end up chatting with someone, I might as well be in an ugly old fashioned chat room.

I guess Bradley gives me all the outlet I need.

I have another avatar by accident. Long, sorrid story. I don't consider her to be my alt. I used her to dance in a club for a bit but now, she is just a memory. I can say that she was very different. She was a push over and overly agreeable. Nothing like Emuna!

Wow...ok, very interesting. I'll have to look at my alt's rez date and see if I can remember why she was created, or what was going on in my life when she was.

I've slimmed down the number of alts I have, and am using the ones left much less often than in the past. Each one, though, ended up with their own distinct personality. I have no idea how that occurred, though, as that was not my intention. There were reasons that I left Sonia, and those reasons and events since then have basically "killed" her. When I log into her, now, it is just like Lexxi has pulled on a different costume to wear (those very rare occasions when I pull on that costume). I have one other alt, but at this point I only log into that one to get the money out, and/or play with group issues.

So: I created many alts, all ended up having distinct personalities, and now all but three accounts are deleted, and only Lexxi is left with any real personality.

RIP you fabulous alternate accounts.

I never got the entire concept of an alt being a different person than your more commonly used avatar.

Of course I never got the concept of your avatar supposedly being a different person from you, the user.

All I can say is that I would have left Second Life if I hadn't created Lexxi in July (I didn't log into the forum as Lexxi until August). I just couldn't stay Sonia any longer. Too painful.

So . . . maybe it is more of a restart than an alt. But then I created the male alt to see if there was a different treatment to men and women in SL, and he has a different personality than mine (I think that was just a month long experiement). And there was something I wanted to explore that I didn't think I could do so with Lexxi, and so those alts were made, and after a long time, deleted.

At this point I have three accounts, but just one active one.

I am so happy that my avatar is different than the RL me, in some ways. We can both be hot headed when pushed. The RL me calls the person a bad name and then heads to StarBucks for a Non-Fat Latte. Emuna calls you a bad name and then causes bodily harm. If I did that in RL, I would be in the pokey wearing one of those ugly orange jumpsuits.

I created an alt to try out CSI:NY. I never talked with anyone, nor did I ever leave the islands, and so they didn't even get my personality.

I don't use my alt very often. Bought her a pair of shoes (red converses), because I hate the default ones. Turns out the sneakers don't go with any of her clothes so she walks around bare feet. I've twiddled with her shape and got her a cheap skin and AO. I guess you would say she's my cheap me, but she's still me. A cheap, less talkative, eyelash-less me. Same personality.

I have several alts as well and I do find that they tend to have different personalities, even tho it is still me behind them. I think it does have to do with how they appear.

My main, is basically an extention of my real self. She resembles me rather closely as I was in my early 20's, so I identify with her a lot. I don't do much roleplay with her at all. What you see, is what you get with Elora.

My first alt, was more or less a more dominent form of myself. Looks nothing like me - has a "harder" appearance to her. She started out to be a furry, but then became a dominatrix (non-furry) for a while, had a "pet" (non-furry, why do I feel I have to keep clarifying that? lol). I no longer run her at all - have not for many months and never intend to again. She wore out her welcome. But, I do feel a deep kinship with her on many levels, since I was able to explore a lot of things with her, and she was nice alt to run, since she was a kind Mistress, not an evil one.

I then created a 2nd alt to "hide out" with an old BF. When I wanted to be left alone and not bothered with IM's when we were together. That was her only role. She, is a complete replica of me. Exactly the same, essentially we are identical twins. While she is a bit more "retiring" in her overall personality when I run her, what I discovered in running her was that I began to be able to incorporate elements of that "Mistress" alt into this 3rd alt. I had never been that way with my main Av. So she actually helped me eventually to learn how to mesh aspects of my personality which were always there more fully into my main Av.

Lately, I've been bringing her out again, for other reasons, but I've changed her appearance, trying to make her look as different from my main Av as possible. I do see she is behaving differently too. She most definately is not my main. I have her going off in a different direction, and I'm getting more comfortable being in her skin as well.

The 3rd alt, is a female also, but I rarely have run her at all. She is very shy, quiet, younger than the others. Sort of a coquette/coltish thing, but of legal age I haven't figured out what I want to do with her yet. She looks like she'd make a great stripper, but I haven't the time or inclination. She languishes in the neatherlands, a Premium member and was able to give me her tier to help with my Group and that's about it

Oh and I have a 4th too, but I'm not telling yet what he/she/it is just in case I decide to use it for the possible alt party

I feel as if I am in the minority - I don't have an alt. Anyone else?

Well Some of us have imagination, fantasy, and multiple personalities just dying to get out. Some of us dream in color (colour) and some of us have second sight.

I have a main (graph) and 3 alts, each with a distinct style of their own, including different ways they respond to others. Youngand Ansome responds similar to the way Graph does except he is not quite the flirt that Graph is. My other two alts are still developing their styles, and will remain secret to use in the alt party in March. (I am looking forward to that!)

One thing all my alts have in common, they all seem to misspell the same words!

Darn, forgot about that. Um. Everyone forget I ever mentioned anything about CSI:NY. That or I need to remember to change his default CSI:NY look before the party. Or at least remove the badge.



If this thread had occurred a week or two weeks ago (can't remember when I created that alt), I'd have said that I also didn't have an alt.

In many ways SL is self induced schizophrenia, when we first play we don’t really know what to expect, but in time our understanding of SL and what is available grows, and along with it you begin to accept that the Game piece we wave been playing with is not a game any longer it is a reflection of you and your personality in the fantasy world.
By that stage you have likely got several friends and some kind of social standing.
But there are still interesting things to do, and see in SL that may be out of character of your main avatar, and so you use an alt. Over time that alt may also gather friends and interests and you want to keep the 2 worlds separate, instant schizophrenia. Same person 2 personalities, both reflecting different aspects of your real personality.
Then like others have mentioned, there are the building/scripting alt's who only ever talk to fellow nerds (no insult intended, I am one too), or the banking alt, with no social life, just hands out cash and sets group rights.
I am glad I’m not alone, in that others feel the same way, but I don’t see it as a problem, more another aspect of what makes SL so fascinating and addictive.

Haha, Yes, the way we speak (spell) does give us away...

I'm also looking forward to the alt party, although I don't know any of you well enough to guess who's who. Will there be some kind of contest as to who can guess the most real identities? What does the winner win? Bragging rights? A pole dance from his/her favourite av? Real av or alt?

Hmmm, who shall I be, what shall I wear...

I am not aiming this at you, Talon- many (most?) people have only one avatar- but as a rule, anyone who adamantly states "I HAVE NO ALTS" whenever the subject of alts comes up usually has a small army of them.