Psychology of SL - Alts

I have my main account and then I have 2 alts. My 2 alts are very different then my main name. I think I wanted them to be everything Rosey isn't. And one is just for rping so it's all good LOL

It is a curious phenomenon I have noticed clear back in the days before Internet, the BBS's. When using an alternate identity, the persona would change as well. For instance, I usually was a strict clear concise writer, yet when I used a persona named after a poet, my writing was mostly poetic prose. When I switched back to my real ID, I lost the poetic ability. Wierd.....

my alt looks just like me, same skin, same shape. However she is usually in horns and I in wings, otherwise, there is no real difference. And we have the same name, kinda.

- You're Never Alone with a Schizophrenic. =D

Like the OP, my female alt was supposed to be an escort, but either it didnt work out or I didn't try hard enough lols. At the time I created her, Dana was wearing the softer, frillier clothes, so she was supposed to be the hardcore freak. She did it well and made a couple of acquaintances, but just like everything else in SL, Dana does it better an I have NO idea why. Just last week I finished tweaking my alts shape to match her skin and she's friggin gorgeous. Logged them both into the same club as a test, Dana wearing poorly made crap and bad hair, and my alt wearing fairly new, event-tested, expensive hotness. Didn't say anything with either of them and once again... the main's IM box was full in no time. Even turned out the same when I did them up as identical twins (same shape, same skin) FFS! That's just not right...

In that case, if they look exactly the same, I wonder if their names have something to do with it? Perhaps, one might sound more appealing than the other to people you're meeting?

I has to be something like that The alts name is short and simple, like Dana's, but a lil more fantasy sounding... nothing major tho. I'm also coming to the conclusion that if you tweak your main's looks to exactly what you think is beautiful BEFORE you make your alt, nothing will ever look as good on your alt no matter how hot you make her. Next time I'm making a guy alt!

The sad part is Dana could probably do THAT better too

QFT!

I'm an Alt. I used to use my main account, and then created two alts for group/land things (I know you only need two for a group but I'm a careful kiind of girl). Somehow Jenara kind of took over, and my main account is now just used for the business end of things. 3rd alt only comes out if I want to play naughty, based on the fact there is a time and a place for these things! Plus, my main account's inventory was so clogged it was easier to start again with a new one than spend weeks deleting stuff.

Curious thing is, though, as much as I have tried to keep them all different, all 3 look strikingly similar. I've tried different skins, hair colour, etc, but all end up looking the same.

My question is, if you go out as an alt do you tell the people that you've met as your main account that you are so and so's alt when you meet them as an alt, or do you start again with them from scratch??

All of my alts have different appearance but only one really has friends or interacts with anyone.
I never been very good at being other people regardless of how my Alt may look
that is just me though.

This is one interesting subject.


I am an ALT, created originally to be an Escort as well. Later found that that wasn't my thing at all. However the ALT worked out to be much prettier then the original and made lots of different friends then the old one. So I deleted the original and used the ALT only from there on.


The ALT indeed was different in many ways then the original. The main difference was that the original disclosed and represented my RL me. The ALT had hardly any real live information displayed or otherwise disclosed. It was "more free" in a sense whlist the original was kind of inhibited or restricted by RL social rules. Therefore "developed" a different way of interaction with other people.


Recently I discovered Gor and it appeals to me. Especially the role of a panther. Needless to say that’s another personality type as well. Actually its possibly the one that fits my real psychological structure best. I could never have done that with my first avatar.

The different ALT's are all ourselves just more focus or development been but on other aspects of our personality - even in roleplays.

Regards

Maggie


P.S.: I know a fair bit about psychology

heyas;

actually, i dont need alts to do this. sometimes when i wear different avatars, i act a little different....

like, my echidna anthro furry. she has a mean look, she wears piratey clothes and harley enginner boots, and a shirt that reads '*(#$&% off, im building!' i can be really mean when i wear that avatar.

then i got a chipmunk avatar in japan.... i swear, i become a hyperactive squirrel-brain when i wear that thing! it doesnt help that it has a typing ao where it sorta hyperactively juggles an acorn. it just looks SO spastic! and i end up trying to type in time to the jumping acorn.

and some avatars are just not 'me.' like, my black cat anthro avatar. i do NOT wear dresses, but i dont mind putting them on my cat. (not my real cat, though!) and silks? i put those on the cat, too.
and i have a really sexy, silky white unicorn bishonen anthro that is NOTHING like me at all.



why? who knows!? multiple personalities? mutliple facets of one personality? lots of imagination?
there's actually someone in sl doing research on avatars and behavhior... rivka rau? something like that. sometimes there's an interesting discussion on sunday mornings, i think. rivka was doing interviews about avatars and personal representation, too. check it out, might be interesting.

Bloodsong Termagant, exactly!

*edit* wait you have been by Grendals, yes?

Me, my alts and I.

I have had a couple of alts, not only did they develop thier own identities, thety eventually changed me as well.

Yosef is as close to me (Joe, the guy at the ketboard) as any of them get. But when starting, I wanted to build. I started with the idea to make clothes and boots for for the punk/metal heads. I got tired of switching between male, female and furry shapes. Thus came alt #1. A female. She was a maniquin. A simple dummy spread eagle on a posing stand. But she didn't stay that way. In short, i learned a few things about myself with her. She is gone now. Canceled, deleted and lost in the ether. But she did transfer parts of herself to me.

Alt #2 never really went anywhere. He is a nice enough build for all freebies but he is an arogant prick. He was not packed up and put away like the builder alt but rather just forgotten and unused. The email account used for his creatin no longer exists and i don't remember the password to his log on. Just as well. I hated who I was in his skin. He was me in my early twenties and I was not a nice man.

When I heard of the alt party, I made another AV just for that. It already has it's own personality and I have done little more than go through the freebie shopes for skin, shape, hair and clothes.

Wow! Five pages and still on topic!! Forum hasn't quite gone to the dogs then

Regulars will know this but Bilbo wasn't even his true gender when first rezzed.
Given the opportunity of following a cute ass around this virtual world, I seized it, not remotely aware of what to expect from this new phenomenon.

Well, two weeks later when introducing my fiancee and two further RL friends to SL I reverted to male and Bilbo has thus remained as true to character as I can be.
Alt 1 came during a complex, painful and confusing time and thus became female. After a while and much education, largely in these very pages! her wildfire temperament matured into a fairly strong character of her own.

A little later a mood swing fired me up to create another but for technical reasons she didn't install so in my impatience, along came Alt 3, overtaking Alt 2 which was 'repaired' by Support.

I would stand by what Colette says. They are all me. They have different 'Codes of Conduct', friends lists, places of interest, shapes, skins and inventories but yes, they are me.

Strangely, earlier today I was at a store with one when the frequency of a particular letter coming up on the lucky chairs spurred me to login another. The strange part is, both avies bought clothing but later, on returning to the peace, quiet and absence of lag at home proceeded to swap most of what they'd bought, such is the different directions these 'characters' have taken.

They are all me but there is a different driving force, sometimes even a mood or attitude depending on which name I wear.

Not only have I let it be known who I am in real life, I also have people who actually know more about me than the bare bones someone might normally drop into a conversation. I came into SL for a meeting of real life people, so I never had a chance, I had to be me. Granted, if any of those people ever actually read the SL Forums they could confirm that I have always been a somewhat weird and wacky guy. But there was a line I could never cross, as this is me wandering around SL (the hangout people might respond that I appear restrained and wall-flowery at the hangout; or could have before I stopped sitting in a corner taking pictures, and before I danced with Graph; I deeply regret that as I appear to have scarred him).

I created an alt to examine CSI:NY, and while he wasn't me, he also wasn't anything else. A cipher. So, I might, someday, go ahead and create an alt just to actually let myself free. Or not. I might find that I just end up myself.

"No matter where you go...there you are."

I keep trying to get rid of me, to shake me from my tail, but alas no matter where I go, there me am.

And now that stalker song . . . which I cannot seem to recall a single lyric from, though it involves something about "wherever you go, my eyes are on you" or something like that.

Do you mean the song from The Police,

"Every breath you take
Every move you make
Every bond you break
Every step you take
Ill be watching you

Every single day
Every word you say
Every game you play
Every night you stay
Ill be watching you... "

I only have one alt, but I find that I am spending more time in world with her than with my main. They both represent the real me but my main is more of the business operator, money holder, builder...ect. She's also less sociable. I find that I can be more relaxed with my alt and I do a lot more exploring with her. I just hope my main doesn't get mad that I use her house...and spend her money.

Yes, that one, thanks.

Wait, some people use alts to be the business person? How does that work out?

This is my alt because of a stalker RL/SL...woooo

It wasnt on purpose, thats just the way it turned out. My main is a lot more responsible than I am for some reason, but shes no fun. I would rather sit in a float on the beach splashing water or ride a zebra in Africa.

The Alt went out and bought a pair of boots...and Honey ended up jealous. Honey got a new skin...and the Alt got jealous.

That's when I started worrying...lol

When I came to SL, I didn't know what to expect and wasn't really sure what I wanted to do here. I am very shy and quiet in RL and I couldn't seem to shake that in SL. I messed with building a bit and decided that bored me to tears. I loved the Victorian clothing and that entire era, so I tried to get into that stuff, but still couldn't let myself losen up for some reason.

I was actually thinking of leaving SL when I decided to instead create an alt specifically to role play and explore some of my fantasies. Mostly the alt was because I already had a small set of friends under this id and I didn't really envision these new activities fitting into Twosteppin's developed persona. However, the role playing was only going to work if I forced myself to become more outgoing, so I worked very hard at doing just that. And, amazingly enough, I started making even more friends with that ID.

Twosteppin still goes to the Victorian sims sometimes and posts in the forums, but it is the alt account that has pretty much taken over in SL. She has calmed her activities down a bit and matured quite a lot, but she is still the outgoing friendly social butterfly that I always wanted to be in RL. Other than being much more social, she is actually more like the real me than Twosteppin is, so overall I am very happy to let her be primary in SL.