Once a ______ Always a ______

The 'mermaid adopting kids' thread sparked me today. (^_^)

Question: How do you feel about avatar typecasting? (^_^)

Simple, no? If not, here is where my mind is wandering... (>,>

The question posed in the other thread seemed to stem from someone telling the OP that they can't adopt a child AV because they were mermaid AVs. I can understand the feeling of connection to your AV (remember that thread?) and how you place your emotions and desires into the form and shape you take on. But, does that mean that your type of AV means anything in regards to friendships, virtual families, or other inworld relationships? (o.o)

I can see where this can be taken to extremes. I'm quite rest assured that I won't be seeing a Kajira/Neko/Babyfur family any time soon. But, who knows? Not me. (^_^)y

Where do we draw lines and why do we draw them? I've heard mention about someone showing up to a club as a furry, getting "no fur allowed" IMs, changing to a more human appearance, finally to get ejected anyway with the final response of "you can't fool me!". Eh? (O.o)

So... Was this person tainted with furry-cooties? Was the appearance that the avatar had two minutes ago apply to anything happening right now? If all that mattered were appearances, shouldn't an instant change of appearances fix everything? (o.O)

I hate the idea of calling myself a shape-shifter. But, to be honest, I have 3 shapes. Most here have seen them. Little, big, tall. All my creations. I worked from a full-perms base kid shape for my little Loli-Imp avatar and my mid and tall avatars were works I've done from scratch starting with a Ruth avatar. My skins are edits I've done of Eloh's PSD files so that I could remove unnecessary shaders in order to indicate differences in my body details (or lack of).... So, I take on 3 forms. (^_^)

If I were to get complaints about my height as a Loli-Imp and I spurt up to my barely-legal or adult height that I'm somehow fooling them into thinking something I'm not? Am I, at 6 feet tall, still the "kid" they saw from the beginning? (O.o)

Same goes for the whole male/female thing. Some places I go to have changing room skyboxes set aside for male and female avatars. But, that's just a toggle. Once a while we'd get a male AV in the female skybox and people would start a ruckus over it. My general response is "Just give him a female AV, problem solved!"... But, for some people, that's not good enough. They saw him as a guy before, and he'll forever be a guy in their eyes. (=_=)

Also, I've heard suggestions that people should make separate accounts for each and every thing they do. In my point of view, that's very unimaginative. Inventory and money management is difficult enough as it is with a single account. On top of that, I'm sure it's annoying for many friends to keep track of who's who while they're constantly relogging other accounts who are more or less not on all the same friends lists. Then there's the whole deception bent... I won't go there. (=_=)

Then there's the groups list game people play. Especially when someone taking their version of "The Moral Higher Ground©®™" and the mob bounces back with their group list, usually finding sex, BDSM, or (sexual)ageplay groups. Or, simply inconsistent groups. I'm going to make an example of myself. I am a member of Second Life Children ~AND~ a member of *I Am Adult Conent. Or, even more fun; I'm a member of Second Life Mentors ~AND~ Woodbury University. I'm much more than a 1D character here. And I think that as long as I have all my facets in my RL, they should be reflected in my SL. (^_^)

So... Where's your gray area between a typecast avatar and a flat-out shapeshifter? Do names really matter at all? Is it wrong for mermaids to adopt kid AVs? Heck, ain't anybody seen a kid-mermaid? That'll really throw a wrench in the loop. =^-^=

How do you feel when your best friend comes by with a whole new avatar? Hair, skin, shape, and all. (^_^)

How would you react when your domme suddenly appears in a frilly pink kid AV? (^_^)

Or... Vice-versa. =^-^=

Is it right to place such artifical and social limitations in a grid based on "Your world. Your imagination."? (^_^)y

I think there's a general assumption that the avatar in which you're first seen is "your character", as in ithe one you wanted to play.

I think there's a social standard too. If you are told you can't go into a restaurant because you don't look smart enough, then you can come back looking smarter. But if you are told you can't go into a goth club because you don't look goth, then just coming back wearing more black might not be acceptable - since it seems you don't really have that personality, you're just faking it in order to fit in.

Is it right to have such restrictions in the world? Beware, you can be in trouble for asking that question.

I go by what I see in front of me, not by what I saw two minutes earlier. I guess I do "type cast" my own avatars though. I have alts that are different, a furry, a drow, a female.. But that's mainly cause i think they are fun to put together.

I'm always going to be a furry bunny (rarely another avatar)

I gender shift a bit, usually a male of boi type. But I have gone female at times (better tips!).

I get some odd comments, but oh well I got mute.

If I am not welcome at a place because of my avatar, it's not worth my time to change.

I always go by what avatar a person has on now. It's the only decent thing to do, because the person behind the keyboard can be a man, female, or an intelligent shade of blue.

I think that's one of the funniest things I've read in the forums

I'm blue dabadeedaba.. ok ok I had to.

But yeah, I like that statement.

No it isn't right, but it is *a* right.

I have the right to change my appearance as often as I like, and people have the right to think me a poseur for it and reject me.

Personally I have no trouble with people changing shapes if they have unique enough names. For instance, last night I stumbled into the same store as Ghosty Kips. He was not a llama at the time, but a human - and I wasn't a beagle, I was the compsognathus (chicken sized dinosaur) that I have been enjoying lately. But I recognized him and he seemed the same person to me, though it was just a brief "Hello."

I have no trouble recognizing you, Immy, either. I think there can be something intangible in the personality that comes through the avatar. Maybe it's just wardrobe tastes or chat styles - maybe it's something more metaphysical.

Regarding the mermaid question - I thought it a little sad that someone even had to ask the question. Come on folks - this is the stuff of dreams. Let's explore the improbable. We have enough rules and pragmatism forced on us in real life. Abandon reality, ye who enter here.

The furry in the club scenario could (note I said 'could') have been a case of the club owner and bunch of the patrons being gorean. Their no furries thing wouldn't have been hinged solely on the appearance, but also based on whatever kind of stereotyped personal behavior they associate with that appearance.. whether accurate or not. I'm sure the same could apply if the roles were reversed too. Those kind of personal assumptions may be due to a bad first impression, or a case of learned bad impression, who knows... Either way, typecasting does happen.

People love to compartmentalize things, sort them into easy to handle catagories in their minds. Many of the issues some people have are a result of someone/something not fitting neatly into one of their predefined catagories. They don't like to hammer things in place, and God forbid they have to redifine a catagory. A real shapeshifter kind of breaks a few rules because now some people can't just file this person away in a box labeled by how they appear, they actually have to communicate with them to see what they're about, see where they fit. Problems pop up because this kind of semi-lazy catagorization is inherently littered with presumed assumptions about someone/something which may not be true at all, but those assumptions get attached to that person/thing anyway. I think it's a good thing that the numbers of those people who simply 'must' rigidly follow their preset generalizations at whatever cost are relatively low.

Edited to add that this prelearned, predefined, prejudged thing is totally different to someone being accustomed to seeing a person one way for a long time, then feeing awkward if they see them appear as something radically different one day.

not what you are looking for, but here is my fill in just the same:
Once a prick, always a prick.

back on topic - i think people can change their avatar to whatever they want it to be. yesterday i was a dog for a little while. sometimes i am a baby. sometimes i am short. sometimes i am neko-ish. just a shape-changer of a different variety.

oh, and re: adoption- i adopted a little sister, because i asked her and she said yes. i don't need some bogus SL adoption agency to tell me who i can adopt. if you want to adopt someone as your _____, then just ask them and see if they agree. and that's free!

anything from child-like avi's right up to a 5 headed dragon with 60m in total wings length.

To me, that is the exciting part of SL, and people that are too narrow minded to understand that, I don't waste time on.

places that don't allow surten avatars for no apparent reason are places that are not worth visiting. (Although I do understand that some avatars are simply too big, like the 5 headed: can easely fill the largest club out there for instance)

You are all characters in a book.

Pep (And I keep rewriting the story)

Who do you want to be today?

Strangely enough, I should have thought that Real (?) Goreans would be the last to act that way.
In Gorean RP, you *have* to take everything at face value.
You can't read people's name tags. You don't know their name unless they or someone tells you it.
You can't use anything in Profile against someone. There are no Profiles in "The Books".
A Panther can go into a city disguised a Free, with PANTHER!!!! screaming from her Profile, and everybody has to treat her as a free unless something comes up in RP that indicates otherwise. Even your Gorean Meter chanted her name as it logged her arrow strikes on you a little earlier, you can't know it's her.

I'm definitely typecast. I do occasionally change my avatar, I have a bunch of furry ones and dragon ones and other weird things, mostly from Grendel's Children. But I see them as just a "costume" - the real me is still there underneath, and usually I can't wait to get back to my normal human, ginger-haired, beardy self.

I have three alts, one made to look like my RL self, plus two for fantasy roleplay. I have different accounts for them because I couldn't bear to mess with the appearance of my main avatar. I just don't feel comfortable doing that.

When it comes to other people's avatars, I have no concerns at all either way. I have some friends that shapeshift a lot, and some that don't do it at all.

And I really don't understand why mermaids can't adopt. Surely mermaids have kids too? *shakes head* Some people are just daft.

Any decent roleplayer would abide by that, not just 'real Goreans'.

From my profile picks, the RP section:

That was written after one-too-many RPers introduced themselves to me with, "Hello, Skell," when they hadn't been told my name (or even whether that was the name I was using in-game), after one-too-many RPers had taken something I'd posed as a thought and responded it it as though I'd said it out loud, and after one-too-many RPers had started warning people ICly to stay away from me because I was a thief (in that particular case) simply because my meter stated that's what I was. I wasn't too happy about losing RP chances because others were being warned off me like that.

The other exception would be role play sims that are trying to maintain a specific atmosphere. I wouldn't show up as a robot in a Tolkein RP sim.

While my response in the mermaid thread was a joke, I guess one could see it this way: Adoption agencies should look out for the best interest of the child, and is it in the best interest of a human child to get a family that lives undersea? My point is, any "agency" (which I'd consider to be a roleplay situation) should be free to set their own rules. And as 3ring Binder says, you don't need the "agencies" for it anyways.

But most of them simply let you know in a normal and polite way that a surten way to act or dress is expected there and they normally also let you know why.

That's true. You did say "for no apparent reason." I couldn't agree more.

It's SL, anything goes.

I tend to stick to one shape/skin per av, although just today I bought a teeny tiny ragdoll avatar because it was so cute and unusual. I don't know if I will ever wear it.

Some people change appearance constantly - others not so much. I think people accept any appearance (or all the people I know, do) it's more getting used to each change.

If the person keeps an av a long time, it will seem strange at first to be talking to a 'new face' but then people get used to it.

Somehow I don't think I'd make a very convincing kajira...

Dare ya.

I'm told it's fairly simple really if you have experience of being a husband.

Pep (You keep your mouth shut until told you can open it)

This is why a lot of RPers have 20 or more separate named accounts.