Nickname, Avatar why?

Sun Aug 22, 2010 1:37 pm » by **Cwmman**

i cant answer the question 'cos i cant get an avatar on the forum :headscratch:

.....

Sun Aug 22, 2010 2:43 pm » by **TheDuck**

cwmman wrote:i cant answer the question 'cos i cant get an avatar on the forum .....

You should be able to, how come?

Sun Aug 22, 2010 3:29 pm » by **-Marduk-**

Avatars Can Surreptitiously And Negatively Affect User In Video Games, Virtual Worlds

Although often seen as an inconsequential feature of digital technologies, one's self-representation, or avatar, in a virtual environment can affect the user's thoughts, according to research by a University of Texas at Austin communication professor.

In the first study to use avatars to prime negative responses in a desktop virtual setting, Jorge Peña, assistant professor in the College of Communication, demonstrated that the subtext of an avatar's appearance can simultaneously prime negative (or anti-social) thoughts and inhibit positive (or pro-social) thoughts inconsistent with the avatar's appearance. All of this while study participants remained unaware they had been primed. The study, co-written with Cornell University Professor Jeffrey T. Hancock and University of Texas at Austin graduate student Nicholas A. Merola, appears in the December 2009 issue of Communication Research.

In two separate experiments, research participants were randomly assigned a dark- or white-cloaked avatar, or to avatars wearing physician or Ku Klux Klan-like uniforms or a transparent avatar. The participants were assigned tasks including writing a story about a picture, or playing a video game on a virtual team and then coming to consensus on how to deal with infractions. Consistently, participants represented by an avatar in a dark cloak or a KKK-like uniform demonstrated negative or anti-social behavior in team situations and in individual writing assignments. Previous studies have demonstrated these uniform types to have negative effects on people's behaviors in face-to-face interactions. For example, Cornell researchers Mark Frank and Tom Gilovich showed that dark uniforms influence professional sports teams to play more aggressively on the playing field and in the laboratory. Peña's research demonstrates how these effects operate in desktop-based video games, and sheds light on the automatic cognitive processes that explain this effect.

"When you step into a virtual environment, you can potentially become 'Mario' or whatever other character you are portraying," said Peña, who studies how humans think, behave and feel online. "Oftentimes, the connotations of our own virtual character will subtly remind us of common stereotypes, such as 'bad guys wear black or dress up in hooded robes.' This association may surreptitiously steer users to think and behave more antisocially, but also inhibit more pro-social thoughts and responses in a virtual environment." According to Peña, these findings can be particularly useful to video game and combat simulation developers.

"By manipulating the appearance of the avatar, you can augment the probability of people thinking and behaving in predictable ways without raising suspicion," said Peña. "Thus, you can automatically make a virtual encounter more competitive or cooperative by simply changing the connotations of one's avatar."

Mon Aug 23, 2010 12:41 pm » by **Cwmman**

theduck wrote:
cwmman wrote:i cant answer the question 'cos i cant get an avatar on the forum .....

You should be able to, how come?

i cant get the right size for it , no big deal i can live with that :cheers:

Mon Aug 23, 2010 12:44 pm » by **TheDuck**

cwmman wrote:
theduck wrote:
cwmman wrote:i cant answer the question 'cos i cant get an avatar on the forum .....

You should be able to, how come?

i cant get the right size for it , no big deal i can live with that

Try 116 x 116 or round about that, that's what mine is.

Go to paint on your computer and resize the avatar to around that size, save as JPEG then upload from machine and it should work.

Oh and make sure its less then 10KB otherwise you'll have to upload it to tinypic.com and copy the online image location.

Mon Aug 23, 2010 3:47 pm » by **Cwmman**

Thanks but it just dont want to do it, nothing with me being computer stupid or anything :hmmm:

Mon Aug 23, 2010 3:50 pm » by **Otomon**

Mon Aug 23, 2010 4:14 pm » by **Viewer**

Im using this body to view this world and i come from space> orion constellation.< the reason i think that is when i look up at the stars and see the orion constellation i feel a big pull, a bit like when you have been away from home and you miss it, but a lot stronger.