With the rise in the use of the Internet and online environments for social interaction, the use of a nickname to identify yourself is pretty much the norm. If you spend a lot of time online and use the same nickname time and again, it;s very easy to become attached to it. In my own case, I’ve been using cro (as in the domain name this weblog is hosted on, and my email address prefix) for email addresses, website names, forum logins and laterly as my primary identity on QuakeNet for more than 15 years.

Where I can I always use ‘cro’ as my identifier, it’s something I’m used to. So much so that I answer to ‘cro’ in the real world - and friends actually call me by that name. A couple know me better as ‘cro’ than as ‘Tom’.

So it was with interest I read a story posted on Slashdot on the subject of virtual identities, and the use of a nickname.

My Azgalor Paladin is running through Stormwind when I get a message from a GM proclaiming that my account is in violation of Blizzard policy and I must change my nickname. I try to find out more information, but I am kicked from the game. I have been CmdrTaco since April, but when I log in, I choose the new name: Violated. This experience has brought up a host of feelings on matters of virtual identity and virtual worlds.

(For those of you who don’t read Slashdot very often, CmdrTaco is Slashdot’s originator.)

The article makes very good reading, as well as making a couple of very interesting points about the nature of online identity and the attachments we can make to the way we express ourselves through our choice of online name.

In this virtual world, two levels gives me a couple new pieces of armor, and suddenly I am unrecognizable to anyone who may have run an instance with me. In guild chat, I am a total stranger to people I may have chatted with for months. My history with other players has been erased. It almost makes me wish that I spent my first 45 levels ninja looting!

There have been reports in the past about odd name change decisions in various massively multiplayer games, usually for apparent (but usually unexplained) violations of the terms of service, and most of the public postings made by those affected are full of indignation, however CmdrTaco takes the time to explore the effect the changing of his in-game name has had on his relationship to other players, and his attachment to his avatar.

Technorati Tags: Digital Identity, Identity, World of Warcraft, Slashdot, Virtual Identity