Alter Ego: ME and me Revised

One definition of Alter Ego is a "another side of oneself; a second self". The question is when and how does an individual creates an alter ego.

Here are some information I've gathered: (from healthguidance.org)

• Usually, people who have been deprived or who haven’t been able to do what they always wanted to do in life have an alter ego. They seem to live in their dreams and have a life of what they had always wanted.

• They imagine themselves in the world of their dreams and reach their goals with the help of this alter ego. Most of the times the interest of the person and his/ her alter ego are the same and they try to develop it in their own manner.

• There are many people who are unaware of them having an alter ego and there are some who might be aware of the fact. If you know someone who has an alter ego, then you need to observe the person very carefully as distinguishing them can be close to impossible.

With those information, I'm thinking that isn't that MMORPGs are one of the ideal places that a person could create his/her alter ego (consciously or unconsciously). Online games cater people's need to get away from their own identities.

With RPG games, in general, people have the freedom to choose who they ideally want to be. It's like filling the holes that you have on yourself by creating a better you through the character creation that games offer.

Moreover with online games, with the creation of the 'PERFECT' image of oneself, a gamer now develops self-confidence to interact with other gamers thus living the alter ego. Through this, a gamer can get acquainted with a lot of people and can/may develop good friendship with other people (with or without his true identity). Moreover, those friendships can lead to more personal relationships. (again, with or without revealing their own identity)

But with the issue of Real ID on the horizon, identity issues will be hit. It may be work- related, gender-related, physical appearance issues, etc. Though the real purpose of would be beneficial to the forums but it will affect a bigger problem regarding privacy.

I know that it is a fact the as company can't please all its customers and will try to cater as many as possible but the problems that the fix (REAL ID) will be giving to the minorities would really be threatening.

I hope things like this should always be reconsidered especially if it involves personal information.

Some people would love to be in the limelight but some would only want half of them in it.

Note: I would like to thank other bloggers for inspiring me to do this entry.

ME & me