CeNedra recently had a post concerning alternative characters in SL that had me thinking.
I make no secret of the fact that I have alts. I have two, to be exact; a male alt who originally was as a minor character for my rp; these days his only purpose is dinking around and trying on men's clothes. And then there's Nightingale.
Nightingale is what you might call my secondary account. She exists for many of the reason CeNedra mentioned, to provide a respite from our buddy list and our groups and the usual drama and cacaphony of our main second lives.
But when I thought about it, it occurred to me that all of that is a minor part. Night simply exists as a contrast to Kharisma. I use her to do and try things that wouldn't be in Kharisma's character to do. Nightingale is literally a different personality from my main. I've always loved acting, and Night is my chance to play a role other than my own.
Which probably makes little sense; I could do all of that with just one account. After all, a person can do anything in SL. With just a folder in my inventory with a new shape and skin, Kharisma could become someone else entirely. But I just can't. In a way, I've internalized Kharisma as a reflection of myself. But at the same time I've given her a persona of her own. Kharisma is her own entity now. Acting out of her character just feels awkward.
Upon reading CeNedra's post, I was aghast that this person, J, was abusing her kindness and trust under the guise of an alt. But then I started thinking. While I've never intentionally and maliciously used Nightingale to mislead someone, am I not doing the same thing when I don her role and pretend to be someone else? Whatever my intentions, I'm still essentially lying about who I am. Am I doing the exact same thing as J?
You tell me.
2 comments:
NO! You are absolutely 100% nothing like J. The reason I'm so sure? The fact that you are even concerned about it.
I still stand by my original feelings that alts are not evil, or devious by nature. There are a multitude of reasons why people want or need another account and your desires to explore a seperate persona are completely valid.
The deception came in because M presented herself to me, purposefully, as a different person in order to become close to me in a way that J never could, taking advantage of my nature with deceit.
If M would have wandered the grid and done her own thing, never presenting herself to me and starting a relationship, I wouldn't have had a problem at all.
Please don't feel bad about yourself.
*hugs*
OMG I wanted to write this exact same post. You took the words right out of my mouth. I too have a male alt, as well as a female alt which I use to try things which I (Quaintly) wouldn't normally do. I've been wondering whether I should tell people I'm an alt, when I'm wandering around the grid as either of them. Especially when I bump into people who already know me. Because they of course treat my alts as separate people and have conversations with them and I feel a bit like I'm misleading them :\
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