Maybe this topic has been discussed before, but I haven't noticed… Aaanyway, what always makes me wonder is how much I sometimes identify people with their avatars. Think Volte. I catch myself imagining he's actually that red-haired five year old lol!Just like sometimes it's hard to imagine LeFarce is not Joker. And it came as quite a shock to me that Ersatz is not an amoeba ;)
Of course, some of us use either their own pictures as their avatars, like Subcultured, or cartoony versions of themselves, like DGriff. But the general tendency here and all over the internet is to use pictures of celebs or fictional characters, and unless they post a real picture of themselves, that image is to some degree stuck in your head.
Or am I just weird? :)
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Comic Talk and General Discussion *
People and their avatars
I know exactly what you mean. Like Midge, hehe.
For you, I kind of always picture that little buggy thing. DAJB also comes to mind, with that cute caricature of himself.
Also, OzoneOcean has that cool dastardly thing going on.
( I suggest you put something into this thread like -who comes to mind when you think about avatars you identify the person with? Something like that… )
I have a stable of them I like to use. Stuff related to space marines or soldier stuff. I use the parental advisory sticker. If we're doing a group theme, I always like to pick the worst character or someone whose a breakout. We played Scrubs the other day and I was the blond chick for awhile.
I like the DOOM marine that I'm using now, falling and grasping his throat as his guts explode out of him. Usually admins and mods would bust my ass over anything like that, but now that there are a ton of guys lower on the totem pole and I don't care anymore. I'm curious if I could use some of the animated ones that are scenes from horror movies.
D0m: Yeah, I was thinking about Midge, too. I keep imagining him as Tom Selleck, even though I know well what he looks like. And I still imagine Ersatz as an amoeba with moustache ;)
As for myself, I think I like myself associated with Mick - perhaps that's the reason I didn't change my avatar to Ryan. I also wanted to change it to a couple of other things, like panels from my comic, but I kept thinking that's just not me.
Marine: I think I like the Doom marine best so far. That game brings back memories.
Mostly those of being an underage mass murderer of pixels lol!
I can't tell you how many people think I'm a black female – lol – when in fact, I am a white male. My wife is a black female but she looks nothing like Sapphira. :)
Midge is a good example. He will be Tom Selleck, there's no getting around it; it's like he's typecast.
The ones who switch around their avatars, I don't really associate as closely, but I know who they are.
It's an interesting…phenomenon.
It's not uncommon for humans to associate with the avatars. We're programmed to recognize faces and store them in memory. Lacking an actual face, we tend to tie in the person with their avatar since it's the image we're shown every time there's a post.
Those who keep changing their avatar repeatedly aren't identified with as often, since the appearance keeps changing. Not to say that's always a bad thing.
I kind of look like my avatar, but I no longer have my goatee right now.
I know what you mean. It's not just as you describe it either, I find myself remembering peoples avatars instead of names (I am really, really useless at remembering names). Sometimes I get confused when someone changes their avatar (especially when it's nothing like their old one) or confuse one person for another if they have similar avatars. Does that happen to anyone else?
No, I totally agree. The guy who does "Final Fantasy Endless Waltz That Never Ends" had a different avatar than he does now. When I first came here, he had an avatar of Ichigo Kurosaki and Ganju Shiba pointing at each other. Now he uses an animated sprite avatar. I had no idea who he was when he posted recently in the forum until I saw the name and clicked to view the profile.
I know I associate users with avatars, especially ones that don't change much or stick to a theme. LeFarce, Midge, and dueeast especially. Even though I know they don't look like those things.
I look more like this (which isn't really cartoonified me but a character from my comic):
I used that as an avatar for less than a day. I changed it because people kept thinking I was a man and a jackass, and they were reading malice into my posts/comments – which wasn't there and wasn't intended. I finally switched over to one of my more feminine/sweet characters for an avatar.
I think of people as their avi pics only if I haven't seen a real pic of them. And even then after a time their personality becomes bigger than any avi pic they might use. I've never seen a real pic of Marine or Custard Trout but their personalities speak for themselves.
I associate everyone with their avatar at first, and then kind of slide into a new picture I form of them after reading their work, or reading their posts. (This obviously doesn't count if I've ever seen an actual picture of said person.)
Me, I've changed my avatar several times now. First I had Golgo 13, then I switched to a Henry avatar from my comic, and now I'm using Jared. I don't know why, I guess I can't stand to be predictable and like to toss things up every once in a while.
I'm definitely in the Midge must be a Tom Selleck look-a-like camp. I know he's denied it but, you're right, he's stuck with it. Which wasn't a problem until Hallowe'en when he also sported Harley Quinn's body, spliced together with Tom's cheery face like something from Mars Attacks! Now I can't look at Harley without thinking she must have a hairy chest!
And, sadly, I do look frighteningly like my avatar. Except older. Much, much, much … well, you get the idea.
Neilsama is clearly Jessica Alba's long lost twin. He's fooling nobody with that blonde wig.
Others I imagine as looking exactly like their avatars are Alanajoli, Tantz Aerine (not too much of a stretch for either of those) and - rather more bizarrely - Skoolmunkee and Molly Loves the KLF.
I may need therapy …
EDIT: Molly Loves the KLF has changed his/her avatar, I notice, so that one no longer applies. I still imagine Skoolmunkee dances eveywhere she goes, though. Probably clashing two little cymbals together.
;)
I change mine all the time. For a long time, it would be to anything, but lately I've been trying to stick to an Ace Frehley theme. Which is hard sometimes, currently i'm trying to figure out how to keep to the theme because lately I've wanted to use Grover from Sesame Street. I tried an animation that switches from the grover pic to the Ace av, but it looks bizzare and non-sequitor… so I may just use an Ace watermark on the Grover pic.
*Useless Randal trivia: Favorite Sesame Street muppet? Grover*
*Useless Randal trivia note: As a kid, it was Ernie, but he's been bumped to #2*
I see people by the avatar they put up. If you are a girl and you put up a boy from your comic then ill be like, "woah! that guy rocks!"
i change mine every other week it seems. Everytime i get bored with my old one, i change them like i change….socks..
yeah not a really good metaphor…
Yup, if I saw someone who's avatar looked pathetic, I'd associate them as a tiny pathetic nerd who sits in the basement making his comics all day.
But now I see I was thinking of myself D:
But yeah, if I saw a picture of Priest Revan, I'd be surprised that his face isn't covered in fur…Indeed…
Awww! I still wuv you all!
I've just been very busy lately and when I do log into chatrooms, I end up just idling. So after a while, I figure if I'm not going to chat, I should stop idling and looking like I am there. ^^;;;
To sort of steer this back on topic, I think this is my favourite avatar out of all the ones I've used in the past. I not only drew it myself but it seems kind of fun and it reflects my alias. Before this though, I used to use an avatar I made out of a Meowclops wallpaper.
Hohoho~
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