Free Forum Avatars
Free forum avatars according to some definitions, especially to those who are working on virtual reality and cyberspace interfaces, is actually known as an icon or representation of a user in a shared virtual reality. It is simply described with the term “visual chat”, although it is said that free forum avatars have gone by a diversity of other names. Example of those related names of free forum avatars or visual chat are multimedia chat, GMUKS (Graphical Multi-User Konversations), and habitats. The term “habitat” is coined by an inventor named Randy Farmer, who invented those other related names. Free forum avatars, or avatars in particular, are something that go between a MOO and a traditional chat room, and are considered one-of-a-kind because free forum avatars are graphical. This uniqueness of free forum avatars is made through the illusion of movement, space, and physicality, rather than the conventional dimension of most chat rooms that the users are limited to text-only communications.
Furthermore, with the use of free forum avatars, the users have the will to express their identity visually, rather than just through written information. With this visual dimension, a whole fresh sphere for self-expression and social dealings and interaction with characteristics such as subtlety and complexity, which is not evident in text-only chat rooms, came into being.
Free forum avatars, in addition, are also widely-known across the internet as pictures, drawings, or icons that most users choose to represent themselves. Free forum avatars are commonly differentiated from “props”, which are objects that users may add to their avatars such as a hat or a cigar.
Accordingly, the free forum avatars, just like any other free forum tools, also fall into classifications. Free forum avatars are mainly divided into two overall categories. The first are the standard set of “smileys”. I know that everyone is familiar with smileys. Almost all users love to put smileys on their messages. These familiar faces are said to be inspired by ASCII smileys and are always available to all users. This type of free forum avatars generally come in a set that displays basic human emotions and behavioral signs, such as happy, sad, angry, winking, sleeping/bored, blushing, head nodding, head shaking, crying, etc. With these forms, the users have also control on changing the color of the face or even adding to it one or more props, such as hats, wigs, scarves, devil horns, a glass of beer, a bicycle, and a lot more. These can be easily done because the faces and props can be mixed and matched.
The second major type of free forum avatars consist of those pictures or icons borrowed from internet archives, scanned from hardcopy, or taken from other digital sources. Accordingly, the users have the power to edit or combine these pictures according to their preferred tastes. Demonstrating this second type of free forum avatars is said to create self-esteem and social status. Technical and artistic ability is important for this type of free forum avatars.
Given such information about free forum avatars, let me further state that all of these forms of free forum avatars symbolically shows aspects of who you are. Free forum avatars therefore highlight some facet of your personality or lifestyle, or something you are interested or you wish for. This is definitely true with free forum avatars!
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