Has anyone ever disguised themselves with an alt avatar to interact with you?
If you’ve spent any time in the virtual world, I’m guessing the answer is yes.
When I first joined Second Life the idea of someone pretending to be a separate person to be deceptive seemed a little off, but not unexpected. Hey, I was new to Second Life, not the internet! I was a little freaked out though when I learned that not only could people have alt avatars, they could log them into SL at the same time.
I got a quick education on a three-seat camping bench in 2007. A guy I often hung out with to play games with sat to my left, and a ginger-haired woman to my right. We made small talk while waiting for lindens when after a time my friend laughed and admitted that he was controlling the woman beside me too. As a wide-eyed noob, my mind was blown.
For a while after this, I wondered about every new avatar I saw. Were they truly a new person, or the alt avatar of someone I already knew? I got over it eventually, but my perception of SL changed that day.
One guy used to come around often to talk, and each time he spoke to us with a different avatar while pretending to be a totally new individual. How’d we know it was him? He had this way of speaking, and no matter how much he tried to disguise it, he just couldn’t stop showing himself. We never let on that we knew it was him, but looked forward to seeing what new avatar he’d visit us with. He didn’t seem to have bad intentions, so we were nice to him.
Other times alt deception can become destructive, like the guy who claimed his girlfriend died, while (likely) pretending to be her. Read SL Death Faker Story.
Though I don’t believe most alts have bad intentions, some do and disguise themselves to visit people they’re angry at. My friend was stalked by a woman, and she’d show up as different avatars. It escalated to real life too, so that he was afraid she was going to turn up on his doorstep or hurt someone.
Most hostile alts don’t go that far, but just want to “spy” in much the same way people visit the social media sites of people they hate.
One trait I notice about many alts is that they lack self-awareness like the guy who kept showing up as a new avatar. He had no idea we knew it was him, and how easy it was to tell that it was him. Others realize they have certain traits or mannerisms, and go out of their way to behave in a completely different way to compensate for it. One recently came by faking a dialect. We knew it was an alt (not telling how, since I prefer not to give free tips on how to become a more convincing alt), but we knew.
To be clear: I don’t mind if an army of alts come to visit. So long as there’s no griefing or harassment, visiting alts provide us with both traffic and amusement. So come on down!
I don’t believe there’s anything wrong with alts in general. I have them too, such as Rotten Spitteler, a male avatar I use to model clothing or write the occasional funny article. I never use him or any other avatar to deceive though, and I’ve never used one to “spy” either. If I decide to waltz into the lion’s den, I’ll definitely show up as myself.
Good post. I never made an alt in Second Life. Some alts might be useful but I don’t like if people do bad things with them
I have several, my first account I lost a password for and couldn’t log in when I wanted to return, but since recovered the password, the male alt that I use to go dancing with sometimes, and to take photos. He’s also officially partnered with my avatar to keep die-hard monogamists from talking to me wasting my time. ;p
In addition, I have some for business purposes and made as test accounts when I need to ensure settings on my builds are correct. And my main alt also has a male version of her, what I imagine I would be had I been born a male: a gay gender blender. Love him to bits. XD He rarely goes out in public but I always have my 1st life explained that I am, in fact, a female.
A friend I had tho, had deceptive alts. He had a main account he abandoned to get away from an ex, and his new SL girlfriend and himself were both super suspicious of each other. Like crazy suspicious, bordering toxic. They’d spy on each other using alts. It was amusing in some light but well… Not entirely healthy. It’s possible he’s spied on me with an alt, too. Just didn’t get caught. He was also quite suspicious of people’s profiles and was “spotting alts” all over the place because he himself used them a lot.