Identity

[orikes]

Identity is a funny thing when it comes to the internet. I have a acquired many different names that I’ve used in the various communities and such I’ve been involved with over the years. I’ve been online since 1994, that’s over ten years that these names have been accumulating. Some are character names, but some were for non-RP use.

So far, I’ve been:

Karitha
Haldi
Millae
Dale
Jeep
Robi
Charity
Oriane
Pheme
Caioma
Kestrel
Jasi
Orikes
Haley
Celomenda
Madison

And this is only including the most prominent of names I’ve used. My presence on the internet has been fairly constant for these past ten years and I’ve flirted with dozens of games and communities, and I have probably forgotten more short term characters than I can remember. Up in that list are over a dozen names that people have to come to know me as. That name is the link for them to who I am. While many of those are character names, each one is also partially my name. In a way.

Any one who has gotten involved online under an alias and then met people from that community in real life knows what I mean. Everyone struggles for the first few meetings to reconcile the real name with the online name. I went to Vegas and met a bunch of Everquest folk and they still struggled to not call me Jasi, even though I am by no means a blue skinned, white haired rogue in skin baring chainmail. There are still people I have met in real life that I somehow still refer to as their character name. Xabby is Xabby even if I have met her in real life, let her and her hubby stay at my house, and went to Philadelphia with them. I know Pomr’s real name, but I still think of him as the name I know him on Crucible City.

This all ended up in my head this past weekend when I mentioned that I had played on SYE years ago. Someone piped up that they to had played there. They went on to mention they’d been a wizard. They mentioned the name… and I realized I had met them in real life almost eight years ago. It took me mentioning that I had been Jeep to trigger the memories, though. In that instant, I was Jeep again, even though I retired from SYE back in 1998. In six or seven years, when I run into someone from Silent Redemption in some other medium, will I suddenly be Jasi again, even if I never log into Everquest again?

In my own head, I’m Ang. Simply Ang. But, I guess who we are is never quite as simple as that anyway.

Comments

[fleetfootmike.livejournal.com]

Who was the SYE'er?

Love

Williams :)

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

Believe it or not, MG. Who seems to be doing -much- better in life then when last I saw him. Threw me a bit, because he was not one of the people I ever expected to run into again, but we chatted a bit, and he seems to be doing okay.