Talk:Kyle McMeekin
In using outside sources of information, Kyle explained his previous experience with avatars while playing The Sims. By referring to The Sims, he made interesting comparisons on the interactions between avatars in the game, and how those interactions and motivations to become rich and successful influenced his construction of his personal avatar through Evolver. One of the parallels he specifically emphasized was that he wanted to create a successful and distinguishable avatar capable of representing his social identity, future aspirations, and career goals. Moreover, he refers to the popular NFL game, Madden in anchoring his contrasting critique of the technical limitations of Evolver in comparison to the "Create A Player" feature in Madden. Madden's "Create A Player" feature accounts for differences in height and weight thoroughly in comparison to Evolver where the standardized templates and mix-and-match features limit how detailed a user may construct their avatar. Overall, Kyle does a great job of incorporating outside sources into his avatar reflection.
He described the frustrating process of generating an avatar that fit his facial and body characteristics when none of the standard mix-and-match templates in Evolver seemed to work. For example, his frustrations centered around Evolver's lack of options in changing and crafting facial appearance for the entire head. Kyle’s focus on creating an athletic avatar was important to him since he values sports and physical fitness. In addition to fitness, he considers his blonde hair a critical aspect of his identity, and had trouble creating the blonde hair cut that matched his real life appearance due to Evolver’s technical limitations. He mentioned he put more detail and effort into his personal avatar, because he wanted to create an accurate self-portrayal which gives his reflection some thought on issues of identity in virtual environments. Also, he wanted to present his personal avatar in a positive light to reflect the success he hopes to achieve.
In general, Kyle brought many outside sources into his reflection and commented on his successes and failures in creating his personal and fantasy avatars. The breadth of information and personal insight in his reflection exemplifies his thought process and effort in thinking about how others perceive his avatar and how he himself perceives his avatar. One aspect of our avatar reflections that he could think about more and improve upon is the context of our avatars and how they interconnect with our social identities in virtual environments.
