I still have strong feelings about the value of pen-name anonymity but have recently found cause to abandon my own. That’s right, Rob Muhlestein (pronunciation) now appears on my twitter profile as it long has on my Facebook page, but this post isn’t just about me, it’s about the journey to this point and why, since many have recently made the leap.
As I sat with a group of professional educators sharing real names and a bit about themselves in the first monthly meeting of the newly formed NC SL Educators community I realized how awkward it was not sharing my real name and more.
“I’m just Mo and interested in local educational uses of Second Life and technology,” I said. I didn’t get any strange reactions, but felt a genuine regret for not sharing more since they all had.
Photos of the event where innocently posted to facebook with my real identity tagged in them. When I realized I didn’t care, I knew something had changed in my point of view. So I thought about it.
Fact is, I’ve been thinking about this a lot for the past two months. The more friendships, conferences, and speaking opportunities emerge, plus the more I help beginners, and we have been helping a lot lately, the more I see a clear reason to just make the jump. Trust trumps anonymity.
A note of caution to beginners: Some take revealing their real life personal details in SL, or publically on the internet, very seriously, much more than I, which is why Linden Labs has a clear policy in their Terms of Service stating that you can get you booted from Second Life forever for something as simple as inadvertently revealing someone’s real name or occupation in Second Life without that person having done so first. This gives each user the option. I mention this because it is a lesson too many learn the hard way.
Real identity, shortcut to trust
Trust, even in a business context, can be developed over time with anonymity (as I’ve personally experienced many, many times). The issue isn’t that people can’t or won’t trust you unless they know the real you. It just takes longer to build trust that way. When onboarding hundreds, or building conference weak ties that you wish to develop, that inefficiency isn’t worth the benefits of anonymity. Perhaps this is what Erica and Sam Driver have always understood better than I.
Sometimes when I encounter a beginner in SL they are scared, even on safe corporate islands. SL is a scary place for beginners, no thanks to all the sell-out press coverage. I have even worn my otter avatar sometimes to help avoid any scary implications the ken-doll Mo avatar might unintentionally convey to beginners–especially women. If you have been to any info-hub entry point lately you will know what I mean.
It seems to me that when I use a real name tag titler, with email, it helps overcome that barrier, building trust, and ultimately speeding learning. Being able to confirm an identity with resources that person trusts, like Facebook, Linked-In, or the corporate phone book, is a shorter path to trust than sharing personal information about yourself anonymously. Besides, people just want to learn from someone they trust, they don’t need your life story. They may not even want to be friends afterward, sad, but real. The same goes for business communication, speaking engagements, and free agent community associations. Daniel Pink calls trust ‘the free agent operating system’ underlying and supporting every transaction and communication that happens in Free Agent Nation. If he’s right, then revealing your real self as quickly as possible just might be the boost in CPU you are looking for.
Rob is real. Mo has more fun.
The value of a pen-name, along with creativity, avatar customization, and self-expression, seems to be grossly under appreciated by too large a group of virtual worlds thinkers, evangelists, adopters, and implementers. So many miss the rich experiences approaching this artistic medium as just a ‘business tool.’ The very point of using virtual worlds such as Second Life is the immersion yet some dismiss it as useless, creative, right-brained, fluff. It is that immersive fluff that makes the ‘tool’ what it is. Those that forget this are wasting their time and money where other 2D options would do nicely.
Revealing real names obviously doesn’t stop us from enjoying writing the book as well as reading it or discussing it, which I earlier discussed in terms of augmentation v.s. immersion. If Second Life has a game element, it is when it becomes one or more interactive novels, books that I imagine and write with friends in that same mindset. The richest games are those that involve other human players. In this sense, Second Life is no different. Sometimes this distinction is unclear–especially for beginners. But finding that boundary seems to lead to the best experience making both lives better for it.
I talk about the evolution of identity, behavior and self-image in an upcoming blog post, The Immersion Curve.
Compartmentalized Identity is a Myth
With varying degrees of fanfare, avatars have been coming out for a while now. Why? Well a lot of them started out in Second Life or where ever as a means of entertainment. How important is it that your WoW guild actually know the real you? It doesn’t sound so unreasonable to maintain anonymity in a game setting. But soon many discovered, as I did, that Second Life is more than a game. As their real lives, personal and professional, became more intertwined with their use of Second Life drawing this distinction became logistically, and perhaps ethically, much harder to do.
I can think of several prominent avatars that passed through this, but won’t name any. For some presenting at conferences did it, others wrote papers, others where cited in interviews and marketing materials. Almost all faced the reality that eventually their level of involvement, which had established quite a brand and reputation associated with it, would require openly acknowledging the connection of that virtual and real identity.
I am sure many have gone on to alt another identity only to face the same dilemma over and over again with each. This conundrum is the very reason I generally prefer not to alt. [I still do on occasion to make machinima, create animations, and explore or develop in peace (since there is still no stealth function).]
You are you, no matter how many different personalities you might act out fictionally or otherwise. The more we can consolidate them, the more efficient, and perhaps happier, we’ll be.
