{"id":110,"date":"2025-03-13T20:07:26","date_gmt":"2025-03-13T20:07:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/blocks-teachertext\/chapter\/introduction-to-avatars-2\/"},"modified":"2025-05-08T12:11:35","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T12:11:35","slug":"introduction-to-avatars-2","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/blocks-teachertext\/chapter\/introduction-to-avatars-2\/","title":{"raw":"Introduction to Avatars","rendered":"Introduction to Avatars"},"content":{"raw":"<span style=\"color: #008000\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">Now project the Image Slider in the student chapter <a href=\"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/buildingblocks\/chapter\/introduction-to-avatars\/\">Introduction to Avatars<\/a><\/span> <\/span>or have students access it. Ask students if they recognize any of the characters on the screen and identify any that they aren\u2019t able to name:\r\n\r\n<span style=\"color: #000000\">\u201cSteve\u201d and \"Alex\" from Minecraft, a player avatar from Pok\u00e9mon Go, a player avatar from Animal Crossing. and \"Astro Bot\" from the game \"Astro Bot.\"<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"color: #000000\">Ask students how these characters are like each other and how they are different. Affirm all the students\u2019 answers but make sure that one key similarity is mentioned: all of them are characters whom you control in a computer game.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"color: #000000\">Introduce the term \u201c[pb_glossary id=\"212\"]avatar[\/pb_glossary]\u201d: a character that stands for you in a computer game.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"color: #000000\">Point out that an avatar is something like a game piece in a board game, such as Monopoly or Snakes and Ladders (since it\u2019s how you \u201cmove\u201d and do things in the game) and also something like a Hallowee\u2019en costume (since you get to choose what you look like.)<\/span>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><span style=\"color: #000000\">An important difference between avatars and costumes, though, is that when we see someone in a costume we usually know who they are and what they really look like: when we see someone\u2019s avatar in a game, that\u2019s usually all we know about them.<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<span style=\"color: #000000\">Point out that in some games everyone starts with the same avatar and you can learn or buy the ability to change it (as in Minecraft ), in others you have to play one or a small number of characters (like in Astro Bot) and in some you get to pick what your character looks like, but only from the options the game gives you (as in Animal Crossing and Pok\u00e9mon Go).<\/span>","rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #008000\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">Now project the Image Slider in the student chapter <a href=\"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/buildingblocks\/chapter\/introduction-to-avatars\/\">Introduction to Avatars<\/a><\/span> <\/span>or have students access it. Ask students if they recognize any of the characters on the screen and identify any that they aren\u2019t able to name:<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">\u201cSteve\u201d and &#8220;Alex&#8221; from Minecraft, a player avatar from Pok\u00e9mon Go, a player avatar from Animal Crossing. and &#8220;Astro Bot&#8221; from the game &#8220;Astro Bot.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Ask students how these characters are like each other and how they are different. Affirm all the students\u2019 answers but make sure that one key similarity is mentioned: all of them are characters whom you control in a computer game.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Introduce the term \u201c<a class=\"glossary-term\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-describedby=\"definition\" href=\"#term_110_212\">avatar<\/a>\u201d: a character that stands for you in a computer game.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Point out that an avatar is something like a game piece in a board game, such as Monopoly or Snakes and Ladders (since it\u2019s how you \u201cmove\u201d and do things in the game) and also something like a Hallowee\u2019en costume (since you get to choose what you look like.)<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000\">An important difference between avatars and costumes, though, is that when we see someone in a costume we usually know who they are and what they really look like: when we see someone\u2019s avatar in a game, that\u2019s usually all we know about them.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Point out that in some games everyone starts with the same avatar and you can learn or buy the ability to change it (as in Minecraft ), in others you have to play one or a small number of characters (like in Astro Bot) and in some you get to pick what your character looks like, but only from the options the game gives you (as in Animal Crossing and Pok\u00e9mon Go).<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"glossary\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\" id=\"definition\">definition<\/span><template id=\"term_110_212\"><div class=\"glossary__definition\" role=\"dialog\" data-id=\"term_110_212\"><div tabindex=\"-1\"><p>A virtual \u201cyou\u201d that you control in a game or a virtual world.<\/p>\n<\/div><button><span aria-hidden=\"true\">&times;<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Close definition<\/span><\/button><\/div><\/template><\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"menu_order":2,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-110","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":108,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/blocks-teachertext\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/blocks-teachertext\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/blocks-teachertext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/blocks-teachertext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/blocks-teachertext\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":513,"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/blocks-teachertext\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/110\/revisions\/513"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/blocks-teachertext\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/108"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/blocks-teachertext\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/110\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/blocks-teachertext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/blocks-teachertext\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=110"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/blocks-teachertext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=110"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/blocks-teachertext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}