{"id":474,"date":"2026-05-08T16:25:31","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T16:25:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/discoveringwrdsb\/chapter\/what-are-avatars\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T16:25:53","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T16:25:53","slug":"what-are-avatars","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/discoveringwrdsb\/chapter\/what-are-avatars\/","title":{"raw":"What are Avatars?","rendered":"What are Avatars?"},"content":{"raw":"\n<span style=\"color: #339966\">Ask students if they know the term \u201cavatar.\u201d <span style=\"color: #000000\">(If you have already delivered the <a href=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.pub\/mediasmarts\/front-matter\/lesson-game-design\/\">Game Design<\/a> lesson, you can remind students of the discussion of avatars there.) <\/span><\/span>\n\n<span style=\"color: #339966\">Make sure students understand the following key points:<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"color: #339966\">An avatar is a character that they control in a game<\/span>\n<span style=\"color: #339966\">Not all games have avatars (for instance, puzzle games do not) but many do<\/span>\n<span style=\"color: #339966\">Most avatars are human, but some are not even humanoid (the car in a racing game could be termed an avatar)<\/span>\n<span style=\"color: #339966\">Many games and virtual worlds allow students to modify their avatar, either at the beginning or later in the game (or both)<\/span>\n\nNext, have students access the student chapter <a href=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.pub\/mediasmarts\/chapter\/what-are-avatars-2\/\">What are Avatars?<\/a> or project it using a digital whiteboard or digital projector.\n\nHave students identify <span style=\"color: #339966\">which games and virtual worlds the avatars come <\/span><span style=\"color: #339966\">from:<\/span>\n<ul>\n \t<li><span style=\"color: #339966\">Slide 1 Fortnite <\/span><\/li>\n \t<li><span style=\"color: #339966\">Slide 2 IMVU <\/span><\/li>\n \t<li><span style=\"color: #339966\">Slide 3 Stardoll <\/span><\/li>\n \t<li><span style=\"color: #339966\">Slide 4 Pok\u00e9mon <\/span><\/li>\n \t<li><span style=\"color: #339966\">Slide 5 Animal Crossing <\/span><\/li>\n \t<li><span style=\"color: #339966\">Slide 6 Minecraft <\/span><\/li>\n \t<li><span style=\"color: #339966\">Slide 7 Roblox <\/span>(note that the ungendered avatar is only available if a user does not select a gender when signing up for an account)<\/li>\n \t<li><span style=\"color: #339966\">Slide 8 World of Warcraft<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #339966\">Ask students if they know the term \u201cavatar.\u201d <span style=\"color: #000000\">(If you have already delivered the <a href=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.pub\/mediasmarts\/front-matter\/lesson-game-design\/\">Game Design<\/a> lesson, you can remind students of the discussion of avatars there.) <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #339966\">Make sure students understand the following key points:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #339966\">An avatar is a character that they control in a game<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #339966\">Not all games have avatars (for instance, puzzle games do not) but many do<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #339966\">Most avatars are human, but some are not even humanoid (the car in a racing game could be termed an avatar)<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #339966\">Many games and virtual worlds allow students to modify their avatar, either at the beginning or later in the game (or both)<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Next, have students access the student chapter <a href=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.pub\/mediasmarts\/chapter\/what-are-avatars-2\/\">What are Avatars?<\/a> or project it using a digital whiteboard or digital projector.<\/p>\n<p>Have students identify <span style=\"color: #339966\">which games and virtual worlds the avatars come <\/span><span style=\"color: #339966\">from:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #339966\">Slide 1 Fortnite <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #339966\">Slide 2 IMVU <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #339966\">Slide 3 Stardoll <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #339966\">Slide 4 Pok\u00e9mon <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #339966\">Slide 5 Animal Crossing <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #339966\">Slide 6 Minecraft <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #339966\">Slide 7 Roblox <\/span>(note that the ungendered avatar is only available if a user does not select a gender when signing up for an account)<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #339966\">Slide 8 World of Warcraft<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"menu_order":4,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-474","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":101,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/discoveringwrdsb\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/discoveringwrdsb\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/discoveringwrdsb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/discoveringwrdsb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/discoveringwrdsb\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/474\/revisions"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/discoveringwrdsb\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/101"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/discoveringwrdsb\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/474\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/discoveringwrdsb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/discoveringwrdsb\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=474"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/discoveringwrdsb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=474"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/discoveringwrdsb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}