geekosystem

If game designers want us to really be able to relate to their characters, there may be one easy solution -- let us design them ourselves. A new study being presented today at the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems suggests that designing your own digital avatar makes you more connected with it, a bond that can influence how you see and interact with the virtual landscape,  and makes the hardships that character experiences seem more real to its controller. 

In keeping with trends set by pretty much every video game and adolescent male fantasy in the history of forever, female avatars in the digital realm are more likely to be scantily clad than their male counterparts. That's according to a study of digital fashion in online play space Second Life by researchers at Laval University, who we'd like to thank for reminding us that Second Life is still, apparently, a thing.

Animated Twitter avatars are both the bane and glory of the service. To be fair, the same can be said about the Internet in general. However, unlike with the Internet, Twitter is run by a single entity with the capability to shut the GIF train down, and that's exactly what they've done. As of now, the loopholes that previously allowed animated GIF avatars have been closed.

In "Human Facebook Default Avatars," Thomas M., a.k.a. "TWO," photographs subjects all powdered up to look like Facebook's generic avatars for people without photographs. Why? Supposedly to "humanize the Facebook default avatar provided at the first login," but probably also just because it's a fun idea. (via TDW | Artist's (what else?) Facebook page)