Identity, of course, does not spring into being overnight. It accretes over time, layering onto the original core notions of self, and is particularly shaped by what others think of the person in question. So it is in virtual worlds as well: a given avatar’s character evolves significantly over time, both because of adapting to the possibilities the space presents, and because an avatar, like a person in the real world, is very much shaped by other’s perceptions.

In cyberspace, this manifests as something termed the profile. Essentially, this is a historical record of some sort that documents what the avatar has done—perhaps even including elements from before the avatar began to actually exist, fictionally added into the record to provide more of a context for their actions. For example, a player of a World of Darkness MUSH likely ascribes a fairly detailed background to their character, and makes this extended history publicly viewable by anyone interacting with them so that others may know in what ways to address them or respond to their presence in a manner that fits with the total fictional immersion that is the goal of this sort of role-playing-enforced space. In contrast, many systems may have nothing at all for this, or may simply allow the player to insert this sort of background material in their description.

Beyond the player-entered history, there is also the tangible history of the avatar. Depending on the system, this may be as much as a detailed list of deeds done and significant accomplishments presented publicly, or as little as the level they have achieved on some arbitrary game advancement ladder. It may even be as little as a record of infractions kept by the administrators for the purpose of determining when a given user needs to be ejected from the service.

An evolving user profile of this type is not only critical for being able to maintain the service, but if publicly visible, serves as a powerful community builder. Awards for good behavior, virtual pillorying of virtual criminals, notable quests completed, and so on, all serve to reinforce the notion of accountability for one’s actions, which in turn helps reduce the level of sociopathic behavior online. Making the profile visible to others helps innocents quickly identify troublemakers, and helps new arrivals quickly find role models.

And in many environments, the ability to interact with objects, carry them, and wear them in a publicly visible fashion, has resulted in the term equipment being applied to those aspects of an avatar’s profile which are acquired assets one can remove at any time. Equipment is traditionally just a list of wear slots (locations where items are worn) and the corresponding objects; even in graphical systems, this convention is followed, but the display is usually done by superimposing the images of the worn items onto the avatar’s body on a paperdoll, thus extending the appearance. In that way, profile and description serve to reinforce one another in the creation of identity.

In almost every system out there, a user’s profile includes tangible statistics that drive the capabilities of the avatar. The commonest use of this is to turn on a flag or reach a threshold on an advancement ladder that confers special powers within the environment—this essentially allows access to modify the laws of physics of the game under which all avatars normally labor. There are various terms for this type of avatar, most of them arising from the role-playing game origins of muds: god, wizard, immortal, etc. Usually, this aspect of an avatar’s profile is publicly visible unless the avatar is choosing to appear incognito.

Other uses for these tangible statistics that grant commands or capabilities are to provide increased reward to players over time as they climb an advancement ladder. Typical is the granting of new spells, skills, or access to new pieces of equipment or items that they can make use of. It’s very common to see “level” as a displayed element of an avatar’s profile. There are also tangible statistics that serve to drive the avatar’s interaction with the game rules, such as attributes for intelligence or strength. These also, typically evolve over time.

Perhaps the most interesting type of evolving profile is the generic class of profiling tools called reputation systems. These are systems whereby fellow users of the space are granted the ability to add to the profile of any given user with whom they have an interaction. Typically, when some transaction or interaction occurs, each user has the ability to rate the behavior of the other party. The cumulative totals of positive and negative interactions thus result in easy-to-read ratings that anyone can use. Various auctioning systems on the Internet such as eBay make extensive use of this practice, and Ultima Online attempted to use it to curb antisocial behavior.[1] The reason why this addition to the profile is important is because of the inconstancy of communication in virtual spaces—it’s far too hard to spread word of a malcontent or evildoer, but reputation systems essentially leverage the avatar’s profile to do it for you.

Profiles often modify names, usually with the granting of titles. Group affiliations should be a major part of an avatar’s profile, and the more facilities provided by the virtual world to allow display of these affiliations, the better. There have been many examples of users choosing to start an avatar over from scratch, throwing away all advancement, just in order to insert their guild affiliation or a family name in their avatar’s name because the game system did not support a separate field for it.