Editing Avatar (computing) (section)

==Origins==
{{See also|Player character}}

The word ''[[avatar]]'' is ultimately derived from the [[Sanskrit]] word (''{{IAST|avatāra}}'' {{IPAc-en|ˈ|æ|v|ə|t|ɑr|,_|ˌ|æ|v|ə|ˈ|t|ɑr}}); in [[Hinduism]], it stands for the "descent" of a deity into a terrestrial form.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Paez |first1=Danny |title=How gaming turned a Hindu concept into the internet's most common feature |url=https://www.inverse.com/gaming/avatar-meaning-origins-video-games |website=Inverse |access-date=5 November 2021 |date=24 August 2020}}</ref><ref name=dict>[http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/avatar "avatar"]. ''[[Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary]]''.</ref> It was first used in a [[computer game]] by the 1979 [[PLATO (computer system)|PLATO]] [[Role-playing video game|role-playing game]] ''[[Avatar (1979 video game)|Avatar]]''. In [[Norman Spinrad]]'s novel ''[[Songs from the Stars]]'' (1980), the term ''avatar'' is used in a description of a computer generated virtual experience. In the story, humans receive messages from an alien galactic network that wishes to share knowledge and experience with other advanced civilizations through "songs". The humans build a "galactic receiver" that allows its users to engage in "artificial realities". One experience is described as such:<ref>Spinrad, Norman. ''[[Songs from the Stars]]''. New York: Pocket Books, 1981. p. 218.</ref>

{{blockquote|You stand in a throng of multifleshed being, mind avatared in all its matter, on a broad avenue winding through a city of blue trees with bright red foliage and living buildings growing from the soil in a multitude of forms.}}

The use of the term ''avatar'' for the on-screen representation of the user was coined in 1985 by Richard Garriott for the computer game ''[[Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar]]''. In this game, Garriott desired the player's character to be their Earth self manifested into the virtual world. Due to the ethical content of his story, Garriott wanted the real player to be responsible for their character; he thought only someone playing "themselves" could be properly judged based on their in-game actions. Because of its ethically nuanced narrative approach, he took the Hindu word associated with a deity's manifestation on earth in physical form, and applied it to a player in the game world.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.criticalpathproject.com/video/coining-term-avatar/|title=Coining Term "Avatar"|website=insights from the greatest minds in video games.|language=en|access-date=2017-12-15}}</ref> Other early uses of the term include [[Lucasfilm]] and [[Chip Morningstar]]'s 1986 [[Massively multiplayer online role-playing game|online role-playing]] game ''[[Habitat (video game)|Habitat]]'',<ref name="Morabito">Morabito, Margaret. "Enter the Online World of LucasFilm." Run Aug. 1986: 24–28</ref> and the 1989 [[Pen-and-paper role-playing game|pen and paper]] role-playing game ''[[Shadowrun]]''.{{Citation needed|date=December 2009}}

The use of ''avatar'' to mean online virtual bodies was popularised by [[Neal Stephenson]] in his 1992 [[cyberpunk]] novel ''[[Snow Crash]]''.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Gerhard|first1=Michael|last2=Moore|first2=David|last3=Hobbs|first3=Dave|date=2004|title=Embodiment and copresence in collaborative interfaces|url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1071581904000126|journal=International Journal of Human-Computer Studies|language=en|volume=61|issue=4|pages=453–480|doi=10.1016/j.ijhcs.2003.12.014|issn=1071-5819|quote=It was first used in the context of virtual worlds in the pioneering Habitat system of the mid 1980s (Morningstar and Farmer, 1991) and popularized by Stephenson's (1992) science-fiction novel Snow Crash.|url-access=subscription}}</ref>  In ''Snow Crash,'' the term ''avatar'' was used to describe the virtual simulation of the human form in the ''[[Metaverse]]'', a fictional virtual-reality application on the [[Internet]]. [[Social status]] within the Metaverse was often based on the quality of a user's avatar, as a highly detailed avatar showed that the user was a skilled [[Hacker (computer security)|hacker]] and [[programmer]] while the less talented would buy off-the-shelf models in the same manner a beginner would today. Stephenson wrote in the "Acknowledgments" to ''Snow Crash'':

{{blockquote|The idea of a "virtual reality" such as the Metaverse is by now widespread in the computer-graphics community and is being used in a number of different ways. The particular vision of the Metaverse as expressed in this novel originated from idle discussion between me and Jaime (Captain Bandwidth) Taaffe ... The words ''avatar'' (in the sense used here) and ''Metaverse'' are my inventions, which I came up with when I decided that existing words (such as ''virtual reality'') were simply too awkward to use ... after the first publication of ''Snow Crash'', I learned that the term ''avatar'' has actually been in use for a number of years as part of a virtual reality system called ''Habitat''...in addition to avatars, ''Habitat'' includes many of the basic features of the Metaverse as described in this book.<ref>Stephenson, Neal. ''Snow Crash''. New York: Bantam, 2003 (reissue). pp. 469–70.</ref>}}