week 9 - wendy

In order to analyse players' identity in the virtual world deeply, I try to have some interactions with them. There is no doubt that a good look will make these things easy. After dressing up, I don't need to find sb to talk, they come to chat up with me. I meet a man in  Atlantis. He is a new resident in SL, so he asks me to help him get familiar with this world. We communicate through texts. From his words, I'm sure he is definitely not a native speaker, which is proved later. I make this speculation based on three points: first he uses complete sentences and the written English, I think second language speakers tend to do that in case making mistakes; second no slangs or  abbreviation; third the speed he types is a little bit slow. After talking for a while, he asks me where I come from, I let him guess. Perhaps because of the English environment in SL, he guesses some English speaking countries, but I all say "no". Then the interesting thing happens, he asks "are you from Philippines?" I think I know where he comes from at that moment, because after the possible answers, people will list the names they are most familiar with when guessing. I'm right again, he is Philippinese. Through this experience, I think speculating one's real identity through his words is very interesting. There must have sth that can't be hidden, even though we are in the virtual world. I plan to invite one of my friends to join SL, and then I will go to talk with him/her, but as a stranger. In this way, I can analyse the differences and connections he/she acts online and offline.