The other day, a new book arrived at the office. It's a bit of an odd-looking book; a little bit wider than a paperback novel, and half again as long. Now, an odd-sized book in and of itself isn't really that strange. Really, it's the picture on the cover that catches the eye. At first glance, it looks like a pair of 30-somethings holding hands on a street in South Korea. Shift your angle a little bit though, and suddenly you're looking at a pair of Undead from World of Warcraft.
The book is called Alter Ego: Avatars and their creators, and that's probably an appropriate title for a book that examines a cross-section of the approximately 10 million MMO players around the world and the characters that they play online.
Alter Ego is primarily a book of photography, comparing images of real people with their avatars. The images are also accompanied by text that tells a little bit about the lives of the gamers and their MMO experiences.
Every time you turn the page in Alter Ego, you are faced with a new real-life photo on the left, and an in-game screenshot of their character on the right. The left hand side contains information about who the player is: their name, where they live, the game they're playing, and information of that nature.
The text on the right gives that player a chance to tell us a little bit about themselves as gamers and something about their characters.
While the subject matter of this book is universal, after all, we all have a real-self and an "alter-ego" or two, but it does seem to represent a good sampling of the people behind the keyboards of MMORPGs.
It's not the every-day stories that really capture the reader's attention, those stories serve as a reminder of what we all have in common. It's the unusual or out of the ordinary stories that make this book stand out:
Those are just three examples of the extraordinary personal stories that are told in Alter Ego.
Robbie Cooper (the photographer) and Tracy Spaight (the writer) have done a wonderful job of merging photography and words to provide readers with an intriguing experience. It's what they call "...both an entertainment and a serious look at a phenomenon that is shaping the future of human interaction."
Spaight and his co-author Cooper first met while attending an Everquest Fan Fair in Chicago. At the time, Spaight was working on a film project called Real People, Virtual Worlds, while Cooper had just started work on Alter Ego. That was in 2003.
Says Spaight: "We had similar projects, but different media. We decided to pool our resources and work together."
The combination has been a winning one, providing a very entertaining read for anyone that might be interested in MMOs and their ability to provide us with our own alter-egos. Whether you're battling Goblins in Middle Earth, Undead in Azeroth, or fighting crime in Paragon City, take a minute to look at the characters all around you and try to guess who might be behind those toons. The real answers may surprise you.
The book carries a cover price of $35, which might be enough to dissuade some potential buyers, but if you've got a little bit of extra cash and have a real love of MMOs and MMO culture, you really should pick up this book, it's a great read and a natural addition to any MMO player's library.
Alter Ego: Avatars and their creators, is currently available for pre-order on Amazon.com (as of the time of this printing, it is being offered for $19.77). For more information, visit the book's official website here.