If you’re an active user of the Internet, then no doubt you’ve encountered the term “Avatar” many times. Gamers, for instance, encounter this term a lot more than most casual users of the World Wide Web.

For example, if you’re going to start playing a virtual world simulator – also known as a “sim” – then the first step that you will encounter while setting up an account is the need to create your own avatar. So what exactly is an avatar and what purpose does it serve online, particularly with online games.

In a nutshell, an avatar is defined as an image that is an extension of yourself into your online accounts. In online gaming, it is the image that you use to complete your profile in your account. In general, the term is used to describe an image that appears alongside your name when you are interacting in the community forums that are found throughout the Internet.

In virtual world simulation games like Second Life or IMVU, the avatar is more than just an image. These games’ refer to avatars as the actual characters that the user creates when they join these virtual worlds. They have the same purpose – to provide an online representation of the user that, in these games’ cases, are used to interact with other users in the servers.

Where did the term come from? The word is actually rooted in Hinduism. Hindus believed that the deities of their religion periodically descend to Earth to mingle with them in human form. This human form is considered as the “avatar” of the gods. It’s worth noting that the term, when loosely translated, means “appearance” or “manifestation,” which describe exactly what avatars are used for in gaming and in forums.

Because an avatar represents you in the online world, then you should, while creating it, take all the time that you have in the world to customize it! There are plenty of customizations available for you as a user while you are in the process of formulating an avatar for your account.

First tip – let your imagination run wild! The avatar is a manifestation of your imagination, so dress her up or make her hair up the way you have always wanted yourself to look. If your hair is blond, for example, you can pick a blond hair for your avatar.

In addition, there are many hairstyles that are available to you when creating an avatar, and you don’t even have to worry if the one you pick goes out of style! You can change the appearance of your avatar on a whim. It’s like visiting the salon whenever you want to get a makeover to change your look.

The whole point here is to come up with an avatar that is suited to your preferences as well as your sense of fashion. To do that, you must not allow yourself to be constrained by what you think about personal appearances but, rather, you have to let your imagination soar!