http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12263532
Online gaming is not a pleasure I've allowed myself, but I LOVE this story about people and their avatars. It illustrates for me the power of the post-human, here and now:
Jason Rowe (left) and his avatar, Rurouni Kenshin, who rides
Imperial speeder bikes in Star Wars Galaxies. Copyright Robbie Cooper/Chris Boot
Cooper's portrait of Jason Rowe, for instance, stops you dead. He stares straight at you out of startled blue eyes. But what takes you aback is his frail body, his clenched hands, and the ominous ventilator strapped to his face. "My condition is called Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy," Rowe told Spaight. "It pretty much affects all the muscles in the body. They don't function." Rowe does have a little movement in his thumbs, which enables him to play the MMO Star Wars Galaxies an average of 80 hours a week. His avatar is a steely, robot-like character who rides Imperial speeder bikes and fights monsters, his head helmeted, his face unseen. "My character in the game is a lot different from what you see here in real life," Rowe says.
"[It] pretty much gave me a window to the world." In the four years since he created his avatar, this frail 32-year-old has had an unprecedented life experience: Online, he is treated as an equal among his peers. "Not disabled," he says. "Not in a wheelchair. In virtual worlds, everyone is on common ground."Of course, the most remarkable thing about this story is that a man with Duchenne's living into his 30's!
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