Avatar (disambiguation)

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  • In Hinduism, an Avatar is defined as the incarnation (bodily manifestation) of an Immortal Being, or of the Ultimate Being.
  • In Hacker culture:
    • Among people working on virtual reality and cyberspace interfaces, an avatar is an icon or representation of a user in a shared virtual reality.
    • [CMU, Tektronix] root, superuser. There are quite a few Unix machines on which the name of the superuser account is "avatar" rather than "root". This quirk was originated by a CMU hacker who found the terms "root" and "superuser" unimaginative, and thought "avatar" might better impress people with the responsibility they were accepting.
  • The Avatar is also the main (player) character in the Ultima series of games. See Avatar (Ultima).
  • Taken from the word's use in Hindu mythology, in the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game an Avatar is the term for a Material Plane (earthly) manifestation of any deity. Only gods of a certain rank may manifest these avatars, which—unlike the gods' true form—do not destroy the deity if slain.
  • The Avatar is also the virtual representation of a member of the online virtual communities called VZones.
  • Distinguish also the use of the word Avatar to refer to Harry Palmer's self-development system.