How could that possibly be a dumb question?
It might seem like one to people who spend a lot of time playing avatar-based MMOs rather than something like EVE where the connection to the walking, breathing character is less pronounced.
It's a fair point though. Text is limitless in complexity and detail if one ignores language barriers, one's vocabulary and the maximum message length (all of which have workarounds of some sort).
On the other hand, while the visual aspect of having an avatar is nice, they are almost universally limited in the way they can express themselves without using text. This will (almost) without fail eventually result in a disconnect between what your eyes see the avatar doing, and what is being typed into the chat system, and in my case, heavily detracts from the experience.
Second Life is one of the few exceptions to the rule there by allowing residents/players to create, import and sell/share their own avatar animations, but it requires a bunch of time and effort (and often third-party software) to do so.
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Topic: Internet Dragons Are Srs Bidnis (Read 4803 times)