8. What do you look like in the Matrix?
Icons, chummer: there's everything you can imagine and then some you wouldn't want to. *Do not* enter a bunraku-themed node unintentionally, or else become lost in a very uncanny valley. Not a familiar concept? Look it up, kiddo, and log back on when the uneasiness subsides.
I've never claimed to be a hacker, but I have used cold sim VR some in my checkered past. Hot sim once or twice, but it's really not my scene. Still, the abundance of AR in the wake of Crash 2.0 has made personal icon details relevant to even the non-hackers among us. Plus, in the shadows, where image and rep work like forms of currency, having an icon convey critical information by possessing the right "look" can be surprisingly important.
Perhaps it's no surprise that my icon has changed over the years as my life has taken its many turns. Given that, the best way to go about this might be as a brief history of icons I've used. First, there was the basic student model they issued us at UW when we enrolled. Upgrades were available, but I went with the bog-standard free model, since I was on ROTC scholarship with not a lot of wiggle room in the budget. Plus, the ROTC unit provided us with a uniform skin for the basic UW icon that we had to wear most of the time, anyways.
Next up was the Hooah model with rank/specialties/unit designator, standard-issue for all official business in the UCAS army. Mine started with the basic officer cadet designator, and was later upgraded to 2nd Lt, then Lt, and finally Captain for a year or so before I mustered out. Sure, the uniformity of these Army personas sounds kind of boring to all you flashy Matrix addicts, but there was a nice efficiency to nodes full of these things. You could look past the figure to the information on its designator: rank and all that was way more important. Plus, anyone not in your unit, much less the Army, stood out immediately for easy recognition. Hold on while I look around my headware memory a moment; I may have an image capture of my last Army icon somewhere.
[Rake attaches a short video file of a metahumanoid-shaped icon, subtly colored in a digital camo pattern, executing a sharp salute. The icon is prominently displaying the twin silver bars of a captain, along with Rake's old unit number, and various shapes representing specialties like marksman, logisitics, corporate liaison, etc.]
See what I'm talking about, omae? Efficient. Plus, that little salute maneuver it's doing? That made Matrix interactions with superiors null sheen, because your icon would automatically respond to a higher-ranking one with a crisp salute - made forgetting to do so in meat-space even more likely, though!
After an honorable discharge from the Army, my return to UW for law school meant another student icon, but the ones for the law school were way more professional, and mine had a badge for being an undergrad alum of the university. Again, I didn't see much need to upgrade beyond the basic model, but I had classmates who burned their cred trying to keep their icon trendy. Of course, the fact that I knew the recruiters at Ares had their eyes on me and my military corporate liaison experience meant that I just needed to make the grade and earn my JD to get a job. And with that eventual job came the full array of Ares-approved official corporate icons. They had a massive library of approved models - I let my fiancee at the time help me pick one, since she thought it was really important to have the right "look". I'd later learn how important that could be. But enough about that old life...
Since leaving the warm corporate embrace, I found myself marching through a series of mostly default icons as I frequently change my active commcode and periodically swap out entire fake IDs. Since earning a release from my contract with my previous employer, I paid for a slightly improved version of the basic chrome humanoid: this one wears a business suit and is tagged with a designator for ExAlt, LLC - the fake "consulting" company I set up as a means of covering up the shadow-y sources of my income. I like it for its combination of simple (just a chrome guy) and professional (wearing a suit and representing his firm).
-Rake