[benguino]

Originally Posted by ShadoWolfe

that's why I turned them off. they influenced my perception of the person and therefore my read of them in a way that I knew was silly but was out of my control. there was a game where someone changed their avatar mid-game and I realized that it was affecting my read of them even though avatars have literally nothing to do with alignment, so I shut them off to better read the game without undue influence

I think I'm well below the level of read-obsession required for it to affect me at this point in my life, so I'm turning them back on for the funsies

This is a good point regarding avatars potentially influencing reads. I think at least being aware of this helps to minimize the level of influence.

For me, the avatars help me to distinguish players from one another and to also visualize people's interactions and relationships in my mind, otherwise, with just the usernames, everything can start to feel like a blur.