and the user, it is a tension that seems to not stand in the way of anything as players often show unselfconsciousness. Additionally, research on online personalities has been done that could potentially extrapolate to the phenomena of online roleplaying. Researcher J. Suler found that, despite the various layers hiding the person behind the character, there is still a presence of the true personality of the roleplayer. Suler, in their study, highlighted several reasons for this extended emotional expression: Dissociative Anonymity in that the roleplayer tends to not see the similarity between their online self and their offline self, although they are but two sides of the same coin. Invisibility in that there is no worry about appearances when interacting online. This can lead to increased emotional expression as well. Asynchronicity in that users can respond when they have time to, and there is no pressure to respond emotionally. This allows a better procession of emotions and thus heightened expression of the player's emotions. References Further reading Internet Game Timeline 1969-1990 Online games Multiplayer online games MUDs Browser games Role-playing games