Time was that the word "avatar" meant the earthly manifestation of a god. You might have also used it to describe an archetype. But in the earliest days of the Internet — back in the 1980s, when no one was looking — an avatar became one's digital self.

If this is news to you, consider yourself extravagantly late to the costume party that is online role-playing.

Let's get you up to speed. Introducing 27-year-old wife and mother Becky Glasure, who complains of never being taken seriously.

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