It took the world by storm in 2006. The Nintendo Wii was the hot commodity everyone wanted to play.Sure, it had motion control for more “realistic” gaming, but that wasn’t the main appeal in some people’s eyes. Some enjoyed waggling their Wiimotes, looking like fools as they played Wii Tennis,  but others enjoyed the simpler feature of the Wii.Making a “Mii.”Nintendo’s cleverly named “Mii” is a cartoon-like avatar players use to play the sports in “Wii Sports,” drive go karts in “Mario Kart” and serve as overall representatives of players’ identities on Nintendo’s little white box.I knew tons of people who originally had more fun making digital representations of themselves than playing the actual games.Character creation in video games is nothing new. My fondest memories of the in-game feature date back to 2000  when I created tons of different characters in “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2.”But it seems more and more developers are using this feature in their games. Developers like BioWare and Bethesda have extensive (and I really mean extensive) character creator tools in their games “Mass Effect” and “Fallout 3,” respectively.Games such as “Rock Band” and “Guitar Hero World Tour” allow players to customize their in-game rockers to their liking.The more and more I play these games with other people, a funny pattern starts to emerge from the character creation feature.Generally, every time I play a game that requires me to create a character to play, I name him “Adam” and use the provided tools to make him look as close to myself as possible.Granted, there are exceptions if I make multiple characters or the story already decides on a last name for my character (such as in “Mass Effect”), but usually I like to see myself on screen doing whatever tasks the game assigns.But then I start to notice not everyone shares this same attention to detail in themselves as I do.I find it interesting to see how people go about creating their little “Miis” or rockers in “Rock Band” because it shows how they view themselves.Microsoft recently decided to add the avatar feature to the Xbox 360 to cash in on Nintendo’s success with their “Miis.” While I found it exciting to waste more of my time doing something as pointless and trivial as dressing my virtual character, I become more  enthralled with what the people on my friends list did with their characters.Some of my friends, like myself, designed their avatar to look their real-life counterpart — some with striking similarities.But others must look in a different set of mirrors. Sure, some make jokes out of their avatars, but I believe some people are serious and think they truly look like this to others.Is it shallow and a bit mean to judge my friends like this? Most likely. But what are friends for?The most recent — and, might I add, most comical — display of self-imagery came last February when Facebook hosted its “doppelganger week.” Users were told to post their celebrity lookalike as their profile picture.And the results were outstanding. Never have I been more amused as to who people thought they looked like. Usually none of them were even close.Am I saying you should make every digital form of yourself look just like your real-life self? Of course not — that would be boring.Have some fun. Get imaginative with your creations. But choose wisely with what you use to represent yourself, because it can easily tell more about your personality than you may think.So take notice — and go ahead, ridicule your friends with their silly creations. They probably think yours is just as bad … and it probably is. Adam Arinder is a 20-year-old communication studies junior from Baton Rouge. Follow him on Twitter@TDR_aarinder–Contact Adam Arinder at [email protected]