IBM/Linden want single avatar

Second Life creator Linden Lab and IBM are having a big old think about a universal character system for online worlds.

The idea would be to let people come up with a single appearance that could transcend the boundaries between places like Second Life and even games.

"It is going to happen anyway," Colin Parris, IBM's vice president of digital convergence, told Reuters.

"If you think you are walled and secure, somebody will create something that's open and then people will drain themselves away as fast as possible."

We're not really sure what that bit means, and we don't usually write about Second Life, but the idea of a unified character for online worlds - particularly games - is an interesting one.

One question we'd have would be: is it actually appropriate for online games, where the object is usually to dress yourself up in clothes specific to the fiction? Or even to morph yourself into a different race, gender or species?

What do you reckon? Will it work?