.

A while ago I was reading one of my favorite blogs: afkgamer. His last of 5 tips on starting an alt(#5 - "Don't tell your guild") reminded me of the time when I gave myself away just by my punctuation.

You see, I was suckered into logging into one of my super-secret-alts to help a friend (Friend-A). We grouped up and went about leveling him in tailoring or some such. (I know help leveling a profession probably sounds absurd in WoW, but we come from SWG -- it's what we know.)

One of our other friends (Friend-B) logged on and, as was our habit, Friend-A immediately (forgetting my super-secret-alt was grouped) invited Friend-B into our group. Crraaaap.

I tried to exit stage right asap without engaging and having to reveal who I was. I simply said:

Gotta go. Bye.

And logged. Yet somehow, Friend-B knew it was me. How?

Later when he asked, nay, told me that was me, (and not wanting to lie to this particular friend I fessed up), I asked him how he knew.

"The period," he said. "You're the only one that uses it."

Apparently, it's not just that I'm a careful typer. You see, I have this thing about not wanting to emote. (Seriously, it just looks dorky.) So whenever someone says something funny, I say:

lol.

Not:

lol

An important difference to an emote-o-phobe. Because with "lol" you emote the laugh. With "lol." you don't. And thus I was known for using a period, a super-secret-alt's identity was blown and the term "emote-o-phobe" may now humbly make its way back into gaming obscurity.