Patent ID: 8223156

Claim:
A method for displaying multiple virtual universe avatar states, comprising: a second avatar of a second virtual universe user engaging a first avatar of a first user in a virtual universe domain, wherein the engaged first avatar is graphically displayed to the second user in an initial visual appearance state comprising an initial appearance of a visual attribute; selecting and retrieving at least one other prior engagement visual appearance state of the first avatar as a function of an associated time of a prior engagement, wherein the at least one other prior engagement visual appearance state was visually displayed to the second avatar user within the virtual universe domain during the associated prior engagement with the first avatar and comprises another appearance of the visual attribute that is different from and visually distinct from the initial appearance of the visual attribute, wherein the at least one another visual appearance state is selected from at least one previous appearance state of the first avatar stored in a storage medium, wherein each of the at least one previous appearance states have different visually and distinct display appearances of the visual attribute and are stored in the storage medium in association with different respective times that they were visually displayed to a user within the virtual universe domain; graphically displaying the engaged first avatar to the second user in the selected and retrieved at least one other visual appearance state to the second user in association with the time of the prior engagement; and storing the initial visual appearance of the first avatar in the storage medium associated with a time of display of the initial visual appearance state to the second avatar during the engaging.