...he doesn't know why we call profile pictures "avatars", does he? Because if he did, he wouldn't have made that mistake. Avatar, as used in old days (18th century and up) used to mean representation (or humanoid reincarnation) of a deity on Earth. The avatar wouldn't be the deity in their full magnificence itself, but some (usually) limited representation of it. The representation part stuck, and that's why our pfp's are referred to avatars; because they are supposed to be, in a way, a limited representations of us. Or in the case of something like Runescape, that character is a limited reincarnation of me in their world.