The Virtual Body

Players enter virtual worlds through the medium of their characters. Although in general the player determines the appearance of a character, characters are not merely ghostly projections of the spirit: They are tangible entities within the virtual world, as real (to it) as any other object. As representations of sentient beings, they have attributes and skills; however, they have other functionality merely by virtue of their being objects. From this point of view, the virtual body is a machine that the character lives in. What should this machine do? And what happens when it stops doing it?