[MUD-Dev] First use of "avatar"?

[Koster]

The OED is doing a pilot project to incorporate a large number of
words derived from SF. You can read about it here:

  http://66.108.177.107/SF/sf_citations.shtml

One in particular that caught my eye was this entry:

  avatar (n.) antedating 1992 (in Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash)
  sense is a VR representation of a person

I want to say that avatar was used before Snow Crash. Am I wrong?

While we're at it:

  - what were the avatars in Habitat called?

  - "toon" is another one that I have heard still in common usage,
  though not as commonly. Does this antedate The Realm?

  - "character" and "paperdoll" seem to be common alternatives
  though they do not mean precisely the same thing

-Raph
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