Question about people who were born on SL from 2003-2005ish.

[Carl Thibodeaux]

I've noticed something.

People with older avatars look more like a noob than any of us.

They tend to keep the old style of skin/looks instead of converting to the new looks and new new new.

Why is that?

[Syo Emerald]

I have 3 theories about that:

1. They are like my grandma. No will or fear to adapt to new things, especially if the are technical nature. "Back in my days...!" and nostalgia do the rest. This group also tends to stick to V1 and claims that every other viewer that came after that is garbage in or another way.

 

2. But thats my face/hair/style! Imagine your current look is part of your avatar for 2 years and longer. Its you, not just the things you brought. Every updated skin/hair wouldn't feel like "you". Its the same feeling as if you change in RL the home you have lived in for many years. It feels strange, even if your new house is better than the old one.

Many don't want to go through that process and since skins have a big influence on how the avatars face looks updating is a heavy impact.

3. The were lazy and suddenly updating avatar + inventory is too expensive, so they don't even start.

[Porky Gorky]

This is an astute observation.

My theory is that those of us remaining from the first few year of SL are only here still because we have business interests in SL. So we are far too busy trying to earn money to play dress up with our avatars. Maybe for the first few years we get involved and make an effort, but after a while it just becomes a job and there are always a hundred and one more important things on the todo list

[Sephina Frostbite]

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Syo Emerald wrote:

I have 3 theories about that:

1. They are like my grandma. No will or fear to adapt to new things, especially if the are technical nature. "Back in my days...!" and nostalgia do the rest. This group also tends to stick to V1 and claims that every other viewer that came after that is garbage in or another way.

 

2. But thats my face/hair/style! Imagine your current look is part of your avatar for 2 years and longer. Its you, not just the things you brought. Every updated skin/hair wouldn't feel like "you". Its the same feeling as if you change in RL the home you have lived in for many years. It feels strange, even if your new house is better than the old one.

Many don't want to go through that process and since skins have a big influence on how the avatars face looks updating is a heavy impact.

3. The were lazy and suddenly updating avatar + inventory is too expensive, so they don't even start.

---

I know how that feels. My avi is the same as three years ago. I finally bought this beautiful skin and even though I look amazing I dont feel right and I switch back. 4k down the drain.

[Crim Mip]

If I ever used a human AV I'd definitely want to update. The newer ones look far better though still kind of creepy and plastic. I'll just stick to furry AV's that seem to age a lot better.

[Amethyst Jetaime]

There are plenty of people from that time period that keep their avatars up to date, so be careful of generalizations.  I joined in 2006 and keep my avatar current and many of my friends from my time period and earlier keep up too - Including their viewers. They probably are not as noticeable to you because they look like everyone else and unless you profile them, you wouldn't know they are oldbies.  You notice the ones that don't because they look so newb but also very different from today's newbs.  You naturally profile them and notice their age.

While there are some in that group that aren't techy, and therefore want to stick to what they know, most of them that I know are VERY technology oriented, much more so than most of the newer residents.  After all, they were the pioneers of SL and were willing to get involved in cutting edge tech when the rest of the newer SL residents were  not even aware of the technology.  In the very first days you had to be invited by LL to join SL.  That of course changed, but it wasn't until about 2007 when LL started marketing SL to the public that the population grew significantly and more of the general population joined.  Before that most people who joined were invited to by friends who were already residents or 'stumbled' upon it, like I did.

Most oldbie residents are more settled into SL than the rest of the residents.  They tend to own their own sims or large parcels and hang out there or with friends that are from the same period and even a few of venues that are still around from that time period that aren't in search.  They also, as Porky said, are busy with their businesses or personal projects. They don't go out in "public" but rarely.  There is no real pressure to update.   

I still go 'out' in public from time to time but not near as much as I used to.  Most of the time when I do, I'm one of the three oldest avatars present if not the oldest.  Still I prefer to hang at my own place working on my business or projects and spending time with my partner, who is an oldbie. I also go to see friends I've known for years or hang at places where mostly oldbies hang out.

[Perrie Juran]

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Carl Thibodeaux wrote:

I've noticed something.

People with older avatars look more like a noob than any of us.

They tend to keep the old style of skin/looks instead of converting to the new looks and new new new.

Why is that?

---

I wore the same skin for almost three years after I had shed my newbie skin.

Someone gifted me the Lindens as a third rez day gift. 

It took me six weeks to decide on a new skin.

There aren't a lot of options on the Market Place for Martians. 

[Orca Flotta]

there are always a hundred and one more important things on the todo list

 

... like hanging out in this lame forum for example! :matte-motes-evil:

[Czari Zenovka]

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Porky Gorky wrote:

This is an astute observation.

My theory is that those of us remaining from the first few year of SL are only here still because we have business interests in SL. So we are far too busy trying to earn money to play dress up with our avatars. Maybe for the first few years we get involved and make an effort, but after a while it just becomes a job and there are always a hundred and one more important things on the todo list

---

I agree with this as well as Amethyst's post.  Most of the older residents I know (meaning 2006 and older) came to SL to build or script or, as you said, run a business.  I took a 10-week course in Gimp years ago in SL.  The instructor's partner, meaning he had the technical knowledge to her instructional abilities, was rezzed I think in 2004 or 2005, had a noobie skin/hair, and wore the same clothes...always.  I've seen photos of him from years before I met him - exactly same look. 

I'm sort of in the "mid-range" - I like to look attractive, but I detest shopping and following fashion trends bores me, so I do some "semi-upgrading" every couple of years or so.

[Porky Gorky]

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Orca Flotta wrote:

there are always a hundred and one more important things on the todo list

 

... like hanging out in this lame forum for example! :matte-motes-evil:

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Last time i checked I could not run SL, photoshop or 3DS Max on my phone, which is the only device I use to post on the forums.. If I am at home or work and have access to a machine that allows me to design then that is what I am doing certainly not wasting time on here.

So if anyone reads my posts on the forums you can picture me on my phone sitting on the train or in traffic or on the loo taking a dump.

[Porky Gorky]

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Czari Zenovka wrote:

I agree with this as well as Amethyst's post.  Most of the older residents I know (meaning 2006 and older) came to SL to build or script or, as you said, run a business.  I took a 10-week course in Gimp years ago in SL.  The instructor's partner, meaning he had the technical knowledge to her instructional abilities, was rezzed I think in 2004 or 2005, had a noobie skin/hair, and wore the same clothes...always.  I've seen photos of him from years before I met him - exactly same look. 

I'm sort of in the "mid-range" - I like to look attractive, but I detest shopping and following fashion trends bores me, so I do some "semi-upgrading" every couple of years or so.

---

I used to update Porky and my other main AV once per year, that stopped in 2008 when I missed a year, then I missed 2009 too....in 2010 I stuck a bag on their heads as the skins were looking too dated, not done anything else to them since then.

I just remembered though that I do have to 2 very up to date avatars that I use for taking sales images of furniture and such like, but they never get out and about in SL.

[Dilbert Dilweg]

I was born in 2006 and it took me about  5 years before I upgraded my avatar lol. I will wear the same clothes for months on end lol

I just cant be arsed into constant changes lol

The creator. Philip Rosedale didn't change from his original avatar untill last year or so lol

[Qie Niangao]

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My theory is that those of us remaining from the first few year of SL are only here still because we have business interests in SL.

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That's certainly a theory, but not what I've mostly seen. I know a few oldbies still interested in business, but most of the folks I know from early days tired of the relatively low income earnable in SL. For a while, money works as a kind of score-keeping but eventually most seem to get bored with it, except those whose RL circumstances limit their non-SL opportunities.

Speaking for my own main avatar (since 2006), it's a mix of old and new, but particularly the skin is from earlier times. I've made my own skins a few times, and also tried buying replacements, but keep going back to the old one I bought some years ago. At least part of it is that the new, ultra-photorealistic skins have a tendency to squick my Uncanny Valley response. I'm guessing that those who started out later were exposed to those skins right away and just don't experience them as freakish the way I do, having joined earlier.

[Orca Flotta]

I'm guessing that those who started out later were exposed to those skins right away and just don't experience them as freakish the way I do, having joined earlier.

Exactly. When I met the first creator of photorealistic skins and they showed me a demo I was like WTF? I couldn't see any difference to my freebie skin at all. Was on a 12" subnotebook with integrated Intel graphics then, we didn't have windlight or anything posh in SL in the first place. All skins of all creators looked exactly the same for me, except the makeup. And paying like 3000 L$ just because some salesppl told me their skin looks so much nicer??? I said thanks but no, thanks.

Only later, in 2008, when I got a better lappy with some graphic ooomph I found out about all the small details that make a good skin. And since then I'm buying new skins every now and then, when I'm bored. What I think makes the biggest difference in avi appearance are hairs tho and I buy more hair than clothes. I seem to be trendy since women hairs are the most purchased items in SL.

BTW, I still don't have a photorealistic skin since I don't need pores, wrinkles, freckles and blemishes (got more than enough of those in RL).

And titty enhancers, mesh hands and feet and now mesh heads? OMG, never!!! That's not my idea of going light and lag-free and needs too much attention on my avie. It's what Orca does in world, not how she looks like, what makes SL interesting for me.

[Czari Zenovka]

Not a fan of the photorealistic skins either.  They creep me out for some reason.  Not as much as the "fish-face" pout on what appears to be a 15-year-old in a woman's body but almost.  Now put those two together...ARRRGGGGHHHH!!!.

[Ceka Cianci]

i always liked to think in my own little head that they were just so into SL and the creative end and just making really awesome things..

they just never really got into the goign for a look thing..

that that was their thing here..the really cool escape and making things come alive and making something that nobody ever did before in here..

 

 those were the early years and you had to make a lot of the things you wanted..

 

here we are and have pretty much everything plus some..

those were the really cool times..the settler days =)

 

that's what i like to think in my mind..i don't know if i want to know the real truth..

sometimes it's just good to imagine  and wear some rose tint glasses now and again..

[Porky Gorky]

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Qie Niangao wrote:

That's certainly a theory, but not what I've mostly seen...

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My theory is based on the people I know who started 2005 or earlier, and who are still active. Including me that is 3 people....so admittedly not the broadest cross section of SL's oldbie community. 

[Tiffy Vella]

Maybe the oldbies feel they don't have to have all the latest looks because they don't have to impress the rest of us; they just know they're special. Maybe some see their SL vintage style as a badge of honour? Sort of like Hipsters who wear their grandpa hats and porno mos with pride, as a fashionable anti-fashion statement?

I'm only  a mid-bie (common as muck, from the 2007 rush), but still wear some favourite pre-mesh outfits. Perhaps those new to SL this year would be more likely to wear only the latest mesh.

 

[Czari Zenovka]

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Tiffy Vella wrote:

 

I'm only  a mid-bie (common as muck, from the 2007 rush), but still wear some favourite pre-mesh outfits. Perhaps those new to SL this year would be more likely to wear only the latest mesh.

 

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2007 here as well and still wearing, and buying, pre-mesh everything. (I was gifted some mesh hair and mesh feet, but those don't count because I didn't buy them.) 

[Karl Herber]

I was born in 2006 and my avatar was last upgraded in about 2008. But then, I'm a furry so there's no real need to upgrade skin etc.  I still wear the same old cargo shorts and a t-shirt that I made myself about 6 or 7 years ago. I'll replace the t-shirt when I figure out how to make it in mesh (ie, probably never).  It's not that I'm afraid of change, it's more that I have a very specific look that I don't want to change.  If I was human it would probably be a very different story.

[Suspiria Finucane]

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Carl Thibodeaux wrote:

I've noticed something.

People with older avatars look more like a noob than any of us.

They tend to keep the old style of skin/looks instead of converting to the new looks and new new new.

Why is that?

---

2006 prolly isn't 2005ish but...

I would say it's easier to spot a noob by how they copy what the latest craze is. Some people don't have the need to reinvent themselves with every new fad that comes along (the merchants depend on these people however).  I liken it to av identity or av branding. Once someone is comfortable in their own skin (pun intended) there is no reason to change. Some people like being recognized for a unique avatar before someone sees their name.

Interestingly enough, RL advertising always leans toward perfect skin yet in SL some people want every skin imperfection in the known world to be on their av's. (yes I know SL isn't RL) To each their own but no thanks for me.

As far as looks, how can a person appear dated if it is your world your imagination? Some people like dreadlocks or the dirty hair/wet hair look that sticks to your skin but again; it isn't for me. New isn't always better although future improvements may be.

 

One could also make the following observation.

"I've noticed something.

People with newer avatars look more like a noob than any of us. (obviously)

They tend to look like clones instead of being unique.

Why is that?"

[Sassy Kenin]

 

Agreed! Thanks for freebie lion statue in shop porky  :smileyhappy:

[Natalie Voxel]

I'm the complete opposite. I was a member of SL off and on from 2005-2006 and it was the visuals and technical issues that I had wished would be improved. When I came back to try SL out again the first thing I did was buy mesh clothing, shoes.

 

When I was on SL last things like flexible prims were NEW features. Sculpted prims? Nope. Hair looked just plain bad back then. Not to mention the majority of new players had the dreaded white shirt, blue pants, av hair by default.

 

If anything the new improvements should give a veteran/whatever member more reason to stick around.

 

Do you notice it being mostly guys? Guys tend to be more satisfied just sticking with what they got. I've known guys on SL who hadn't changed their avatars clothes for months. And more than a few of them only updated their wardrobe or appearance because some gals did the shopping/picking things out for them. No offense guys I know some of you are fashionable!

[Winter Phoenix]

I still use the second skin I ever bought.

It's simply me.

If I put on a different skin, it wouldnt be 'me' anymore.

I'd look like. . .somebody else.

[Deja Letov]

My first avatar was born in 2004 or 2005, I can't remember which. but then I made this avatar strictly for roleplay in 2008. I actually went and got the same skin and shape that I had on my original avatar because I liked it so much. Over the years, I stopped playing on the original avatar but I kept the same look on this avatar. I didn't change anything, not my hair, clothes, skin, etc. Honestly, at first, it was because I liked it, but as years progressed I didn't bother because I don't do much socializing here. I mainly build and run my businesses, I just don't dress up my character all that much. And then last year I hired an assistant. She forced me to update because I looked bland and boring. So I am now officially in an updated skin, shape and I even wear mesh hair and shoes. Crazy I know! I still don't go anywhere to show it off, but I will admit it's nice to talk to people in my store looking like a badass goth queen.