Do you incorporate RL aspects into your Avy/SL

[Nalates Urriah]

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 how other people enjoy playing here

There are the meat market pick up places I find great fun. Here I find RL and SL tend to mix. I can get away with WAY more in SL and try things that would get me in serious trouble in RL. Some of what I learn messing with the guys in SL makes it back to RL.

The variety of possible play is amazing. There are numerous games with in SL. Those range from multiplayer table games to skill-game gambling. Then there are game-games with points and levels. Then the historic recreation games and locations. These recreations blend into the apocalyptic roleplay (e.g., Ruin Nation) with various levels of combat and reward-punishment. Losing a battle and being captured and at the mercy of your captor adds significant tension to a game. Exploring is a popular activity. Building places and things is popular. Then there is the whole fashion thing.

I like shopping and dressing up. I also like flying and sailing. I've tried driving. I have yet to find a realistic car/truck. So, I think driving is a bit a lame. Shergood's helicopters are awesome fun being WAY realistic for SL. Sailing can be fun, pretty realistic. The Topless Tuesday Cruises and party are fun.

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invent someone new -  aspects of your real life into your avatar

Much of my RL personality bleeds into my SL personality. It is difficult get my ethnicity exact. But, I've gotten close. I shave about 20 lbs off my shape and add a couple of inches to get to 5-10.

When playing in NoR I found it hard to make and stay in a game personality. I sort of gave up. I now tend to be the same in and out of game with the exception of being WAY less inhibited in SL.

 

[Raevyn Addams]

On 9/26/2019 at 5:00 PM, MaxineWarridious said:

So, do you incorporate any aspects of your real life into your avatar or into your SL existence? If not what has inspired you?

Short answer; yes.

Long winded answer;

Not that long ago on another thread was the 10 years (or less) challenge where Residents posted their earliest avatar pics. After gathering pictures of Rae over the years it really struck me at how consistent her look has been and what remains constant despite all the appearance tweaking. Rae has always had certain physical traits that mirror mine including hair and eye colour and a more rounded body shape, but that's pretty much where the similarities end. Rae is taller where I am short, I have a lot of tattoos and body and facial piercings (though I've taken a majority out these days) but Rae doesn't have any tats and barely any piercings except for her ears (though she used have the same piercings I did or as close as I could get them at one stage). Of course she appears much younger too appearing probably half my RL age give or take a few years. I live in black all year round and she wears clothes and shoes I'd likely never dare in real life (or in all honesty afford). Even our "tastes" are different in many respects though this is more to differentiate on purpose. But in saying that there have been times I've made Rae over to resemble me more closely but it usually doesn't last long before I change her back to what I think she needs to be.

This probably sounds strange but I address Rae much the same way someone would as a character in a story; I don't see SL Rae as an extension of my RL self. I bring aspects of my RL self here but essentially I am playing a role even when I'm not in RP and that depends on where I am, what I'm doing, and who I'm talking to, and even how I talk to other people. Rae the avatar has always been a mother or mothering type since her earliest days in SL. It's a conscious choice in how she dresses (most times), how her homes are decorated, and the places she visits. In RL I'm not a mother (unless taking care of cats or the elderly counts as parenthood) and I don't live anywhere near as well as Rae appears to either. In many ways she's more based in fantasy than reality as she affords the RL me some escapism with just enough of "me" in there that I can associate with and relate to her on whatever level. 

[ChinRey]

I try not to but I seem to gravitate towards my RL both when it comes to my avatar and my builds.

The Chin Rey alt is particularly noticeable there. She was supposed to be Asian but somehow she ended up with a very disticntive Scandinavian look.

[Morena Tully]

My avatar has always been a reflection of who I am inside, not outside, right from the beginning. It's important to me to reflect a down to earth, kind, approachable, casual and natural look. With pointy elf ears! My very first day, I pulled those ear sliders around, and the elf ears shall always remain.

What I look like in SL doesn't bear even a passing resemblance to the first life me, yet it's still a very accurate representation of who I am, and feels very authentic. She is me, I am her. Glamorous? NO! Hiking in heels? Oh heck NO! Perfect makeup? No thank you! That is the similarity between my avatar and the other me. We can't be bothered with fashion and looking sexy. That isn't who we are. I'm not comfortable at all with changing appearances, either, other than outfit changes. I'yam who I'yam. Except when I'm something else. Changing into a non-human form is fun, and liberating! But only temporary.

[KirinGale]

When I first started? Sure.

I had many nice parts, and attempted to emulate my real self into an avatar... but eventually I became a bit frustrated that I couldn't achieve even a pleasing caricature of myself. A lot of body parts in SL are a glamorized, "air-brushed model" design, and they don't really match up with my stylistic tastes, idea of realism, or how I see myself.. There are a few bodies, heads, and skins that are less embellished -- they're more cartoony, painterly, or videogame-esque which minimizes uncanny valley -- but the selection is limited.

After a while I just separated my real-self completely from my in-world looks and worked with what was available. I play now as different races, fantasy characters, creatures. My avatars are based around aesthetical interests, but they're not reflective of my real-world dress-style or appearance. 

Beyond appearances I've always been myself here.

Edited September 28, 2019 by KirinGale

[Nagafusa Takeda]

My avatars are more like works of art to me than anything to do with my RL self.  I go for aesthetics and don't really care how "realistic" it is.

[Resi Pfeffer]

While im kinda jealous of my avatar, because she gets a color HUD for every single piece of clothes she buys, she has to reflect me in exchange quite a lot.
When i feel lazy, she is just allowed to use a baggy tracksuit instead of fancy clothes. When i manage to hurt my leg doing sports, she will wear a knee bandage, too.
And of course, she will never be taller than 1.61 meters.

Edited October 2, 2019 by Resi Pfeffer
typo

[BelindaN]

I guess this just goes to show how SL can be all things to all people.

Just get out there and have fun!

[Donna Underall]

The longer I'm in SL the closer I get to RL.  And the closer I get the better I feel.

[Layla Claven]

Both of my avatars have dark hair and eyes and both of them are pretty short though they would tower over me in RL. I think look wise that is where the similarities end. Now I'm going to echo @RaeLeeH, I have tattoo's in RL and used to have facial piercing but I don't in SL unless it is for a photo I am taking. I think out of the two avatars I tend to dress Layla in quite similar clothes to those I wear in RL except when Layla has her stomach on display, I'd be wearing a band t shirt. 

My RL interests tend to creep in to my SL homes so they will always be books, music, a camera or RL photographs I have taken and usually SL versions of my RL pets about the place.

[Damian Mills]

My SL body is as close to my RL one as I can make it given the massive limitations of the Gianni body (LOL, and "massive" is certainly the right word there).  In general my SL avatar is me and I want it to look that way.  I even liked how my hair and beard looked in SL so I grew out my facial hair in RL and then took a trip to a good barber shop to get a similar RL look.  Predictably, my SL avatar is taller than my RL body, but I made sure I was height proportional to my girlfriend.

The same is true of my wardrobe.... some of which I had to make myself.

I treat SL more as another place than as a fantasy reality.

[Pixie Kobichenko]

Eh, I keep Pixie Blonde👱‍♀️, which I was up until my mid 20s, then my hair darkened on its own.  I have toyed in the past with avis that allowed me to be heavier like RL, but they are typically cartoonish and I'd prefer a realistic looking pixel doll, even if she's not the same as me.  I'm almost always wearing a tiara or crown💎- wish I had one in rl   I can't wear high heels👠 in RL- so Pix has a collection.    My homes in SL always have huge gardens🌼 and tons of trees🌳- something I've had and not had in RL but would have in a perfect world always.  I have a full left sleeve, and half right, and a chest piece in RL- but don't really care about having them on Pixie- Pixie just has a chest piece, and some dermal piercings on her collar bones, which I can't have piercings cause I have always had allergic reactions.  

Personality wise, I'm the same person- I don't roleplay a persona in SL, but I'm probably way more outgoing thru Pix. 

[Scylla Rhiadra]

What a really interesting question!

I suppose, thinking about it, that (with a few not inconsequential exceptions) I don't tend consciously to either replicate or distance my avatar from my RL look and style. I most often think of my RL self and my SL self as being two separate things that don't really relate to each other, at least in terms of appearance.

In RL I'm brunette, rather than blonde. Becoming a blonde here was a sort of natural evolution: I loved my first hair in SL (Rock Musician? or something), which was a black/white ombre thing, and because I liked it, and wanted consistency, when I shopped for new hair, I wanted something similar. But ombre wasn't as popular back then (2008-2009) as it is now, and so I generally ended up with styles that were blonde because to me they looked more like that original hairstyle. And so I ended up, gradually, just becoming a blonde (although I still almost invariably buy ombre).

I've never referenced my RL face at all while working on my SL avatar's head; I was going for a particular "effect" rather than for a specific look, if that makes sense. I don't really know how close the two are: I've never really thought about it.

My SL shape reflects, somewhat, my RL shape as it was about 10 or 11 years ago. It's not hugely different now (although 10 years does have an impact), but the only two things about it that really reflect my RL appearance are height (I'm about 178 cm tall in both RL and SL) and breast size. I suppose the fact that I don't personally like "hourglass" shapes is a reflection of the fact that that isn't my shape in RL, though.

My clothing, at least for my first 4 or 5 years here, generally was somewhat like what I was wearing in my 20s, because it was a look with which I felt comfortable. My reliance (back then) on jeans, tees, boots, and jackets (jean or leather) was also a response to the communities I hung out in. It's not great policy, when a sizable proportion of your friends are Marxists, to show up at an event looking as though you've just stepped off the red carpet, or are en route to your country estate in the Catskills.

As for the rest of me -- language, personality, attitudes, and stuff -- well, that's just me, because that's the way it turned out. I couldn't RP my way out of a paper bag, and I'm not really interested in doing so anyway.

[Arastea Morningstar]

The only thing sometimes I will add is my eye color. Rest is all fantasy.

[FairreLilette]

The Boho style of clothes is the most aspect of myself.  Boho is short for Bohemian.  

There are bits here and there but my avi is always changing.  Currently, I am a Dinkie Boho, i.e., a cat in Boho Clothes.  

I love being a Dinkie.  Best thing I ever did in my SL other than a few builds I did...last year my Haunted Mansion was amazing. 

I'm with the "anthro" groups a lot now.  

 

Edited October 19, 2019 by FairreLilette

[Ajay McDowwll]

I hope it's not too late to comment on this

When I first joined SL, I worked to make Ajay (for A.J. -- my RL initials) as much like me as I could in appearance, although she got my 23-year-old body rather than my "spawned two offspring" variant.  I mean, I dress my RL body every day.  When I come in to SL it's fun to zip back a few years.

That said, my hair color inworld has matched my hair color in RL pretty consistently... although which world's version led the way has varied   I first had brown hair, because my RL hair was brown.  Then in SL I went more toward red... and over time in RL I did the same.

Now in RL my hair has gone natural (if you find my inworld profile, my first life picture shows me this past December), so Ajay sports a silver mane to go along with that.  I've actually toyed around with trying to create some crow's feet at my eyes also, but I haven't had much luck.  I don't mind aging in RL and wouldn't mind showing some in SL, but most of options I've seen for aging avatars inworld tend to go more toward the stage-makeup variant of aging, rather than just some laugh lines

To me, SL is more another place than it is another plane of existence, so I tend to just be myself.  In RL I partake of whatever cosmetic enhancements are available and reasonable; in SL I do the same.

Thankfully, in SL I don't have to lift weights

[Skell Dagger]

5 hours ago, Ajay McDowwll said:

I don't mind aging in RL and wouldn't mind showing some in SL, but most of options I've seen for aging avatars inworld tend to go more toward the stage-makeup variant of aging, rather than just some laugh lines

A small note on this: check out Izzie's for subtle age lines and other wrinkles/blemishes (link to an MP search of her store just for 'age' is here). She has a fantastic selection, everything from tattoo layers (for system head; would probably work with Bakes on Mesh, too) to appliers. I used her older wrinkles applier set (which has multiple options so you can choose exactly which ones you want to wear) for the below pic, but she has some newer 'age yourself' variants, too:

[cheesecurd]

My avatar is short and flatter than a frying pan. Glasses sometimes but not always.

[Ajay McDowwll]

12 hours ago, Skell Dagger said:

A small note on this: check out Izzie's for subtle age lines and other wrinkles/blemishes (link to an MP search of her store just for 'age' is here). She has a fantastic selection, everything from tattoo layers (for system head; would probably work with Bakes on Mesh, too) to appliers. I used her older wrinkles applier set (which has multiple options so you can choose exactly which ones you want to wear) for the below pic, but she has some newer 'age yourself' variants, too:

Oh thank you!  I'll check it out

[Waiomao]

My SL avatar is just another side of me. Some that comes out in SL is hidden in RL, some that comes out in RL is hidden in SL. It seems like our avatars are who many people imagine they might be in RL if they had endured their RL struggles, but had none of their RL responsibilities. Their RL likes, dislikes, cravings, passions, desires, wants, and needs can be lived full throttle in SL, because in SL our RL roadblocks, frustrations and limitations don't exist. In SL we can do nearly anything, all the time, with little expense or consequence. Maybe SL exposes what we would all be like if we won the lottery, how we would all blow the money in that first glorious year. Beach houses and sex, beach houses and sex, beach houses and sex.

[Alazarin Mondrian]

Yes, I'm definitely a green dragoness in RL 😉

[Seicher Rae]

What I'm calling Seicher 1.0 (avatar for first 10 years) is based loosely upon my real life appearance: a pale, green-eyed brunette. The eyes and mouth are as close to my RL as I could get them. Neither I nor Seicher are overly endowed (having just enough boobs!). Basically Seicher 1.0 is what my imaginary, nice looking cousin in her late 20s early 30s would look like. In RL I'm older. Seicher 2.0 is quite different!  Both SR's are around six feet tall, which means short in SL. In RL I'm 5'6". I tried setting the avatar to that height and just was so tiny compared to everyone else. SR's personality is the same as my multi-faceted personality in RL, unless I'm role playing. When I started SL I was hoping that I could be more of an extrovert, but nope, I'm still very much an introvert who can pass as an extrovert in certain venues (like Forums).

Edited November 4, 2019 by Seicher Rae

[MaxineWarridious]

Hi everyone!

How stupid is it that I never came back to check this thread because I was scared no one would respond.

I finally decided to come back ready to not take it personally, if no one had responded, and wow! what great responses.

Thank you to everyone who took time to write. I know it was a very personal post!

I guess I've been turned off by some really unfriendly sims, and social media people desperate for popularity... that I was concerned people would be offended for me to dare mention anything RL related. 

Lots of nice people on the forums <3

 

 

[LyricalBookworm]

What a fun thread topic! The answer to your question for me is yes! Absolutely! Many aspects of rl self is incorporated into my avatar.

I'm 4'11 in real life and petite so my avatar here is pretty tiny. Not that tiny, but still tiny height wise compared to many others. I have a petite build, but with a bit of curves like in rl too. I spent hours on my shape years ago and it's remained the same ever since. I would feel strange being tall even in SL. I found a skin tone with freckles that matched mine in rl. Same hair and green eyes too. My rl green eyes are a bit darker than my avi's though! My system shape face had similar facial features and when I went to mesh and bento mesh, I still made my avatar's facial features look as close to the real me as possible.

I just wouldn't feel like me otherwise.

[Pussycat Catnap]

My avatar has always been an idealized self as an exploratory journey of 'what ifs'.

There's a fairly good chance RL me is not a neko...

In 2009 my avatar had a lighter tone than I, as it was the darkest tone I knew how to find. Now she's darker - which was something driven by events within and without SL.

I try to not have aspects of my RL self blend into my avatar, but some have anyway. That said I purposefully work to keep the difference so that I feel inclined to keep exploring something 'different'.

I've used my avatar to explore aspects of myself in terms of both spirituality and sexuality. RL me is a lot tamer on the latter (and not a nudist or anything of such nature). RL me is probably also more politically outspoken (I have multiple degrees in political science and related fields so in RL I do rather deep dives on subjects - but I don't find the sorts of folks I could have those conversations with in SL).

In some ways there is actually a lot LESS room for exploration in SL, as it is so extremely lacking in diversity, and in other ways there is more room - so it's hard to say I explore more or less here or there - rather that I do so differently.

Beyond tone, many of the visuals of my avatar are based on RL proportions. When I first started doing that I was in a world of pencil-stretched giants; now it seems about half the grid has joined me and half is still stretched.

 

 

Edited November 16, 2019 by Pussycat Catnap