Are there actual fads in SL?

[Lindal Kidd]

4 hours ago, Syn Anatine said:

Aren't those super wide hips on chicks still a fad?

Makes me shudder everytime.

Me too.  But one time, I took it upon myself to diffidently suggest that a lady of my acquaintance had gotten too ambitious with the body sliders.  She then sent me a RL picture of herself.  She was seriously stacked below the waist.  I was so embarrassed.

[SpiritSparrow Skydancer]

On 11/9/2019 at 11:07 AM, usedcars said:

Mesh.  A lot of times a girl or guy won’t associate with someone without it.

these are people I would avoid, in fact I see this so much in SL in profiles it makes me so sad.

[Syo Emerald]

On 11/9/2019 at 5:07 PM, usedcars said:

Mesh.  A lot of times a girl or guy won’t associate with someone without it.

How does that qualify as a fad? Its a building tool/material. Thats like saying prims are a fad.

[Pussycat Catnap]

On 11/8/2019 at 8:17 AM, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Clearly there is a market for AFK sex, or it wouldn't have become as popular as it apparently has.

What I was suggesting was simply that I, personally, didn't understand the appeal of watching cartoon sex that involves absolutely no interaction or engagement with a real person.

I personally don't like my pixel sex to involve ANY interaction or engagement with a real person... Most of the people in the scene are a serious turn off to me in terms of personalities.
- generational, interests, sense of dominance or submission, ethnic stereotypes (my flickr gets about 1 invite to an 'interracial xxx' group a month. Sometimes more... I find them offensive for how they negatively portray non-whites), and a host of other reasons...

But I enjoy the visual.

When I'm interested in 'pixel sex' I usually load up an alt or myself with an open RLV collar and wait for someone to jump in without chatting. If they IM me, I move on... I don't want to know any of those folks, male or female...

A year ago I tried the AFK scene except I wasn't AFK, I had it on another monitor while I went about my business with a different account. But it was boring - 99% of the traffic is the 'dolls' and most of the remainder is 'gawkers' in the landing platform with so little game they can't even handle wacking to a computer girl...

 

[Pussycat Catnap]

I see 5 posts about neko and the first basically also makes the point: Neko itself was a fad.

There was a time where everyone was a neko and they were all telling me I was doing it wrong because I didn't do grunge and didn't have a horse tail.

Now I see so few nekos I can TP into places and get an IM along the lines of "furries are not allowed here..."

People have no idea why my 'furry' never seems to fully rez...

 

[Scylla Rhiadra]

23 hours ago, Pussycat Catnap said:

I personally don't like my pixel sex to involve ANY interaction or engagement with a real person... Most of the people in the scene are a serious turn off to me in terms of personalities.
- generational, interests, sense of dominance or submission, ethnic stereotypes (my flickr gets about 1 invite to an 'interracial xxx' group a month. Sometimes more... I find them offensive for how they negatively portray non-whites), and a host of other reasons...

But I enjoy the visual.

When I'm interested in 'pixel sex' I usually load up an alt or myself with an open RLV collar and wait for someone to jump in without chatting. If they IM me, I move on... I don't want to know any of those folks, male or female...

A year ago I tried the AFK scene except I wasn't AFK, I had it on another monitor while I went about my business with a different account. But it was boring - 99% of the traffic is the 'dolls' and most of the remainder is 'gawkers' in the landing platform with so little game they can't even handle wacking to a computer girl...

 

This is a bit of an eye-opening perspective for me, in a number of ways. Thank you.

I've never myself been particularly excited by the visuals -- although occasionally I'll try out the poses in something new that I've bought, just out of curiosity, and will happen across one particular animation or another that will leave me thinking "hmmmmm" . . .  That's fairly rare, though. On the whole, I've always sort of assumed, on the basis of what I should admit is definitely a gendered stereotype, that men tend to be more "visually oriented" with regard to sex. And, on the basis of that assumption, that AFK sex tends to appeal for more to men. I have, of course, absolutely no proof that that is so.

I myself do much prefer, and focus upon the textual exchange -- but then I'm not going to be subjected to the sorts of responses that you describe here. I wish I could say I was I was surprised -- I'm not -- but it's also true that the likelihood of this kind of thing being directed at women of colour hadn't really occurred to me.

Your description of the AFK scene sounds about right. I can understand not actually being afk while doing it: that surely would be one of the appeals of this? And it would, I'd have thought, make it more appealing to those who choose to hop on. In general, I'd have thought personally, and despite whatever appeal the visuals themselves might hold, that some sort of connection with a flesh and blood person, somewhere, would make this more effective. But, again, that's perhaps too narrow and subjective a view.

[Pussycat Catnap]

1 hour ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

This is a bit of an eye-opening perspective for me, in a number of ways. Thank you.

I've never myself been particularly excited by the visuals

I myself do much prefer, and focus upon the textual exchange -- but then I'm not going to be subjected to the sorts of responses that you describe here. I wish I could say I was I was surprised -- I'm not -- but it's also true that the likelihood of this kind of thing being directed at women of colour hadn't really occurred to me.

The men of SL basically make me feel like they run the gamut between 'Mad Men' and Klansman. Often both at the same time.

Either they chat me up in a way that feels like somebody's racist white grandfather... and I actually had a racist white grandfather... or they're trying to 'ghetto talk me', or dominate me, or point the world out to me because I obviously can't understand it myself, and so on...
- and when I'm not on a white-appearing avatar (because remember I have alts), the women do this as well. Often the women are even worse about it... I'd say 2/3rds of the racially-negative experiences I've had in SL came from women; even some who were on my friends list... but that's a whole other topic.

 

And even when there's no racism at all - the generational or experiential difference is extremely jarring for me.

So even once I remove the 'harmful negatives', it's like oil and water... So I prefer my 'pixel-xxx' in silence... I don't have to be annoyed by them, and they don't have to be annoyed by me.

 

Perhaps a silly case in point; just seeing a dude in a tux screams old man to me... BUT that might be a coastal thing... Silicon Valley is allergic to suits. To us it screams 'stale'. This actually really gets me, because I like the 'CMNF theme' but the best venue for it (the one that tosses out people that act like doms or subs) is full of dudes in suits and tuxes so I just... cannot... handle it...

 

As for visual...

I had plans to be an artist when I was young; I've always been BOTH very visually and textually oriented. Because a large part of that is textual/story oriented, if the text/story is annoying me I get turned off...

 

Oh hey... to bring this WAY THE HECK BACK to the actual topic... the above writing reminded me of one fad I am glad is mostly gone:

naked 'subs' on leashes being led all around SL... Remember when that was a thing? Naked subs on leashes still exists - but they're not all over 90% of M and A and 50% of G sims anymore...

 

Edited November 13, 2019 by Pussycat Catnap

[Selene Gregoire]

On 11/8/2019 at 5:44 AM, LyricalBookworm said:

Titlers I believe they are called. The floating text above the head people could randomly change at times. I saw these a lot when I first joined years ago.

Those were the so called Evil Titlers. There were others that could only be changed by the owner.

[Selene Gregoire]

On 11/8/2019 at 8:03 AM, Amina Sopwith said:

Evil Titlers were in for a while. They couldn't be set by the wearer, just anyone else in local range. Every so often they'd shout out that they could now be changed and the channel to type on to set them.

They were often set to "AFK: masturbating" and I don't know why the wearers were always so surprised.

pffft

That ain't nuthin. I'd post some of the ones I tagged a few with but they'd get me banned from the forum. 😈

[Selene Gregoire]

On 11/8/2019 at 8:17 AM, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Well, sure. I guess?

Clearly there is a market for AFK sex, or it wouldn't have become as popular as it apparently has. What I was suggesting was simply that I, personally, didn't understand the appeal of watching cartoon sex that involves absolutely no interaction or engagement with a real person. I suppose one of the attractions for some might be the sense that you are "violating" someone's avatar, but that's a pretty hollow fiction too.

I'd have thought that most of those needs, except perhaps the language thing, could be satisfied by a real SL sex worker. But that would likely be much more expensive.

I wonder how many of the avatars parked at AFK sims are avis that have "normal" lives in SL -- in other words, that are used for something other than AFK sex -- and how many are simply bots created solely for that purpose?

In any case, there's nothing particularly objectionable about the practice. I just don't get it myself, at all.

Personally, I don't get the pixel sex at all. I mean... one handed typing? Where's the satisfaction in that? I can concentrate on either the dialog or the ... um... physical action but not both at the same time. For me, it's either the real thing or it's just a waste of my time and... erm... effort.

[Selene Gregoire]

On 11/10/2019 at 11:54 AM, Axelfoxthefoxyfluff said:

I wonder if anyone remembers when ponies from mlp:fim were on here? Of course they seemed on here from 2011 to 2012 and after that, they seemed to all vanish.

I do. I also remember the griefing that went along with the MLPs. Bronies they were called. Here's a clip from 2011.

 

[Amina Sopwith]

6 hours ago, Selene Gregoire said:

Personally, I don't get the pixel sex at all. I mean... one handed typing? Where's the satisfaction in that? I can concentrate on either the dialog or the ... um... physical action but not both at the same time. For me, it's either the real thing or it's just a waste of my time and... erm... effort.

It's not for everyone, but if you meet someone with a vivid imagination and good writing skills, it can be very absorbing to co-author some erotica with yourself as one of the characters and a little visual aid. You might wait until it's over before using your hands for something else, or pause it; people figure out what works for them.

Sorry, but you did ask.

[Selene Gregoire]

Just now, Amina Sopwith said:

It's not for everyone, but if you meet someone with a vivid imagination and good writing skills, it can be very absorbing to co-author some erotica with yourself as one of the characters and a little visual aid. You might wait until it's over before using your hands for something else, or pause it; people figure out what works for them.

Sorry, but you did ask.

Yeah no, sorry. I don't pixel bump because I value the RL relationship I've been in for 20 years now. To me, it makes no difference if it's online or not, I still consider it cheating.  I know other people don't see it that way but I always have and that isn't ever going to change. 

[Amina Sopwith]

13 minutes ago, Selene Gregoire said:

Yeah no, sorry. I don't pixel bump because I value the RL relationship I've been in for 20 years now. To me, it makes no difference if it's online or not, I still consider it cheating.  I know other people don't see it that way but I always have and that isn't ever going to change. 

Well that's fair enough. Just explaining why some people do find it gratifying. 

I've had some erotica published in RL that started life as SL cyber. If you like reading and writing it, chances are you'll like it as a collaboration with someone you gel with.

[rasterscan]

Is BoM the latest fad ? Dusted off the boy next door layers 

 

 

[Alyona Su]

BOM is not a fad because it is a new permanent fixture of SL technology.

fad
n.    A fashion that is taken up with great enthusiasm for a brief period of time; a craze.
To be busy with trifles.
n.    A trivial fancy adopted and pursued for a time with irrational zeal; a matter of no importance, or an important matter imperfectly understood, taken up, and urged with more zeal than sense; a whim; a crotchet; a temporary hobby.

Edited November 13, 2019 by Alyona Su

[Lindal Kidd]

So, were classic clouds a fad, or a feature?

[Alyona Su]

17 minutes ago, Lindal Kidd said:

So, were classic clouds a fad, or a feature?

THAT is a great question. Turn off Basic Shaders and the old SL fog and sky are still there! LOL

(And this is the BEST trick you can use at crowded shopping events, turn off basic shaders, Complexity to 32 or lower, and turn LOD up to maximum, then alt-cam or skate around like a hot knife through butter, no matter how crowded the region is!)

Edited November 13, 2019 by Alyona Su

[Lindal Kidd]

Ooohh....

...runs to see!

[Selene Gregoire]

8 hours ago, Amina Sopwith said:

Well that's fair enough. Just explaining why some people do find it gratifying. 

I've had some erotica published in RL that started life as SL cyber. If you like reading and writing it, chances are you'll like it as a collaboration with someone you gel with.

It was a rhetorical question anyway. 

[Seicher Rae]

I don't know if anyone has mentioned these, but I was doing some therapeutic pixel shopping today at a couple of monthly events. In all three of them were:

1) Many avatars with some kind of pet hovering around them, running around them, being held. Often cute. Not sure what they were doing to the lagginess of the sims. Not so cute were that many of them were set with sounds that travelled the whole area.

2) And speaking of sounds, avatars who have some kind of thing that makes them SIGH loudly, again so the whole sim can hear. I normally have heard this with female voices but today I heard it with a male voice and also it rotated with grumblings, like, "Oh, come ON."

Enough with the sounds s'ready.

[Janet Voxel]

11 minutes ago, Seicher Rae said:

I don't know if anyone has mentioned these, but I was doing some therapeutic pixel shopping today at a couple of monthly events. In all three of them were:

1) Many avatars with some kind of pet hovering around them, running around them, being held. Often cute. Not sure what they were doing to the lagginess of the sims. Not so cute were that many of them were set with sounds that travelled the whole area.

2) And speaking of sounds, avatars who have some kind of thing that makes them SIGH loudly, again so the whole sim can hear. I normally have heard this with female voices but today I heard it with a male voice and also it rotated with grumblings, like, "Oh, come ON."

Enough with the sounds s'ready.

One of the reasons, I usually turn the sound off. Unless I'm going dancing.

[Alyona Su]

12 hours ago, Seicher Rae said:

I don't know if anyone has mentioned these, but I was doing some therapeutic pixel shopping today at a couple of monthly events. In all three of them were:

1) Many avatars with some kind of pet hovering around them, running around them, being held. Often cute. Not sure what they were doing to the lagginess of the sims. Not so cute were that many of them were set with sounds that travelled the whole area.

2) And speaking of sounds, avatars who have some kind of thing that makes them SIGH loudly, again so the whole sim can hear. I normally have heard this with female voices but today I heard it with a male voice and also it rotated with grumblings, like, "Oh, come ON."

Enough with the sounds s'ready.

In your viewer settings there is a checkbox for "Sounds Attached to other Avatars" - I paraphrase because it may be called something slightly different for each viewer. I think the LL Viewer it is "Media attached to other avatars", etc. I keep that one turned OFF.

[Eva Knoller]

12 hours ago, Seicher Rae said:

I don't know if anyone has mentioned these, but I was doing some therapeutic pixel shopping today at a couple of monthly events. In all three of them were:

1) Many avatars with some kind of pet hovering around them, running around them, being held. Often cute. Not sure what they were doing to the lagginess of the sims. Not so cute were that many of them were set with sounds that travelled the whole area.

2) And speaking of sounds, avatars who have some kind of thing that makes them SIGH loudly, again so the whole sim can hear. I normally have heard this with female voices but today I heard it with a male voice and also it rotated with grumblings, like, "Oh, come ON."

Enough with the sounds s'ready.

I love the pets you are referring to, but I never wear them to laggy events. I also almost never turn my sound on, so now I wonder what noises are coming out of my pets. 😁  

[Seicher Rae]

14 hours ago, janetosilio said:

One of the reasons, I usually turn the sound off. Unless I'm going dancing.

Yeah. I usually have my sounds on because 95% of the time I'm exploring and taking photographs and some sims have amazing acoustical features, or I'm at a music club. So I just hop into a shopping area all exposed to the sounds.