Thoughts on LL's recent "How to Update Your Avatar's Body" series showcasing brand name mesh bodies.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

12 minutes ago, Marianne Little said:

They are updating for other bodies fast. Legacy got them some weeks ago, and now it is squishy thighs for Maitreya. I haven't bothered to investigate if it's boobs and arms too.

I'd have hoped non-rubbery shoulders would have been a higher priority than squishy whatever.

[Cesartje]

I think that it will confuse people. Imagine being a new account and purchasing a body from a brand you saw on the video - just to realise that the new releases are not created for that brand anymore. Second Life is always changing. I am very anxious about the nux avatar, I think the tutorial should be made for it when it was released, and not for brands. Once you are in second life, you can check what you like.

[Blaise Glendevon]

48 minutes ago, Cesartje said:

I think that it will confuse people. Imagine being a new account and purchasing a body from a brand you saw on the video - just to realise that the new releases are not created for that brand anymore.

Nobody has stopped releasing for Maitreya. It's the default body skin for most skin-makers who offer combined head and body skins, and basically every major designer rigs for it. 

[Ramses Meredith]

For sure, it is a lack of ethics, they have no excuses here, they had to think before to act.

Best choice now it is to delete videos and rework everything, and say sorry because of the "issue".

 

[Qie Niangao]

1 hour ago, Blaise Glendevon said:

Nobody has stopped releasing for Maitreya. It's the default body skin for most skin-makers who offer combined head and body skins, and basically every major designer rigs for it. 

Yeah, but the Gianni thing is less clear, even though I see it's listed as the most common male body. I have one alt with the body just to stay informed about it, but otherwise personally I rarely see anybody using one—which admittedly is quite possibly a very biased sample. Similarly subject to bias are the fashion blogs I occasionally read, which seem to mostly use Legacy, a brand I do see in world, about as often as Jake. Again, this is all very subject to inadvertent sampling bias, but I do know there are male clothing designers who have dropped support for Gianni in the past year or two. And, for whatever reason, the brand recently introduced a different, competing male mesh.

All this said, though, my reaction to what's being covered in the videos changed when I realized this one non-Linden is just making videos the Lab stamps with "Second Live University", much as they bless certain locations for the Destination Guide. If this video blogger wants to do Gianni first, meh, not sure it warrants any more controversy than approving a Destination with a build by Charlotte Bartlett before one by Cory Edo.

Regardless, I expect to be more interested in the Mole-built mesh bodies, as I am in LDPW venues, assuming those bodies come with the kind of open developer / customization content they supply for new continents, Linden Homes, etc.

[Blaise Glendevon]

3 hours ago, Ramses Meredith said:

For sure, it is a lack of ethics, they have no excuses here, they had to think before to act.

Best choice now it is to delete videos and rework everything, and say sorry because of the "issue".

 

This is hyperbolic, verging on hysterical.

[Ceka Cianci]

4 hours ago, Ramses Meredith said:

For sure, it is a lack of ethics, they have no excuses here, they had to think before to act.

Best choice now it is to delete videos and rework everything, and say sorry because of the "issue".

 

You should probably watch the video.. They even say in the beginning of the video that there will be more videos to come with the other mesh bodies.. This was just the first video in a series of mesh body videos.

The next one they say will be, The  Legacy body..

The creators are probably glad to be put in the SL University a long with all the other product videos that have been put in there..

It's much better to do each one at different times because, in their own way each body is different  and getting their own video.

If all goes well and all the videos are made.  Users that have been around and able to help new users..This library of videos will give us another useful tool to hand to newer users..

They had to start somewhere.

Edited July 9, 2022 by Ceka Cianci

[Elisaisabel Munro]

On 7/3/2022 at 12:06 PM, Lindal Kidd said:

Most of the popular heads fit most of the popular bodies. And all of them have demos so that you can check before you buy.

Right now, the best deal I know of is the free "Strong" head from Genus Project. Genus has a couple of quirks and bugs, but it IS a full-featured head, and it's free.

However, people need to realize that just because you have a mesh body, doesn't mean that you must run out and buy a mesh head. With careful use of the appearance sliders, it's not that hard to create a very pretty classic head. This not only saves you a ton of money, but it's simply a lot easier to use...there's no need to learn another (or in some cases multiple) new HUDs, and many less attachments to wear. (There's not only the head itself, but eyes, ears, tongue, teeth...)

I avoided mesh heads for years, because of the complexity and expense, but also because I'd have to completely re-work my shape and was quite fond of the appearance I'd created.

My main avatar has he classic head.  I started SL in 2007 so my old head stayed the same.  No chance any $$mesh head would look like that.  And my avatar looks awesome.  But I had to buy Maitreya because yes, 99% of stores has clothes for that brand...

[Marianne Little]

Last weekend I was shopping a bit to update my male alt, and since I pick up things that may come in handy in a later photo, I decided to buy some armored arms. I was surprised to see it was no Signature version included. It was Belleza Jake, Legacy and Kario.

I have heard that creators drop Signature, but I thought it was over-exaggerating and "no one drop the most popular male body".

But not only did they leave out Signature, they included Kario. Is the Kario body rising in popularity?

I think that the videos should come with a warning, that buyers must research more before they buy, and that the popularity of a body can have changed since the video was made.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

It looks as though SL University is about to drop two new videos, this time on Legacy female and male.

So that's a good thing, and suggests these are coming more quickly than I thought likely. It goes someway to ameliorating my objections to this approach.

I do wonder where they will stop, though.

[Ceka Cianci]

I hope at some point that They will do a Kahlene Erika video..

I just really hate seeing that body sitting at where it is.. It's such a good body and don't want to see it fall off the edge of the earth..

 

[Scylla Rhiadra]

5 minutes ago, Ceka Cianci said:

I hope at some point that They will do a Kahlene Erika video..

I just really hate seeing that body sitting at where it is.. It's such a good body and don't want to see it fall off the edge of the earth..

 

And this is a central problem with this approach, probably -- there comes a point of diminishing returns for these videos, from LL's perspective. How large a market share does a particular body need to have to justify the time and expense to produce a custom video for it?

And this is why I still worry that this approach is just going to reinforce or even accentuate the market lead of the major makers.

[Ceka Cianci]

1 minute ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

And this is a central problem with this approach, probably -- there comes a point of diminishing returns for these videos, from LL's perspective. How large a market share does a particular body need to have to justify the time and expense to produce a custom video for it?

And this is why I still worry that this approach is just going to reinforce or even accentuate the market lead of the major makers.

If they stop short on body videos and only do like a top 3 or 4, it can hurt some.. But if they  include the ones that are being used, it can be good having all those videos of all the bodies in the same place lined up..

It'll be up to LL to make sure  that the University  does a good job of categorizing those things..

If someone types in mesh bodies, They should have a row of videos show up to give much food for thought..

if not it's just gonna be like youtube and they get buried and really the whole thing would have been a waste.

If they all come up in one place, it will be well worth it and good for both creators and new users.

[Persephone Emerald]

28 minutes ago, Ceka Cianci said:

If they stop short on body videos and only do like a top 3 or 4, it can hurt some.. But if they  include the ones that are being used, it can be good having all those videos of all the bodies in the same place lined up..

It'll be up to LL to make sure  that the University  does a good job of categorizing those things..

If someone types in mesh bodies, They should have a row of videos show up to give much food for thought..

if not it's just gonna be like youtube and they get buried and really the whole thing would have been a waste.

If they all come up in one place, it will be well worth it and good for both creators and new users.

They're all in one place if you know which YouTuber channels have them, which is hard to know if one hasn't spent days pouring over SL YouTube videos to figure out which are the good ones and which are just made by SL trolls.

Edited July 14, 2022 by Persephone Emerald

[Ceka Cianci]

32 minutes ago, Persephone Emerald said:

They're all in one place if you know which YouTuber channels have them, which is hard to know if one hasn't spent days pouring over SL YouTube videos to figure out which are the good ones and which are just made by SL trolls.

Ya that's why I feel they really should find a place here on their website where their users are and line them up, rather than sending them over there to another site..

Organize the library of different tutorials here where they can watch them here.. Make it less frustrating for a new user plus keep them on your site at the same time..

You tube and search engines get frustrating more than anything when searching for things..

They need to get out of the mindset that people have all the time in the world and be more accommodating..

A lot of people leave because of becoming frustrated.. Many get frustrated a lot easier than others..

I think the University is a good idea, if it gets set up more for new users rather than existing one..

 

Edited July 14, 2022 by Ceka Cianci

[Ceka Cianci]

Looks like the Legacy videos are out now.

 

 

Edited July 14, 2022 by Ceka Cianci

[Blaise Glendevon]

2 hours ago, Ceka Cianci said:

I hope at some point that They will do a Kahlene Erika video..

I just really hate seeing that body sitting at where it is.. It's such a good body and don't want to see it fall off the edge of the earth..

 

The devs are going to have to partner with better clothing brands. Every time I look at a shopping list it's template stuff that all looks the same, and for a very specific aesthetic. 

[Lucia Nightfire]

"Before you can use the HUD, make sure you have enabled media in the viewer. Make sure you have enabled Javascript in the viewer. Make sure your anti-virus program is up to date. Pray nothing nefarious happens while using the HUD like say, MitM exploits due to LL repeatedly refusing to update their now 8 version iterations defunct CEF plugin even though for months it was brought to the attention of at least 4 developers in various meetings, two of them leads."

[Coffee Pancake]

19 hours ago, Ceka Cianci said:

Looks like the Legacy videos are out now.

So .. Kupra next?

[Ceka Cianci]

3 hours ago, Coffee Pancake said:

So .. Kupra next?

I don't know. I just went to the SLUniversity on you tube, then did a search and seen the two legacy videos..

They were only put up a little more than an hour before..

I went to see if  I typed in mesh body in the university channel, what would come up and how long before it had outside videos showing up in the search..

It showed the two legacy videos and then outside of the university videos right after..

 

[CaithLynnSayes]

23 hours ago, Ceka Cianci said:

Looks like the Legacy videos are out now.

Soooooo...... Who's embarrassed now for screeching on page 1 of this thread that promoting a specific brand isn't cool?

 

Be honest now

 

Or did LL go "crap, we gotta make videos for the other brands now too, lol

[Ceka Cianci]

7 minutes ago, CaithLynnSayes said:

Soooooo...... Who's embarrassed now for screeching on page 1 of this thread that promoting a specific brand isn't cool?

 

Be honest now

 

Or did LL go "crap, we gotta make videos for the other brands now too, lol

I didn't post on page one.. You'll find mine on page two..

I think  the only thing I talked about, is why they might have went with Maitreya over the others for that video.. I believe it was because of over all consistent reliability..

I think you have me confused with someone else.

So ya, I'm not embarrassed at all..

Edited July 15, 2022 by Ceka Cianci

[Persephone Emerald]

5 hours ago, Coffee Pancake said:

So .. Kupra next?

My guess is the next 2 videos will be either Kupra or Belleza. Which is more important? the 3rd most popular female body or the 3rd most popular male body? Belleza is still the cheapest of the "top" mesh bodies, if that makes any difference.

[Ceka Cianci]

1 hour ago, Persephone Emerald said:

My guess is the next 2 videos will be either Kupra or Belleza. Which is more important? the 3rd most popular female body or the 3rd most popular male body? Belleza is still the cheapest of the "top" mesh bodies, if that makes any difference.

I completely forgot that Inithium made male bodies..  I wonder how popular those are?

I am totally out of the loop and really can't remember ever being in the loop when it came to the male bodies.. hehehe

[Blaise Glendevon]

26 minutes ago, Ceka Cianci said:

I completely forgot that Inithium made male bodies..  I wonder how popular those are?

The Kario body is like a better Niramith Aesthetic, so I'm surprised it hasn't gotten more traction.