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

[InnerCity Elf]

My thoughts are, it's great that they're making an effort to help people to figure out how to do/get these things. Anyone who stays away because they won't despair over avatar customization or being stuck as Ruth (no offense, Ruth, looking great today!, and to me personally, anyone who falls in love with their chosen starter avatar and wants to stick with it forever, or runs around as a little papiermache-robot-thingie (no, not me, I'd never <.<) or with hips that they need to walk sideways even through the vastly oversized of all SL doors, or fly around as a pretty 🦋 or an ugly scarecrow, because it's fun, or because it's their thing, is welcome just as much as the most accurate top model clone), is a loss for SL.

And it would be even better, if they're going to put out more of that, with a diversity of all the fantastic avatars that are possible. Maybe they will, maybe not, but in any case, people with imagination who see that, might very well be inspired and assume that something like that, but totally different will be possible too, and will find out.

As long as they don't put it as if the shown examples are the only options, it's all fine to me. I don't know how it is where you live, but here, the shops put out 👟 in smallish sizes, not the biggest they got, and they put their prettiest stuff in the window, and when I walk through the city, I usually enjoy looking at expensive store's displays more than at dollar store's, even if I never set and never might set foot in the fancy stores. 

It might be more precise to compare it with people-watching, but, then again, maybe not. As the majority, who doesn't create their avatars themselves, while creatively combining, in the end, buys their way to a nice avatar, just like we buy shoes. And even if I walk through a street with just luxury shoe shops, I know myself without anyone telling me that there's an affordable shop around the corner, or I might feel like saving up or giving up on something else, or on making some effort to be able to afford a sparklier pair of shoes, or I might even not be impressed at all, and happy with my trusted sensible shoes that take me anywhere I want to go.

So, generally, I think it's great, and could be even better.

[Qie Niangao]

From when I first saw this thread until just now I hadn't appreciated that the whole Second Life University subject of avatar customization seems to have been outsourced to this one YouTuber. Maybe that's a good thing, inasmuch as experience with the subject and the medium is sure to benefit the resulting video content. I just hadn't realized the channel was being managed that way (and frankly hadn't paid any attention when the whole endeavor was announced).

So now I'm not sure what to think. I never had an opinion about Maitreya because it's FoR gUrLs and so I have no clue about it, but it did seem more than passing strange that the (first) featured male body would be one that, although still common, seems to be losing support from clothing creators—one even its own creator is superseding with a new product. And to me, there's nothing especially easy to understand nor particularly representative about its specific UI and customization options compared to all the others, but if it's the one this particular YouTuber was most comfortable explaining first… well, that certainly would be reason enough to choose it for his own YouTube channel, and maybe the choice that would get the best results on the Lab's channel, too.

(Although I still think it's kind of an odd choice.)

(And I'm not sure, if I were Lab management, how I'd go about awarding the job of producing new Second Life University avatar enhancement videos, nor how I'd design compensation for that work. A share of ad revenue maybe? But somebody had to decide in order for there to even be such a series. And I'm not saying any of it was a bad decision, nor that it would have benefited from more—nor even any—transparency.)

[Bloodsong Termagant]

i don't think any 'how to buy X BRAND items' belongs in ANY SL University tutorial.  how can that NOT be merchant favoritism?

 

i don't even make human avatars (and barely wear any), and i was shocked and appalled.

 

[Modulated]

45 minutes ago, Bloodsong Termagant said:

i don't think any 'how to buy X BRAND items' belongs in ANY SL University tutorial.  how can that NOT be merchant favoritism?

 

i don't even make human avatars (and barely wear any), and i was shocked and appalled.

 

Shocked and appalled, seriously? 🤔 I don't know what the big deal is, its their prerogative to showcase whatever they want IMO.

[Psyche Starling]

On 7/4/2022 at 5:03 AM, Cherry0Sanae said:

LL is right, they do promote the better bodies. There are so many ugly vulgar bodies being created that will only be a passing fad. If I were to recommend a mesh body to someone, I would recommend Maitreya as it is the best body (quality and price) and the one with the most good products and good  deals (although I use Legacy now). It won't go out of fashion in 6 months as I hope it will for all those ugly bodies that have been popping up in SL lately.

It's not "vulgar" to have bigger breasts or butt. Some people have those in RL too! Is it vulgar to exist in reality with a larger body? I probably don't want to know the answer.

Don't yuck someone else's yum.

[ChinRey]

1 hour ago, Qie Niangao said:

From when I first saw this thread until just now I hadn't appreciated that the whole Second Life University subject of avatar customization seems to have been outsourced to this one YouTuber.

Well spotted! I'm sure I'm not the only one who failed to notice this isn't officially an official LL channel. That of course raises a completely different set of ethical questions.

[Love Zhaoying]

9 minutes ago, ChinRey said:

1 hour ago, Qie Niangao said:

From when I first saw this thread until just now I hadn't appreciated that the whole Second Life University subject of avatar customization seems to have been outsourced to this one YouTuber.

Well spotted! I'm sure I'm not the only one who failed to notice this isn't officially an official LL channel. That of course raises a completely different set of ethical questions.

Ahah! That makes it similar to Strawberry's postings. "Featured Information / Blogs with non-LL content."

[Paul Hexem]

8 hours ago, Blaise Glendevon said:

All you have to do is make the market leader in your field for the last near-decade. (My earliest picture with the Maitreya Lara on flickr is in 2015. The earliest youtube video I can find featuring it is late 2014.)

I'll be a market leader in no time if LL makes a video about how to buy my product and tells people it's what you need to do to look good.

[diamond Marchant]

3 hours ago, Qie Niangao said:

From when I first saw this thread until just now I hadn't appreciated that the whole Second Life University subject of avatar customization seems to have been outsourced to this one YouTuber.

Yes. Although it is clear that Second Life University is endorsed by LL and is promoted by Strawberry on the official Featured News blog, the video itself is outsourced and does not carry the official SL hand logo.

I did watch the Maitreya video for a while... up to the point where he does something I have never done... turn the skin green using the tinter. My review is "better than nothing but not so good". He goes too fast and it comes across to me as a magical incantation. Perhaps the earlier videos address the historical issues.

It caused me to wonder why , out of the box, the body is so misconfigured for those desiring a BOM skin with a BOM head. And there was that scary LeLutka look with the mismatched EvoX skin. Yikes!

[Jennifer Boyle]

7 minutes ago, Paul Hexem said:

I'll be a market leader in no time if LL makes a video about how to buy my product and tells people it's what you need to do to look good.

You have it backward. You have to be the leader first. LL wants to make things easier for naive users, and it is easier for them when use the market leader. Maitreya is the leader for good reason.

[Blaise Glendevon]

21 minutes ago, Paul Hexem said:

I'll be a market leader in no time if LL makes a video about how to buy my product and tells people it's what you need to do to look good.

Quit acting brand new.

[ChinRey]

37 minutes ago, diamond Marchant said:

Yes. Although it is clear that Second Life University is endorsed by LL and is promoted by Strawberry on the official Featured News blog, the video itself is outsourced and does not carry the official SL hand logo.

But the video does display the official SL logo, very prominently even, which is why I at least mistook it for an official LL video in the first place.

[Aquila Kytori]

On 7/3/2022 at 11:45 PM, Blaise Glendevon said:

It's been the most used body since it was launched. For the resources to be the most useful, it makes perfect sense for these to be the bodies used. Certainly, they wouldn't use Legacy -

 

 

And I like his presentation, clear and concise.  Good choice by LL 

[Rowan Amore]

LL has always promoted user content on their video channel.  Destinations is a prime example.  Stores, clubs, galleries.  It's all on there.  This is just more of the same, IMO.

Second Life - YouTube 

 

[diamond Marchant]

35 minutes ago, ChinRey said:

But the video does display the official SL logo, very prominently even, which is why I at least mistook it for an official LL video in the first place.

The video is in a Second Life channel so the hand logo appears in the comments section and as an overlay to the intro photo but I never saw the logo in the actual video by  Boston Blaisdale which is

note that the hand logo here is an overlay - if you copy the link and access the video from a new browser window, the logo overlay goes away

Edited July 5, 2022 by diamond Marchant

[Ceka Cianci]

If there are going to be more videos featuring more bodies, Then really I don't have a problem with it, not that it matters what I think..

Someone had to be first, Or should it be, Someone had to take the hit.. LOL

A year from now there will be a list of body videos and this will sound kind of silly..

 

[Scylla Rhiadra]

5 minutes ago, Ceka Cianci said:

A year from now there will be a list of body videos and this will sound kind of silly.

Should this prove the case, then many of my objections become moot -- although I still think the focus here should be generic.

Still waiting for the "next" in the supposedly ongoing series of "community pages," however. Maybe the fact that these are being produced by a third party means it will actually happen.

On another note, there is a rather superfluous focus upon the aesthetics of certain bodies here: pro-Maitreya, anti-Legacy, anti-Ruth, etc., not to mention the utterly ridiculous argument that only certain body types should be showcased. None of this is really relevant. Let people make up their own minds about what they like.

[Ceka Cianci]

1 minute ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Should this prove the case, then many of my objections become moot -- although I still think the focus here should be generic.

Still waiting for the "next" in the supposedly ongoing series of "community pages," however. Maybe the fact that these are being produced by a third party means it will actually happen.

On another note, there is a rather superfluous focus upon the aesthetics of certain bodies here: pro-Maitreya, anti-Legacy, anti-Ruth, etc., not to mention the utterly ridiculous argument that only certain body types should be showcased. None of this is really relevant. Let people make up their own minds about what they like.

Generic might have been more fair , but  after thinking about it and hopefully the things in the video do ring true..Putting the bodies that people are going to be using might be more practical. They can always add more bodies if more come along..

It would be nice if LL made a body that would be the trend setter for the rest. That would solve a lot of things.

Myself, when it comes to certain bodies in this thread.. I just look at why one might be over the rest and the reasons..

Mostly it was consistency and reliability for the longest period..

I've never tried Ruth before, I may just to try it out.. I have most of the mesh bodies and try and do something with all of them.. They all have their things I like about them and dislike about them.. there is only a couple I just deleted because they were just that bad. hehehe  But those really never went anywhere anyways..

As far as body shaming goes..  My opinion has always be the same as the Slogan, since The first day I heard it and understood what it meant.. It's Your World Your Imagination. I took it as, they were not just talking to me, but to everybody.

So, If someone told me I was wrecking their experience because they were looking my way.. I'd have to say they were short sighted and selfish, in a world where you have 360 degrees at ground level and more when you take to the air.

Silly rabbits hehehe

 

[Scylla Rhiadra]

19 minutes ago, Ceka Cianci said:

I'd have to say they were short sighted and selfish

Oh, I'm pretty sure you'd say more than that, Ceka. 😉

[Ceka Cianci]

5 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Oh, I'm pretty sure you'd say more than that, Ceka. 😉

I don't want to get banned going into details.. hehehehe

[Rowan Amore]

Along with seeming to promote one body over another, they seem to also promote other creators as their newest video shows...

 

[Love Zhaoying]

32 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

Along with seeming to promote one body over another, they seem to also promote other creators as their newest video shows...

I thought "Kreature" was the name of the house-thing in the HP movies.  You know, the one that was mean to Dobby.

[diamond Marchant]

From the "Dept. of Strategery"

Here is a thought about what might be going on here. Remember back in May when Brandy (Brad+Randy) hired a chief-marketing-officer-grand-poobah named Stephen Feuling. As I recall from a Business Insider article (which I can no longer access), he said that he wants to promote Second Life creators. The objective is to amp up the SL economy and boost that L$650 million number. Tilia needs the buisness. Converting viewer-downloaders into actual residents may be a lesser priority.

Footnotes

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/second-life-and-tilia-parent-company-adds-key-leadership-roles-to-support-rapid-growth-301537083.html

https://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2022/05/steven-feuling-sl-metaverse-linden-lab.html

https://www.businessinsider.com/second-life-hires-cmo-metaverse-meta-roblox-2022-4  (Paywall)

Edited July 6, 2022 by diamond Marchant
usual typos

[Henri Beauchamp]

5 hours ago, Rowan Amore said:

Along with seeming to promote one body over another, they seem to also promote other creators as their newest video shows...

This must be really disheartening for all other creators that do not get the free advertisement boost by LL and see the promoted competition taking more market shares as a result... This is ”just” totally unfair !

I do not like this, at all !

Edited July 6, 2022 by Henri Beauchamp

[Jennifer Boyle]

5 hours ago, diamond Marchant said:

From the "Dept. of Strategery"

Here is a thought about what might be going on here. Remember back in May when Brandy (Brad+Randy) hired a chief-marketing-officer-grand-poobah named Stephen Feuling. As I recall from a Business Insider article (which I can no longer access), he said that he wants to promote Second Life creators. The objective is to amp up the SL economy and boost that L$650 million number. Tilia needs the buisness. Converting viewer-downloaders into actual residents may be a lesser priority.

Footnotes

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/second-life-and-tilia-parent-company-adds-key-leadership-roles-to-support-rapid-growth-301537083.html

https://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2022/05/steven-feuling-sl-metaverse-linden-lab.html

https://www.businessinsider.com/second-life-hires-cmo-metaverse-meta-roblox-2022-4  (Paywall)

I mostly agree. I think the videos are indeed part of a new marketing effort. I am very glad to see LL making an effort. I think having more users can only make SL better.