Gabriele Graves

Who are most of us? How can you be sure of that? I have just one body - Lara and I've come across many others that have expressed the same over time. I don't in any way think that Maitreya has ripped anyone off. They have been brilliant. In many ways they are a victim of people complaining about Lara over the years and "hinting" they'll drop the body, in conjunction with creators complaining the body is too hard to rig for. A case of damned if you do and also if you don't. It's fantastic that that the new body is being given away for free too. However, it still doesn't mean that Maitreya hasn't made a misstep and we shouldn't be afraid to examine that possibility. It's not negativity, it's just realism. The fact is that the mesh body market is extremely fickle.

I feel much the same as some of these sentiments recently expressed here. One of the reasons I didn't move to EvoX and stayed with the SLUV map for the head is it meant no more mix and matching of existing stuff I had. This is going to be very similar I think. Not much if any mix and matching except at the BoM layers. I mix and match a lot. A top from here, pants, skirt, boots from somewhere else. We've been told that shoes will work but nobody has official has said whether thigh-high or even knee length boots should work. It's also going to take a while for new content to appear. During that time Maitreya will be very vulnerable as creators drop support for the existing body. There is going to come a point when there is no more new stuff than any other new-ish mesh body.

I haven't read that the bodies will be combined like that. I think they are going to be separates still.

Actually, they are updating the existing Lara 5.3 as well as adding the Lara X - no sure with what yet, perhaps the petite and flat options.

Can we have a reality check on aisle 4 please?

So true!

And just like a soap when the drama reaches a certain level, the topic is ended (closed) and you'll have to wait for the next topic to see the next thrilling episode.

The problem with liking a post is that someone might like a part of it, all of it or just that someone is able to articulate themselves coherently and are adding to a discussion. It doesn't always mean they agree with the sentiment 100%

It doesn't matter what any of us say, we've been labelled as Gor-hating, witch-hunting scum and it's all our fault they left. Yep, even the supporters, those of us who actually enjoy some of it and those who've never even heard of it. Of course there's a certain individual that excludes themselves from any blame and is above all reproach. Seems legit. /s

No it hasn't. There was a couple of comments at best. Stop it.

People expressing that they don't care about a particular group of people and their activities in SL is not the same as a) Wishing them gone. b) Not appreciating that those people are helping to keep the lights on with the rest of us. People don't have to care about every group of people and what they do here.

You could also get hold of the system avatar as a mesh model. I want to think that was done by LL too rather than someone else taking it upon themselves to release it but I cannot honestly say.

I understand what you are saying. The Welcome Hub is very clean cut with no hint of the adult side though. To backup what @Persephone Emerald was saying, they probably want to keep the whole New User Experience very clean cut (classy even?) overall. It certainly seems like it. TBH I'm surprised that the Senra avatar skins we've previewed didn't come with underwear baked on.

What's a collection of Linden's called? A float?

There's definitely no "how do I become a pole dancer tutorial" at the Welcome Hub.

And the follow on thought to that is: "what we do" is fundamental to SL the way it is. I don't think LL can make it appeal to the masses and keep it enough of what makes existing customers happy. Just my personal opinion. The answer is for LL to diversify, keep SL for the dwindling audience until it no longer makes sense and have other products that appeal to a broader base. Maybe they should make some games or more gamified environments. Perhaps this is why they did Sansar. We think it failed but maybe creating it and selling it was always the goal?

According to what was said by the CSR on the group, they expect existing clothing will not fit. To paraphrase, you cannot make mesh clothing work for two different rigs. They also said that the bum has been changed and it looks like physics is going to work.

The rigging has changed as well though. The Maitreya CSR herself said this will mean that some existing clothing will not fit. To what extent we just don't know yet.

Alpha cuts are also being retained. There is some general info and a GIF showing some of the shape differences on their FB page (no account necessary) here: https://www.facebook.com/MaitreyaSL

I've just had @Gryphon Ronas the CSR of Maitreya say in group chat that she doesn't know why UV map changes are being discussed as the new Lara X will be SLUV. That's in my opinion is a good thing.

I'm also good no matter what happens. I have enough skins, outfits, BoM layers and appliers that I'd never get bored of the possible combinations just like with my Evo-mode Lelutka heads. Currently I buy lots of Lara clothing and related stuff because it's available. I can imagine a good amount of existing higher priced stuff will be sold of at bargain prices for a long time going forward if it doesn't work with the new Lara and when that dwindles and creators remove them I will just stop buying them. It was great being able to shop for new clothes like I have since mesh came along but it's not so important to me that I will lose my good sense. I already look as good as I need to for SL. I don't need to buy into the hype wagon.

For people who only stuck with Lara for the compatibility, this could actually push them to another body. After all they would have to buy it all again anyway. Adding the old body everyone already has in the upgrade pack isn't a solution. In a very short time, that old body will get no support whatsoever and so that is a waste of time. When Lelutka changed their rigging to "Unbounded" they included the old rigged heads as well, didn't matter one bit - no-one making rigged accessories supported it after that. Slink also included their old body in with the BoM updated body - result? No further support from clothing creators. People who make stuff for bodies and heads are only going to provide support for the vendor approved newest sanctioned version, nothing else.

I wouldn't worry about the rez time if I were you. It's hilarious in a platform that has a penchant for rezzing the naked body first and everything else sometime later that any admin would eject/ban someone for being naked when they teleport in. I would say that if it happens to you it's probably a good thing because the admins are asshats and they've saved you wasting your time there.

The biggest issue with this in my opinion is having to submit the creation for review. This is a clear indication that they don't expect a wide adoption for any length of time beyond new people and the Welcome Hub. It simply would not scale if many creators were constantly creating things that would all have to be reviewed so the only conclusion that can be drawn is that the expectation is there will only be a small number of creators making stuff.