Ayashe Ninetails

Yup. I right-click for the larger items (hair, hats, glasses, big earrings, etc.) but some things require a good ole inventory Edit to grab. Very good point! Though mesh third-party upgrades are entirely optional, there is a certain pressure to get caught up before you get too involved in things. At least, that's what I've observed. And unfortunately, it takes a bit of time to realize there are a couple of free options that will work until the holiday sales and giveaways roll around again (which I explain to people before letting them settle on spending 3k or more for a head or body). This one I'm not so sure about. I would've thought most people are playing FFXIV from the standalone Square Enix launcher. Plus, the PS4 and PS5 version. Add all that up together with Steam for the totals.

Oh neat. I usually prefer using photography poses since I adjust my alphas for the photos I'm taking. Like my normal AO might work fine as is, but if I plan to hold my arms/legs in certain positions, I might need a more customized alpha layout, so I need to see what my body and clothes are going to do once in position. And since I do most of my photography and posing outside of Firestorm, I had nooooo idea that feature existed! For basic attachment adjustment, though, I don't use anything. I just edit the object while it's sitting on my face or head or whatever and it freezes my AO automatically.

Wait, is the pose stand feature for photography? Like you drop several poses in there and can swap them? Or just a single pose for adjusting items? Since editing worn items "freezes" my avatar, I rarely ever use pose stands for that. I just right-click, Edit, and shift things around (works great for mesh ears, jewelry, accessories, hats, etc.). Only if I'm doing something more complicated (alpha magic) will I just fire up a static pose in my inventory so I can see which bits and pieces of my body need to go without wiggling all over the place.

TIL Firestorm has a pose stand.

Yeah, there are at least a few (probably more than a few) Reborn users in the fantasy community I hang out in and it's always funny helping them shop - just mindlessly posting Maitreya exclusives. Hey, wrong body. Oh, oops, lol. But there's definitely some good stuff out there, and many mods (hands, feet, etc.) are now including Reborn in their updates.

It's getting there. It realllllllly depends on which type of clothing you're after. For fantasy-style armor, Reborn is not overwhelmingly available yet, but it looks like places like Noble Creations might have a piece here and there. That's what I've been seeing across the board, mostly - a couple of Reborn pieces tossed in, with the rest of the store being Maitreya/Legacy. Aii looks like it's supporting it now, though, so that might be another place to check. Petrichor as well. I still make use of a lot of gachas for more unique fantasy pieces and shop at places that are a bit off the beaten path (no events, etc.), and yeah, for that - Maitreya hands down.

I tried to TP earlier with a donut in my hand and crashed. Figured that was just SL telling me to cut back on the snacking a little. 😄 Luckily, there's nothing else I want to buy this weekend, but I do have to run my alt through a couple of sims at Shop & Hop to nab some gift cards (at the last possible minute, of course).

Yup, I was lazy responding. I didn't see a catch-all Activities category, but definitely some of that stuff spread around into different ones.

The webpage version of the destination guide has "Pets & Animals" as a category and a big list of random places with horseback riding and pet stores and breedables or whatever, and it has "Sports & Hobbies" which has sailing, boating, racing, trains, ball sports, surfing, etc. It's not organized very well and most places outside of the nightclubs, sandboxes, adult venues, and gaming regions will likely be empty.

If only gowns were as fun to walk in as they are to pose in. 😄

You don't want my honest answer to that. I'll just say if that were a regular thing and not just a fluke, I wouldn't still be here. I can handle a little jank, but not a steady diet of it. SL's been pretty good for me performance-wise, so I can't complain. But no, I don't subject myself to "the suck" for too long, lol.

Duuuude. I just logged in and NONE of my attachments would rez. I was a misshapen Ruth for 5 whole minutes. HMPF! That's what I get for talking ish on the forum. 😂

Yup! Having something you can come into the world with that looks good without a lot of fiddling would be ideal. That gives people a chance to focus on activities and exploration instead of this immediate need to update themselves in order to fit in. Then, once they're already hooked, they can worry about branching out to the more complex customization options and take their time learning how to work with them. I think the biggest hurdle with obtaining dev kits is the need to have a commercial shop up and running before applying. So yeah, NUX would give new designers an entry point in and a way to build a portfolio to show off to help them progress to something more advanced. That's my hope, anyway.

Edit: My keyboard got away from me and I submitted too soon before typing anything, LOL. Anyhoo, 1000% agree!!!!!! NUX should absolutely have the potential for furriness. I know of one head maker who is currently designing an adorable complete fantasy avatar that will be free, AND come with a dev kit - so if there are any newbies out there just dying to be a cute little shroom, well...have I got news for you!

Just good ole Ruth and a prayer. 😂

The new user experience hasn't really changed from whenever we all joined. I mean, not counting hubs and mentors and all that - I have no idea about any of those things since I didn't make use of them (the first time, I just got dropped in somewhere and he came and got me right away). But learning the ropes - similar process. And it's rough. I spend a lot of time helping newbies with their makeovers these days and it's not unusual for it to take several hours just to get them into the basics (body, head, skin, hair, teaching them how to use their huds, teaching them how to shop/find cheap groups for gifts, helping them learn to make custom shapes to save money). It's just a lot of work. NUX needs to hurry!

I suppose I'm a bit lost as to the separation of younger vs. older when it comes to experiences within SL. When I first joined in 2005, I WAS the younger generation - early/mid 20s, with two whole decades of gaming experience behind me already - both on PC and on consoles. In fact, I came here directly from a popular MMO (Everquest 2) for the sole purpose of avatar customization and roleplay. Gaming was already booming way back when a lot of us started here in the early days - with WoW being the king, but other online games were also pretty popular. Funny enough, a guildmate I roleplayed with knew how frustrated I was by EQ2's crappy character appearances and he's the one who told me about SL. He said to me hey, come try this Second Life thing, you can look ANY way you want, it's great! And we can roleplay there, too! Okay sure. I downloaded, jumped in, and...what the heck?! Why is it so basic? Where's the character creator? Wait what do you mean I need Photoshop to customize my clothing? Can't I just...wait what? This looks just as bad if not worse what in the hell?? What the heck is this inventory? What the hell is a Ruth? How do I get this off me? Why am I wearing a BOX?! So a few days later, we went our own separate ways in SL (I hated it and I think he was over my whining at him for bringing me here, LOL) and I found...SHOPPING! Managed to cobble something together and eventually got hooked on that aspect of the "game." I didn't find any tutorials that told me hey, if you're looking for a super easy customization tool like you're used to, buckle up, kid! It's all sliders and spending money and camping and crawling our massive grid for freebies and external programs! I had to figure all that out myself (same as today, except there are at least some more resources on YouTube and blogs now). The only real differences I've noticed between then and now is 1) I could build and design my own fashion accessories, which alleviated the need to shop AS much and got me into building as a hobby/business, and 2) Freebie gardens and super cheap yard sales were eeeeeeeverywhere, so you could go for long stretches without having money and do alright - provided you were okay with camping and hunting for money trees. Long story short, I eventually left years later and came back to SL a few years ago, loooong after mesh had been implemented, and it was Day 1 all over again, and I hated it....AGAIN. My reunion with my SL bestie of 16 years resulted in her yelling at me demanding I rush out immediately to get a mesh body and head - and I had to learn that ENTIRE process from scratch (Omega, appliers, AND BOM), AGAIN, but now with mesh! Oh and yeah, if you want to restart your business - learn Blender. No...no I don't think I will, thanks. So, I've been there, twice, and whether you're 20 or 60, just getting out the starting gate in SL is a pain in the butt. If you have ANY familiarity at all with gaming and the usual standards that are employed across that industry (inventory management systems, UI design, how tutorials are set up, character creators, chat features, etc.), you'll come in here like what the absolute #$@!? 😳😂 It was like this in 2005, and it's like this now.

This part (the bolded) I absolutely believe. Twitch is rather squeamish when it comes to content and IP and DMCA. Seems every day a streamer gets banned and Vods get muted/purged. Usually over music. Often over watching someone else's YouTube content. Still, it's not a great look to appear on that list. It's...definitely something. 😳

Tae is sooooo cute. And on sale aaaaaaaaaah! But NO. I do NOT need more heads! *wanders back into SL to play with her brand new bunny head that she totally didn't buy yesterday*

Apparently, it's a thing on TikTok, too. I kid you not, I just now found an article discussing "Sleepfluencers" and how their intention is to combat insomnia in others. Ya know what...I think SL is just fine as it is. We're doing pretty good, guys. Maybe just a few UI tweaks and um, let's just leave all that other stuff alone. 😳😂

Lol the possibilities are endless. I saw someone do this with Minecraft - had a whole news program and it was actually quite funny. That definitely is a good way to get a bunch of residents together on a project that doesn't require going back to college, though. Well, minus the video editing part, but many people already have skills in that.

I'm trying to figure out if this is even possible. You'd have to pre-record and then have an agreed upon channel to put it on - maybe on YouTube it could work, with a few people managing the channel, uploading the content, etc, and we'd just tune in with our TVs and watch the shows/episodes? But it'd still take so many people to coordinate it all. Would be a lot of fun, though.

Like an in-world TV channel? OMG that'd be amazing (and probably very difficult to pull off) but I'd love this, lol!

Yeah, offline chat quickly becomes a hangout full of regulars. Much smaller group than the one that shows up for live events, it's cozy, mods hang out too so it stays very chill, very few if any trolls, etc. Many users also tend to use platforms like that on their phones, so lots of chatting while at work, etc. If our group chats in SL could handle that type of volume and speed without exploding, that might help things along a bit. And you're right - I'm always seeing regular banter in store groups. It's that same kind of behavior. I'm even getting to know who the regulars are now in some of them, lol. The UI's not great, though. Definitely could use some love there.

Pretty sure there's cooking in SL. Um...beYou has cooking if I'm not mistaken.