Ayashe Ninetails

I need to see it. I'll poke around and see if I can find it on some streaming service somewhere. Or if it ever comes on TCM. I bet Joan slayed her performance, as usual.

Don't hate me but... *whispers*... I haven't seen that one yet! I went on a major TCM binge years ago and watched everything on demand that I could get my hands on. Not sure if that one was ever on there, though. Most of the films I saw were 30s-50s. I still need to dig into the 60s.

Lemme hop back to the OP for a moment. It's so hard to say why this is happening without knowing what you've tried, who you're trying to connect with, and what they happen to be doing at the time (maybe they're in Photoshop or Blender or in the middle of sorting inventory or something). My only advice is to keep trying to reach out to people. Friendly people can be found all over the place. Don't just rely on clubs, though - lots tend to go AFK in those and it might be harder to strike up a conversation. Just find interesting places to hang out and chat with people you find there. Also, I saw comments about your name - it wouldn't bother me in the slightest. Might make me more receptive to IMs, in fact, but I'm nutty like that. My closest SL friends are of the demon persuasion, so I'm used to that sort of thing. 😄

GAWWWWWWWD I LOVE Joan Crawford. Yes, that's completely off-topic. No ragrets.

I'll just add a few more things - Dedicated channels - so people can talk about anime, share their pets, or discuss TV shows in one channel and chat about SL events in another. Easy modding tools Privacy options (turn on/off messaging, etc.) The ability to mute specific channels Useful bots for games/trivia/nonsense/moderation Events Announcement/News channels Pinned messages Desktop notifications Stage channels (we talk, you all listen) Chat threads

I think (don't quote me!) the idea is to be an all around use kind of dealio? I saw something about making it available on Instagram and Facebook, and that a VR/Meta version would be coming soon(tm). Lemme double check... Yep! From the first link in the OP: "Our new Meta Avatars Store will roll out in the coming weeks on Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger. Learn how to create your avatar for Instagram and for Facebook and Messenger. And we expect to bring it to VR soon. So keep an eye out for it when it becomes available for you."

This does make sense, too, but I would guess that the people most likely to spend money on VR equipment would be gamers. If this is just meant to be an online/app/website avatar with no VR/Meta required to use it, then that's different tho. I still don't think the design would attract many people, though, but who knows. 😂

I tend to disagree. I much prefer realistic avatars, but I say this as someone who went totally bonkers over Black Desert Online's character creator and spent more hours in there creating looks than playing the actual game. 😂 Tons of games fall into that semi-realistic to fully-realistic category, though, so maybe I'm just used to it. Fortnite's got an okay style vs. realism balance, but unfortunately their skins aren't too customizable. And then, there are all of those AAA games that go to the complete opposite end - Horizon Forbidden West was absolutely insane with their character design and expressions, for example. Cyberpunk 2077. All the modern Tomb Raiders. Red Dead 2. The Last of Us. Etc. As a whole, I think teen and adult gamers are more used to seeing realistic characters and like playing around with them. Big heads are usually targeted a bit younger. Stylized characters in general are okay, but these days, people start asking questions about why game devs chose to go in that direction instead of focusing on realism (just lurk in any nerdy gamer Discord or subreddit or Steam discussion board). As for SL, buying new heads and switching them on a daily basis doesn't affect me in any negative way. What *does* feel odd is switching from SL or some big AAA franchise back to a game with some big ole bobblehead characters. Those I just do not like at all. It's not cute, it's not charming - it just creeps me out. It's not so much the oversized heads but the blank, expressionless eyes. Without much in the way of detail, over-stylized avatars can sometimes look like nightmare fuel to me. Stylization has to be done very carefully IMO. Good stylized characters don't need big goofy heads - they can just be drawn uniquely with expressions in mind. Right now to me, those Meta ones look as if a person who's never seen a video game (or worn clothing) designed them instead of an actual 3D character artist. Now, had he hired someone to make them look like this, people might take him more seriously...(omg the expressions are adorbs)

Your casual "hi" SL example works if people are merely saying hi to your avatar in passing or approaching physically. Quite a few of the "hi" messages I've gotten originated from outside the region I was currently in. I assume they were digging through groups or something as I'm usually home or out in a random empty shop when I get them. Doesn't bother me and I'll still chat with them, but that's not quite the same as passing an avatar at an event and saying "heya" while walking past them and has no real life equivalent (well, picking random numbers out of a phone book maybe?).

Right? Not sure why they didn't just go with something more Sims 4 style. Surely they know how popular THAT is.

It's such a strange choice IMO. I've seen it a lot in modern life sim games - from My Time at Portia to Animal Crossing. Adults do play those, but it always makes me think a company is trying to target a younger audience when they do that.

That looks so awful. I'll stay here in SL.

Oh gawd.

I occasionally get frustrated IMs just standing around in head or skin stores. Newbies had lots of questions that, honestly, took quite a while for me to help them out with. The usual questions - why is my head red, why are my eyes red, where's my face, why am I gray, my ears aren't showing, etc. all the way through those tricky wonky neck blend issues. Lots and lots of troubleshooting, lots of patience required (on their part and mine), lots and lots and loooots of trial and error. Not to mention having to teach them about logos/brands (how to tell which skins are for which head/body), how to purchase from vendors, what order to layer things in, what BOM means, how to find things in inventory... Sometimes I'd be in there for an hour answering questions as patiently as possible, and every single time it struck me how absolutely insane it is to build a character this wonky way, compared to say...I dunno, any other character creator. Yes, the flexibility with avatar creation is pretty rad. But there is just so much info to take in all at once, and by the time we've fixed the problems, they're exhausted, they add me to their friends list, they log out, and I never see them log in again. I do agree that mobile and VR would be kind of neat to have, but I really think focusing on getting people into exploration and not stuck on step 1 (for those who are here to play dress up, that is) is the way to go.

Mobile clients, VR, events, new subscriptions... Newbies can barely figure out how to get dressed, tho. Let alone build an up-to-date appearance from scratch. Hell...there are days where *I* can barely figure out how to get dressed!!!

LMAO. Yeah, healthcare is the one industry that will never let go of those dang fax machines. Secured email was used on occasion, but the higher ups weren't fond of it. They really preferred those doctors' offices fax in 100s of pages at once. For the ones that were hesitant or had way too many records to do that with, they had a team of nurses on contract that would drive out and pick them up or do their reviews on-site, LOL. Geeeeeeeeez.

I was actually going to say Windows XP in my post, but I figured that most companies would be on 7 by now, at least? Maybe? LOL! What you describe could honestly be anywhere! The only place I worked where faxing still made sense was a health insurance company (maybe?). We were told that faxing medical records (for their yearly audits) was More Secure(tm) than using email? I honestly don't know. By far, the worst thing I've ever had to do on the job, though, was manually copy a hard copy form with a freaking typewriter. A. Freaking. Typewriter. Can't I just photocopy... NOPE! Can't I just scan this in and... NOPE! We need it retyped! But...what year is this?! 😲

Oh that is very small, yup! My smallest place had a few admins and a boss who didn't even know how to work the printer. I can't tell you how irrationally angry that made me btw. Dude's making a bajillion dollars and couldn't print. 😒 When I first encountered that, I told myself it had to be the costs. Then I really thought about it after seeing it over and over and said nah man, these are whole corporations, there is no way they can't afford to upgrade Windows for everyone in this office, what gives? Funny enough, being a temp taught me to not fear anything or anyone, so at one place, I decided to start asking my boss a lot of questions. Why are things so inefficient? Why am I copying and FAXING (or worse, mailing) copies of manuals to customers instead of emailing them PDFs? Why don't you let me digitize our entire manual library and work with the product team to get everything online? What is all this shenanigans? My boss loved the ideas and initiative, but the other departments he directed me to to get approvals to do all of this were...not so thrilled at being called out. Tough noogies! Y'all are a mess! But nope - they refused to let us bring them into the 21st century. 😒 It's why I giggle when I see all of Meta's biiiiig ideas for virtual conferences and VR meetings and whatnot. So many companies out there still clinging to Windows 7 and fax machines, stop pretending they're going to adopt future tech/VR. 😂

Where is this?!?! Teach me your ways!!! Even the small offices I've been in were a mess of epic proportions! No real talk - you ever worked in a place that refused to upgrade Windows? Like 2 versions behind and whatnot? That's so common I just cannot. 🤣 🤦‍♀️

I'd be surprised if many companies even want workers exposed to remote VR workplaces at all. Some seem pretty salty that their workers got to experience remote/working at home in the first place and reallllyyyy want to get their staff back into the office where they can spy...erm...supervise them properly. I read an article fairly recently that one company tried to enforce remote worker dress codes - yes, for the employees working in their own homes. LOL. They had trouble enforcing shoe rules, though, since they can't exactly spy on that via Zoom or anything. 😂

If it works like that video (being able to "manifest" a functional screen setup wherever you go even when away from the computer), then I could see that being a huge benefit for a lot of people, sure. I think I've just seen way too much cyberpunk/future tech in my lifetime (in art, film, games, books, etc.). None of it will intrigue me until we get to the level of swapping bio-chips in our brains to enhance our physical abilities. 😂

Okay but see...why? That's the question I never see answered (not by you guys in this thread - I mean in general across the VR industry) - why do we need that? As opposed to just a regular standing desk and a PC. Now, if the idea behind this is - you no longer need to spend on computer parts/equipment/builds. You can have a fully-functional desktop and OS in VR you can use to work, play, chat, etc. and never once need another piece of hardware - then yay I guess? Is that what they're going for? But that can't be it, because most games I see in VR still require all the fixins.

LOL you are not wrong. But we know how the gaming industry is. Find a reliable way to scare the pants off of people and you'll do alright. There are other gaming genres that fit well with VR, too, though I've honestly not seen them done well yet at all. So many games look like they're geared toward much younger players. I guess I'm a bit surprised how basic most things look considering how long they've been working on this stuff. Half Life/Resi/etc. being the exception - those look wild.

I'll be honest - the best use I see for VR (at the consumer level) is horror gaming. And I'm a giant scaredy cat, so I wouldn't even play them myself no no no no no. But combine that type of immersion level with horror and that would be one crazy experience IMO! In fact, isn't Resident 7 in VR? That's a terrifying one. Visage might be also. That's even worse. Perfect that, and I could see VR taking off more. IF they can fix the motion sickness, on top of that. Imagine something like Until Dawn/The Quarry, but even more immersive than that. Fewer cutscenes, more gameplay. In full VR. Eeeep.

Oh that's an interesting idea. It needs more...pizzazz tho. More...ridiculousness. Why make it look like a standard living room, ya know? Turn it into an underwater cavern! This is my thought process behind changing my home in SL around all the time too btw. One minute I'm good living in a cute modern home and the next, I want dolphins swimming by my couch.