Uncanny Valley Expo Winner: Marianne McCann
Winning by a wide margin, Marianne McCann's entry is the reader's choice for the Uncanny Valley Expo. She presents and models her avatar here, which features the "WIA Head Down Little Girl" gesture by Baby Thorne, combined with the Lindens' generic sad expression, and a downcast looked shaped via the Mysti tool. Marianne's skin and eyes are by Robin Sojourner. As it turns out, she made this entry not just to create an avatar who engaged on a human level, but as a kind of public statement over a contentious cultural issue. I'll be posting an interview about that soon, but meantime, congrats to Marianne, who wins a free NWN ad along with runner-up Haver Cole, and a signed copy of the official guide, along with semi-finalists DeltaDharma Dawn, Haley Salomon, and Xellessanova Zenith. Thanks to them, everyone else who submitted, and the nearly 400 readers who voted on the finalists.
Congratulations, Marianne!
Posted by: Young Geoffrion | Tuesday, November 27, 2007 at 11:23 AM
Waaaa hooo! Thankoo :-)
Posted by: Marianne McCann | Tuesday, November 27, 2007 at 03:07 PM
Congratulations Ms.Mari - lovely picture, lovely friend in SL.
Posted by: DeltaDharmaDawn Aubret | Wednesday, November 28, 2007 at 07:57 AM
I haven't really investigated your site, here, deeply enough to be completely clear on whether you're using the term ironically or not, but none of these are anywhere near actually being in the Uncanny Valley. These are on the hill to the left of the UV, since they're all quite clearly identifiable as artificial.
The Uncanny Valley contains things that are pretty near to being indistinguishable from real life, which makes them creepy because of the handful of subtle ways in which they're not actually true to life.
Posted by: J Crowley | Tuesday, June 24, 2008 at 12:14 PM