Avant Avatar: Lindens Launch Default Character Search
At left is one of many avatars the Lindens are considering for a new default character selection; it's actually among the most colorful and unique ones. Others are much more generic; some are middle-aged, even elderly; a couple clutch briefcases, ready for business. They're all now available for your review via Torley Linden, who just introduced them in a survey to find starter avatars that are "more diverse, kewl, and hopefully awesome." Go here to take it (it should take just a few minutes) then tell me, how many qualify in all three categories? And what is intended with these selections?
Good: ethnic diversity, finally. And more up-to-date quality overall.
Bad: harlequin outfits, cardboard box outfits, lack of 'classic' humanoid furry outfit.
Ugly: the businesswoman with the Hillary outfit.
Posted by: Laetizia Coronet | Wednesday, June 04, 2008 at 03:14 AM
whats with the really wide hips a'la bow legged look and skinny...not one chubby avi to be seen sigh...some people do want to know its ok to be a size 10! if we don't show normal sized people could mean its not cool to be like that..did like the diversity though and I laughed at the cardboard Robot I like that one :)
Posted by: Paisley Beebe | Wednesday, June 04, 2008 at 03:27 AM
I love the cardboard robot. Shows some whimsy as well as prims that aren't just Generic and Shiny, like the other robots in the set were. Also big kudos on the ethnic diversity sets, and some of the more tasteful formal clothing sets.
The ones I voted down were Generic, Unimpressive Guy or Girl in Shirt and Jeans variations, and yet more blondes in hawt clothing. Let's get some variety into SL!
Posted by: Seven Shikami | Wednesday, June 04, 2008 at 07:03 AM
Why not offer them all? I am sure some people would love avatars that I detest. I could see offering a few prime choices, and then letting people follow a link to see more choices.
One other thing that I'm thinking of - why can't residents tie in there own default avatars in some way? Some how, I could provide a link to second life to sign up, and provide a code of some sort to include my avatar as one of the default avatars. This could be as simple as setting up a box with all the bits in its contents, and providing the Asset UUID in the link. Perhaps even have a picture in that box to identify what the avatar would look like too...
Posted by: Dedric Mauriac | Wednesday, June 04, 2008 at 09:32 AM
...and where's the default child avatar?
(I mean, there's one in everyon's inventory right now, after all)
Posted by: Marianne McCann | Wednesday, June 04, 2008 at 09:48 AM
Overall, I'm impressed, although a few of the avatars are too generic for my tastes. This is a major step up from the terrible avatars noobs get at the moment. Still, I think all of them should be included, and agree that someone may like an avatar I don't like.
By the way, the girl avatar in the photo for this post looks similar in style to an avatar Torley Linden was using to demonstrate altering your avatar in one of his videos.
Posted by: Gahum Riptide | Wednesday, June 04, 2008 at 10:21 AM
The ultimate "default avatar" has to be, by definition, the creator of SL himself - namely Philip Rosedale:
http://img373.imageshack.us/img373/4459/virtualphilipdc5.jpg
Posted by: Christophe Hugo | Wednesday, June 04, 2008 at 02:52 PM
They're all kind of meh.
Posted by: Mitch Wagner | Thursday, June 05, 2008 at 09:58 AM
*sigh* so wheres the furry avs? looks like they will be getting the chop!
Posted by: Wolf | Tuesday, June 10, 2008 at 08:11 PM