Miss Ophelia's Metaverse Manners: The Etiquette of Using (and Abusing) Second Life Templates

Iris Ophelia's ongoing take on etiquette & ethics in virtual spaces 

I recently wrote about the pros and cons of templates and pre-made kits for Second Life content creators,  and unsurprisingly the topic created a lot of discussion and raised a lot of questions. Though my opinion on the issue may differ from your own, hopefully my template etiquette advice will still be helpful!

I make things in SL but I use building kits and full-perm pieces. There's nothing wrong with what I'm doing but some people are really snarky and go out of their way to tell other people where I'm getting my pieces. Why do people resent what I'm doing and how can I stop it?

                    - Anonymous

Templates are controversial, and some people feel very strongly that they give people an unfair or uncreative advantage. Using templates "correctly", that is in a way that helps you grow as a creator and helps the market grow and diversify as well, is nothing to be ashamed of. If people ask, be honest and upfront about your use of templates and full-perm building kits. You shouldn't need to hide something unless you're ashamed of it. Simply put, anyone bullying you for using templates and kits correctly is in the wrong. Because opinions are so sharply divided on this issue you'll never be able to please everyone. Haters gonna hate, so focus on building things that you can be proud of, with or without the templates.

What's wrong with recoloring?

                    - Anonymous

Well, personally I think it's just boring, boring, boring. I'll be horribly blunt and ask you a question: If you want to be a creator, why don't you want to create?

I want to start designing skins with templates but you always hear about people who use skin templates and the templates end up having stolen parts in them so the template designer gets in trouble. If your templates have stolen parts do you have to take your products down? You're not the one who stole so why should you be punished?

                    - Anonymous

It seems like every few weeks a skin designer is pulling their line because of a template they used that contained stolen content, but when you're in the market for them it's hard to discern which templates are trustworthy and which aren't. If you end up with a bad pack, it's not your fault. You aren't the thief. However... You are still selling the end result of a theft. Taking your product down to rework it and eliminate stolen elements isn't a sign of guilt, it's a sign of respect -- respect for the original creator and for their work. It's frustrating as hell but it's a courtesy that you would probably want if you were in their shoes. And heaven knows we could all use a little more courtesy in both the virtual and the real world!

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Iris Ophelia (Janine Hawkins IRL) has been featured in the New York Times and has spoken about SL-based design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan and with pop culture/fashion maven Johanna Blakley.

Comments

[Pussycat Catnap]

Templates are good for lower end work.

Use em, credit your source, and reduce your price.

Templated goods should be 50-80% of price of non templated goods, depending on how much original works goes into the final product.

Builder kits are common in SL - we all know that.

What is unethical is not being open about it, hiding it, and charging a premium price for a work that is only partially original.

I have a fashion line myself that is made from templated work (and I believe I've failed to put that in the credits - will have to adjust that soon). My price for these pre-mesh template based outfits is about 50L. Anything above that and you had better have a LOT of original work in there.

[Adeon Writer]

As a scripter, one of the things I find most enjoyable is buying unscripted, untextured prefabs and scripting them and texturing them, bringing them to life. Unfortunately, I rarely sell the result, as due to how I pull together various sources (sculpts from creator A, textures from creator B, animations from C and sounds from D) the result is usually no-copy or no-transfer.

[foneco zuzu]

I can't really understand why same are still pushing this issue, Sl is about choices and if some uses templates to create and some will buy those, who are we to condemn them!

[Arcadia Codesmith]

There's nothing even slightly unethical about charging whatever the market will bear for virtual goods, templated or not.

[painitred2]

@Pussycat

No, no, and no. If someone utilizes a template to make a derivative work , why should they sell it at a paltry price? Are you saying their time and effort should be devalued only because they used a template? Not telling customers its template derived is not dishonest, regardless of what you think.

What if someone said you should give all your stuff away for free, you would pretty much balk at that idea, I'm sure.

@Arcadia

Exactly!

[Alicia Chenaux]

If someone is merely recoloring a template, then no, they should NOT sell at the same price as someone who did something original.

At one of the recent fashion events, it became more of a search to see who was selling an item cheapest as it was the SAME item in several different stores at the event.

Use a template if you wish if you're looking to make a quick buck, but don't even think you're the same as a creator who has mastered Photoshop and Maya and does it all themselves.

[CarloAntonio Negulesco]

Pussycat, why should someone charge less than the market will bear just because they used a template? A gas station will charge as much as the market will allow, even though they did not make the gas. A lumber yard will sell 2x4s for as much as people will pay, even though they did not cut and mill the lumber. It's ludicrous to dictate what someone can charge for their items solely based on how much work has gone into it...ludicrous and I would add anti-capitalist.

[Pussycat Catnap]

"It's ludicrous to dictate what someone can charge for their items solely based on how much work has gone into it...ludicrous and I would add anti-capitalist."

Is that supposed to scare me?

Trying to invoke the red scare or something?

Is life about being the biggest scumbag you can, and exploiting a market as much as you can, with as little artistic merit as possible?

Maybe it is for you.

But some people have ethics.

[Hamlet Au]

Keep it civil please, lest an uncomfortable silence cross the cocktail party.

[Pussycat Catnap]

They say a sucker is born every minute. And those who live lives of greed and exploitation will take advantage of that sucker as often and as hard as they can.

But this is a column about manners - which naturally involves ethics.

I am a Christian. I know that greed is evil. I know that honesty is a virtue, so I must be truthful in the nature of my work.

I am a Rastafarian. I know there is a duty to help the downtrodden, which includes that sucker, to find value and wisdom.

And I am an artist. And I know that I should value my works according to the amount of artistry and originality I put into them, and the amount of benefit I convey to those who receive my works.

This being a blog about manners, and therefore ethics - my response is the one about looking to the ethical way to make a choice about pricing.

If you wish to succumb to the evils of pure greed and exploitation - that is not the 'well mannered' path.

Your gains will leave you in an ill place when exposed for what they are.

[greedyeviltemplatemaker]

@Pussycat

eh...wtf batman?!

[Merchant]

"Is life about being the biggest scumbag you can, and exploiting a market as much as you can, with as little artistic merit as possible?

Maybe it is for you.

But some people have ethics".

I don't agree.

When I was younger I travelled a bit and I bought lots of tourist type trinkets. However, when I got back I realised I didn't have room for half the things, so decided to have a market stall. Now the price I paid for the items, which was a fair price btw, was not the same as would be a fair price in my hometown, with different costs of living etc. I made a huge profit on that stall. Now according to the above statement, that would be me being a scumbag, exploiting the market, and with no artistic merit (afterall I didn't make these things). But, if the seller was happy with their sale, and the buyer was happy with their purchase, how is that unethical?

Sourcing isn't unethical, it's enabling people who don't have access to things (that pashmina scarf, those atlantic prawns) to have them, and we pay the providers a profit for sourcing it. Same as SL, most people won't buy the template sofa, build it, add a texture to it, add scripts, add anims to it, they will just go to a shop and buy one ready made. It's no different than rl, most shops source and resell, sometimes adding value (cooking the food, rearranging the flowers) and sometimes just reselling, and there is nothing wrong with it. Why Second Life should have some kind of special rule outside of real life I don't know.

Nobody has a right to tell anyone how they can run their Second Life, what they can and can't sell, buy, like or anything else. The kind of witch hunting I've seen against template creators, buyers and resellers is quite shocking to me, we should live and let live and mind our own business.

[Arcadia Codesmith]

There is a surplus on this planet of persons with impeccable manners and no ethics to speak of, as well as a number who are rude, crude and deeply principled. The linkage of the two is tenuous.

Second Life is a deeply distorted economy in many, many, MANY respects, but this much holds true: the value of any item is what a buyer is willing to pay for it. You might slave for months on one piece and toss another together in an afternoon (with or without a template), only to find that the buyers flock to the quickie and ignore your masterpiece.

That's the weird intersection of art and commerce. What the artist values is not always what the audience values. So you shrug, sell them what they want to buy, and hope that future generations will appreciate the works you think display your real genius.

If an individual creator wants to set prices according to whether or not she used templates or how much work she put into a project, I really have no issue with that. But I also have no issue with people who give it away for free, or those who charge the absolute maximum amount of Lindens that people are willing to pay.

Life is too short to fret over other people's pricing practices on ephemeral pixel merchandise.

[A.J.]

There's more to a product than it's parts.

How you market and deliver is also part of the value.

In RL I buy from wholesalers and incorporate their products to varying degrees into my own finished product. I obtain it legally, use it within boundaries, and pay money for it. There's no need to credit the suppliers. If they want credit, they can pay my overhead and take responsibility for my clients satisfaction.

I love my business in RL, it's enjoyable and rewarding. I'm good at it. But I have found business in SL to be dreadfully vicious. Know-it-all idiots in RL are just random customers who are marginalized by the rest of the rational world. In Second Life, bloviating, self-important, blog junkies, can deal crippling blows to a legitimate business who refuses to subscribe to their rigid opinions.

[fleety]

I really don't care about people using templates, but I have a good eye for quality and I will spot them, so unless you've done something to it to add your own unique twist, I'm just going to find it boring, and the more people I see using it, the less likely I will buy it from anyone. I'd rather pay an outrageous price for an item I know is a 100% original than get a good deal on what me and my friends call 'colouring book' fashion.

Go ahead and use templates if you're just learning or just want to make a quick buck, but if you have some decent graphic art skills I challenge you to give them up, they are just a crutch and in the end will only hold you back creatively.