Here's the results of New World Notes' non-scientific avatar type survey; 850 readers took it, which is an extremely large sample (most NWN surveys attract around 200-300 votes), suggesting a lot of enthusiasm for the question. (Unsurprisingly, there was also a fair amount of contention about how the question was phrased, but that's an inevitable hazard.) The most striking trend, in my opinion, is this: while a plurality selected realistic avatars, a majority (about 56%) prefer some variation of non-realistic avatars. (I'm counting "Child" as a non-realistic option, since the avatars' owners are adult, and some level of roleplay is generally part of that choice.) As I say, it's a non-scientific survey, though I tend to think these results mostly track to my personal sense of avatar demographics. I say "mostly", because I'm not sure if the child avatar community in Second Life is actually close to 13%, as this survey might suggest. (It's possible that my including an illustration of avatars by child community leader Marianne McCann in the survey skewed that result somewhat. On the other hand, members of the child community have argued they're a larger group than generally assumed.)
In any case, it's interesting to contrast these results with the Lindens' marketing campaigns, public facing imagery, and default "starter avatar" choices, which tend to emphasize realistic avatars, especially avatars made to resemble their real life owners. If this New World Notes survey accurately reflects the preferences of SL's active user base, the realistic options aren't the most popular. Is there an untapped market of consumers who want avatars who look like themselves, or more glamorous versions of same? That remains to be seen.
Interesting. When you walk around SL as a whole, my impression is that most avatars look pretty "normal". Thanks for the interesting survey.
-Dweeb-
Posted by: DrawDweeb Latte | Tuesday, May 18, 2010 at 11:59 AM
It seems this is a sign of maturity of understanding. We all seem to have to go through the mirror world elements before getting more expressive.
There seems little point making a complete replica of our physical presence in an environment, It is fun to mirror but the technical limits mean that it becomes a sketch at best.
That said I use real life elements to thread my avatars, but I am more than happy to extend past a copy of me.
That said, each unto their own. I am happy for people to replicate their look as long as they are happy to accept my choices too :)
Posted by: epredator | Tuesday, May 18, 2010 at 12:04 PM
Spoken like a Predator!
For the record, my own preference is "Human inspired by whimsy". Yes, my avatar sort of looks like myself, but to me the key element is the white suit inspired by Tom Wolfe, who ain't exactly contemporary.
Posted by: Hamlet Au | Tuesday, May 18, 2010 at 12:07 PM
I think one's opinion of what is popular in SL can be easily influenced by where one chooses to go in SL. If you fail to travel far and wide and fail to agree to abide by rules in role play areas thus not entering them and you mainly go to business meetings or to human form locales then of course you will think SL is all about human avatars. And vice versa for all the rest.
There are all manner of points and counter points on the topic. Is that stuff on xstreet really that popular or are 50 alts buying it to the top etc etc.
And just because the item sold has a human adult model doesn't mean the customer is not something else.
You can't tie SL down to cubby hole categories. But if you are in control you can certainly damage or destroy SL by trying to force it to comply with a narrow uncreative boring vision of a generic uninspired uncreative uncharismatic space in which art is defined by a couple of non artists as copies of rl static box displays.
Let SL grow in the directions it wants to grow.
Posted by: Ann Otoole | Tuesday, May 18, 2010 at 12:22 PM
I answered rl inspired human because more often than not, that's my look. As Ann suggested though, that has much to do with what I do and the circles I hang with. It isn't always my preference.
Sometimes I like to play with a sort of trans-reality human glamor look. I'm not sure if cyberpunk or sci-fi are an exact fit but most would probably see it that way.
Posted by: Jura Shepherd | Tuesday, May 18, 2010 at 03:46 PM
When everyone else gets bored of SL and leaves, there will always be the child avatars.
Posted by: Adz Childs | Tuesday, May 18, 2010 at 04:17 PM
So one avatar in five is inspired by the RL self of the typist and another one in five is inspired by a RL contemporary something? I dunno, Hamlet. If you add in the "whimsy" category, you're looking at comfortably more than half of the avatars being human adults. Add in the kids, and two thirds of all avatars are human.
It's easy to see why people might think non-humans are rare. Compounding the impression is the fact that non-humans tend to cluster up in their own places, away from mainstream activities. If you don't run across one of those sims, you don't see them. Ever. It's a human's world, in there.
Posted by: Doreen Garrigus | Tuesday, May 18, 2010 at 07:53 PM
My clothing choices always reflect the exact style of clothing that I like to wear in real life, as such I'm typically wearing more conservative, realistic clothing in comparison to the rest of SL - Even if my baggy cargo pants and hooded sweater would get me kicked out of a 7-11. My actual avatar, on the other hand, is far from human.
Posted by: Adeon Writer | Wednesday, May 19, 2010 at 09:57 AM
I must confess that I sent the survey link out to the 2500 citizens of the Isle of Wyrms community, who are primarily dragons, tinies, gryphons, and other fantasy avatars. Many of us have been residents of Second Life for more than a year or two. The flourishing fantasy continents and role play sims do indeed have a wide range of fantasy and myth inspired avatars. We are active participants of Second Life -- but perhaps not as visible on Mainland and "regular" private regions as the "regular" human avatars.
Posted by: Ragitake Takakura | Wednesday, May 19, 2010 at 01:41 PM
Well even the neko community is split... Do we have fur, or just have cat ears and a tail (and maybe eyes)? Most Neko are mostly human-looking, though that's subjective, but we aren't all the same. And many 'neko furries' exist that are the opposite of the spectrum.
Hence I think to draw your conclusions you may have wanted to ask more direct questions...
Posted by: TheShadow99 | Tuesday, May 25, 2010 at 08:33 AM
The more the SL marketing would go towards the idea of the creativity represented in the choice of the avatar the better I think. After all the avatar is the most important image we create for ourselves. Be it completly human, exagerated human, furry, robot or some winged demon.
But it is of course right that it depends very much on the place where one is to encounter a larger number of any given avatar form. So it is easy to get a mixed up idea about the true demographics of avatars.
A much bigger scientific survey might be interesting to see the real numbers of various avatar types on the grid.
Posted by: Rin Tae | Sunday, March 13, 2011 at 03:21 PM