Meet My New Second Life Avatar (Which Reminded Me Why I Rarely Update My Second Life Avatar)

Amid all the Linden Lab tumult last month, I forgot to mention a small news item: After many years, my Second Life avatar Hamlet Au has undergone a major makeover. As with my previous one (which hasn't changed much since, oh, 2005), it's a stylized version of real life me, with a white suit as props to Tom Wolfe:

This new Hamlet comes to you thanks to the styling wisdom of Mr. Winter Jefferson, a master of male avatar fashion. Here's the key new features he selected:

• Skin: Belleza Thomas v2 SK 4
• Hair: MADesigns HAIR, "Bernard", Espresso color
• Eyes: Pulse-Avanti Eyes/Duccio
• Suit: SF Design Performance Suit - wearing Closed Jacket Grey, Shirt for prim collar, open collar slimmer, tie worn low and Pants with Lower Vest

This new Hamlet is a work in progress, as I'll probably be making tweaks here and there. Winter was extremely helpful and patient, as he took me from store to store, to buy and equip (and adjust) the items he'd pre-selected. But the whole process, I have to say, reminded me why I rarely adjust my avatar, because it crystallizes all my frustrations with Second Life as an experience and a virtual world with so much squandered potential:

While Second Life virtual fashion is among the world's most popular and lucrative forms of user-generated content, it is also among the most aggravating, confusing, user-unfriendly aspects of Second Life.

There are well over 1000 active Second Life blogs, most of which are devoted to SL fashion. The largest SL fashion blog is larger than the real life fashion blog of the Los Angeles Times. This speaks to the ingenuity of the SL community, who have thrived despite all the barriers imposed by SL itself.

For example, here is what my new hair looked like, when I first tried to fit it onto my head:

Stuff like this happens because there is no automated "snap to" or adjustment to Second Life hair attachments, which are themselves a workaround to the extremely limited hair customization options provided by default. But I was lucky to even find this hair piece at all, because I misplaced it in my inventory. (Yes, there are inventory filters, but if you have thousands of items in there, as I do, it's still a slow, time-consuming process, as the servers struggle to locate and display all your assets.) Compare this merciless Bataan Death March of interactivity to pretty much any popular virtual world or computer game, which generally come with a sleek, intuitive "paper doll" interface, and Second Life falls far short.

In fact, I'll go so far as to say this: over the last couple years, if Linden Lab had only concentrated on improving the avatar customization aspect of the user interface, so that it was about as user-friendly as The Sims franchise, user growth would be far far faster than what it is now.

Comments

[Ignatius Onomatopoeia]

You steered clear of the Slipster look pretty well :) Hamlet 2.0 has a certain flyaway, ready for a new story, man-on-the-scene look to him. I'm sure that Iris will sound off soon with her take.

Finding the right hair is such a crisis; as a bald guy IRL you think I'd be happy with any hair.

I've just given up on new hair. The high-rendering-cost dreads are just gonna stay, because they work and a friend gave them to me (if you are reading this, thanks, Tempest).

[Noirran]

great job Winter! You look great Hamlet!

[Leondra]

LMAO!

About time, Hamlet.

I never have that problem with hair, I don't know what your difficulty is about.

I equate fashion with fascism in RL, but in SL, it is about art and SL innovation. "Avatar as Literacy", to quote Angela Thomas.

[Scarp Godenot]

I guess the official word for making an avatar look like rl you is "Avatwin".

Just for those that don't know..... heh

[Pituca FairChang]

I remember when you got the last 'new look' and I heartily approve of the 'new you'........... Looking good!

[Hitomi Tiponi]

Maybe you could give Philip a nudge now Hamlet :)

[ArminasX]

I will never recognize you again.

[Whispers Magic]

Aww you look great! Winter did a fine job! (we knew he would!)

[Hamlet Au]

Thanks! It does definitely need adjustments, my eye shape, jawline, and skull structure are a bit different. The goal is for people to recognize me IRL by my avatar. (Which happened with the old one, oddly enough.)

[Ghosty Kips]

I imagine many of your customization woes are due to not doing much of them. It's absolutely an acquired skill. I'd say you came out pretty alright, though. 1000% better than the old ava.

[Arwyn Quandry]

Looks good, Hamlet! The hair and skin work perfectly together. Winter did a great job on you.

However, being a picky shape-making resident, I must recommend one more change: Your shoulders. If you're able to mod the shape, you might want to slim them down. They don't quite work with how small your waist is.

[Romper MIlls]

Looking good! It's about time, your were about to be the next winner of the WOSL award. wink*

[Romper MIlls]

your/you, you know what I was trying to say. LOL

[Pussycat Catnap]

I would agree that improving the avatar customization process would have greatly enhanced the growth of SL.

In many ways the existing system already has the simplicity of something like Sims. There are just a few fine tweaks that need to be made.

And there's some of that going on now. Alpha maps and tattoo layer in 2.0. Multiple attachements per point in 2.1

These are major improvements to the process. But designers are still avoiding alpha maps and tattoos. And attempts to use multi-attachments in the alpha version of 2.1 can be risky... They put in a feature that requires a server update, before updating the servers. But it is an alpha release so that's ok.

As for finding the hair in your inventory - use the recent tab.

I do think that it needs to be easier to move out into a wider diversity of avatar styles. But what exactly is presently missing, I'm not too sure. A lot of it is there, and its user made - it just needs to be more accessible to new users or to those who don't change their look often enough. :)

System hair... well, they might as well delete that feature of the mesh. Or at least give it a freaking HUE slider... It should have color sliders named: Red, Green, Blue... and a little box at the bottom to just enter a hex value. And it should get its shaping morphs redone so that its mostly viable for making a layer under the hair - it doesn't need the ability to get longer than about 1mm past the skull, but it does need the ability to be able to be moved about the skull and cover chosen parts but not other parts with a lot more freedom that presently existing.

Lastly, the default AO does not need to be perfect, but it should at least have an acceptable walk, the head should not move with the camera - at all, or at least not beyond 'neck breaking' angles. And likewise the arms when items are touched.

Finally - a MAJOR THUMBS DOWN to the designers of the new series of 'new account avatars' - finally a chance to have base height and body proportions realistic, after most of the established user base understands they are off on so many shapes out there, and these new ones are not only still too tall, they are also misproportioned. Funny arm lengths, head size off, hands or feet too big or too small (or both), legs too long or too short, and so on.

Its fine for people to choose to be giants - but the defaults should match the scale Second Life provides.

And no furries, tinies, robots, or prim cubes in the lot. Not even an elf (which is really just a human with deformed ears and an attitude - but at least it would have been SOMETHING).

[Miro Collas]

It looks from that pic that you attached the hair to your nose (I could be wrong but that is what it looks like) rather than simply wearing it. I have never had a problem of that kind from simply wearing hair.

As to the appearance UI, I like that it takes a bit of thought. Things are way too dumbed down in RL as it is. I welcome anything that makes people actually use their brains. What is wrong with expecting people to learn, to mater some very basic and rudimentary skills? Why do so many expect everything to be handed to them on a silver platter?

-- Miro Collas

[Miro Collas]

It looks from that pic that you attached the hair to your nose (I could be wrong but that is what it looks like) rather than simply wearing it. I have never had a problem of that kind from simply wearing hair.

As to the appearance UI, I like that it takes a bit of thought. Things are way too dumbed down in RL as it is. I welcome anything that makes people actually use their brains. What is wrong with expecting people to learn, to mater some very basic and rudimentary skills? Why do so many expect everything to be handed to them on a silver platter?

-- Miro Collas

[Mitch Wagner]

New avatar looks great, Hamlet!

[Emerald Wynn]

YAY! I love it!!

[Melissa Yeuxdoux]

Very good work. You might want to adjust the chin; comparing the two photos, the avatar looks like it's missing part of its mandible--but very nice indeed. Bravo!

[dandellion Kimban]

Congratulations on makeover. I like the new you.

[Eddi Haskell]

Hubba Hubba Hamlet! Contact me inworld and we will set up a sitting for you for www.avatarhunks.com

[Adric Antfarm]

One sexy bitch. Marry me.

[Alicia Chenaux]

Awww. So cute in both lives! :)

[Adeon Writer]

I really should consider a serious human avatar attempt one of these days. It's always been in the plans, just dragging my feet. :)

[Connie Sec]

Yayy..at last Hamlet... they dragged you kicking and screaming to Kmadd :) Actually it has been an observation of mine that many "older" people in SL seem to not be as interested in their AV as some of the "newer" users. Could this just be being Jaded?..or perhaps the older user came in for different reasons to that of the new. Just an unscientific observation and no judgments intended

[Fogwoman Gray]

My theory on why older residents spend less time with their appearance is that we all get so BUSY :)
Newcomer has nothing to do but spend an hour putting together a look - if I didn't have dozens of outfits made I would wear the same clothes all the time. We are so busy we are literally changing on the fly!

[Vesper Kling]

Very true indeed. To make clothes and hair look nice u have to edit it a lot. I had barbwire on my arms that took about an hour to edit.... And hair yes, often problems and u always have to edit to look good. Otherwise u look like a noob. It the clothes dont fit, forget it. And its not easy when u are new, its nearly impossible. So i agree with u =)

[spyvspyaeon]

The avatar looks great. Does it looks like you or u look like the avatar. I can't imagine my avatar wearing the same outfit for a week :D

[Toxic Menges]

Looks good - and much needed. Now if you can just get the Lindens to do this same thing. I did just sent one Linden (by their own request) a bunch of LM's for good avatar. You may be the start of a trend!

[Arcadia Codesmith]

When I boot up a new MMO, one of the first things that comes up is the character customization screen. From this screen, I can generate any sort of avatar of any race or species allowed by the game world. The interface is straightforward and easy to use. There are tens of thousands of permutations, if not millions. Upon creation I get a free outfit that may not be brilliant, but is well-designed and appropriate to the setting.

Most games have custom costumes and avatar options that can be earned through gameplay or purchased via microtransaction through a centralized store. These are professionally created and quality-tested. There are few mismatched seams or clipping issues, and these get patched in short order. Everything is automatically fitted.

Some games allow me to set the 'attitude' of my character, which includes default postures and animations.

Producers of AOs and sizing scripts might be ill-served by changes to the customization interface in SL, but there are some aspects of our heritage that need to be made obsolete in order to move forward. Evolve or perish.

[Loraan Fierrens]

I guess the new look is ok... you really should be a tiny though. People would take you more seriously as a dapper otter, perhaps... or maybe a bunny. =:-)

As for the difficulties customizing the avatar, it seems to me there are a lot of pain points that are part of the puzzle. I never really had problems with the avatar customization, and I now do it all the time depending on my mood. For me, though, the bigger issue is what I think of as the "WTF moment." I finished up at Orientation Island, and they dump me off at the Ambat infohub as my starting home area. At that time, at least, Ambat was a confusing pile of junk (and it still isn't exactly pretty). I had no idea what I was looking at and almost stopped then and there (assuming it was representative). It was a holiday, though, and I was bored, bored, bored. So I stayed. It seems that there are a lot of little things that can stop someone who is trying it out but doesn't see the carrot yet: avatar customization, lag, problems with the client, or just landing in an ugly region and not knowing what else is there.

[Hamlet Au]

Totally what I was thinking about, Arcadia!

[Arcadia Codesmith]

Oh, and BTW, thumbs up on the new look :)

The flip side of my argument is that I dearly wish that MMOs would get more aggressive about including user-generated content. I think The Sims Online would still be around if they'd nailed UGC before launch, and a bevy of other games would benefit from it -- especially with both a QC review to weed out the garbage and a microtransaction model to reward creators with something more tangible than brownie points.

If I could get my favorite ChiChickie hair on my favorite Star Trek Online officer, life would be good.

[Little Lost Linden]

I think the look is very updated indeed, however, just like he sometimes is known to do with some of his articles, some very important details were left out in regards to this new Hemlet look.

If you really want to know what happened, and get the full story, it's available here:

http://thebotzone.net/2010/07/06/hamlet-au-goes-crazy/

It doesn't leave any details out.

[Jenn]

Looks great - love the new look, as well as the revelation that other people occasionally run into odd hair issues as well.

Also, interesting point about character creation and the sims. The ease of game customization - especially for those who are used to it - makes SL seem much more difficult and frustrating in comparison, which is a shame even considering just the options available in-world.

[Arcadian Vanalten]

OMG, isn't this one of the signs of the Apocalypse?

Great makeover, though, Hamlet. I do hafta ask, though, after all this time you don't know how to use the Recent Items tab? *snickers*

I DO typically have to boost the hair sizes a little bit, but then all the men's clothes have prim bits (belts, waistcoats, etc) whose minimum sizes are still way too huge.

Evidently, the intended base male form should have a body like a billiard table and a head like a billiard ball.

[Hamlet Au]

Of course I know about Recent Items, baby. That's the tab you hit... after waiting minutes and minutes for thousands and thousands items to be identified and processed into your inventory display, which itself add even more lag and slog to even reach the Recent Items tab (least it does with me.) Even shortcuts don't alleviate the basic aggravation of the whole process.

[Ravyn Rozensztok]

Looks great Hamlet. Congrats on the makeover!

Playing with the shape of my avatar is one of my favorite things to do in SL. I can never settle on a single look or shape, so I've gotten pretty familiar with the avatar customization options available.

I'd echo Melissa's comment about increasing the depth of your jaw; a lot of male avatars have incredibly shallow chins in SL for some reason. I find the easiest way to do this is to stretch the head a bit while leaving the chin depth at 0 - it seems to look more natural that way, at least to my eye.

I'd also bring your chin to more of a point, it looks a bit too square in the photos provided. Stretching the head often helps with this too.

Going by your handsome RL photo I'd reduce the width of your mouth a bit and the size of your eyes.

The outfit, hair and glasses are awesome. Love the tie! :)

[JW Russell]

Hamlet, good to see you still got that tie I made for you. Be careful about since Down Undies items are now true collector items due to the face I no longer run the in world business anymore.

[Pat Avium]

looking at the photo of you two standing in he skin mall don't I just get the impression that 95% of the male skins you see in SL are simple variations of that we see there on the wall. Nowhere near enough variety in male skins is available- we don't all want to look like the same guy. It's no wonder so many female alts are used!