Second Life Ad & Homepage Visuals Finally Improve... Mostly

Iris Ophelia's ongoing review of virtual world and MMO fashion

Like a lot of SLers who know just how beautiful SL can look without the use of Photoshop, I've been desperately hoping that LL would just bite the bullet and enlist the help of the massive number of rshutterbugs in the Second Life community. I've been very critical of the images that Linden Lab has been using to advertise Second Life, especially when it comes to the large eye-catching homepage graphics. And finally, after so much collective whining from SL style afficionados, Second Life is being promoted with flawless images from some of my favorite fellow fashionistas, in particular Gogo (aka Gorgeous Yongho/Juicy Littlething) of Juicybomb. Gogo only makes the most minimal touchups on her snapshots, and is always eager to play with innovations like shadows, depth of field, and mesh, so she's an excellent candidate to promote SL with her pictures.

But this wouldn't be a very long (or very popular) post if all I had was glowing praise for Linden Lab's choice here, right? It feels ungrateful to say it, but I do still have some problems...

 

Gogo is pretty adventurous with effects like shadows and depth of field, yet all the pictures of her that are presented are pretty straightforward and don't really flaunt the visual potential of SL. Even more puzzling is the above picture, where Linden Lab Photoshopped her next to a male avatar image of a noticeably different quality. It's a little awkward.

There was also a lot of diversity in LL's previous images, while these new ones are all very straightforward and fashionista friendly. If you're not a fan of Gogo, you may think this is inevitable. Cute blonde girl, normal fashionable clothes, the end. Right?

Not quite. Gogo's actually got a pretty creative sense of style when you go past the surface. She's done plenty of fantasy inspired snapshots and has even dabbled in the vampire look a couple times. Check out the picture from her Flickr on the right if you don't believe me. I don't know if Gogo chose these shots or if LL did, but there's just not as much variety as there could be.

I love Gogo, I lover her pictures, and I even love LL for even trying to please the nitpicking aesthetes of SL like myself. As guilty as I feel for continuing to complain, I see this as a process to fine-tune and perfect the representations of SL on the homepage and beyond. SL can be gorgeous, and that gorgeousness definitely takes more forms than just the flawless fashionistas.

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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

[shockwave yareach]

"Your World, Your Imagination"

... as permitted in Vols 1 - 327 of the Terms of Service, whereupon the person's (hereafter referred to as citizen or resident or user, but never customer) avatar (hereby referred to as avatar) is on their own (ownership as defined by addendum 862.2 of page 2,269 as permission to use within the virtual space of second life (hereby referred to as SL)) land (land as defined in Vol 33 of the Terms of service (hereby referred to as the TOS)) and the user's account (hereby referred to as bottomless wallet) is not in arrears or inactive (hereby referred to as LGMF)...

and so on and on...

[Iggy]

Gogo's pictures are always pleasing, Iris, and I've little interest in the fashionista scene. She has a photographer's eye and a sense of composition (and clothing!) that is flawless.

I agree about the direction of these photos: they only tell part of SL's story. Now we have "play dress up like IMVU, but be a lot less trailer-park looking" as what SL is about to the Uninitiated.

I wish LL had encouraged someone of her talents to run wild with not only the angels from her site but also some Steampunk robots, Tinies, and post-apocalyptic freaks. I still miss that "put some steam in your punk" ad from a while back. It had the sort of cool 'tude I love in SL.

Instead, to cop a line from the Doors, we get only SL's "lazy, diamond-studded flunkies."

[Melanie]

I'm glad LL finally started listening to residents and have been putting forth effort into refining the appearance of their ad graphics. These images are so much more appealing than what they've used in the past!

And I agree that using Gogo's photos was a great choice, for all the reasons Iris put forth above.

Nice going, LL! :D

[Pussycat Catnap]

I would have appreciated more ethnic diversity there. Its pretty rare to see a mono-ethnic visual any these days, RL or in advertising. So when I encounter one; its always jarring.

As for this:
"Even more puzzling is the above picture, where Linden Lab Photoshopped her next to a male avatar image of a noticeably different quality. It's a little awkward."

- Well, many of the male avatars in SL are awkwardly lesser in quality of design than the female avatars. Half of them never seem to leave the start AVs behind.

So why the image is disappointing in this regard, its also sadly accurate more often than I'd wish it were.

[OhYaIsaidIt]

Diversity perversity.

[abigail]

i'm in agreement with Iris & Iggy.

Whilst i love Gogo's photos and blog, a more diverse selection of homepage images is needed. There is so much variety in SL communities, so many facets, that most people who know SL would argue there is something to appeal to everyone.

A male, gamer (non-SL) friend of mine googled SL yesterday and said 'It looks like a dress-up game'

LL has made an error here - they could be seriously limiting their new user acquisition.

[Iris Ophelia]

@Pussycat I mean the image quality. The resolution seems to be lower. Actually male avatars can be just as gorgeous as ladies. http://irregularguy.wordpress.com/ for example.

@abigail I'm inclined to agree. Fashionistas/dressup game lovers are a market that's VERY worth persuing, but DEFINITELY not the only one, and if all people see is pretty ladies posing a lot of people will get turned off. There are ways to show the others sides of SL just as beautifully.

And I should have added in my post that I wish more of these images were in actual environments. There's no shortage of awesome sims to shoot in, it's not all about the avatar. Given LL's latest projects, what about a pic of a couple of furries on safari in that game place or something? So meta!

[jo yardley]

Nice picture but also a bit dull.
It tells me SL is what many people think it is; just about being a barbie, dressing up, being pretty.
SL is about imagination running wild, creation, exploring, etc.
Now I just see a pretty lady.
It reminds me of WMVO (or whatever it is called).
I often see adds for it, but they seem boring and I never tried it.
How about some exciting pictures?
You still can look pretty while exploring, sailing, fighting, etc.

[Metacam Oh]

looks good, kudos.

[Natali]

In their original medium they are great pictures yes, but still too bland for an advertising banner. It's still a half arsed (can we say that word here) attempt from LL and there's room for improvement. There are pictures aplenty about that capture the excitement, beauty, fashion and immaginative aspects of SL all in one shot, with expression on the avatar's face to boot. Why is this so hard for them to get right?

[Eleri Ethaniel]

I've always pondered starting a group in SL for people who have flawed normal human avatars, and then developing a photog exhibit of us. I would sell my soul to have an ass an nice as my avatars, and I'm short and dumpy compared to most.

[Hitomi Tiponi]

It's great to see Juicy's pics used like this - it also gives a better impression that SecondLife is more creative than many other VWs.

[Dou]

I do love Gogo's works and enjoy reading up on her blog. She's been a go-to for quite a while now, but I have to agree with some of the comments. I wish there was a little variety in all the ads. The fashion industry in SL is HUGE and so many people are such unique styles and ideas, that I think LL could have incorporated a bit of everything. Also, the amount of sims, their builders and the those that create in SL should have been shown. As someone in marketing, I find it a little flat of LL to just paste up a picture (no offense Gogo, you're awesome!)and stick with the same theme. They're marketing department seemed to have stumbled over their feet a little.

[foneco zuzu]

What is more important to Louis Vulton?
That a few pay Usd 1000 for a wallet of 1.000.000,00 use chinese copies?
Second Life was good when it was selective!
Now, there are much better choices, for much less, to enjoy what it gives!

[Krinkles Q Klown]

That tag line of theirs is such a lie.

Our World - Your Frustration.

@Melanie - LL has never listened. They do whatever they want. It's just another arrogant California software/tech company that wants your money for virtually nothing. They make Adobe look respectable.

Pledges of greater transparency - policies of greater opacity. Take anything they say in a press release or official blog entry and use the opposite meaning.

Please, LL ... blow more sunshine up my ass!

[Cake]

Yay for Gogo! I'm glad LL has decided to stop using people for their ads who look like they've just stumbled out of a freebies area.

[Kim Anubis]

Great post, Iris. I think the pic with avatars with wings would be a better representation of expressing imagination in SL, but this is still a great improvement over the vampires etc.

fonecu, I'm getting a little tired of your constant predatory evangelizing.

[Stone Semyorka]

My gawd people. Think about this for a second. We were represented by an ugly vampire for six months for pete's sake. How about we use this pretty image in the ad to attract the other 99.999% of potentially interested people for a while?