Iris Rants: Are These the Most Amazing Boots in Second Life, or Just Proof of How Broken the SL Markeplace Is?

Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

I prefer not to write solely about my dislike for something. I don't like attack pieces. I try to balance the good and the bad, and I'd rather altogether avoid something if I can't come up with at least one constructive comment. But this time... I've absolutely had enough.

This time, let me tell you... I never want to see these goddamned boots again.

These boots don't represent the best that Second Life fashion has to offer to say the least, and there is absolutely, positively no way that I am the only one whose skin crawls at the sight of them. These bloody sculpted boots, either from this brand or from the countless others that have used and abused the same full-permission building components. They've been around for ages. I feel like they've been popping up in front of me at least once a week for the past 4 years of my life.

At least.

And I would give just about anything to never have to look at them again.

Every time I browse the SL Marketplace, whenever I search for something related or completely unrelated, whenever look at one of those showcase features attempting to highlight certain items but inevitably just showing the exact same nonsense every damn time, without fail these boots are there. Sitting at the top of the page with their dated sculpts and their lazily recolored textures. I would link them in case you wanted to grab a pair for yourself, but I doubt you'll have any trouble at all finding them. They're haunting the Second Life Marketplace like a ghost. 

Or maybe they're just haunting me.

At the temptingly low price of L$29 these boots have made their way into countless wardrobes and are undeniably one of the most popular items on the Marketplace today, boasting 1470 user review and a solid 4-star average. The popularity of mesh also doesn't automatically make a well-made sculpted item any less well-made, and sculpted thigh-high boots in particular offer better resizability and fitting options than their rigged mesh counterparts tend to.

They're not the worst boots in Second Life, but they're certainly not the best, either.

Is the real problem the boots themselves, or are they just an easy scapegoat for something larger -- the fact that the Second Life Marketplace's current means of highlighting content has put these damn boots on the front page of every search, every skim, every showcase I've looked at in years? That's the question I'm left with... And yes, it's absolutely rhetorical.

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Iris Ophelia (@bleatingheart, 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

[Dear Leader]

stfu whiner.

[Adeon Writer]

Can't say I've seen these boots before, I only look in men's sections, but there are at least 50+ people selling the same 3 pairs of men's business shoes. Identicle texturing too.

[Pussycat Catnap]

Those bend at the knee so cannot possibly be sculpty and still work like in the image.

And, I've never seen them before.

Suggest you look in your past order history for a pattern?

[Iris Ophelia]

@Pussycat The image itself doesn't seem deceptive to me. The ends of the thigh and calf portion of the boot are rounded where they overlap (or at least they were on the sculpted boots these are based on) so when you bend you get the proper look of a knee joint if you've textured everything properly.

[Selena Anansi]

I so agree with you, Iris.

[Beryl Landar]

I also agree with Iris. These particular ones are cheap and were popular for strippers, one of the major way women and men with fake slutty avatars try to earn quick cash. Im also sick of them and the old stolen rhianna looking skin that wouldn't go away. Thankfully they are slowly loosing popularity. Users that prefer more quality and design excellence shop inworld forba more immersive experience, unless of course their favorite designers indeed have a marketplace shop. Even in thowe cases they will shop the MP due to lag or crashing issues, not because they love shopping on the MP. Nice article and points, especially for lovers of SL fashion.

[Imnotgoing Sideways]

Every time I go to the Marketplace and click "Apparel", those frigg'n boots are always at the top of the stack. Click further, "Women's", still there. Click further, "Footwear", STILL FRIGG'n THERE!!! DX

The worst part is that I know these shoes. They're made from prefab sculpts from years ago. 3 pieces; foot + calf + thigh. And, they're frigg'n FUGLY. (>_<)

Yet, as long as "Women's Apparel" is sorted by the "Most Relevant" items... They're always there. Right on top. And, it makes me wonder... What in the good name of bad pixels makes them in any way RELEVANT?!? (O.o)

[Alecks]

I bought those boots years ago when they were actually not bad but certainly there is much better now you can come across.
MP is broken... it works if you look by designer.

Not to mention the huge amount of stolen products and since it takes Linden a while to take them down they keep coming back with stolen content.

I wish they would allow the marketplace to be private again so we could get serious people to work on it. Obviously LL does not have the time to clean it up. They could at least fine people for posting items under the wrong content description.

[Cube Republic]

In play shop land what do you expect?

[Iggy]

Some things reach their ontological apex: '67 Pontiac GTO, first Shaft film, simple dry Martini, Bush President #1. Then it's friggin' downhill all the way.

Maybe these boots are good enuff. If they are looking at the boots and not the avatar, those onlookers have a problem.

At least to this non-fashionista. But it's fun to hear you rant. Rant on, Sister!

[colleen Criss]

Oh thank you ! and thank goodness because I was beginning to think it was just me with these boots every time I go to marketplace. I don't understand, I've never purchased them, either.

[Cicadetta]

I don't spend a lot of time in the Apparel section of the MP, but wow, there they are right at the top of the "relevance" heap. Interesting.

I wish the MP had a way to sort things by creation date, not just upload date. If they could factor *that* into whatever algorithms they use to determine relevance… hmm...

[Mikyo]

All your boots are belong to us! Conspiracy!

[AmandaD]

I was joking with a friend a couple of weeks ago that these boots must be sold by a linden alt or linden girlfriend.

[2014]

LL needed to hit the reset button a couple of years ago for relevant items. The relevant items is not relevant for 2014, and I'll add, any items prior to 2009 need to be purged from the MP.

[Canoro Philipp]

those boots must be there because they are popular, the designer found a way to make them appealing based on good balance between quality and price, they are minimalistic, half tight leather boots, comes with a variety of colors, at a price of 35 lindens, sounds like a good deal for the consumer, congratulations to the creator for his/her success.

there are some other type of boots available that may added different textures or are made of mesh, but i bet they wouldn't sell them for 35 lindens with such variety of colors, providing so much convenience to the buyer, that is the reason that makes them less popular.

if a product pass the test of time and has made a lot of sales, kudos to the creator, maybe some other creators can take note on how to make a successfully popular product that keeps providing income for years.

[Pussycat Catnap]

I finally saw them on MP Friday for the first time, on an alt that used to be used more when I was into a different sort of content in SL.

Search engines are cery self-reflective. What you will see there very much is based on your own habits.

Just be glad you're seeing cheesy blingtard boots on page 1 all the time and not something explicit...

[Sweet]

these are a very old product and when they came out were very very popular...they have sold alot and the ad has never changes to there relevance on the MP is very high...remember SL has changed very much over the years and these came out not long after sculpts were released in SL ...it was new it was shiney and it was closest to a realistic look of a boot with the textures as it had at that time...i still sell alot of these myself on my MP store...the creator should be proud that a product that is fashion based has lasted this long over the years

[HatingThoseBootsToo]

I agree with you. I hate these boots. They are haunting my MP as well, and have been for years. They are on the front page because they have so many reviews and they have so many reviews because they are so cheap and they come in so many colors. I never see the nicer looking avs wearing them, it's always the ones that you can tell survive solely off of freebies and dollarbies. There is also a pair of high heels that always appear right next to them for 1L those have invisiprims on them. GAG

[Alexa Bagels]

This is still and always will be the greatest post ever on NWN. I return to read it again a lot.