"You're Being RIPPED": Second Life Designer Challenges Pricey Photosourced Fashions

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

The pricing of virtual goods is always a controversial topic, especially when it comes to Second Life fashion. There are two words that can make it even more so: Templates (a topic I've covered to death here on NWN) and photosourcing. Photosourcing in SL fashion generally means using all or part of a photographed image of real clothing to texture your virtual goods, and while the results can look more realistic (but not necessarily 'better') than painstakingly created original textures, photosourcers seldom have the rights to use the photos they use, commercially or otherwise. Sometimes they do have the rights, or they're using assets specifically intended for that purpose. And sometimes they're just window shopping on the Agent Provocateur website, plucking their future releases from among sample images. Many such designers will charge a premium for their work, too. Agent Provocateur may not know it, but they're probably the most popular lingerie designer in all of SL.

Long story short, it's just one more complicated issue that some consumers may not even realize is there.

Roslin Petion (coincidentally the designer behind almost every piece of lingerie I've worn in NWN's sponsored posts for Ample Avi) recently posted a mini-rant on the subject of overpriced photosourced virtual lingerie over on Plurk, and it's too good not to share. Here's what she had to say:

Dear shoppers, I'm not going to lecture you about buying obviously photosourced clothing items and the ethical implications. Morals aside, if you're paying a L over average market value, you're being RIPPED...

TRUE FACT, it would take me easily 1/4 or less of the time to make a photosourced item. So, you should be paying less, not more.

Roslin's rant was inspired by her frustration at seeing a popular brand of photosourced lingerie making the rounds on the fashion blogs, listing prices two to four times higher than what she charges for her own non-sourced lingerie line. She added:

It makes me want to cry. I even experimented out of curiosity to see how long it would take me to make lingerie when photosourced (believe it or not, I've never tried) 20 minutes! If I wanted it perfect...

Maybe 40, tops. That's like not even a tenth of the time I normally spend on making lingerie.

Her comments have sparked a whole discussion about the ups and downs of photosourced fashions from people on both sides of the issue (as well as a centering legal POV), so if you're curious I highly recommend reading the original Plurk thread here. As for me, I've worn both sourced and non-sourced fashions, so I'm not terribly interested in having a discussion about which is objectively better. What does interest me is how we value a designer's time. I agree with Roslin that something painstakingly hand drawn should probably be worth more than something sourced in a fraction of the time, assuming the finished products are of similar quality.

What about you? As ever, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.

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Janine Hawkins (@bleatingheart on Twitter, Iris Ophelia in Second Life) has been writing about virtual worlds and video games for nearly a decade, and has had her work featured on Paste, Kotaku, Jezebel and The Mary Sue.

Comments

[Adeon Writer]

If you can make a photosourced item in four times less than an original item, that's reason to charge 4x more for your original item. :P

[Cube Republic]

I'm not wishing to discredit anyone's work, but the truth is few care how an item was made, where the textures come from, how long it took etc. It's quite common for 3D artists to use photo sourced textures in asset creation. At the end of the day I've sat for 100 hrs and made a mesh in zbrush, however this has no baring on how I price the item.

Often people only care about the perceived value of the product they're looking at.

[Arwyn Quandry]

Cube hit it right on the head: "Often people only care about the perceived value of the product they're looking at."

A customer in SL will pay as much as they think something is worth, no matter how much time was put into making it. You can take an item that the creator spent several days of work making and a virtually identical item that took less than an hour, and the average person will tell you that they're worth the same amount. If they think one is higher quality (like if it has a lower LI), they'll pay more.

An example from my own SL: I generally cap how much I spend per hair at $L250. That's the average market price for a single color pack of a single hair style. I put my cap for multi-color non-fatpack packs slightly higher. However, when I saw new Elikatira hairs out, I was willing to pay $L285 instead of 250 for a single color pack because it's a brand I trust to be high quality. If I wasn't familiar with them, I might hesitate, even on that small of an increase.

[Gillian Waldman]

Hi Iris - this topic is very interesting to me. As a blogger, I do only try to recommend original work. But seeing as I am not a creator, I'm more inexperienced than those who are. This goes for template use too.

I'd be interesting in chatting with you about both - so I can get more educated!

I just returned to SL after many years away and given how much has changed since I left, I am always looking for feedback and people to learn from.