New World Notes

SL Should Adopt VRChat's Avatar Rankings -- And SLers Should Be Less Like Barbie, More Like Elizabeth Warren (Comment of the Week #2)

Great conversation in this post praising VRChat's new avatar optimization rankings (from Excellent down to Very Poor, for avatars over 70,000 triangles) -- including this great comment from reader "Finni Graves", who agrees with reader "Cake" that Second Life should adopt these rankings:

I've invested a lot of my SL esteem in the whole crazy avatar adornment scene. Then one day, after trying to navigate a horrible shopping event, I've got to stop being so selfish and hogging so much resource. What's the point of looking good, if I don't feel good? These ridiculous mesh bodies, heads, hair. clothes, and accessories are literally sucking the life out of our SL. We must simplify ourselves because this whole hamster wheel isn't working.

Cake is right. All of us need to be graded harshly and it is our duty to ask ourselves, " do I really need this?". It's also the duty of content creators to make consumers aware of the optimization of their products and to guarantee it. They should have to be graded too, at least on Marketplace. 

Finni says SL's many fashion bloggers should advocate optimized avatars and stop promoting resource heavy avatars which degrade the performance for everyone around them. And then, notably, likens these reforms to the plans put forth by the US Presidential candidate who's leading the charge to reform the American economy by penalizing people whose greed hurts society and the environment:

Inside the Avatar-Based Transgender Community of Second Life

ECLIPSE magazine has a fascinating and beautifully illustrated feature on the transgender community in Second Life. Perceptively written by NWN contributor Cajsa Lilliehook, who interviewed six transgender SL users, it connects their struggles in the virtual world with the real life activism of the LGBTQ community, and the tension they sometimes encounter with the SL community at large -- for instance, by resisting the traditional concept (and accusation) of "catfishing":

“SL allows us to be seen as the men or women we are inside," as one member explains to Cajsa. "Because of this, I feel this is not catfishing and is incredibly different than people who 'role play' a different gender. My interactions with anyone in SL, whether a romantic interest or friend, are much more genuine and real than how I interact with most people in RL because everyone in SL knows me as Tiffany... not the person I was born as."

Read it all here. Also read: "Second Life's Strength Is Its Power To Transform Identity -- And The "Weirdos" Who Embrace It".

Avatar Cosplayer Creates Tracer of Overwatch By Recycling Second Life Parts

Tracer SL cosplay by Alexandria Brangwin - see high res version here 

Avatar-based cosplay has been popular in Second Life since the world started, but the introduction of mesh into SL has somewhat spoiled the fun, since it's not uncommon to find unauthorized 3D models that have been ripped and plopped right into the world. Where's the challenge in that? Longtime gamer and SLer Alexandria Brangwin, however, created this truly impressive Second Life cosplay of Tracer from Overwatch the old-fashioned way:

"There are a lot of pre-made full avatars on the Marketplace but they often suck really bad," as she tells me. "They're scanned or lifted from other game files so they miss a lot of fine detail and end up looking very low quality -- even have no animations, no bento hands, not even eye movement... death to the project if you're trying to achieve specific poses." 

So instead, she went virtual world dumpster diving through Second Life's massive library of content looking for parts to recycle:

DeepMind Tech Uses Smartphone Camera to Capture User's Expression & Movement, Then Replicates It on Phone's Avatar in Real Time

From DeepMotion, the AI company which taught NPC avatars how to argue, and how to learn how to dribble basketballs, new avatar technology coming for the Samsung Galaxy S10:

Led by industry experts from Blizzard, Disney, Pixar, Ubisoft, and Microsoft, DeepMotion leverages the latest in AI technology and robotic control theory, allowing users to instantaneously animate their emojis simply by moving in front of the phone’s camera. With DeepMotion’s Digital Avatar simulation, users will now be able to use their body to express themselves more fully. The new technology will bring body language to emoji communications, which to date have been limited to facial expressions and simple head movements. Users can now capture body movement using the rear camera, or upper body movement using the front-facing camera.

More here, another video below. The demo video leaves me a bit confused as to how the avatar interacts on the phone itself -- in an app, or on the default screen, or what -- but if the real time motion capture works as well as represented, I'm impressed. And plan to check this out in person next week at GDC.

8 Posts on Confronting Real Racism in Virtual Worlds to Read on MLK Day

Black Second Life User Shares Real & Virtual Experiences With The Confederate Battle Flag:

"I wish people knew how much it hurt to see the flag on TV and in places which are supposed to represent everyone in a fair manner, like court houses. I have been to places in Second Life which had the flag up... We always knew what it meant. That we and others with our color are not wanted around that area. It is like putting up a 'Caucasian only' sign. I have a lot of bad memories with that flag. Like walking past homes of people who have them proudly displayed in front of their homes... while at the same time, the mean stares we got just for walking by their home."

Cajsa's Choices: Celebrating Fantastic Black Avatar Portraits For Juneteenth

 I convinced a couple other friends of mine who are Black to join SL back in 2007, but they were disappointed in the quality and variety of  black skins back then and left the game. It’s true, most skins were shades of bronze, and a deep ebony like this one would be hard to find. I love the way the highlights define this picture so powerfully, the highlights on her hair, her face, and her top. A skin designer told me back then that the reason skinners didn’t make dark black skins is that people didn’t buy them and people didn’t buy them because they didn’t know how to photograph them. 

What People Should Ask Themselves Before Roleplaying As Black Avatars:

If you aren't black, the luxury of throwing on a black skin and playing black should make you think about why you want to do that. Do you know black peoples IRL? Do you think they would be ok with what you do in SL? Do you actively call out the racist thoughts and behavior people have towards a black person, or do you just [say] "LOL I'm white"? Do you think it's cool to be black, but IRL you engage in black shaming, like saying things are "ghetto" or "hood"?

Avatar Skin Tone Experiment Reveals Strong User Preference For Whiteness:

In virtual worlds and MMOs where most aspects of avatar appearance can be instantly changed by a few button clicks -- including gender and skin tone -- do we leave our real world attributes and preferences behind? After noting that avatars with lighter skin seem to get more likes than darker ones on Flickr, I enlisted the help of Mandy Smith, a popular SL fashion photographer on Flickr, to take two photos of the same avatar in the same pose in the same location, with the only difference being her skin tone...

Lack of Avatar Racial Diversity in an MMO Makes Black Users More Likely to Create White Avatars & Hide Their Real Race, Academic Study Suggests:

Lee gathered 56 study participants — half identifying as white and half identifying as black. She then had them read a fabricated magazine story titled “Meet the Coolest ‘Second Life’ Residents.” The eight “Second Life” avatars profiled in the story were either all white, in the low-diversity scenario, or an equal mix of white, black, Hispanic and Asian, in the high-diversity scenario. She then had them perform two tasks: Create and customize their own virtual avatars, and rate their willingness to reveal their real racial identity through the appearance of their virtual avatar. She found that black participants reported less willingness in the low-diversity scenario, and that they also created whiter avatars, as judged by objective raters.

Three classics after the break:

Second Life Users Show How Their Avatars Have Evolved Over Many Years

Pictured: Laura Blues

Strawberry Singh has a fun new challenge for SLers to show how their avatar looks in the new year, versus how it did many years ago; it's a fun illustration of all the graphical upgrades made to the platform over many updates. (Some of them inadvertently leading to a tragedy of the commons.) Here's some of my favorites posted to her thread, including that of Strawberry herself:

Man Confronting Cancer Puts His Virtual World Avatars Into His Real Life Will

Today, a Canadian man named Ryan Schultz is going into the operating room to get a biopsy, to see whether a previous diagnosis is correct: That he may have cancer. This is a terrifying prospect for anyone, prompting thoughts of mortality and what life means. In Ryan's case, he is a longtime player of virtual worlds and MMO, and writes about them near-daily on his excellent blog. So when it came time to think about writing his will, he thought about the online realities where so much of his memories and relationships were formed, and the assets he might share:

I actually don’t have a lot of material possessions. My biggest purchases in life have been my computer and my car. And I don’t have a will yet; I’ve been putting it off, and putting it off, and putting it off. Nobody wants to think about death and dying. But now it’s time to start to think about who I want to leave my possessions to...

And I found out that you can, indeed, leave your SL avatars to other people when you die. Linden Lab actually has a process and procedures in place, to deal with just that possibility. Which leads me to my next point.

Simply put, I need to figure out who gets what avatars when I die. 

So he is doing just that now, asking for people to contact him and volunteer to take his avatars into their care, whenever the time comes for his will to be read.  

 "I am not 'giving them away'," he stresses to me. "I am leaving them to other people via my last will and testament." For that to happen, he actually needs volunteers' real life, legal details to include in his will. More than that, he is asking for a level of trust, and personal engagement: 

"I will NOT be giving any avatars to anybody that I do NOT know, or with whom I have NOT had at least one good, long, in-depth conversation," as Ryan puts it to me with emphasis. "I do want to know who you are (and what you plan to do with my avatar) before I leave you one of these avatars, on which I have spent a great deal of time, energy, and (in some cases) money."

When I spoke with him last week, four people had already contacted him about doing this, one of whom told Ryan she'd like to use one of his avatars for roleplay purposes. (Embodying the online identity, in other words, of another person after he's gone.)

And while this may seem strange to some, it is actually a digitized evolution of a process that's existed for centuries, as people who find themselves facing death entrusting their favorite pocket watch or book of poems or other small but utterly cherished items to others who'll find value in them too. As Ryan puts it:

Virtual Breasts With Veins & Stretch Marks Now on Sale, Capitalizing on Second Life Fashion Trend for Realistic Imperfection

Breast Veins & Stretch Marks are a new accessory for Second Life avatars, created by Izzie Button, whose Cellulite & Stretch Marks for female avatars have become an unexpected hit.

"After the release of the cellulite/stretch marks," Izzie tells me, "the response was huge and many people requested stretch marks on breasts, arms, stomach as well, so I made them. " She had planned on creating them before the cellulite/stretch marks went on sale. "I was just waiting to see how the response would be before I release more of something that nobody wants," she says, laughing. "I'm glad people enjoy them."

Today, in fact, you can get them for just 50 Lindens (roughly 25 US cents) for Fifty Linden Friday in Izzie's in-world store. (Teleport here). You can see the before and after the break (NSFW, obvi), illustrating how Izzie's enhancement turns an avatar's breasts into something that much more resembles the breasts of an actual woman: 

Now Popular in Second Life: Realistic Imperfection, Including Cellulite & Stretch Marks for Female Avatars

From Izzie Button's sales blog

There's a hot new avatar fashion enhancement in the virtual world of Second Life, but it's more real than many might expect. Ever since creator Izzie Button put her Cellulite & Stretch Marks for female avatars on sale last week, they've been moving like mad.

"Sales have been really good," she tells me, "a lot better than expected to be honest. On SL Marketplace, it is my #1 best selling item now, with four 5-star reviews in only 1 day. I've gotten mainly positive feedback from customers about them and lots of requests to do more stretch marks/cellulite on other body parts too."

It's an unexpected trend in an online world where the avatar beauty standard skews to thin young women with nary a blemish or ounce of fat anywhere. And, in fact, she's had some complaints:

Women & RL Height Displays Have Been Driving Down the Size of Formerly Gargantuan Avatars (Comment of the Week)

Good alternate perspective from "Irihapeti", responding to my observation that Second Life avatar height seems to have been driven up  by fragile RL male egos:

SL avatars, both male and female, today are on average shorter than they were in the early years. The downward shift began when Linden Lab added inches and centimeters to the height slider. [See above]

Prior to this the slider height was only measured on the scale: 0...100. So most guys not surprisingly set it to 100. Unsurprising as there was no useful indication as to what 100 meant. In-world there was a feedback loop. Avatars are set to 100 > furniture is set for 100. More avatars > more furniture > most avatars > most furniture

It was women in the main, who broke this feedback loop. When they saw that the slider now said 7 feet plus they started to reduce. Their men began to follow them down. People went even lower when third party viewers changed the height slider to measure from sole to top of head. The Linden Lab viewer still measures from sole to eye level.

When I played in the early years I was 185cm[i.e. about 6 feet] by prim measure in bare feet. I was squiddy as, compared to pretty much everyone else adult human avatar then. I am still 185cm. Yet now when at shopping events I am slightly above average in height for a female avatar.

This sounds right, certainly for the fashionista crowd. I think it's likely that both our perspectives are generally true --depending on the SL subculture: That is, average heights have been coming down in social circles where women predominate, while avatar heights remain largely gargantuan where male competition predominates -- think virtual nightclubs, roleplay areas, combat zones.