So despite my vows not to go to Skin Fair 2016, I did.  Only to discover that almost no vendor creates system avatar skins anymore.  They only skin mesh heads now and mesh parts.

This awful outcome is the result of two things...market exploitation and and ideology.

Market Exploitation

I suppose most avatar creators feel that mesh parts and mesh avatars are the end all and be all.  Little does it matter that Mesh bodies and parts are unalterable by their purchasers. If you buy a mesh body, it will deform a bit in correlation to the system avatar body, but not by much.  Mesh heads cannot be changed at all.  So a customer will look like every other customer who buys the same mesh head.  If they try to alter their look, they can buy the now legion offerings from various skin creators.  But that still doesn't stop them from looking like every other person who purchased the same skin.  I can also see why creators are clamoring to skin mesh avatars and parts, it's easier.  The bodies and heads don't change.  In fact all they really need to create are the heads.  The body skin can be the same across all lines since only the head will change.

Ideology

For many years now, there have been motivated howlers, mainly creators, screeching how the average SL user creates lag.  That all of us ruin SL by making our avatars too tall and many bodies are also out of proportion.  Their opposites would point to the "your world" ethos of SL and stated that people were allowed to design their own looks.  Now I can see both sides of the argument.  Yes, out of proportion avatars can make designing items harder in SL.  However telling people they can't design their own features in VR is just as awful.  Now I see that the Mesh avatar movement has done by stealth what the vocal restriction advocates wanted for years.  It prevents people from designing their own avatars.  We have in  proportion avatars that are cookie cutter boring.

The almost total abandonment of people who do still design their own avatars is heinous.  There are people in SL who do have a sense of proportion and enjoy playing with the body controls to create their look.  Why should these people (I am one) be forced into mesh body pieces?  Not only that why should I have to suffer the fetish peccadilloes of certain creators (Big Asses, Big Lips, Big Hips, Big Boobs etc) when I buy items for my avatar?  Why is it a crime that I want my avatar to share some of my own features?

What is even more disturbing is that the few creators who do still create system avatars put absolutely no enthusiasm into these items.  Almost all the creators at this year's skin fair, the few who did create system skins, used the same skin template.  Hence every system avatar looked the same no matter what creator stall you visited.  Now that is just miserly.  Unless it's a subtle dig at mesh resistors and meant to push them into the standardized clone economy of mesh.

So now it seems that I will be locked mainly into skins created in 2015 and before.

This is what I will be prevented from doing from now on.  I can't look myself with mesh heads:





Nor can I design Portrait Avatars such as these with Mesh heads:

Dinkies - That Funky Feeling

I came across the Dinkies cat avatar last year at Fantasy Faire.  It was so adorable, I dropped a lot of cash collecting different breeds.  At the time, there weren't a lot of clothing and accessories for them. But at this year's faire, there were clothes galore for them.  It made me take out my avatar for a spin.



I never thought to look for videos on youtube for the avatar but they are there, quite a few.  The one I linked to on this post is fantastic.

Wootberry Joos!

The team behind Raglan Shire in SL has created an animation series inspired by their VR town and community.

Its adorable and I can't wait to see what else they have in store.

Hamster Lovin

Second Life was the first program that got me into massive multi-player worlds. In fact, I think I found SL so easy to learn because I was not a gamer. So the arcane UI was not a hinderance. It did however make learning WoW's UI a torturous experience. Anyway games come and go but I always find time to wander a bit around SL. A lot of people find the place daunting and unfriendly but to people willing to stick out the learning curve it becomes more like "Cheers". Fall is the best time in Second Life. People are starting to gear up for the holidays and the major shopping events and hunts begin all over the grid. Right now the place for SL hipsters to be is The Arcade Gacha Event.

The Gacha events have taken up the slack of the much missed and very much loved Seasons Hunt event. Unlike treasure hunt events, Gacha events are a bit like going to Atlantic City. You put a bit of money into a slot machine and win various different prizes. It can be addictive. Especially for popular items. The Arcade Gacha Event is set up like an old Victorian, Atlantic City pavilion. It is filled with little slot machines which contain numerous variations of prizes that consist of furniture, clothing, knick knacks and avatars. The big hit of this event is Beetlebones' Hamster.

This adorable hamster is a mesh based avatar that a player can wear. It comes in various colors. The price to play and win a coveted color is 100L (around a $1 real money). So far, I have only 4 colors.

The Arcade event is extremely crowded and I haven't been able to get back after my first visit. But I will be heading back to bet on more hamsters and other fancies.

For those interested, Second Life will be coming to Steam soon. There are some changes being made to accomodate this new partnership. Perhaps it will even out the steep learning curve. Who knows? If it does, then you too can be a hamster.



The Hamster vid is from Larcoco's Flickr stream

Race Play

In every game I play, I usually create loads of alts.  I've cross gendered by creating male characters.  But the more interesting experiences occur when I play as a character of another race.

Does racism exist in virtual worlds?  Well, all any player needs to do is consciously be aware of how many players appear as ethnic avatars.  In my experience not many at all to the point of non-existant.  Some games do not even give players a chance to even choose a darker skin color.  What they give as a sop to ethnicity is a kind of tan color.  Warcraft and Warhammer are games in the latter category.  Their argument could be that they are fantasy games.  Which is just bunch of crap.  There is absolutely no reason why an avatar can't be black in a fantasy game.

The child's game Wizard 101 has admirably included black avatars for their game base.  My character on the top of the page is just such an example.  Why did I create her?  Well, it was spur of the moment when I decided to roll another alt.  But also I wanted an avatar that represented another race.  Despite being offered, only very few of the players in Wizard 101 play as anything other than caucasian.  Her class in the game is a tank based school which means she is strong and primarily protects other players.  As soon as I got out of the orientation phase of the game, I ran into another player.  This player barked at my character, I suppose to convey the opinion that he/she thought my avatar was dog ugly.  Since Wizard 101 only offers about 10 different facial expressions (all of which look about the same), I could only deduce that this barking player found my avatar's skin color unattractive.  I suppose in the minds of some online bigots, mmorpgs are all white people or we should present ourselves as white.

In Second Life there is a different problem posed that causes me discomfort.  Because the game can be as photorealistic as possible, representing another race leads to the question of cultural authenticity.  Second Life is a visual feast and the players inside it are continually seeking beauty.  That beauty leads many to use avatars that can be any race as long as they are lovely to behold.  While being black in SL is  to stand out,  it won't cause troglodytes to bark at you.  At least, I've never experienced hostility from other players.  But that isn't to say that it doesn't exist in SL.  Racism is alive and well wherever human beings bring their personal failures.  Using a black avatar leads me to this disturbing concept...is representing myself as a black a kind of blackface?  Is it another form of racism?  In my quest for beauty (see the above photorealistic avatar) am I fetishizing other races?

To approach the problem another way I think of my own race...Native American.  How do I feel when my race is represented.  On the surface, it doesn't bother me.  But it certainly upsets me if I think about the context in which my race is represented.    If the person behind the avatar is using my race as a joke, as a stereotype or as a kind of role play slave then it certainly does upset me.  Sometimes there are well-meaning but delusional people who think they are emulating or re-enacting real events.  They reside in historical SL sims that copy the days of manifest destiny.  A time when my race had no civil rights, had no voice, were marginalized at every turn and murdered if it wouldn't raise any eyebrows.  Role playing this in a VR is not healthy.  It helps no one.  It does not lead to new insights.  It just perpetuates racism.  When I think of someone impersonating my race in that fashion, it is upsetting.  So is representing myself as black the same thing?

In many ways, yes, it is.  I make no claim to know the what it is like to grow up black in the US.  Although I have experienced many kinds of racism growing up due to being a native, I will never know the kind that black people experience in their lives.  I will never know the legacy of being the descendants of slavery.  I cannot even speak with authority on racism in virtuality since I've only seen glimpses.  When I think of this, I feel that it is not my place to use a black avatar.  But then I equally notice how very few or non-existant black avatars there are in these worlds.  They are marginalized and without voice.  There nonexistence impresses the subtle notion in gamers minds that an all/ or only white world is "normal".  And that anyone with shades of skin darker than pale are abnormal.  When I think of this, then I obstinately do wear Black avatars and all other non-white avatars to break that cycle.

Because VR is a learning place.  And what we are learning, or in fact re-indoctrinating ourselves with the notion, that dehumanization is normal.  It is right.  And when someone barks at a black avatar in a child's mmo, it is okay because players should not be anything other than white.

Texturing an SL avatar

I love Naergilien Wunderlich's clothing and avatars in SL.  They are so photorealistic and gorgeous.


This is her video detailing how she uses photo sources to create her avatar skins.  Fascinating.

Change your look

I've always found it fascinating that in a world with no limits to appearance, people cleave to stereotypical beauty types.  It has struck me as extremely pathetic.  And it gives rise to the notion for people outside the SL bubble that everyone in world is a fat, slobby shut-in masquerading as a super model avatar.

Whereas the pressures on male users may be immense, they are nowhere near the pressure on female users to use glamorous avatars.

This article at Your2ndLife is just one example of just who is deserving of "attention" in VR.

Just in the wording..."girl next door", which means "male avatars" won't speak to a female unless she looks like a male trannie on the Sunset strip.  And this hyper feminine look is abundant around the grid.  Why do I call it the male transvestite look?  Because it reminds me of a video I once saw at the Museum of Sex in NY.  It was a video showing men how to look like "women".  However this female look was nothing I recognized.  It exaggerated features that actual women never think about.  Such as our way of walking.  Or the fetishization of makeup, particularly eye makeup with extra long eyelashes.  So that the men who wanted to be feminine did not end up looking like women but only itemized pieces of female anatomy that "straight" men find attractive.  It was all Frankenstein's monster or Pygmalion's statue but not the essence of being woman.

The video in question literally blew my mind and my inculcated views of what is feminine.  And I realized for the first time, that what society thinks of as beautiful was really just a male interpretation of what is feminine.  We, women, don't know what is woman only what men think is woman.  And so the pretty women I saw walking around the city no longer looked like women but just another version of the male transvestites in that how to video.

And when I got into Second Life, I just saw more of the former.  Women turning themselves into caricatures that would be impossible in physical space but possible in VR.  They aren't women but body parts exaggerated by fetishists.  And acting in ways that fetish culture deems feminine.

In the article, a resident literally gives up her autonomy to others to create her "self".  Think about that...and how horrific it is.  Imagine not being able to control your own presentation in life.  To have it be subjected to the control of another.  To be someone with no self will.  This resident gave up a perfectly fine avatar with personal looks to be something lifeless.  She is someone else's fantasy.  A commodified body that will soon go out of style.

I'm not an advocate of style police.  I don't want to tell people how to look.  But I do want women to question WHY.  Why look this particular way?  Why is this considered more attractive than looking closer to human?  Is this really what you, as a member of the female population, would really find attractive or is it because the male gaze wants it?

Fascist Aestheticism

I was wandering around the net and visited the page of Copyranter.  He usually mocks the inept advertising of various agencies around the world.  A while back he posted a mockery of a CK ad for male clothing.  In this ad, it showcased a beautiful black model nude and dressed in CK clothing.  I added a comment to Copyranter's blog stating it looked like a rip off of Riefenstahl's Nuba photography.

In the small part of my brain, I remembered a discussion of fascist aesthetics in my college film class while we studied "Triumph of the Will".  There is no denial that Riefenstahl was a visual genius.  She forgoes intellectualism and speaks straight to our darker and deepest genetic desires.  The desire to mate with perfection.  The desire to be and for our children to be perfect beings of humanity.  This ideal was perfectly described by Susan Sontag in her landmark essay "Fascinating Fascism".

Although the Nuba are black, not Aryan, Riefenstahl's portrait of them evokes some of the larger themes of Nazi ideology: the contrast between the clean and the impure, the incorruptible and the defiled, the physical and the mental, the joyful and the critical.
Susan Sontag, "Fascinating Fascism" on Riefenstahl's work "The Last of the Nuba"

As I thought about these connections between ads, Riefenstahl and fascist imagery, something about SL screenshots seemed to hold an eerie relation.  By and large SL screenshots worship Gods and Goddesses, almost perfect examples of humanity.  In SL everyone can be a part of the perfect genetic family.  In fact the whole perfection mystique, which is forced upon us in popular culture through diet, fashion and surgery is indeed a fascist trope that is ever present in society.  Fascism is about transcending  the dross and achieving purity.  To live in a kind of bodily Valhalla over other human beings.  And unfortunately this mindset does exist inside Second Life.

Sontag points out in her essay why Riefenstahl is so dangerously attractive compared to the other now forgotten fascist artists.  While the unknowns were rather amateurish in presenting the ideology in their art, Riefenstahl was talented.  Her images are devoid of amateurism and ineptitude.  They are timeless, which is why her photography and films look good to us now just as they did when they were initially released.  I suppose the real question regarding Riefenstahl is how much did the fascist aesthetic cleave on to Riefenstahl's work and how much a true believer she really was regarding the movement's ideals.  Her extensive work with Hitler's government showed her craven enough to grab opportunities to further her artistic vision.  And her obsession with the perfection of man is in tune with Fascist ideals.

And on this angle, Sontag wisely separated the fascist ideal from Nazism.  Riefenstahl was no longer a Nazi when she created her landmark photographs in Africa.  But she still celebrated the bodies of her Nuba models in exactly the same way she did the German athletes in her Olympia film.  It is Sontag's idea that fascist aesthetic lives on and separately from fascist movements that fascinates and disturbs me.  Throughout societies these ur fascist ideals float haphazardly until a new movement harvests them.

The tech world in which Linden Lab, it's world and it's residents live in is not a culture that celebrates freedom.  It gives mouth to democratic ideals but it doesn't live by them.  The tech industry lives by their EULAs.  In which they straitjacket their customers into living their way or the highway.  A nascent movement infused with fascist aesthetics is taking shape with in the tech world...called Singularity.  In this movement, it's adherents think they will achieve immortality by creating super human intelligence.  And that by merging with this intelligence the human race will transcend it's "meat based" (the horrific term techies use to describe their bodies) origins.

But the real heart of the Singularity is the idea of better intelligence or smarter minds. Humans are not just bigger chimps; we are better chimps.
What is Singularity?  Website

Another dark heart lying inside this movement is that not all humans will achieve this singularity.  Only the smartest and the richest will be allowed to pass.  Hence by their purpose of "selection" the singularity fascists wish to create a super race.

The singularity fascist aesthetic lives inside Second Life and is nurtured.  Inside Second Life we are all a race of the super beautiful.  Some of us have even conned ourselves into thinking we are quicker than the average computer user because we "get" Second Life and that its more than a game.  There is no old age in SL unless a resident wears an old age skin as a kind of joke.  The fascist aesthetic ideal of purity extends to our sims.  In which the nature sims are incredibly popular compared to the rest.  As in my own example above, its more prevalent on the SL flickr sites to see avatars gamboling about in pristine nature settings then it is to see them in Blade Runner Sci Fi sims.  Again it is important to hark back to the separation of fascist aesthetics from fascist movements.  Therefore SL is not obsessed with tall and blond super gods.  That is not the point of this particular ur fascist aesthetic.  However I do notice a liking for the tall, dark and handsome for both men and women.  Another strange note is that the avatars are overwhelmingly caucasian or of mixed race.  But whatever avatar a resident wears, it must be beautiful.  Its rather hard to create a truly unattractive avatar in SL and more daunting to wear it.

Since I swim in this world, I have to question my own screenshots.  Is there such an aesthetic that lies dormant in my own brain?  Is this aesthetic inherent in all human beings but only buds when exposed to fascistic environments?  Since Philip Linden is a fan of Singularity, it leads me to question his company's methods of interacting with it's customers. It leads me to suspect even more that SL was a test bed for something more than a place to allow customers to create their own geegaws.  And its obvious to even the most obtuse that we fell short of some kind of measuring stick.  It all indicates that this movement needs to be closely scrutinized.  And I believe one way will be through the creations of it's residents...including my own.

In the Forbidden City

I'm not one for being enamored of virtual worlds. But I use them, they are entertainment to me.  I don't make the dangerous assumption that they are a part of RL.  Because they aren't.  They aren't accessing the same parts of our brains that are normally used in the physical world.

What these worlds are accessing is something much deeper, and a bit more dangerous.

We are playing in the land of the dead.  I look upon SL as the same space the Emperor Qin created to house his body.  An accurate replica of the Forbidden City.  A tomb of dreams.

And like the crazed Emperor most of the residents in SL are trying to discover the illusive Eternal Fire...Quintessence.  We aren't so very far from our ancestors who were obsessed with discovering the key to eternal life.  Only now, in a bid to turn the hoary concept into something new, it's called singularity.

If you aren't inclined to think of SL and other VRs like it as living tombs, then think of it as the land of Fairy.  Its really one and the same.  But the word Fairy denotes something more whimsical.  Fairy tales speak in symbols because of our inherent fear of death.  Its the only way we can process that netherworld that is a part of our own brains.  Fairy gives us a more comforting vision of transformation.  Which hooks into the way we see our avatars.

People like to differentiate between the various avatars of humanoids, the robots and animal totems.  But they are all the same.  They are all fantasy masks.  They are akin to the masks our ancestors wore when they gathered to worship their ancient gods.

And our travels in that fairy space are like the stories our elders told us on dark nights.  Or what we act out in theater, shadow puppets made flesh.

We never made the mistake of labeling the space that contained those ancient dances and shadow drama as real life.  So why do we do that to VRs?

I feel that this new form of fairy is tricking our brains into some facsimilie of life in a way we never dealt with before.  Because the technology wasn't there.  In the ancient days we had our forms of play, we learned from it.  Then we put it away because to live there permanently was dangerous.  That was only the domain of the holy men and women.  Our history and fiction is filled with many stories of shamans suffering from psychosis.

Which is no surprise when one lives permanently between the physical and the world of the dead.

These were the thoughts I had while watching a Copper Robot show in SL hosted by tech journalist Mitch Wagner.  What I witnessed was exuberance for this world.  But not enough caution.  And the fact that everyone wants to melt the lines between the worlds is cause for alarm.  We don't fully know what this new technology is doing to us psychologically.  We know that it can give us personal power to change in physical space.  That was always the case even when we could only listen to stories or watch theater.  What we haven't collectively experienced yet was the maddening blur that our shamans had to fight.

The big bad wolf is out there my children.  Keep to the path to Grandmother's house.

Ball Joint Twist

The styles of avatar have changed considerably since I first entered SL.  When I stepped in world about 3 years ago, the average female avatar was amazonian in height, extremely thin, and a bit cartoonish.  My own avatar was created as a counterpoint to that look.

For about a few months, I looked close to unique.  But it seemed I was just a bit ahead of the ball curve on realism.  Now more avatars are around my height, no longer quite as thin and celebrate different facial types.  Although SL is still overwhelmingly caucasian in appearance, there are more skins being offered that support different ethnicities.

Still I'm on the outer edges of fashion in avatar style.  Avatar fashion has moved away from the super model look and into something more strangely fascinating.

The picture above is from Blastmilk.  Blastmilk specializes in photography of Ball Joint dolls.  These dolls are popular in Asia, particularly Japan, and have a slightly creepy air.  They seem to encompass realism (in their range of expressions and poseable bodies) and fantasy (overly large eyes, baby round faces etc).  I never realized that these dolls had a large influence on new avatar styles in SL until a few days ago.  I was paging through an issue of "Coilhouse" and read an article about doll maker Marina Bychkova.

Seeing this particular photo of her dolls struck me as familiar.  Lately some of the SL blogs have been commenting on strange facial features in avatars lately...such as eyes that were too far apart and lips that were overly large.  The new avatar fashion in SL take after these porcelain ball joint dolls.

Its an overly stylized look to be sure.  And it doesn't quite look human.  Which could account for why many find the look creepy.  Truthfully avatar fashion is a tricky symbiotic relationship between skin designers and customers.  People naturally find large eyes and large lips attractive.  The skin designers cater to this genetic preference.  But left on their own, would the average VR resident create a BJ looking avatar?  I don't think so.  If anything it looks as if one designer (not sure who at the moment) referenced Bychkova's work and created a skin/shape that mimics her work.  And then the look took off from that point.

Do I like it?  No, it isn't my cup of tea.  I've never been fascinated by dolls, even when I was a child.  And again, I'm a little put off by the BJ dolls in general.  But I can't deny that they are an art.  And since now there is some RL reference for this look in SL, I don't find the avatar copy quite so horrific.

The winds of fashion...so to speak.

Pink Lady

The outfit for the day.

Hair - Fri.day - Dylan

Cardigan - Nylon Outfitters - Pink Cheetah

Shirt - BLAND - Posh Red Shirt

Skirt - DeeTaleZ - Golden Wrinkled Skirt

Boots - Zero Number - Used Boots Ami

Peaceful Moment

Green Vision

Saturday around the virtual house look.

Hair - Clawtooth by Clawtooth - Sweet Whispers

Cardigan - Kurotsubaki - Simple Knit

Shirt - BLAND - Stripey shirt

Jeans - Milk Motion - My Boyfriend's Jeans

Shoes - Magi - Take Chucker

Virtual Fall

An outfit for virtual fall.

Hair - Fri.day - Eloise
Shirt - BP - Bottan Shirt
Skirt - Huming - Wool Check Skirt
Tights - Twosome - Cozy tights
Boots - Zero Number (ON) - Wo Gomi

Headache Free

I'm all about easy fashion choices in SL.

Hair - BP - First Date
Shirt - Surf Couture - La Plage
Jeans - Decoy - Stevens Jeans

Fashion for the Rest of the Avatars

I'm not one of those glamorous avs that keep up with the latest designers or styles in SL.  I've only just learned to layer things.

So why start a series of style posts?  Well, I figure there should be something for the regular folks out there.  You know, the weekend casuals.  The people who aren't into the glamorous or farfetched.  Perhaps even the more than slightly conservative.

So the pic above is a quick outfit pulled together from old and new adds to my inventory.

Hair - Kurotsubaki - hair dia 7
Eyes - Pulse - Poe
Skin - Second Skin Labs - Evie
Cardigan - Nylon Outfitters - Chinese Florals
Tank - Fishy Strawberry - Poisonous Lotus top
Pants - Gisaci - Journey Tweed
Shoes - Armidi - Vidalia Pumps

All of these designers are easy to find using a quick search.  Just type in their names and their store lists will pop up.  Try to visit their main stores, because those will always have the most inventory. Many of the sims where they establish their flagships are destinations in their own right. So take a look around if you like the surroundings.

Happy Clothes shopping.

Achieving Harmony

There is an affliction striking innocent avies all over Second Life.  It causes small heads and tiny hands.  But have no fear, there is a cure.

Now I know many in SL love to be tall, giant sized even.  I'm not here to rag on your desire to fee-fi-fo-fum all over Second Life.  Keep that height, work it and enjoy it.  But what I'm here to point out is that sometimes, other av features get left out of all that hormonal growth.  Namely the head and the hands.  When these are too small on your av, it is working against you not for you.

See that av next to me?  She likes being a sexy Las Vegas showgirl type.  But like many she has not resized her head, arms and hands to fit her height.  It makes her general shape look off kilter.   There are quick easy fixes to these problems.

I'm not going to go into the details artists use in figure drawing.  Although to get a better shape in-world, I would urge everyone to google it up.  The next few tips are just quick and nasty fixes.

Right click on your av and choose appearance menu.

Go to the Torso menu, scroll down until you see the arm length option.  Look in magazines, study yourself in a mirror and watch people on TV or the street, you will notice that arm length usually ends around hip/upper thigh level.  Lengthen your arms to the appropriate length so that you av's wrists hang by his/her hips.

Now go to the hands option just below arm length.  In your studies, you will notice that hands will extend from the wrists at the hips and end just above mid thigh level.  Granted some people will have longer arms  and larger hands.  But the wrists at hip level and hands at mid-thigh will take care of most people's tiny hands problem in SL.  If you like really long legs, as does the avatar in the picture, you will probably have to exaggerate arm and hand length just a bit to look proportional.

Now go to the head option in appearance menu.  I've found that the approximate good proportion between height and head size is about 20 points.  So if you are height level 70 in SL, then your head size should be around...you guessed it...90.

Now I know people hate modding hair and most hair is created for a head size of 50.  But if you don't want to look like a microcephalic, you will need to make sacrifices.  So size up your head and size up your hair wigs to fit it.  If you want to keep head size 50, then size down your body to about 30.  You won't be tall but you won't look sickly either.

So make those quick changes and enjoy your gorgeous and proportionate looking av.