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:

Ready Player One Mix

A Ready Player One 80's Mix from Melponeme_k on 8tracks Radio.

I can't believe I didn't cross post this when I created this playlist last year on 8tracks.

Despite the tech industry totally misunderstanding the point of Ready Player One and wanting to turn us all into VR vegetables, I liked this book.  It contains a lot of touchstones from my childhood that I remember from the late 70s - early to mid 80s.  It was a great time back then and video games were considered very advanced.

I believe I received my Atari 2600 sometime in early 1982, not really sure but I did have Pac-man.  Since history websites state that Pac-Man was released for the 2600 in March 82, it had to have been around that time.  Maybe I got it for Easter that year.  Even though the price for the console had come down, it was still considered pricey at about $150 which would equal about $380 dollars now.  Not only that the price of the cartridges were about $30 ($75 today)  to $50 ($125 today) dollars a piece.

Truthfully I remember liking the games a lot.  But it never really turned into an obsession.  After the Atari craze, the game system was taken off the main TV set and attached to a rinky dinky black and white TV set in our basement rec room.  Then fell into oblivion.  My family never purchased the next latest and greatest video machine.  The next video set I owned was Playstation in the early 2000s  and subsequently Playstation 2.  I got into WOW over the consoles and never felt the need to get an extra machine.  Truthfully first person shooters never interested me.  They make me nervous.

But that time in Spring to end of 1982 was fun for a kid.  I remember hanging out with friends and fighting over who would play the next round.  I had Pac-Man, Pong, Missile Command, Asteroids, Centipede, Casino, Atlantis, Barnstorming, Demon Attack, Frogger, Night Drive, Adventure, ET (What an awful game), Raiders of the Lost Ark and of course Pitfall.  I think I had a few more titles but the ones listed are the ones I remember the most.  It is Pitfall that was the most popular.  Because we played so often, the game noises and 8 bit soundtrack became psychologically disturbing. So we would mute the sound and listen to the radio.  For the rest of my life I will always associate Duran Duran's Hungry Like the Wolf with Pitfall.   

That song is in my playlist along with other songs from late 70s to mid 80s that remind me of the early era of video games.  Most of the music listed in the book didn't resonate with me.  But on this playlist, it takes me way back, way, way back.

Priorities in Action

Drama couldn't make up crazy stories like the following example.

The richest of the rich in Silicon Valley are actually throwing money around the GOP in order to defeat Trump from receiving the nomination.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3483046/Silicon-Valley-bosses-Republican-leaders-secret-talks-stopping-Trump-s-bid-White-House.html#comments

Meanwhile their own hometown ballet company closes its doors due to lack of funding.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/breaking-news/ci_29610630/silicon-valley-ballet-shuts-down

This is the attitude of the tech elite for you in spades.  It also highlights my continual theme that these people are insane and they truly believe that they will reach the "Singularity" rapture.  They fully expect to live forever inside machines.  In fact they hate their own bodies.

So it is no surprise that an art form celebrating humanity and the beauty of human bodies would fail to thrive in their vicinity.

Here is another contrast in photos that says it all...

Techs would rather watch this...life in simulcrum

Over going to the theater to celebrate beauty like this...

These people are truly without culture and they flail around trying to create it anew.  In the process destroying everything that makes us human.  And this is all due to the fact that they hate that their own bodies.

This was cross posted at my non-tech blog

If only I could get onto the Sim!

A few years back The Season's Story hunt was all the rage in SL.  I was one of its fans.  But due to time factors and other things, the group behind this hunt disbanded and the hunt ended.  A few people from that group created a new event in the spirit of Season's Story and called it Arcade Gacha.

Arcade Gacha or more like GOTCHA!  I love and loathe Gachas in SL.  Gachas are little quasi-gambling machines where you put money and hope to get a good prize.  Mainly a rare.  Which in the picture above the rare is a beautiful little cottage for your avatar.  Lately I haven't been doing much in SL but I do try to attend this event.  And I spend too much money at it.  But how can anyone resist?  Look at another vendor offering victorian treehouses!

If home items aren't your thing, there are plenty of vendors offering fashion items, clothing and avatar skins/hair.  Pets are very popular as well.  The popular pet to collect this fall are Shibu Inus.  But if you really want to be one with the animals, there is a gacha specializing in Raccoon Avatars.

There is so much more available.  So if you have time during September try to get on the sim and buy!  See the rest of the vendor offerings HERE.

Remember when Pepperidge Farm Remembered?

When WOW was still white hot and The Guild was all the rage in MMORPG circles?



Remember the Team Zaboo vs. Team Fawkes shipping wars?  Well I do.  I seem to be drawn to shipping wars.

Truthfully I haven't been playing many games lately.  I've been pulled into the MOOCs 8th circle of hell in which I spend my time watching video lectures, debate Greek myths in class forums and write 2 to 3 paragraph essays.  All of this voluntarily, mind you.  It doesn't leave a lot of time for MMORPG busy work.

I do have time card time for WOW and I still log in from time to time.  I've been meaning to finish the new legendary quest line for LOTRO.  But...life just doesn't give enough time.  Sigh.

But I remember when...when I spent too much time in games.  It was fun and it was frustrating, I'm not sure if I would do it all again.  But it was strange and amazing time when these games were almost mainstream.

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.

Second Life Music Videos

It has been a long time since my last post.

What have I been doing?  Well I've gotten back into Warcraft a bit.  My thoughts on that later.  I'm still in and out of LOTRO, Rift and Elder Scrolls Online.  I've even dabbled in the Candy Crush mobile world (horrible time suck and phone power suck).  But I have to admit, I no longer have the fire, the resolve or the desire to play these games long term anymore.  They require too much from me, more than I can give now.  It just reminds me that I'm a heck of a lot older than I was when I first got into WOW and I no longer have the extra time I did when I was younger.

But I'm still regularly in Second Life.  Quite simply because the game only gives what you put into it and no more is required.  There is no grind, no leveling or other elements that turn it into a kind of half-ass job.  To me, it serves as a micro-vacation in that I can go "places" to sight see and relax.

Even though I have been in SL for so many years, it still strikes me as being extremely futuristic.  It transports players into worlds that are one of kind, made by other average Joe/Jane players.  It is sometimes unprofessional and messy but it still has fire.  Something that is missing from regular MMORPGS nowadays (although I'm holding out hope for Camelot Unchained).

NWN has linked to an SL music video recently.  It looks amazing and yes, SL can look amazing.  The old 2007 screen captures used in the media are just poor news reporting.

This is the SL, that regular SL players know and live:



Another vid with typical female SL avatar looks popular right now.