Personal Sl Appearance

I just started second life a week or two ago and I've noticed alot of people have very complex and interesting avatars. Do you feel people get judged or looked down upon sometimes for not having a cool or unique avatar? I mean I have a pretty normal avatar, just some white spiky hair, everything i wear was given to me. I was just wondering if its that big a deal, or if its just as cool to spend most of your time building or talking to people without really concerning yourself with trying to get the newest outfits.

(belated welcome to SL )

I don't treat people differently based on their av complexity. However, I can be appreciative for a particularly complex av as I can for a cleverly simple one too.

I think your mileage varies. Of course I'm sure there are groups of people who do practice av-based judgement - much like some people judge others based on their RL appearance, or how much awesome gear they have in an MMORPG.

it's just like irl. everybody likes to see people who look cool and interesting but you're the scum of the earth if you judge them by it.

i've never seen anyone judge someone negatively for their appearance when it wasn't obvious the person was trying to look bad or offensive. can't say what people think tho.

Radiks? Now why does that surname ring a bell...

I find I am much more inclined to judge someone by their ingame last name.

My AV is also nice and simple. Not even much in the way of attatchments (only one on my hand while exploring).

But in my case I'm replicating my Uru Live av to some degree.

I've thought about working on another av setup, but still weighing in on getting the rest of the current one outfitted (I want the Watcher Shirt from Uru-POTS, probably need to make).

In SL, if you don't keep up with fashion trends, you aren't even allowed to leave the welcome area which means

1. You are stuck inside Morris
   
2. You can't shop
   
3. Therefore you have to wait for someone to give you cool clothes
   

Which is why you find people just hanging around the welcome area like some virtual purgatory; they are just waiting for cool clothes.

My avatar underwent a virtual "makeover" of sorts a few days ago. He's been virtually unchanged for over a year; since then, he's missed custom animations, custom skins, better clothes, and better rendering.

So, I redid him.

His face still looks like me, of course (it's my trademark, not counting the hat), but now he looks a lot more "modern".

I'm atypical though, most folks go for Barbie/Ken styles... shapely bodies, impeccable faces, tons of accessories, and so on.

Just like real life, folks sculpt their avatars as much to their ideal limits as possible.

LF

I spent 2 weeks with a Barbie-style avatar to try and test this. Barbie won several sexiest foo contests. I presume this was because the barbie stereotype - impossibly tall and thin with a permatan and long blonde hair - meets some players expectations of attractive.

However I think this says more about the rl culture of some players than any sl culture.

Werd. Meaty girls all the way. I want a woman that can eat a steak and LIKE IT.

LF

LOL

to a person, chosen last names are excellent character indicators. another highly reliable reflection of someone's character is the number of negative ratings they've assigned.

avs are instantly changable. people generally either rarely change or often change them. the ones that often change seem to use avs to reflect their current mood more than anything else.

Pen LOVES steak. She's still a stick though.

a full sized dragon, or walking dining room table, or wal-mart price roll backer smiley of evil, or anything else you want.

Not having a 'generic' avatar doesn really mean much in SL other than potentially granting you some face recognition. There are an over-abundance of barbies and kens in SL, and trust me from experience do *NOT* zoom in on their faces really close because its usually very very scary.

Jus be you, whether thats a hand me down wearin av with modest features, or an 80 foot tall wolf, as long as yer happy with how you look, alot of people will be too

*spits soda*
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!

I don't think I'm prejudiced against IW for my avatar. I'm black, big, and bad.

People know they better come correct around me or I'll lay them out like thanksgiving dinner.

wOOt wOOt

hahahaha whaaaaaaa?!

you sir, rule.

Thanks for all the timely replies everyone. Esp Wall Street very funny while also being truthful thanks.

if you're gonna have avie sex, it looks better if the avie has photorealistic looks

.............emm not that i ever would do that, just what i think!

From what I've seen, people are looked up to for having a cool or unique av. I've never seen anyone looked down upon for not having one.
The one exception I can think of offhand is a triple neg rating I got once for having a large rump. Since my av looks like me IRL, I'm pretty much used to that.

I admire the work and creativity that goes into a unique Avatar, as a form of self-expression. Psyra's bird avatars, Vudu's tentacle-faced thingie.. Love them. I wouldn't look down on someone for having a perfectly normal or 'unattractive' avatar though, since the avatar is really just the wrapping paper.

My own avatar is rather unexceptional, but I like it anyway.

Hee... I was referring more to the sudden influx of curious people named Radiks.

Of course, but I don't think it is concious. The more I wander around in SL the more I start to think of the avatars as ... sort of little people... yea yea go ahead and laugh at me. I know there are real people behind the avatar. But I damn sure would not wander into a virtual alley that had a suspicious 'looking' avatar in a black trenchcoat. I guess thats just me though. Thinking more on this, it has occured to me that I kind of abide by my own personal RL guidelines within SL. I know thats stupid, and I think I am going to try and break that. I mean, there is no way that suspicous looking avatar could hurt me. whoa, I got way off topic... I'm sorry.

No, not really people are pretty open in SL regardless of what you look like. You can be everything from a flying bird to a gigantic robot to a new toon with white spikey hair and most won't even bat an eye.

Jess

The avatar is in part a reflection of the person behind it. Creative or funny, scary or bizarre...it makes a statement about a persona and personality that does not always come across in chat text.

Most of the time I just go round looking like me.

My avatar is modeled pretty closely after my RL self. I feel more immersed in SL when "me" is onscreen.