Recently, I've encountered situations where I've needed to be a human avatar. First off, how ridiculous is that! I'd run into avatar discrimination before, but these new situations made a bit more sense (work-related) so I decided to play along and give the "catatar" (cat-avatar) a break for a few days. One benefit of the metaverse is being able to develop as many personas as you want, right? So I changed into my female form and quickly realized why I would up in a catsuit to begin with.
I have horrible hair. You can edit you appearance using sliders that change hair shape and length, but they all look like helmets. Having saved my weekly stipend for several months, I decided to go shopping for some new hair.
The first place that I found was Gurlywood. At first I was a bit overwhelmed. The walls were covered with rows and rows of pictures of hairstyles. They were stacked four high so you either had to fly to see them or use the camera controls. You can buy a demo for $L1 that lets you see what the style will look like, although it's green :)
Most style were under $L 200, and you get one style in four or five colors.
Next I went to Goldie Locks This store was slightly easier to navigate for several reasons; the pictures were only stacked two high and the square open room meant that I could stand and one place and browse using the camera control or mouselook. It was here that I learned about "flexi" (hair that moves and is therefore much less helmet-like). This store also has demos (although with a different texture green) and prices were around $L 150 but you bought one color at a time.
Next I went to Taunt Hair Shack. This store also had demos and their styles were $L 199 for nine colors. This store didn't have the quantity that the other stores had, but what they lacked in variety they made up for in documentation (including a link to an explanatory video!) that described specifically how to position and resize new hair. This is very important considering that a lot of new hair looks like this when you wear it.
The last store that I visited was Tickled Pink. I liked that their demos used the actual hair color instead of the green texture. Styles here went for $L 195 for one color.
The main issue I had navigating all of these stores is that there was no logical organization scheme. I expected styles to be grouped - somehow - perhaps by short, medium, long, wacky, up-do, etc. It's also surprisingly difficult to select new hair. In the real world, you have something to begin with. Your hair is capable of a finite number of styles. In Second Life the options are limitless - I not only have to pick a style from the walls and walls of options, but I then have to figure out what color I want. I ended up going with this style from Goldie Locks.
Don't worry - female form is only temporary and Virtual Bailey will be back shortly. It's much much easier being a cat.
I have horrible hair. You can edit you appearance using sliders that change hair shape and length, but they all look like helmets. Having saved my weekly stipend for several months, I decided to go shopping for some new hair.
The first place that I found was Gurlywood. At first I was a bit overwhelmed. The walls were covered with rows and rows of pictures of hairstyles. They were stacked four high so you either had to fly to see them or use the camera controls. You can buy a demo for $L1 that lets you see what the style will look like, although it's green :)
Most style were under $L 200, and you get one style in four or five colors.
Next I went to Goldie Locks This store was slightly easier to navigate for several reasons; the pictures were only stacked two high and the square open room meant that I could stand and one place and browse using the camera control or mouselook. It was here that I learned about "flexi" (hair that moves and is therefore much less helmet-like). This store also has demos (although with a different texture green) and prices were around $L 150 but you bought one color at a time.
Next I went to Taunt Hair Shack. This store also had demos and their styles were $L 199 for nine colors. This store didn't have the quantity that the other stores had, but what they lacked in variety they made up for in documentation (including a link to an explanatory video!) that described specifically how to position and resize new hair. This is very important considering that a lot of new hair looks like this when you wear it.
The last store that I visited was Tickled Pink. I liked that their demos used the actual hair color instead of the green texture. Styles here went for $L 195 for one color.
The main issue I had navigating all of these stores is that there was no logical organization scheme. I expected styles to be grouped - somehow - perhaps by short, medium, long, wacky, up-do, etc. It's also surprisingly difficult to select new hair. In the real world, you have something to begin with. Your hair is capable of a finite number of styles. In Second Life the options are limitless - I not only have to pick a style from the walls and walls of options, but I then have to figure out what color I want. I ended up going with this style from Goldie Locks.
Don't worry - female form is only temporary and Virtual Bailey will be back shortly. It's much much easier being a cat.
posted at
7:22 AM
1 Comments:
Avatar discrimination? Yes, there's quite a bit of it out there in some places. You should probably stay away from Port Cos or most of the other Gor sims . . .
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Anonymous, at 7:27 AM
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