Dress for success
by Andrew Crow
One of the first things many people do when establishing themselves in Second Life is to customize their appearance.
You’re not told to, though there are hints given on how to go about doing it. But there is this compelling need to make yourself look different than the stock avatar.
My original intention was to modify my avatar to look as close to me as possible. I figured, since I am here for business, I need to be presentable. How many residents will want to be interviewed if I have dragon wings, tight vinyl pants and star bursts floating above my head? (Um…that was a little too telling about myself…I’ve said too much.)
So, I customized my appearance with brown hair, hazel eyes, a dazzling smile and some freckles. Then I started to dress myself. Here’s where it got uncomfortable. I immediately did the things that any fashion-concious person with odd physical traits does, I looked for ways to hide things through color, clothing length and style. For those that know me, I am obnoxiously tall. I’ve been tall since I was a kid and had to endure all the things that come with it -– buying XL clothing, long lanky legs, standing out in the crowd. So in Second Life, I started to look at dark clothing, low waisted shirts, matte finished shoes that didn’t call attention to my clown feet, and so on.
And then I realized something…I’m in Second Life! I don’t have to be 5′ 17″ anymore. I can be normal height, wear normal clothes, not stand out from the crowd! I can be the ideal “me” or I could change my appearance to suit the situation. So, now I have my “dragon wing, pink haired, tattooed self” for hanging out with friends. And I have my more buttoned up, researcher look for the in-world work.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, February 22nd, 2007 at 4:31 pm and is filed under Second Life Case Study.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
This post is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
February 22nd, 2007 at 6:22 pm
Hey Andy, are you able to get a sense (from those you’re “shadowing” in Second Life) if people tend to either keep to their real-world appearance or stray far beyond? My assumption is that people would go to one extreme or the other…
February 22nd, 2007 at 7:40 pm
What, no projection of residual self image?
February 23rd, 2007 at 3:13 am
Based on my own experience, I would venture to guess that there are many Second Life users whose only (or nearly only) interaction with Second Life is customizing their appearance. Second Life’s tools for customizing one’s appearance before entering the “game” world are fantastic and are remarkably fun to play around with.
But then once I got into the world, I was bored to death. The entirety of my Second Life experience thus consists of probably 1.5 hours of customizing my avatar and then 30 minutes of exploring the world.
February 23rd, 2007 at 9:34 am
@Brandon: Most of the people we’ve been talking with so far are actually not on either extreme. Truthfully, they’ve been either Linden staff or Liasons (people hired to help in-world residents with everyday issues). These people have appeared as a much more stylized version of themselves. Perhaps looking like what they really want to in the real world if they had the money for the clothes or the courage to appear like that in society. I’ll offer myself as an example. Currently, I’m sporting a long black coat with an ornate pattern on it and I have bright red streaks in my black hair. Not too extreme, but probably not something I’d do in real life.
We’re beginning our research with actual residents this week. This is where you might be proven correct in that the residents will probably be more extreme in their appearance choices. However, so far, the choices I’ve seen sit heavily in the “I want to make myself sexy or good looking” camp.
All of this pokes at the notion that we continue to shape ourselves in a way that is either appealing or acceptable to others despite what world we live in.
February 23rd, 2007 at 9:39 am
@Christopher: I suspect you’re correct on a few levels. First, the ability to customize your appearance through SL’s tools and/or shopping for user created items is fantastic. It’s robust, highly customizable and a lot of fun.
Regarding your first couple of hours in-world. I think this is common for many. Certainly, when I started diving into Second Life over a year ago, I had the same issue. In fact, I left it alone until this project came to us. However, I can honestly say that once you make friends and start exploring, the interest level rises again.
I also think Linden is aware of this and is probably working on ways to better the newbie experience.
February 23rd, 2007 at 10:20 am
It’s funny, because most of the time when doing research, you want to dress as bland and unassuming as possible. In Second Life, it would be more strange to do that.
February 25th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
@Andrew: No, I think it’s more that I’m simply not interested in the concept of Second Life. Like Chiara, I suspect I am simply not the target audience.
I like to write on blogs and message boards (especially on my own blog), and I like chatting with friends via IM and email. And when I was a little younger I loved whizzing around virtual spaces shooting other people and blowing shit up. But the mixture of the two, I dunno… it lacks the efficiency and intellectual depth of the text-based user experiences, and it lacks the visceral exhileration of the multiplayer shooter. It’s still just a toy to me, which is why the avatar-engine was so compelling but the interaction with other people — and the investment it would take to make it more than that — was not so compelling.