If you were to judge Miss Second Life
February 13, 2008 5:07 pm
Recently I was asked to be a member of the panel of judges for a Miss SL World contest. No problem with that, but I do wondered where we had to judge upon.
Though candidates would be screened on their submission letter telling why they think they deserve the title, having to judge solely on ‘who looks best’ still left a sour taste in my mouth and I answered with an - elaborate - thanks, but no thanks.
Where first life miss contests claim to judge on more then just looks they often do not*. So maybe, being a Virtual - and hopefully better or at least equally shallow world - we should look further than just avatar customisation skills. I wonder, where would you base your vote for Second Life Miss Wold upon?
Here are mine:
Top 5 Voting Criteria for Miss SL
(apart from Avatar Customization)
- Behaviourism or SL Etiquette - Not as complicated as the word lets you think. Does she know what is allowed in a mature or PG sim? What’s ‘push’ and why it’s mostly bad? What’s the best way to befriend someone? Or what do you put in an IM to a person you’ve never spoken to before? What do you think of camping? And those ad farms? Do you answer all IM’s?
- Communication skills - I realise you can’t expect everybody to know two or preferably even more languages, but for a Miss Second Life World I would expect a basic knowledge of English. Yet as we are a mixed community, I would understand for instance that a female avatar that already speaks Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Inuit and some other - for me rather strange - languages, does not speak English much more than ‘thank you’, ‘that’s lovely’ and ‘world peace’. So translators might be needed, it’s SL Miss World, not SL Miss UK-USA-Europe after all.
- A clear opinion about Second Life - We trust our RL Misses with a representational function for our country. It’s the same for an Second Life Miss. I expect her to clearly tell what Second Life is all about, what it’s potentials are and even to be honest about it’s flaws. We’re ‘jack shit’ with a Miss that only knows the best shopping places. Imagine her being interviewed for a RL article: would it be nice if she answers she loves Second Life because clothes are that cheap?
- Basic building and scripting skills - My preferred Miss Second Life would need a basic understanding of how our grid functions. What is a 3D mesh exactly? What’s the best size for a texture in case of building and in case of clothing and why are sizes limited? What’s an inventory ID and how do you make something react when you click on it. What’s the difference between an object set a group and one that isn’t? Really, just show me she has some clue about what kind of world she lives in.
- Follow the Second Life news - Be familiar with all the ‘hot’ Second Life issues: be it new features, new bugs or new uses. She needs to know what Age Verification is about, what the difference between the WindLight and the normal client is, that we’re testing Havok 4 at the moment and that it’s a physics engine, that Linden Lab opened up a European office in the UK. Etc.
I would personally also give bonus points for ‘originality’. A beautiful and interesting neko, furry, vampire, elven, child avatar, or whatever is more likely to get my vote than just a ‘perfect representation of a the average beautiful human’. But I do understand that not everybody agrees with me on this one.
* RL Belgium now has a Miss Belgium that at the moment of her election - although studying Roman languages - did not speak a single word of Flemish/Dutch. She’s learning now, but still, this has lead to a lot of ‘wtf’ and ’see, we should separate from the Wallons’ reactions. The organisation said - although they previously claimed knowing both French and Dutch would be very important - they rather have a language-impaired Miss Belgium than one that is ugly. Really, all the girls in the top 10 are stunningly beautiful. It still confused me why they did not go with one of the other nine.
7 Responses to “If you were to judge Miss Second Life”
I agree with some (Basic creation skills in whatever form, Bonus for Nekos, Communication ability, And some ideas on the current state of SL) of your points, SLetiquette though is so highly personal… Each set of groups in SL will have different ideas about this… Making sure that aren’t a SLetiquette newbie yes… But I think that fits into communication…
Well, each judge can judge that upon it’s own SLetiquette values? ;) But I do think that SLetiquette goes wider than Communication skills only.
And how would we define Miss anyway? This IS SL ;)
Personally, I’d want someone who would make a wonderful SL to RL mainstream press bridge. Charming, knowledgeable, and able to smoothly interact with people of different cultures.
So that would raise some demands for her human (be it a male or female human) too? Be at least not very very very ugly looking, cute voice, basic knowledge of English (as this is the language that makes the world go round?) etc?
So we would need an Augmentationist and not an Immersionist? :D
At least over in the States, beauty queens are expected to travel a lot, talk to schoolchildren, show up at large festivals, bring publicity to charity campaigns.. they do a lot of PR work. Winning the competition is just the beginning of a hard year’s work.
English is the main language on the grid, but I’d personally hope she can communicate in several languages. If she’s been in SL long, she probably already does :D
… and a car, and maybe a media career. (At least in Belgium.) But I agree on the PR work she would need to do. Although I see it more ‘SL to RL’ publicity than in-world charity, festivals and such. I think the ‘admiration’ felt for an SL miss would be less than for a RL miss, except if it’s a pageant where the whole (or a large part) of the SL community can find itself in. So not just a local initiative.
Well, I think if you already speak English as first language in Second Life, there is not much that encourage you to learn a second one? Most avies do speak (some) English.
PS. Probably talking to schoolchildren in-world would harm the Miss’ reputation? :D
They often end up with media careers here too. Agree on the admiration - and it is next to impossible to communicate to most of the SL communities in one chunk. Now I’m picturing Miss Furry SL, and Miss Gorean SL and …. Should nekos be their own category? ;)
My first language is English, but I know my use of Spanish (and Portuguese) has improved a lot since coming to SL. And I have been very thankful that most people who use German also know English well. You meet a lot of people when you sell things, and trying to communicate with nothing more than Babble tools can be a terrifying thing. ;)
I wish there was a SL-like world available for kids to play in - I know I loved building blocks as a child, and most of the ones I’ve seen don’t let people build. You can raise pokemon-like beasts, dress your barbie doll, and that’s about it.
Care to comment?