Linden looking to buy ‘avatar content’.

You have received this note because of your contributions to the vibrant content creation community inside Second Life. We’ve marveled at the incredible professionalism of content creators in Second Life and would like to extend you
a unique paid opportunity.

We are looking to our community to help us improve the new Resident experience by updating the set of “default” avatars choosen during registration at secondlife.com. We want these avatars to better reflect the rich and diverse content available inside Second Life. We also want to give people a memorable introduction to our virtual world.

To this end, we are contracting the production of a new set of avatars for our site. Contracts awarded by Linden Lab will be paid in U.S. dollars. If this sounds like something you would be intersted in, please contact me directly (jesse@lindenlab.com) with your preferred email address.

Your name will be added to an email list and you will receive details about content specifications and the contract bidding process. Thanks for your consideration and if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.

Best,
- Jesse Linden
Product Development
Linden Lab

My two L$ on this? Great idea to ’spice up’ the newb avatars’ content a bit. Maybe they’ll even get decent prim hair? Sadly enough they obviously did not read Lillie Yifu’s ideas on this. I just hope they take a look at the rich and diverse content freely available too, as there are for instance Eloh Eliot’s free skin .pds files. Curious what gets selected, and even more what the content specifications are. Will silks be basic avatar stuff soon? And while they are at this, they can finally do a Philip Linden makeover? ;)

Tags: content, fashion, linden lab

5 Responses to “Linden looking to buy ‘avatar content’.”

Peter Stindberg wrote a comment on March 12, 2008

I recently registered an alt and was surprised that the choice of avatars has been expanded quite nicely since my initial sign up. The old “ugly” ones still exist, but the male model I chose DOES in fact have prim hair, and not too bad clothing as well. It definitely looked better than what I had to start with…

Also when you register via the CSI:NY thingy, you get better clothed and better hairdressed avatars as well.

Nobody Fugazi wrote a comment on March 12, 2008

“…Also when you register via the CSI:NY thingy, you get better clothed and better hairdressed avatars as well…”

For the amount spent on that idiocy, there damn well better be some good looking avatars.

Dunno about the default avatar issue. Making better defaults just means more clones running around. Sure, the clones will have a different look - but they’ll still be clones.

I honestly think that capitalism works here. There are enough content creators around to allow customization of avatars. I don’t see how raising the bar does much other than outdate some of the freebie skins/shapes out there that are already overused (creating Newer Looking Clones).

The way I see it - an avatar represents how a person approaches SL. If I see someone who looks like a clone, I assume that they have no attachment to their avatar. It is the character that is important. I mean, I’ve seen people who wandered around with prims on their head as a statement - and that’s cool. That demonstrates some individuality.

I’m obviously biased. But here’s a thought: people could actually design their basic avatar on a website (which is less intimidating for new users) instead of within Second Life. When they get inworld, they can tweak it - but allowing website design of an avatar makes… sense.

Annyka Bekkers wrote a comment on March 12, 2008

Very interesting development.

Unfortunately, the email gives no indication as to whether they intend to simply make new skins and clothes and hair and stuff, or if this is part of an actual redesign of the avatars themselves. Now that’s what I’d REALLY like to see.

» Philip Linden's Hair - Living in the Metaverse sent a pingback on March 14, 2008