Fashion in SL
September 27th, 2006 by dmirliss
I get teased a lot for my shopping addiction in SL (esp. by partner in crime Heidi) but a recent Wall Street Journal article says that I am not alone. According to the article, and this should be no surprise to other SL residents, clothing is emerging as the hottest market. What does this tell us about the attachment to our avatars? Why do we care so much about our appearance? In the Slatenight article “Fantasies of Femininity” Anya comments on her avatar: “I enjoy gazing at myself and thinking: yes, that reflects many aspects about me: my softness. my feminity, my mysteriousness, my sexuality and so on.” I think she sums it up well. The Wall Street Journal article states it less eloquently:
“We found out pretty quickly that people loved owning things,” Ms. Smith says, and many start by buying items for their avatars. “It’s not surprising that fashion and hairstyles and skins are as attractive and as exciting and as valuable as they are, because it’s part of individualizing” the appearance of a player’s online persona.
I am far from an expert on online identity but I am interested in how we can use this knowledge to support the faculty and students to the SL environment. Do we just set them up with their free accounts and leave them to explore alone? How much fun can you have being poor in SL? If we have the means, will providing a small budget ($2000 lindens) help to engage the new SL user? I think that this is an important consideration when introducing a group of faculty to SL - being able to customize your appearance might result in more commitment to the avatar and more willingness to explore and learn how to use the virtual environment.
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You can do decent fashion in SL for well under L$300. Places like Free Dove and GNUbie really help out — and as you discovered, most content creators in Second Life tend to be awfully generous, especially for educational type environments.
And, for that matter if I can help, please let me know.