One of the first things I learned as a newbie is that if you don't do a little bit of customization to your avatar, you'll continue to look (and potentially be treated like) a newbie. I don't know if I'll ever asimilate into the indiginous culture of SL (I may always be a colonial), but I, at least, wanted to try to fit it.
And to fit in, I needed a better skin.
See, the skin you are given when you start isn't, apparently, top notch. And, well, it's like a Barbie-doll. No "bits" as it were. Now I'm not so much interested in the bits, as in looking professional at any meetings that happen in SL.
Side note: I had an interesting conversation with Consultini Paperdoll (aka Alexandra Samuel) in SL recently about her appearance. She has found that since first exploring SL, her appearance has come to be more like her RL appearance. Apparently, this happens. I know the Crayon guys all had "realistic" skins designed for them. Yet we also heard from Greg Verdino the other day during Marketing Prof's "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Metaverse" seminar that there is a Fortune 100 marketer who regularly attends his company's in-world events as a buxom female avatar, dressed in a bikini to remind his colleagues that we are still trying to understand the boundaries of SL.
Anyway, back to my quest for a new skin. Based on a couple of recommendations from Consultini as well as reviews on some of the SL Fashion blogs, I evaluated five skins:
Skin tone, makeup (colour and heaviness), freckle pattern, lip shape ... that's a lot of work. And then what if I change my hair colour?
Well, after much agonizing, I decided to go with two: the first one and the last one. The last one, for a slightly plainer "day look" and the first one for dressing up. I also changed my eye colour to green. So this is the current official "business" look:
And with my new spiffy glasses:
And dressed for success in my Betty Boop jeans!
During my aforementioned conversation with Consultini, she mentioned that one way Catherine Omega (aka Catherine Winters and Social Signal's recent hire) describes Second Life is "Legos meets Barbie for grownups" (I think I got that right). And it's true. Aside from the marketing and communication aspects that I intend to explore and ruminate on, SL is, well, kinda fun. It fulfills a creative impulse. And a consumer one as well. I've been on several shopping sprees recently. All in the name of "research", of course :-)
