 |
| My Avatar - Kalli Birman in SL |
In Second Life we can choose to be whatever we wish to be. Well, I just want to be me. There are times I like to dress up as a mermaid, fairy or elf but that is usually just for a day or for an event.
I think one of the things that attracts people to SL is that they CAN be whatever they want. Be a human, be a robot, a dragon, skinny, fat, tiny or anything else you can imagine.
Working in Second Life is a full time job for me. It is how I make my living and have decided that the best thing I can be is myself. Often people will create an avie that is more an idealized version of themselves or what they wish they could be.
However, just like in real life, the fashion industry leans more towards skinny avatars and as you can see in the pictures here, my avatar is a bit more curvy. Which is 100% my choice. No one forced me to raise those sliders. However, it does make shopping hard sometimes.
I cannot wear 99% of mesh clothing because even the biggest "Standard Size" is too small for me. So, I have to rely on clothes made with system layers and prims or sculpties until the mesh deformer becomes standard in the viewer. I accept that as a limitation of having a more realistic shape.
I have gotten really good at adjusting prims and sculpts, one by one, to fit my avatar and still make the clothing look like the designer intended.
Size Scripts are the big the problem for me. Sizing scripts often only increases or decreases the entire prim or sculpt or each individual prim by a percent. They do not move individual pieces up or down or shift the angle. Just increase or decrease size. That doesn't work for me.
 |
| Photo by Spartin Parx |
I have hips and a butt. My avie is very proportionate but increasing prim parts overall just makes them bigger where I might only need a little stretch in the hips or across the chest.
Many of the designers in Second Life have gone to only using size scripts and taking away the modify rights. That makes it so I cannot shop in their store and I LOVE to shop in SL. I have found a few designers who are willing to send me things with modify rights but that is the exception not the rule.
I completely understand not wanting your designs messed up or textures changed or other things that can happen when people have mod rights. However, it does leave out some SLers that do want a more curvy shape. I am not suggesting you change the actual design but please give us modify rights.
I like being a curvy avatar and feeling more like the real me. I'm an independent fierce woman and I think my shape is sexy and I receive a lot of compliments from both men and women. Beauty is subjective, each person has their own ideas on what beautiful is to them. So people should feel free to have the avie shape they find most appealing and not concern yourself with what other people may think.
I wouldn't even mind paying a little more to have modify rights. I just want to be able to try to make clothes work for my avatar. So please designers, consider leaving mod rights, even if you keep using size scripts for those who like them. It's like by not allowing me to modify to fit, you are telling me that you don't want my money or that because I choose to have curves that I don't matter. Please take my money!
