- Joined
- Sep 26, 2018
- Messages
- 23
- Location
- Canada
- SL Rez
- 2009
- Joined SLU
- 03-15-2010
With the recent announcements about premium perks and cashout fees I've been thinking a lot about SL, and what I get out if it personally. I just can't shake this feeling that it's gotten extremely homogeneous in terms of what people create. I used to get inspired by other people's creations, and that inspiration fuelled my own creativity. That's just not the case anymore.
When i joined in 2009 I got hooked on two things, building and dressing up my avatar. I've always loved fantasy and sci-fi and my fashion sense used to reflect that. Looking back at pictures of my avatar from 2009 - 2013 I see myself sporting all sorts of unusual looks. I rarely make my avatar look all that unusual these days. I either get bored while searching for something new to wear on the MP or I get discouraged by all the mesh body/applier nonsense.
I think it's partially the fault of how mesh bodies work, and partially the fact that people tend to make much more safe ordinary things in general.
I liked to collect fantasy skins before mesh bodies took over. Those skins would then inspire how I put together my look, after that I would be pumped to create things myself. That little spark of inspiration would fuel my creativity. These days the selection of fantasy skins is much more limited and I keep seeing very similar things being sold over and over again at events.
To be clear, I'm not calling out creators for making "safe" profitable things, I understand the thought process. I mean I go through that exact thought process, I'm guilty of this myself! I spend a lot of time thinking of ideas and sketching concepts for items I want to sell at events. I often settle on ideas that I feel have the most broad appeal, not the ones that I think are the coolest most unusual ones. I want all that time spent making the thing to pay off somehow. Just based on my own experience as a merchant, safe things tend to sell better than more experimental stuff.
Anyway, I'm starting to ramble. What I'm trying to get across is that it looks to me like SL is slowly becoming more and more homogeneous in terms of what people make and wear as time goes on. I'm sitting here wondering why that might be, and I keep coming back to the idea that it's harder to make money in SL so creators tend to play it safe.
And to be clear I'm not complaining about what people choose to wear either. I'm just disappointed that there's less variety in what sort of stuff gets made.
Maybe I'm just in a weird mood, and this is just me being pessimistic (It's been raining for days). So I'm interested in other people's thoughts.
TLDR: I've been in SL for ten years and I'm grumpy about not being able to find a ton of fantasy/sci-fi stuff that used to inspire me to create my own things anymore.
When i joined in 2009 I got hooked on two things, building and dressing up my avatar. I've always loved fantasy and sci-fi and my fashion sense used to reflect that. Looking back at pictures of my avatar from 2009 - 2013 I see myself sporting all sorts of unusual looks. I rarely make my avatar look all that unusual these days. I either get bored while searching for something new to wear on the MP or I get discouraged by all the mesh body/applier nonsense.
I think it's partially the fault of how mesh bodies work, and partially the fact that people tend to make much more safe ordinary things in general.
I liked to collect fantasy skins before mesh bodies took over. Those skins would then inspire how I put together my look, after that I would be pumped to create things myself. That little spark of inspiration would fuel my creativity. These days the selection of fantasy skins is much more limited and I keep seeing very similar things being sold over and over again at events.
To be clear, I'm not calling out creators for making "safe" profitable things, I understand the thought process. I mean I go through that exact thought process, I'm guilty of this myself! I spend a lot of time thinking of ideas and sketching concepts for items I want to sell at events. I often settle on ideas that I feel have the most broad appeal, not the ones that I think are the coolest most unusual ones. I want all that time spent making the thing to pay off somehow. Just based on my own experience as a merchant, safe things tend to sell better than more experimental stuff.
Anyway, I'm starting to ramble. What I'm trying to get across is that it looks to me like SL is slowly becoming more and more homogeneous in terms of what people make and wear as time goes on. I'm sitting here wondering why that might be, and I keep coming back to the idea that it's harder to make money in SL so creators tend to play it safe.
And to be clear I'm not complaining about what people choose to wear either. I'm just disappointed that there's less variety in what sort of stuff gets made.
Maybe I'm just in a weird mood, and this is just me being pessimistic (It's been raining for days). So I'm interested in other people's thoughts.
TLDR: I've been in SL for ten years and I'm grumpy about not being able to find a ton of fantasy/sci-fi stuff that used to inspire me to create my own things anymore.