The Distinctive Worlds of Second Life

[Kalel]

i'ts been in my head lately i wanted to discuss this with people. I'm Curious to know what others think

After many years of exploring SL meeting people and trying out things. To me there seems to be 3 distinct Worlds. Various avatars and content is generated around these worlds. Theres always exceptions to the rule And some people who jump in-between worlds but general mindset don't interact with each other all too often and have a general aversion or hate one the other worlds.

Human World, Furry, World and Anime

I imagine it almost like a venn diagram so i made one

Human world
Biggest Chunk of SL
Has lots if disposable income
Keep the Same Avatar and Skins for long period of time.
They don't do lots of body modifications, Demo everything to make sure it fits. Have Huds for everything.
Can be Broken down to endless communities, Family RP, Littles, Shoppers, etc etc..




Furry World
(Contains anything Related to animals, Real or Fiction. Not necessarily have fur)
Second biggest group
Has decent disposable income
Tend to have several Different Avatars/ Furries
People in this group tend to be expert builders and make heavy use of the Build System
Big on avatar customization, Products developed are mix and Match.
They generally won't buy something that cannot be modified.
Also several big Communities Bronies, Sonics, Dragons... etc etc


Anime world
Not necessarily just anime but anything caricature, cartoon or alien
Tend to have the least amount of income.
(you'll commonly find products around 500L range)
Also big on avatar customization but don't have the same access to resources so are more creative with what they find and use.
Buys things from the other worlds to make it fit in their world
Mindset is generally more open then other worlds ( Might be a little too lose or deemed crazy)
Small Communities tend to pop up and vanish often





in-between each world are What i call Hybrid Zones. collectively you could call it the 4th World if you like.

It generally has niche avatar and content that you have to go out of your way to find if you really want quality stuff

Human and Furry = Demon world

where you find most hybrids, saytrs, cowgirls, minotaurs,elfs, hobits.

Human and Anime = Booby World

unrealistic pre-proportioned avies, multiple appendages


Furry and Anime = No mans land

deformed, glitchy avies... some trying to troll or Break or Exploit Second life and do not care about the other worlds.


Midde zone = ShapeShifters

These people slip in and out of of the middle zone and have avatars for every occasion. Making content for this zone is difficult.



Do you agree with my assessment? or maybe you guys have your own theories? Do other virtual worlds have similar Worlds?

 

[Soen Eber]

I tend to think of SL as a huge pile of ropes and threads and cords and cables and ... stuff ... all tangled together. Some of the bigger piles are groups of people sharing similar interests and lifestyles, some of the smaller are less so, and a large number of loose untangled cords for "Meh, tried it for a few weeks, all I got was the tshirt and a pose ball."

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Furry and anime = kemono and they have a sizeable community.

 

[Chav Paderborn]

Furries are not superior beings, they're just very hairy!

 

[irihapeti]

i can see how that view works. Like you say can splinter each group way down. But yes that grouping view works

 

[Soen Eber]

Furry and anime = kemono and they have a sizeable community.

AKA Nekos, bunny girls, etc.

I was going to post a picture but then I realized a neko girl would be sexist, and while looking for a neko boy I felt a sudden, urgent need to take my insulin.

So no picture.

 

[Kalel]

you guys make a point..

Kemono came across my mind several times.. it was originally meant for furries but became standard in the anime community. I think my mind just kinda slotted it as a Sub slot of the anime world. it's a community that revolves around a single product which makes it standout. the question is it big enough to warrant its own zone?

 

[Ashiri]

Where do elves who shapeshift into foxes belong?

 

[Dragon]

Where do elves who shapeshift into foxes belong?

Demons I think. Though I take offense at being lopped in with demons, rawr!

 

[NeoBokrug Elytis]

Given enough time, all "worlds" are just apocalyptic destinations.

 

[Val]

I realised we lack machine / vehicle world. Or do they go under alien like Transformers? How about trolls that are just giant dicks? Literally, giant dicks. Wait, where does the most discriminated group aka. gingers go!?

 

[Penny Patton]

Dipping my hooves into the anime side of things lately. Overall I'd agree there's distinct communities between avatar types, but I'd nitpick some points.

• There's a lot of overlap in furry and anime avatars.
• Many anime avatars are human, and many that would fit into the "human" category here are not humans (ie: nekos, cowgirls, etc) so I'd call that category "Normie" instead.
• Also, I'm not certain type of avatar is in any way relevant to income.

Expanding on that last point: Certain elements of the normie fashion scene are excessively expensive but I think that has less to do with the disposable income of that group and more to do with several unrelated factors, such as that furry/anime style avatars have had a history of lower prices because the people providing said avatars were initially wanting to see more avatars in those styles. They have a fandom element to them lacking in the normie scene. And there's more healthy competition because of a "Well, I'll just make it myself" attitude being more prevalent. Modding content is half a step away from creating content, so one tends to lead to the other.

On the flipside, there's a lot of anti-consumer practices among normie content creators, specifically hair, shoes, mesh heads, mesh bodies and I think one of the results of that is higher prices. Competition also suffers in that there's a lot of dirty, underhanded tricks used to push out competitors. See Catwa. See the Wowmeh debacle. See Maitreya's sketchy dev kit practices. And with the no-mod plague becoming more and more common, there's less room for modding content, which means fewer people making that leap to creating content as time goes on.

Finally, I'd add that there's a distinction between the fashionista scene and roleplayers. There's some crossover, sure, but many elements of the roleplayer scene have more in common with the anime/furry groups than they do with the fashonista groups. More modifiable content. More reasonable prices. Etc.


All that said, I've had a "normie" avatar most of my time in SL and I have to say I'm surprised at how few hangout/roleplay sim options there are for furry/anime avatars. Especially anime. There's plenty of clubs and generic hangouts but not a whole lot with any themes more specific than "I put some furniture into a box shaped building, come hang out!" You'd think especially with regards to the anime crowd that there'd be more content and locations geared towards specific shows, videogames, and popular trends...but that does not seem to be the case. There's a few, sure, but not nearly as much as I'd have expected.

 

[Kalel]

Dipping my hooves into the anime side of things lately. Overall I'd agree there's distinct communities between avatar types, but I'd nitpick some points.

• There's a lot of overlap in furry and anime avatars.
• Many anime avatars are human, and many that would fit into the "human" category here are not humans (ie: nekos, cowgirls, etc) so I'd call that category "Normie" instead.
• Also, I'm not certain type of avatar is in any way relevant to income.

Expanding on that last point: Certain elements of the normie fashion scene are excessively expensive but I think that has less to do with the disposable income of that group and more to do with several unrelated factors, such as that furry/anime style avatars have had a history of lower prices because the people providing said avatars were initially wanting to see more avatars in those styles. They have a fandom element to them lacking in the normie scene. And there's more healthy competition because of a "Well, I'll just make it myself" attitude being more prevalent. Modding content is half a step away from creating content, so one tends to lead to the other.

On the flipside, there's a lot of anti-consumer practices among normie content creators, specifically hair, shoes, mesh heads, mesh bodies and I think one of the results of that is higher prices. Competition also suffers in that there's a lot of dirty, underhanded tricks used to push out competitors. See Catwa. See the Wowmeh debacle. See Maitreya's sketchy dev kit practices. And with the no-mod plague becoming more and more common, there's less room for modding content, which means fewer people making that leap to creating content as time goes on.

Finally, I'd add that there's a distinction between the fashionista scene and roleplayers. There's some crossover, sure, but many elements of the roleplayer scene have more in common with the anime/furry groups than they do with the fashonista groups. More modifiable content. More reasonable prices. Etc.


All that said, I've had a "normie" avatar most of my time in SL and I have to say I'm surprised at how few hangout/roleplay sim options there are for furry/anime avatars. Especially anime. There's plenty of clubs and generic hangouts but not a whole lot with any themes more specific than "I put some furniture into a box shaped building, come hang out!" You'd think especially with regards to the anime crowd that there'd be more content and locations geared towards specific shows, videogames, and popular trends...but that does not seem to be the case. There's a few, sure, but not nearly as much as I'd have expected.

i was originally gonna break it down by communities.. Fashonistas, roleplayers, etc etc.. but theres so many and some can be broken down even more so i wasn't quite sure where to draw the line.


fashionistas you have events for males,females, scifi, punk, steampunk, gothic...

roleplay has littles, family rp, Medevil, Gore,elfs, vampires, superheros,BDSM,sex,.... the list can go on ...




Anime sims to me seems to pop up and vanish.. Most i've seen fail due to finances, Lost of interest,Administrative breakdown with people in charge. i can't think of a sim that i've been to thats been around longer then 4 years... Creating said content for these niche markets aren't as profitable so it requires really Really dedicated person to support these worlds as there is generally no return on investment. Can be popular and trendy now but a ghost town tomorrow.

i wonder if the economy was the way it was years ago and the sim pricing were at it was now.. if more of these anime type worlds would still exist today...

unfortunately my knowledge on the furry side is limited. i've been to bronies, Dragonlands, sonic areas and various furry clubs but i'm not that into it nor familiar with all the various dramas that have happened over the years..

 

[Adeon Writer]

Most furry sims get plenty of random humans, no one minds as long as they don’t mind. We also get anime avatars too.

(And just a bit of trivia, the proper word for an “anime furry” is “kemono” - however, in SL, due to the popular avatar that reserved that word, no one really makes much in that style, or, if they do, do not tag it as kemono for fear of being misunderstood or acused of stealing the name. Very unfortunate as the actual avatar named Kemono is a rather bad example of that style.)

 

[Penny Patton]

Anime sims to me seems to pop up and vanish.. Most i've seen fail due to finances, Lost of interest,Administrative breakdown with people in charge.

Yeah, these tend to be the reasons for most sims vanishing. I think a part of that is so many people in SL decide to start with a full sim. Unless you've got deep pockets it's much better to start with a smaller, cheaper location and then grow it out as your community support grows.

I've been saying for years that with things like Experience teleporters that can instantly take people to locations in other sims you don't even need a group of connected areas to share the same location on the grid. You can have a city street in one sim and when you enter a door it takes you to a building interior on the other side of the grid about as seamlessly as using the same teleporter to connect to a skybox in the same sim. That really should have freed up a lot of communities to grow beyond the financial constraints of owning a sim but I've yet to see anyone do it.