Avatars

In many ways SL is a vision of the future, one of those Iain Banks-like optimal futures where the world is a playground for evolved gods.  One aspect of this is that almost everyone looks like they're 25, which itself is a thrill for those of us who are, well, older than 25. 

A little more strangely, your appearance is almost infinitely malleable.  You can change not only clothes and hair but shape and skin and even sex.  At least when I was new, almost four years ago, avatars started out pasty-looking, like their skin was made of clay, and with the most awful helmet hair.  Here's a rare picture of me from that stage.

You soon, we hope, develop your own style.  I used to be a dark elf... not the D&D kind but the Oblivion kind... a kind of punk Dunmer with blue skin and bright red hair.  Here I am with a dear friend:

I quickly learned that I could make my own skins; the blue skin is mine.  This is a neat ability; besides a whole line of color variants, I made special purpose skins for friends, including a very dark skin (hard to find in the stores then) and a neko skin for one of my subs.  I also made special sweaty and flushed skins for RP purposes.

I mostly gave up on the elf skin though, and used an Asian skin of mine, as in this picture taken by my sweet friend Xev:

There was a glitch and my eyes hadn't loaded, but it makes me look more soulful.

These skins didn't look clayey, but they were definitely a bit cartoony.  About a year ago, though, people started wearing photorealistic skins.  I resisted the trend awhile (though I improved my skin to show the clavicles and eyes better), especially because skins are relatively expensive, much more so than clothes.  But finally I decided I was outclassed, and bought my first skin in years. 

It's not exactly photorealistic  (no pores or freckles), but it's dramatic and I think it's cute.  Of course, I don't have the neat variants any more.

I've often run into someone after a bit and they've changed their shape, their face, their race, occasionally their sex.  I find this disconcerting, so it's been one of my scruples to keep the same shape (with the exception of some minor tweaks to the nose).  All of the pictures above have the same face and shape; the only difference is the skin (and of course clothes and hair).

If I remember right, when I first logged in you could choose your height, and I chose an average height-- about 5' 9".  Most people make themselves much bigger, so within SL I'm usually perceived as short. 

I have a slight, Asian build... which has the advantage that I'm one of the few SL avatars that looks good in a skirt.  Skirts (including dresses) change the avatar, and for some reason the default skirt shape on most people gives an enormous butt, and not a very attractive one.  But they look fine on me:

Well, mostly.  Since this ao dai is slit, you can see how far out it extends in the back.