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Virtual Fashion Thrives in Second Life
Carl Bialik from WSJ writes "The game Second Life — a simulated world with more than 700,000 'residents,' or players, who sometimes refer to their offline existence as their 'first life' — is breeding a virtual world of fashion design, with the same complications as the real world of fashion, the Wall Street Journal reports: 'A continuing headache for many designers is the ease with which others can copy their creations, and several have discovered boutiques that sell knockoffs of their clothes. A well-known Second Life designer was recently accused of stealing skin textures and withdrew from Second Life after receiving harassing messages. Linden says it investigates accusations of design theft, and repeat offenders can have their online accounts closed. Some designers, like DE Designs' Mr. Hester, have taken steps to copyright their work.'"
bypass TFA
"We found out pretty quickly that people loved owning things," Ms. Smith says.
there you have it folks.
some designers, like DE Designs' Mr. Hester, have taken steps to copyright their work.
Like what? Creating it. Because that's all it takes. Once you create a new work, it's copyrighted. Period. You can register the copyright which helps with enforcing it, but there are basicaly no steps to copyright a work.
Nathan Friedly
So real world copyright law will apply in the virtual world. Will real-world designers start to steal from the virtual one? Is that a copyright violation? Hmmm.
. . . there is this thing called the OUTSIDE!!!
But I'd have to put on clothes to go there.
KFG
...wants to be free!
Step into a huge movement. Don't Tread In Me.
>
> But I'd have to put on clothes to go there.
Aight. I put on my robe and wizard hat.
Seems like real-world clothing manufacturers could easily take advantage of such a system to provide low-cost marketing data. Is someone trying to pitch a potentially risky line of avant-garde designs? Create a quickie virtual mock-up and see whether the Second-Lifers go for it. Overhead is reduced to essentially nil, and you have the added opportunity to create a built-in customer base if you ever do decide to sell the clothing in real life.
By April of this year, though, Ms. LaRoche no longer had that day job. Her online design business had become full time, aided by the success of her fashions and other contract work, such as helping American Apparel launch a store inside Second Life.
So when the game eventually ends or goes under because no one is playing any more not only will Ms. LaRoche not have a job she won't have any marketable skills either.
Interviewer: So, I see you have been working for yourself for the past 2 years. What business are you in?
LaRoche: I designed clothes for characters in Second Life.
Interviewe: Thank you I've heard enough. Don't call us, we'll call you.
Well, I have to say it. Not only does second life irritate the CRAP out of me, but its whole 'system' is a mess.
.. I instead got a big 'box' hat that covered my little character and said 'sucker' on all sides.
.. the video game for folks who are/were/might be coming out soon. So maybe that has something to do with the endless fashion parade. Really, in the end of the day though, not only is this story moot, but second life is moot. Its a failed experiment, pumped up by marketing PR, hoping to last long enough so that the folks who own it don't need to get real jobs. The Sims online, has a larger marketshare, and sony called that game a failure.
I honestly played second life for like 2 days, to see what all the fuss was about. Not only was the game slow, and unresponsive, but it was dull as shit too.
It was basically a giant SHOPPING MALL. you could go to remote islands, and shop. You could go to the desert, and shop. All the while spending 'real' money for virtual clothes, so other people could watch you 'shop' in style. [As an added bonus, you could sell your virtual life $$ for 'real' money, allowing chinese etc. money laundering and farming.]
You are given an allowance of Lydon(sp) dollars every week. and my first (and only) $250 went to buy a t-shirt that said 'you all suck' on it, of course, I didn't get that
So not only can you SHOP online, but you can get ripped off online too.
The company is just biding its time trying to get series-A funding. Something to drive the price up so the CEO can retire, or sell to warner brothers or something.
Now, its also well known that Second Life has a HUGE gay following, its like
--Ne auderis delere orbem rigidum meum, non erravi pernicose!
The business model only works if you have a lot of people playing Second Life who only want to be consumers... and what could possibly be the draw of the game for them? If they want to build a social network, they can make a MySpace page.
There are a lot of people playing SL who are primarily consumers. More than content creators, in fact. Linden's CEO estimates about 75% of the players are primarily consumers. As for the comparison to MySpace: there's something special about having a virtual presence, an avatar, when talking with people. In SL you choose to be at a particlar location, with certain people. That presence makes a difference. As compared to Zwinky and Ragnarok, the possibilities of what you might do or see when socializing are far broader in SL. The user-created content allows for ultra-broad flexibility in self expression.
For example, you're never going to see someone burn themselves at the stake in Ragnarok, or dressed as undead being followed by a train of zombies in Zwinky.
- Unoti Quonset, the #1 scripter of animated animals in SL
I believe there is a big difference in the Second Life setting.
In the real world, they're cheap knockoffs. They're made from substandard materials and I'm sure the craftsmanship is not as good. But in a game like Second Life, stealing a texture to use on your own outfit has the SAME quality as the original, so there's no reason for a potential buyer to get the knockoff as opposed to the original.
Second Life is two things basically. On one hand it is a sandbox for people who want to build/create/script/model/texture/whatever. But for a lot of other people, it's just a really fancy chat client. One where you are represented to other people by your customizable avatar. I think most people end up somewhere between the two extremes, it's fun to dabble in making your own clothes or whatever, and you'll learn faster and probably have more fun if you're at least a little bit social.
The neat thing about SL is that you get both of those aspects in one package, so you can sort of float between them at your lesiure. Then add in the fact that a basic, yet very capable SL account is free, and they've ended up with a decently sized userbase, and a solid in-game economy.
One time I threw a brick at a duck.
I felt the same way you describe when I started SL, but feel totally different now. Here's why.
For weeks when I first started I never bought anything. I built and scriped everything I needed. It was a matter of principle, a matter of pride. I wouldn't dream of buying an avatar, not when I can make my own. I wouldn't dream of buying someone's car, because it's more fun to make my own.
Then I started selling what I made. I started being very successful selling what I made. Then one day someone wanted me to go to a wedding. I needed to look my best at this wedding. Technically I could spend a few hours working on a tuxedo, but my home-made tuxedo won't look at good as a top-notch one made my a specialist tuxedo maker. (Similarly, if that tuxedo guy wants an animated robot-loaded cannon or animated animal, there's no way he can compete with what I make.) So I could save L$500 and make a tuxedo myself over several hours. Or, I could buy a tuxedo for L$500, and spend those several hours doing work that I specialize in that will earn me far more than L$500.
So while the fun is in making things, there's just not enough hours in the day to make everything. And a single person isn't going to be able to make the best of everything.
The fun is making things, for some people. For other people, the fun is in entertaining guests, or cybersex, or gambling, or whatever.
Still, there are decent clothes to be found. The best suits in SL (complete with flexiprim ties!) come from Blaze, and they also sell good casual menswear. I found more decent menswear at Swell Second Life, including khaki pants and a polo shirt. Blaze is also good for formal wear, and Simone sells a high-class tux that is top-notch. SIMWEAR Menswear is a good location for relatively inexpensive stuff, including suits and tuxes, and also has a good line of shoes, hats, and accessories. Another good shoe retailer is D2TK, where I've bought a couple pairs of brown nubuck leather shoes that look good and wear well. And I have a couple of outfits from Vitamin Ci that also look nice, as well as a pair of Victorian suits from Silver Rose Designs in Caledon that are quite well done. As for hair, I've found decent men's hair designs at both Pazazz and GuRL 6.
Suffice it to say, there are options for the male avatar out there, if you know where to look. "'Cos every girl crazy 'bout a sharp-dressed man..."
Be who you are...and be it in style!
Interestingly, because fashion designs in Second Life fall within the bounds of copyright, they are more protected than fashion designs in real life. Because real life designs are considered a "useful article," they fall under patent law rather than copyright law. Since patent law moves so slowly, designs wouldn't be protected under patents until after they're no longer worth protecting. Because computer code is not held to be a "useful article" (I have no idea why clothes are and software isn't... *shrug*) fashion designers who design virtual clothes can copyright their designs and sue infringers. I'd be kind of curious to find out what would happen if a real life designer started creating copies of their own work in Second Life and then attacking other real life copiers for making derivative works from their virtual copyright. The outcome would likely be the court deciding that the Second Life designs were similar to paper designs, making no difference to the current regulatory scheme. It's an interesting question nonetheless. (If you're interested in the topic, there's a paper on the topic here: http://www.law.virginia.edu/pdf/faculty/sprigman_p iracy.pdf)
I'm a lawyer, but not yours. I wouldn't represent someone who thinks taking legal advice from Slashdot is a good idea.
You know, lots of women actually use computers too. It's not like the Imsai or Apple I or Commodore PET days when there was a grain of truth to what you're thinking.
"Every computer program" is hyperbole and chauvinism pure and simple. It's almost like you're offended that there might be an online game that women might find appealing.
Second Life is not WoW, it's not Everquest, it's not even like the Sims, which have a lot of female players. Trust me, the number of female players of Second Life is much higher than the traditionally male grind and raid MMORPG's
In most MMORPGS even if the user base is 80% male the ratio of male to female avatars is about even right? That's not the case in Second Life, where female avatars easily outnumber the men. That's because not only do you have some men playing female avatars you also have lots of women playing female avatars.
There's Second Life podcasts, listen to them. Yep, women. Look at all the fashion blogs do you think the average "only plays a female av because she's got big hooters to ogle MMORPG guy" writes them?