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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
. . . 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.
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!
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.