Altszn.com
  • Home
  • Crypto
    • Altcoins
    • Bitcoin
    • Ethereum
    • Monero
    • XRP
    • Zcash
  • Web3
  • DeFi
  • NFTs
No Result
View All Result
Altszn.com
  • Home
  • Crypto
    • Altcoins
    • Bitcoin
    • Ethereum
    • Monero
    • XRP
    • Zcash
  • Web3
  • DeFi
  • NFTs
No Result
View All Result
Altszn.com
No Result
View All Result

Second Life's Human Avatars Have Become Ultra-Realistic Over The Years — But That Didn't Grow The User Base at All.

Altszn.com by Altszn.com
October 10, 2023
in Metaverse, Web3
0
Second Life's Human Avatars Have Become Ultra-Realistic Over The Years — But That Didn't Grow The User Base at All.
399
SHARES
2.3k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter


Second Life avatar evolution 2006 to 2023

There's been lots of interesting conversation over my post last week criticizing Meta's ultra-real human IRL avatars, and why they're not actually wanted in metaverse platform — with many VR enthusiasts telling me I'm wrong because of, well, reasons. I even got into a back and forth with someone from Meta on social media, who kept insisting people want avatars which look like themselves IRL… but eventually admitted this was an assumption without a proof point. 

By contrast, I know one notable counter-example all too well:

Thanks to the arrival of mesh in 2010 and some amazing community creators, Second Life now has what are arguably the most ultra-realistic human avatars for an open virtual world/virtual world platform. You can see that incredible evolution on this very blog, when you compare the best human Second Life avatars of 2006 such as these with the best featured in Cajsa's regular column.

Yet despite — or because — of that improvement in human avatar quality, Second Life's active user base has not appreciably grown. It was about 600K monthly active users in 2006, and it's still about that number. At the same time, metaverse platforms with highly abstract or cartoonish human avatars have exploded* in growth. 

To be clear, this is not to criticize the Second Life creative community at all; I am always excited to see the latest amazing avatar portraits curated by Cajsa. The market for ultra-realistic human avatars may be a niche, but it's an amazing niche all the same.

The mystery is why Meta thinks this is what a mass market generally wants, let alone ultra-real avatars which look like their IRL owner.

As I said, it's possible we might want IRL avatars in a non-virtual world/metaverse platform, such as a Zoom call, especially for business contexts where we want to present as professional an appearance as possible. But even that narrow use case is questionable. (And far as affordable, high quality volumetric capture from a smart phone, a decade or two away in any case.)

In other contexts outside business calls — especially with video calls between friends and family — it's hard see any strong desire to change what we already do on our smartphones. When it comes to consumer adoption of technology, easy and good enough always beats out difficult but amazing. 

***By the way, longtime virtual world pundit Gwyneth Llewelyn notes a possible exception in IMVU:

While non-human, cartoonish avatars abound on all sorts of virtual worlds out there, I find it extremely interesting that IMVU, which is as (almost) old as SL, and started with cartoonish avatars — because "everybody knows that people prefer them" — once they opened up avatar creation to developers, they immediately started to develop avatars with the correct proportions and as realistic as IMVU allows them to be, given its own mesh/UV limitations.

"Limitations" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here, in my opinion. Also, because most IMVU users access the world via the mobile app, the graphics quality and avatar appearance is still pretty abstract, low detailed, and frankly crude compared to SL. Also, IMVU has 7 million MAU, which is a big step up in usage from Second Life — but still quite small compared to the cartoon behemoths of Roblox, Fortnite, etc.

Please support posts like these by buying Making a Metaverse That Matters!

amzn_assoc_tracking_id = "newwornot-20";
amzn_assoc_ad_mode = "manual";
amzn_assoc_ad_type = "smart";
amzn_assoc_marketplace = "amazon";
amzn_assoc_region = "US";
amzn_assoc_design = "enhanced_links";
amzn_assoc_asins = "1394155816";
amzn_assoc_placement = "adunit";
amzn_assoc_linkid = "09778d9a32dae1475f81139abdba7c70";



Read More: nwn.blogs.com

Tags: AvatarsBaseDidn039tgrowHumanLife039sMetaverseUltraRealisticuseryears
ADVERTISEMENT

Recent

Bitcoin hits $103K but DeFi is a mixed bag: Finance Redefined

Bitcoin hits $103K but DeFi is a mixed bag: Finance Redefined

May 9, 2025
Cointelegraph Bitcoin & Ethereum Blockchain News

Cointelegraph Bitcoin & Ethereum Blockchain News

May 9, 2025
How GAMEE Is Making Web3 Irresistibly Fun

How GAMEE Is Making Web3 Irresistibly Fun

May 9, 2025

Categories

  • Bitcoin (4,965)
  • Blockchain (11,641)
  • Crypto (9,581)
  • Dark Web (567)
  • DeFi (8,509)
  • Ethereum (5,032)
  • Metaverse (7,782)
  • Monero (306)
  • NFT (1,612)
  • Solana (5,104)
  • Web3 (21,042)
  • Zcash (509)

Category

Select Category

    Advertise

    Advertise your site, company or product to millions of web3, NFT and cryptocurrency enthusiasts. Learn more

    Useful Links

    Advertise
    DMCA
    Contact Us
    Privacy Policy
    Shipping & Returns
    Terms of Use

    Resources

    Exchanges
    Changelly
    Web3 Jobs

    Recent News

    Bitcoin hits $103K but DeFi is a mixed bag: Finance Redefined

    Bitcoin hits $103K but DeFi is a mixed bag: Finance Redefined

    May 9, 2025
    Cointelegraph Bitcoin & Ethereum Blockchain News

    Cointelegraph Bitcoin & Ethereum Blockchain News

    May 9, 2025

    © 2022 Altszn.com. All Rights Reserved.

    No Result
    View All Result
    • Home
      • Home – Layout 1
      • Home – Layout 2
      • Home – Layout 3

    © Altszn.com. All Rights Reserved.

    • bitcoinBitcoin (BTC) $ 103,135.00
    • ethereumEthereum (ETH) $ 2,338.62
    • tetherTether (USDT) $ 1.00
    • xrpXRP (XRP) $ 2.35
    • bnbBNB (BNB) $ 636.02
    • solanaSolana (SOL) $ 171.81
    • usd-coinUSDC (USDC) $ 0.999998
    • dogecoinDogecoin (DOGE) $ 0.204751
    • cardanoCardano (ADA) $ 0.786861
    • tronTRON (TRX) $ 0.262353
    • staked-etherLido Staked Ether (STETH) $ 2,336.89
    • wrapped-bitcoinWrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) $ 103,126.00
    • suiSui (SUI) $ 3.90
    • chainlinkChainlink (LINK) $ 16.06
    • avalanche-2Avalanche (AVAX) $ 23.25
    • wrapped-stethWrapped stETH (WSTETH) $ 2,813.02
    • stellarStellar (XLM) $ 0.296253
    • shiba-inuShiba Inu (SHIB) $ 0.000015
    • hedera-hashgraphHedera (HBAR) $ 0.200601
    • hyperliquidHyperliquid (HYPE) $ 24.89
    • the-open-networkToncoin (TON) $ 3.28
    • bitcoin-cashBitcoin Cash (BCH) $ 408.58
    • leo-tokenLEO Token (LEO) $ 8.75
    • usdsUSDS (USDS) $ 1.00
    • litecoinLitecoin (LTC) $ 99.28
    • polkadotPolkadot (DOT) $ 4.80
    • wethWETH (WETH) $ 2,334.71
    • moneroMonero (XMR) $ 308.89
    • wrapped-eethWrapped eETH (WEETH) $ 2,495.42
    • bitget-tokenBitget Token (BGB) $ 4.48
    • pepePepe (PEPE) $ 0.000012
    • binance-bridged-usdt-bnb-smart-chainBinance Bridged USDT (BNB Smart Chain) (BSC-USD) $ 1.00
    • pi-networkPi Network (PI) $ 0.726157
    • ethena-usdeEthena USDe (USDE) $ 1.00
    • coinbase-wrapped-btcCoinbase Wrapped BTC (CBBTC) $ 103,081.00
    • whitebitWhiteBIT Coin (WBT) $ 30.33
    • uniswapUniswap (UNI) $ 6.34
    • bittensorBittensor (TAO) $ 429.09
    • nearNEAR Protocol (NEAR) $ 2.91
    • daiDai (DAI) $ 1.00
    • aptosAptos (APT) $ 5.54
    • ondo-financeOndo (ONDO) $ 1.02
    • okbOKB (OKB) $ 53.52
    • aaveAave (AAVE) $ 209.84
    • susdssUSDS (SUSDS) $ 1.05
    • official-trumpOfficial Trump (TRUMP) $ 14.60
    • ethereum-classicEthereum Classic (ETC) $ 19.13
    • crypto-com-chainCronos (CRO) $ 0.101483
    • internet-computerInternet Computer (ICP) $ 5.42
    • blackrock-usd-institutional-digital-liquidity-fundBlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) $ 1.00
    • bitcoinBitcoin (BTC) $ 103,135.00
    • ethereumEthereum (ETH) $ 2,338.62
    • tetherTether (USDT) $ 1.00
    • xrpXRP (XRP) $ 2.35
    • bnbBNB (BNB) $ 636.02
    • solanaSolana (SOL) $ 171.81
    • usd-coinUSDC (USDC) $ 0.999998
    • dogecoinDogecoin (DOGE) $ 0.204751
    • cardanoCardano (ADA) $ 0.786861
    • tronTRON (TRX) $ 0.262353
    • staked-etherLido Staked Ether (STETH) $ 2,336.89
    • wrapped-bitcoinWrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) $ 103,126.00
    • suiSui (SUI) $ 3.90
    • chainlinkChainlink (LINK) $ 16.06
    • avalanche-2Avalanche (AVAX) $ 23.25
    • wrapped-stethWrapped stETH (WSTETH) $ 2,813.02
    • stellarStellar (XLM) $ 0.296253
    • shiba-inuShiba Inu (SHIB) $ 0.000015
    • hedera-hashgraphHedera (HBAR) $ 0.200601
    • hyperliquidHyperliquid (HYPE) $ 24.89
    • the-open-networkToncoin (TON) $ 3.28
    • bitcoin-cashBitcoin Cash (BCH) $ 408.58
    • leo-tokenLEO Token (LEO) $ 8.75
    • usdsUSDS (USDS) $ 1.00
    • litecoinLitecoin (LTC) $ 99.28
    • polkadotPolkadot (DOT) $ 4.80
    • wethWETH (WETH) $ 2,334.71
    • moneroMonero (XMR) $ 308.89
    • wrapped-eethWrapped eETH (WEETH) $ 2,495.42
    • bitget-tokenBitget Token (BGB) $ 4.48
    • pepePepe (PEPE) $ 0.000012
    • binance-bridged-usdt-bnb-smart-chainBinance Bridged USDT (BNB Smart Chain) (BSC-USD) $ 1.00
    • pi-networkPi Network (PI) $ 0.726157
    • ethena-usdeEthena USDe (USDE) $ 1.00
    • coinbase-wrapped-btcCoinbase Wrapped BTC (CBBTC) $ 103,081.00
    • whitebitWhiteBIT Coin (WBT) $ 30.33
    • uniswapUniswap (UNI) $ 6.34
    • bittensorBittensor (TAO) $ 429.09
    • nearNEAR Protocol (NEAR) $ 2.91
    • daiDai (DAI) $ 1.00
    • aptosAptos (APT) $ 5.54
    • ondo-financeOndo (ONDO) $ 1.02
    • okbOKB (OKB) $ 53.52
    • aaveAave (AAVE) $ 209.84
    • susdssUSDS (SUSDS) $ 1.05
    • official-trumpOfficial Trump (TRUMP) $ 14.60
    • ethereum-classicEthereum Classic (ETC) $ 19.13
    • crypto-com-chainCronos (CRO) $ 0.101483
    • internet-computerInternet Computer (ICP) $ 5.42
    • blackrock-usd-institutional-digital-liquidity-fundBlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) $ 1.00