Yet Another Sign that the Metaverse Winter is Here: ENGAGE XR is to be Liquidated After Losing Its Biggest Customer

I have already noted that we appear to be in a period I am calling a “metaverse winter,” where virtual worlds in general, and social VR/AR in particular, are limping along or even shutting down. As further evidence of a period of retrenchment and reassessment, I learned that the long-running educational social VR platform ENGAGE XR has announced today that the company has lost a major customer, can no longer meet its financial obligations, and as a result is liquidating.

A message to shareholders posted to its website states:

Suspension of Shares

01 September 2026

ENGAGE XR Holdings Plc, a Metaverse / Spatial Computing technology company, announces further to its Final Results announced on 2 June 2026 that the Group’s largest customer which renewed its commercial arrangements with the Group in May 2026 has communicated to the Company that it will not be taking any licences going forward. The consequence of this is that the funds that were expected to be remitted to the Company pursuant to the contract will now not be received. 

Following a board meeting held on 31 August 2026 and having regard to the Company’s financial position, the board has unfortunately determined that it needs to proceed with a court approved liquidation in accordance with Irish Law. It is currently not expected that this process would provide any return for shareholders. 

Given the significant impact of the above on the Group’s financial position and prospects, the Company has requested a suspension in the trading of its shares on AIM which will become effective from 7:30 a.m. today. Further announcements will be made as appropriate.

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) 596/2014 as it forms part of UK domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (“MAR”), and is disclosed in accordance with the company’s obligations under Article 17 of MAR. 

I put on my trusty Valve Index, and paid ENGAGE a quick visit to take some screen shots (I had been in earlier this week).

A newer section called the School of AI, was announced as free for all to access all summer. I had paid a brief visit earlier, but I went back again.

There’s a teleporter sign at the entrance to whisk you to a portal where you can enter and engage (pun intended) in a conversation with a historical figure from the past, like Joan of Arc, Marie Curie, or Harriet Tubman.

I selected Joan of Arc, and entered the portal:

Immediately, I was immersed in a medieval forest outside a walled city, where Joan stood in her armour, next to a sign with some suggested starter questions:

(I didn’t stay very long; there were other visitors present, who had probably also heard the bad news about the liquidation, and I wanted to be sure that I could properly access these photos for this blog post so I could write up this report.)

This is a new and evolving situation. I do not know what will happen next, but I assume that at some point, you will not be able to access ENGAGE. So I would suggest if you want to pay a visit, do so soon. It’s up today, but it might not be up tomorrow!

The shocking news of ENGAGE’s liquidation, taken along with the demise of other metaverse platforms earlier this year— MeetinVR, Rec Room, Horizon Workrooms (with Horizon Worlds essentially dead as well)—clearly indicate that, as a whole, the concept of the metaverse is struggling to find a successful financial model. I fear that we are going to see more announcements of company pullbacks and shutdowns over the next twelve months.

The problem appears to be happening outside of social VR/AR, as well. For example, someone bought to my attention that even once-mighty Fortnite’s growth has stalled, leading to layoffs. In this April 2026 article, Tom Ffiske wrote:

Over the last few years, a string of immersive platforms has quietly shut down as dwindling player numbers and economic pressures have broken funding models. AltSpaceVR disappeared in March 2023. Rec Room has announced it will close in June 2026. And the VR version of Meta Horizon Worlds was announced for closure, before a last-minute reversal bought it a little more time. (If you listen carefully, you may hear the whistle of the guillotine swinging).

The trouble extends beyond VR headsets, too. Epic Games laid off around 1,000 people, largely because Fortnite’s growth had stalled. This is significant. Fortnite, one of the biggest games on the planet, the one every publisher has spent years trying to replicate… was struggling to grow. It is the lucrative, money-dripping pie that everyone sought after, picking up crumbs during the scramble. So much so that Sony tried to chase that model with a hard pivot toward multiplayer games, then quietly slowed down after Concord failed.

It’s not all bad news. Roblox is the obvious counterexample, and its success comes from a specific structural advantage: a creator ecosystem that produces content for free. Those creators build careers off the back of it, and the platform keeps going as a result. The strategy is similar to TikTok; let an army of young people make content for free, and let the platform grow via networking effects. The strategy works, as the platform hit 47mn concurrent players in 2025. It’s incredible what free talent can do.

So the problem is beyond VR. Across the board, most virtual hubs are shrinking. Players have stopped attending virtual concerts and conducting virtual meetings. They’ve moved on to other things (hello YouTube). So what happened?

On the VR side, there’s been a consistent pattern. Beyond the committed enthusiasts who genuinely love the technology, the wider market just hasn’t materialised as expected since 2021. Meta itself has noted that the number of Quest owners who continue using their headset long-term drops off after purchase. You can shift millions of VR headsets; but if player numbers drop off, then it’s much harder to monetise them over time.

But the bigger issue, in my view, is the astronomical costs of running these platforms. Tim Sweeney has said repeatedly that running Fortnite is one of the most expensive things Epic does, even accounting for the revenue it generates. “We’re spending significantly more than we’re making,” he said in a recent post. Reports differ, but Fortnite generates billions in revenue while costing billions to run. The Fortnite pie has a paper-thin crust.

What does all of this tell us, and what’s next? Well apart from Roblox, the era of the “behemoth platform” is over. In my view, the business case for building and maintaining a single massive virtual world — whether in VR or not — has proven weak. VR still has genuine traction in areas like training (and I have a soft spot for VR films), but as a social destination it hasn’t delivered. And as a virtual hub for players to play and hang, the economic case has proven to be incredibly hard to validate.

(Even though I would still classify Fortnite as more of a game than a virtual world, it has hosted virtual concerts in the past, so yes, the lines between games and metaverse platforms do get blurred a bit.)

As this is a breaking story, I expect that I will have updates for you. It saddens me to see ENGAGE go; I have been writing about this social VR platform since July of 2018 (you can see all my blogposts where I mention ENGAGE here).

UPDATE 7:26 p.m.: Okay, I’ve had an opportunity to let this news percolate a bit this evening, and I have some more thoughts I wanted to add.

For ENGAGE to choose this path after losing its “largest customer” means that, near the end, they probably didn’t have that many customers left, despite its website boasting “Over 200+ Enterprise and Education Clients Globally,” including some big corporate names, which must have been former customers:

Another thing I wanted to add was that, last November, I remember wandering around ENGAGE and feeling that sadly rather familiar ghost-town feeling, that I had often felt before, in Sansar, and High Fidelity, and God knows how many other metaverse platforms which failed to take off, most likely because of the overall meh response by consumers to the virtual reality headsets required to visit these places (which Tom Ffiske points out in the quote above).

Things must have been hectic, even frantic, behind the scenes over at ENGAGE headquarters. My heart goes out to any staff who will no doubt be impacted by this.

InZOI: A Two-Part Look at the New Life Simulation Game, Focusing on Avatar Customization

You might remember that I said I had had a hard drive crash on my Windows desktop PC in May of 2025, which (among other things) put my Valve Index PCVR headset out of commission until recently. Well, another casualty of that hard drive crash was some software which I had installed a week or so earlier, a life simulation game called InZOI, by a South Korean video game company called KRAFTON. Think of the Sims, but with some truly breathtaking graphics and avatar customization tools (as you’ll see).

I wanted to share my experience with you, even though I would not classify InZOI as a metaverse platform, because I think I can see a vision where some of the features of this life simulation game could potentially lend themselves towards a next-generation metaverse.

So, I had started writing a blogpost about my initial experiences with InZOI in April 2025, but it wasn’t until yesterday (Sunday, August 30th, 2026) that I finally got around to reinstalling the client software on my hard drive.

First, I’m going to share with you the original text I wrote in April 2025 (plus screen captures), then I’m going to finally finish the post I had started 16 months ago, showing you the avatar customization features (which is what had intrigued me enough to purchase and install the software in the first place). Finally, I’m going to wrap this up by explaining why I don’t like InZOI, and why I’m probably not going to be playing it (or talking about it on my blog) very much.

Still with me? Okay, let’s dive in.

Part One (Originally Written April 2025)

As a librarian, it’s hard not to like a game with an opening sequence set in a library!
The graphics in inZOI are pretty impressive! Here, my avatar wanders around the beach in Bliss Bay.
My ZOI avatar catches some virtual rays on the beach in Bliss Bay, The lighting is among the best I have seen in any virtual world, but you will need a good graphics card to see it in the best way!

I first heard about InZOI last year, via some excited chatter among the Second Life user community who were creating some amazingly lifelike avatars using a time-limited test period of the new game’s much-vaunted character creator module. Here’s a half-hour YouTube video giving you a rundown of how it worked as of late 2024:

Well, after a second demo period earlier this year, InZOI finally became available for purchase via the Early Release program on Steam two weeks ago, and since my Windows desktop computer met all the recommended hardware requirements, I decided to buy it now. The game is still in beta, with a limited feature set, and it’s buggy in places, but I was especially curious to put the character creator software to the test, to see what kind of avatars I could create, and I also wanted to wander around and explore the worlds which were already available.

Now, before we get started, I want to make it clear that I am not really into life simulation games per se. You might not know this, but there is already a vibrant subculture within Second Life, where avatars purchase, use, and follow life simulation systems sold under various brand names (e.g. MyStory), which mean that your avatar feels thirsty, hungry, dirty, tired, the need to go to the bathroom, etc. And, of course, the entire line of Sims life simulation games have been quite popular since their first release back in 2000 (predating Second Life by three years).

I want to point out that there is a key difference between a metaverse platform like Second Life or Sansar (we’ll get back to Sansar in a minute) and a life simulation game like the Sims or InZOI. In a metaverse, you usually can join for free and then pay as you go, shopping for avatar customization items like skins, hair, and clothing. In a life simulation game, you pay up-front for the game, which includes a broad range of built-in avatar customization options to get you started. (Of course, both types of virtual world usually offer an in-world marketplace, where players buy and sell user-created content with each other.)

Avatars in InZOI are called ZOIs, and you can create not only yourself, but also a entire family of characters that you can interact with.

Part Two (Written August 2026)

Okay, today I want to focus on the avatar customization features in InZOI, which I found to be rather impressive. I will assume that, in the intervening 16 months, that a few bug fixes and updates have added a bit more polish to these avatar (erm, ZOI) customization features.

You create and customize your ZOI using the Character Studio, which allows you to start by selecting a preset (the round buttons on the right hand side of the screen), and other characteristics such as age (on the left side of the screen):

You have your choice of six different ages to choose from.

You can also pan, zoom, and rotate your ZOI to get a better look at him:

I noticed some interesting parallels between 2025/2026-era InZOI and 2017/2018-era Sansar (a social VR platform which you can still visit today). To my mind, at least, Sansar walked so InZOI could run. Here’s what the facial customization features in Sansar look like:

THIS IS SANSAR, NOT INZOI! Sansar screen shot: direct face manipulation

Sansar allows you to select the entire head, or just specific sections of the head/face, and then use the mouse to push and pull (translate, rotate, and scale) areas to completely customize the head of your avatar. Here’s a short video of what the face/head customization features look like (and, as I said, if you’re interested, you can download and install Sansar yourself and play around with it; you can run the client software without a VR headset, on your Windows desktop PC).

THIS IS SANSAR, NOT INZOI! Sansar’s head/face customization tools in action.

Now, compare Sansar’s tools with how InZOI has approached the problem: instead of giving you the translate, rotate, and scale options, you simply click on the white dots and drag on parts of the head and face to adjust them. (Also note the much higher level of detail in the avatar, erm, ZOI. We’ve come a long way from 2017, baby!!)

Head and facial adjustments in InZOI’s Character Studio

And, there are a similar set of drag-and-drop features and some sliders to customize your ZOI’s body shape (Sadly, the plug was essentially pulled on Sansar before the next planned step, a similar sort of body modification, could be coded.)

A look at the body customization options in InZOI’s Character Studio

Now, imagine a metaverse platform with InZOI’s level of avatar customization. Can you see the vision? (C’mon, work with me, people!! 😉)

To wrap up, I am going to talk a bit about why I am not a fan of life simulation games like the Sims and InZOI. A key difference between a life simulation game such as InZOI, and a metaverse platform like Sansar or Second Life, is that in the former, everybody else you encounter is an NPC; there are no other real players steering ZOIs in your game! InZOI is a solitary pursuit, whereas true metaverse platforms like Second Life can be a highly social experience if you wish it to be.

Another thing I dislike about life simulation games like InZOI is that they are, by definition, games, with all the built-in limitations that games possess. Yes, you can design and build your dream house and furnish it—but only in carefully-controlled and corralled, predefined cities (you have three to choose from in InZOI at present, although I expect they will expand this over time). You do not have the blank, three-dimensional creative canvas which a true metaverse platform offers you, to be wild and crazy and build whatever you can dream of.

Many years ago, I played the Sims for something like a week, quickly got bored, and quit. I much prefer using Second Life for my creative expression, and as a temporary escape from nasty, painful, chaotic real life. The very last thing I wanted in any game was to constantly be checking various on-screen meters and gauges to see if my avatar needed cheering up, to go sleep in a virtual bed, or to run to a virtual toilet!

Yesterday, I took my new avatar (erm, ZOI) out of her house. As she was walking down the street, while I was still getting comfortable with the WASD navigation controls, she kept bumping into NPCs who were also walking by her on the sidewalk. And, of course, as programmed NPCs, some would stop and glare at her. The whole excursion landed up making me so anxious that my ZOI scurried back to the safety of her home! And frankly, it also depressed me to think that, here I was, avoiding some real-life responsibilities while basically watching my ZOI pretty much run through her day on auto-pilot. (And yes, the irony that I also essentially do this in Second Life and VRChat and other metaverse platforms is not lost on me, at all.)

I spent less than an hour in my resintalled copy of InZOI before I decided to quit. I’m in no hurry to go back. Truly, the only things I found interesting about InZOI were the avatar customization features (maybe because they reminded me of Sansar’s).

So, yeah, despite InZOI’s many shiny new features, I’m still not a fan of life simulation games. I still want the freedom of that blank creative 3D canvas which a true metaverse platform offers me, and I also want the inherently social aspect of virtual worlds and social VR/AR—to know that most of the other avatars I encounter have real-life people behind them! (And yes, I am aware that there can be bots and NPCs in spaces like Second Life and Sansar, too. That does not negate my argument that metaverse platforms are inherently designed to be social spaces.)

Sansar, Nine Years Later

Many of you might remember that in May 2025, I had a hard drive crash that, among other things, disabled my Valve Index PCVR headset. Well, it’s taken me a LOT longer than expected, but yesterday I finally reinstalled Steam and SteamVR, and my Valve Index tethered virtual reality headset with its Knuckles hand controllers is once again working! 🎉🎊🥳

We’re back, baby!

The very first thing I did was download and install the platform that inspired me to get into virtual reality in the first place: Sansar. I first joined Sansar in December 2016/January 2017 as part of a closed creator alpha/beta test of the then-still-in-development social VR platform. We were not allowed to post publicly about it until the official open creator beta launch on July 31st, 2017, which is when this blog was started. (Formerly known as the Sansar Newsblog, this blog was renamed to just RyanSchultz.com as I started to write about more than just Sansar.)

For me, I had not been back to visit Sansar in about two years, by my reckoning. My avatar still looked pretty much the same (although for some reason he had lost his shoes, making me rummage though his voluminous inventory of clothing to find some suitable footwear!).

The new starting point for all avatars is the incredible Sansar amusement park:

I tried out a couple of the rides, and I even jumped on the Hovercoaster, which takes you all over the park, and even underwater, before depositing you back where you started. It was like I had never left.

After my visit to Sansar Park, I went back to the world that I had created nine years ago, Ryan’s Garden, which was still as I remembered it, including this working carousel:

I did take a bit of video, but it’s hard to hear the sound of the carousel as clearly as you can when in-world:

As amazing as it is to me that Sansar still exists after nine years (being run by what I assume is a team of volunteer labour), I did still notice a few bugs here and there. For example, filtering and keyword searching on the online marketplace (while in-world) did not seem to be working for me (however the website store seems to work fine). The men’s parrot T-shirt I created using Marvelous Designer is still up on the marketplace, for sale for 100 Sansar dollars:

But overall, the Sansar experience is the same as I remember. It’s good to be back. (And hey, I discovered I have over 4,000 Sansar dollars in my wallet! Time for a shopping spree? 😉)

I do notice that there really aren’t a lot of events taking place on the platform, compared to the old days, but it’s still nice to see that there are still some regularly scheduled times and places for avatars to meet up (even what appears to be a continuation of our weekly exploring as a group!):

I still do need to reinstall all the platforms and apps I had before (VRChat, etc.), but it’s a HUGE step forward for me as I begin to work on the metaverse textbook I am researching and writing during my 12-month research and study leave from the University of Manitoba. I also haven taken home my Meta Quest 3 virtual/augmented reality headset from work, so I will be able to use both as needed to visit the various social VR platforms I plan to write about.

Anyways, that’s the update for today. I’ve already started work on researching and writing my OER metaverse textbook, hooray!!

With special thanks to Vassay for helping me get back into Sansar, when I had trouble logging into my old account. Slava Ukraini! 🇺🇦

Hollanov: Take Daily As Required (and an Update on my Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov Avatars in Second Life)

I forget exactly how or when I found this piece of Heated Rivalry fan art, but I love it.

Hollanov is the name of the ship (relationship) between Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov. It’s shorthand which covers all the fan-created works inspired by the hit television series Heated Rivalry, based on the Game Changers series of gay hockey romance novels by Rachel Reid.

On December 31st, 2025, I wrote on my blog:

And so it was, that my Second Life freebie fashionista friend and partner in crime, whom I only know by their avatar name, Dreamer Pixelmaid, messaged me via Discord and asked me if I had watched Heated Rivalry yet. I had not. (Tonight I am finishing my second rewatch. I am hooked.)

…

It turns out that Dreamer and I not only have a shared interest in ferreting out fabulous Second Life freebies and bargains (something we both happen to be very good at!); we also shared an interest in same-sex romance fan fiction! Soon we were exchanging links to YouTube videos, Tumblr posts, and podcast links, all to do with the outsized reaction which a small Canadian TV show about a gay romance in the professional hockey world (actually, not one but two such romances) was causing, both among the gays and the straights.

Here is a zoom-out of all the pictures stored in the Photo Library on my iPad. Ever since Dreamer Pixelmaid told me about Heated Rivalry in late December 2025, 99.99% of my saved pictures are Hollanov fan art! I am legitimately obsessed.

Also, I now have well over 400 Heated Rivalry-inspired fanfics (fan-written fiction) bookmarked to read. I usually spend an hour or two lying on the sofa reading through recommended HR fanfics, some of which are good, and a few of which are among the best writing I’ve ever read. (I usually read lying on the sofa, to rest my neck and shoulders if they are aching. Oh, and the best place to find this fanfic is a website called Archive of Our Own, or AO3 for short. Here’s a link to get you started, of the most popular Heated Rivalry/Game Changers fanfic sorted by popularity. You’ll need to set up your own AO3 account to read some of these. Enjoy!)

In addition to fan art and fan fiction, there are many people who create fan-edited compilations of scenes from the television show. These video artists usually set their fan videos to music, but in the following example (one I love to rewatch), the fan-edit was made to a spoken-word poem by actress Helena Bonham Carter.

Source: Wild Geese by Mary Oliver (read by Helena Bonham Carter)
Fan-edit created by heated-rivalry-two-souls (posted to Tumblr)

Wild geese

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

In other words, in only eight months, Heated Rivalry has inspired people to create many, many Hollanov art, videos, and stories. I haven’t seen anything like this personally, since Brokeback Mountain sparked a similar explosion of fan fiction, almost exactly 20 years ago. (I even created some alternate-universe BBM Jack/Ennis movie posters, using my rudimentary PhotoShop skills! So you could say that Hollanov is not my first rodeo…pun intended. 😉)

As to why a gay hockey TV show has led to this level of obsession, a social psychologist tries to explain, in a more scientific way, why Heated Rivalry has had such an impact (10-minute YouTube video; she also has a whole channel diving into other aspects of the show from a social psychology perspective):

Well, as you might already know, I have been using my 19 years of experience in creating and styling avatars to create Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov avatars in the virtual world of Second Life. I wrote about an earlier version of them back in January, but since then, I have been able to obtain much better head skins for both Shane and Ilya, and I have been tinkering around with the face and body sliders a bit more, so now they look like this:

And here are some pictures and videos I have taken of them in the past few months:

The cuddle animation in this video is from the Dutchie sofa (worth every Linden dollar spent!)
This tender animation is from the menu of options on this bed from Dutchie.

My most recent Hollanov creation in SL is the following work-in-progress video (silent, 1:14), in which I show various skating animations from two different AOs. Unfortunately, I still cannot seem to find any kind of hockey jersey that fits well over these hockey pants from Meva (the only ones I could find on the entire grid and in the Second Life Marketplace). So we have a topless Ilya skating around (I’m quite sure this is a sexual fantasy of Shane’s in some Heated Rivalry fanfic I have yet to read!).

Ladies, gentlemen, and fabulus people of all genders—Ilya Rozanov on ice!

UPDATE August 14th, 2026: I found a set of static hockey poses with a hockey stick on the Second Life Marketplace, and I took some more pictures of Ilya Rozanov at the Brooks Arena within the Chamonix City Winter Sports Complex. I probably will need to recruit some more avatars to actually create a believable hockey scene with multiple players, but hey, it’s a start! POSE AND ANIMATION DESIGNERS: Season two of Heated Rivalry will be released starting April 2027. Please please please make some hockey poses and animations! There is next to nothing out there. This was the only set of hockey poses I could find on the SL Marketplace. Thanks!

I have been posting these pictures and videos to Primfeed (the Twitter of Second Life), as well as to four different Hollanov fan Discord servers of which I am a member. And I even resurrected my ancient, long-dormant Tumblr account to be able to post them to the thriving 31,000-member Hollanov community there:

Below is an example post of my Shane and Ilya Second Life pictures to the Hollanov community on Tumblr

Of course, the Hollanov fans (who call themselves “loons,” IYKYK) know next-to-nothing about Second Life, and many of the SL folks, who have not watched Heated Rivalry or read the books, are probably mystified as to why I am so often posting shots of these two fictional hockey players to my Primfeed. What can I say? My two obsessions have collided. I might need to create a very niche, very specialized 12-step group for myself… 😜

So, now you know how I have been keeping myself busy when I have been feeling anxious and overwhelmed and need an escape: enjoying Hollanov fan fiction, fan art, and fan-made music videos, and busy dressing, posing and taking pictures and videos of my Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov avatars! It’s been a blessed escape to enjoy other HR fans’ works, or to get lost in the creative flow of Second Life for an hour or two.

Thank you to Rachel Reid for writing the series of novels, and thanks to Jacob Tierney for making such a wonderful TV show from Rachel’s books. Heated Rivalry has inspired me to move forward in so many areas of my life. I’m so grateful for the push it has given me!

UPDATE 4:15 p.m. August 7th, 2026: I’ve been asked to provide the full styling credits for both the Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander avatars (please note that this is an update from my January blog post about them, before I bought new head skins for both):

Ilya Rozanov Styling Credits:

  • Head, Eyes, and Hairbase: LeLutka Kris head (a freebie from a previous LeLutka December event)
  • Head Skin: Ilya by Stray Dog (matches Velour’s Ivory skin tone)
  • Neck Moles: Izzie’s neck moles (medium)
  • Hair: WingsDG ER0714 brown pack (this was probably the hardest thing to find; I tested out a lot of hair at a LOT of different places before deciding this one came closest to Ilya’s shaggy, curly hair! I actually added the same hairstyle twice, and slightly rotated the second one, to get this look.) Underneath I have the BoM LeLutka EvoX hairbase 42 from the LeLutka head package.
  • Body: Meshbody Legacy Special Edition Basic (free, from the Avatar Welcome Pack)
  • Body Skin and Hair: Velour Picasso Homme fit figure body skin in Ivory skin tone (along with the chest, leg, and happy trail body hair and body moles included in the package; all body hair was tinted blond to match Ilya’s hair).
  • Arm Hair: Arm Hair 05 from Samurai (I bought this for free using free Samurai store credit from a previous Shop and Hop event; also tinted blond to match the rest of the body hair)
  • Fingernails: Purec Nature Nails Male (free group gift; group is free to join; they come with a fingernail alpha)
  • Toenails: Purec Nature Nails Male (free group gift; group is free to join; they come with a toenail alpha)
  • Shape: My own, playing with the face, head, and body sliders to match up with internet pictures of Ilya Rozanov/Connor Storrie (still somewhat a work-in-progress, although I am very happy with this result).
  • Animation Overide: Tuty’s sLIFE Free Male AO (free)
  • Shorts: Hardcore (HD003ST) Men’s Slim Fit Shorts in black (I bought this for free using free Hardcore store credit from a previous Shop and Hop event)
  • Black Underwear: Hardcore (HD013BS) Men’s Basic Briefs in black (I bought this for free using free Hardcore store credit from a previous Shop and Hop event)
  • Hockey Gear for Video: Meva’s Hockey Pants Complete (these only come in the Signature Gianni size, but with alphas they fit well). I had to create a BoM/underwear layer grey wool sock to cover some bare skin above the skates.The skates were bought from a gacha reseller, they are from the Winter Hockey gacha by Sese & PA and you’ll need to find a good ankle lock to use with them, as well as foot and fingernail alphas! There’s no skating AO that comes with them, so I am trying to cobble something together myself from other skating AOs I can find…still a work in progress! Somebody please make a hockey AO, you’ll make a killing once season two of Heated Rivalry hits!

Shane Hollander Styling Credits:

  • Head: LeLutka Gen head 4.0 (while there’s a free Gen Lite version in the Avatar Welcome pack, I bought the full-price version to use the facial animations and poses in the HUD)
  • Head Skin: Shane skin by OuterNaked (matches Velour’s Idol skin tone; includes the optional, tintable freckles shown in these pictures)
  • Eyes: Florest eyes from Alexandrite
  • Hair: Jack hairstyle by ADE (free group gift; group is free to join). Underneath I have the BoM LeLutka EvoX hairbase 49 from the LeLutka head package, tinted a darker black.
  • Body: Meshbody Legacy Special Edition Basic (free, from the Avatar Welcome Pack)
  • Body Skin: Velour Picasso Homme fit figure body skin in Idol skin tone
  • Arm. Armpit, and Leg Hair: Arm Hair 02 and Leg Hair 02 from Samurai (I bought this for free using free Samurai store credit from a previous Shop and Hop event)
  • Fingernails: Purec Nature Nails Male (free group gift; group is free to join; they come with a fingernail alpha)
  • Toenails: Purec Nature Nails Male (free group gift; group is free to join; they come with a toenail alpha)
  • Shape: My own, playing with the face, head, and body sliders to match up with internet pictures of Shane Hollander/Hudson Willaims (still a work-in-progress, but I am extremely happy with this result).
  • Animation Overide: Tuty’s sLIFE Free Male AO (free)
  • Shorts: Arcback Shorts Blue – Legacy Basic (free; I believe I picked these up at the new Avatar Shopping Island here).
  • Hockey T-Shirt: Matching Hollander and Rozanov Ottawa Senators team T-shirts. Available on the SL Marketplace for only L$60 here: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Tribute-T-Shirt-Heated-Hockey-Tees/27912865
  • Underwear: Hardcore (HD013BS) Men’s Basic Briefs in black or grey, depending on the picture (I bought these for free using free Hardcore store credit from a previous Shop and Hop event).