There is something deeply satisfying about getting dressed in Sansar. I mean, who hasn’t tugged and pulled on their jeans in exactly the same way in real life? (Mind you, your real-life jeans might not be as stretchy!)
Now, this is a custom avatar, which means that you cannot adjust any of the facial features as you can with the new default Avatar 2.0 avatars, or change the eye colour. But Hellen works with any female Avatar 2.0 hairstyles, so I picked the long ponytail, a pair of Debi’s jeggings (which fit perfectly after some gentle tugging for a minute in Lookbook), the default tan Nexus boots, and the lovely blue Infused Nexus Shirt, a free reward you get after completing the first couple of quests in the Nexus.
Here are a few pictures I took in my own experience (I mean, world…you’ll have to forgive me; this recent change in terminology is going to take me some time to get used to!).
(All pictures were taken in my own world, Ryan’s Garden. You are welcome to come visit and explore my green little world anytime!)
Between Daisy Winthorpe’s shapewear, Ravioli’s rigged attachments, and new custom avatars like this one by eunicorn, I am now completely satisfied with my female avatar options in Sansar. All of these, of course, are interim solutions until Linden Lab releases body deformation for Avatar 2.0 avatars, something Landon Linden (a.k.a Landon McDowell, Linden Lab’s Chief Product Officer, and the person most directly in charge of Sansar’s development) told us was coming within the next 4 to 6 months. Based on the amazing flexibility of the new facial deformation features, I am very much looking forward to this!
I can honestly say that this is the first female avatar that I feel truly comfortable exploring Sansar worlds in! Here’s a picture of Vanity Fair at the Nexus, which I think is the best work that Sansar Studios has done yet in terms of world creation:
As you can see, a fun time was had by all at the first Sansar Game Show! Strawberry Linden (formerly Strawberry Singh) was one of the guests present taking part in the games, and it was so good to see her again in Sansar!
A shot of the lovely studio audience and the game show setsDrax plays the Luggage Game Show with Cynno, Binah, and Strawberry Linden (Lacie Linden is the host)You Don’t Know Me Game Show (with Galileo as host; ignore the sign that says Be My Boo, they got the signs mixed up on the stages)
The Decentraland SDK Game Jam runs from Sept. 16th to 30th, 2019! This is a content creation contest for the blockchain-based virtual world Decentraland, where you have an opportunity to win a share of 2,500,000 MANA cryptocurrency tokens and 200 LAND virtual land parcels, prizes worth an estimated US$275,000 in total value.
Even better, Decentraland has announced that they will be running SDK workshops, both online (via Twitch) and in various physical locations around the world, from Sept. 8th to 15th, 2019! Attend a workshop and improve your building skills before the contest starts!
Sessions will be held in three languages: English, Spanish and Chinese (Mandarin). I do not speak Spanish or Mandarin and I used Google Translate to translate from English. Las sesiones se realizarán en tres idiomas: inglés, español y chino (mandarín). No hablo español ni mandarín y utilicé Google Translate para traducir del inglés. 会议将以三种语言进行：英语，西班牙语和中文（普通话）。我不会说西班牙语或普通话，我使用谷歌翻译来翻译英语。
Here are all the details (please note that all times listed for real-life physical locations are local times; please use a tool like the Time Zone Converter to see what time these events take place in your time zone). All times for Twitch streams are given in Eastern Standard Time (EST). Here is the Twitch channel: https://twitch.tv/decentraland
Sunday, Sept. 8th, 2:00–6:00 p.m. Guangzhou Time – Guangzhou University (Guangzhou, China) Roy from our Chinese community will deliver a 30-minute presentation on Decentraland, followed by an SDK Workshop by Stephen Zhou, winner of our June Hackathon. (in Mandarin). 来自我们华人社区的Roy将在Decentraland上发表一个30分钟的演讲，接着是我们六月黑客马拉松的获胜者Stephen Zhou的SDK研讨会。 More details at: https://www.meetup.com/TheMetaverse/events/264024907/
Monday, Sept. 9th, 3:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time – Online (Twitch). Nico Earnshaw from Decentraland HQ presents 101: Decentraland SDK Workshop. (in English)
Tuesday, Sept. 10th, 6:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time – Online (Twitch). Interweaver from the Decentraland community presents Building Blocks – Decentraland SDK Workshop. (in English)
Tuesday, Sept. 10th, 7:00–10:00 p.m. Shanghai Time – Neutrino Coworking Space (Shanghai, China). Roy from our Chinese community will deliver a 30-minute presentation on Decentraland, followed by an SDK Workshop by Stephen Zhou, winner of our June Hackathon. 来自我们华人社区的Roy将在Decentraland上发表一个30分钟的演讲，接着是我们六月黑客马拉松的获胜者Stephen Zhou的SDK研讨会。 (in Mandarin)
Wednesday, Sept. 11th, 7:00–10:00 p.m. Shanghai Time – Neutrino Coworking Space (Shanghai, China). Roy from our Chinese community will deliver a 30-minute presentation on Decentraland, followed by an SDK Workshop by Stephen Zhou, winner of our June Hackathon. 来自我们华人社区的Roy将在Decentraland上发表一个30分钟的演讲，接着是我们六月黑客马拉松的获胜者Stephen Zhou的SDK研讨会。 (in Mandarin)
Wednesday, Sept. 11th, 8:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time – Online (Twitch). Carl Fravel, the District Leader for Aetheria and The Decentraland Conference Centre, presents From Builder to SDK: A No-Frills Art Pipeline Decentraland SDK Workshop (in English).
Friday, Sept. 13th, 6:30–10:00 p.m. Kuala Lumpur Time – Komune Coworking Space (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia). Tak, a winner of our June Hackathon, will deliver a 30-minute presentation on Decentraland at the Blockchain Gaming Meetup, followed by a Decentraland SDK Workshop (in English).
Friday, Sept. 13th, 11:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time – Online (Twitch). Spidymonkey from the Decentraland community presents a Decentraland SDK Workshop (in English).
Saturday, Sept. 14th, 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Kuala Lumpur Time – Asia Pacific University of Innovation & Technology (APU) (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia). Tak, a winner of our June Hackathon, will deliver a 30-minute presentation on Decentraland, followed by a Decentraland SDK Workshop (in English).
Sunday, Sept. 15th, 3:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time – Online (Twitch). Nico Earnshaw from Decentraland HQ presents 101: Decentraland SDK Workshop. Nico Earnshaw de Decentraland HQ presenta 101: Taller de SDK de Decentraland. (in Spanish)
Sunday, Sept. 15th, 6:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time – Online (Twitch). Scott/Baus from Decentral Games presents an SDK Workshop (in English). This session is going to be focusing on blockchain interactions with scenes. Our team will answer any questions you might have! This blog post would be good to check out beforehand: https://decentral.games/blog/tutorial-4-using-the-ethereum-blockchain-in-your-scene
There’s still time to enter the contest and win some serious prizes! Register today!
But, alas, I just can’t seem to muster up any sort of enthusiasm for it. It is firmly, absolutely, resolutely not working for me, and I will resist this foul temptation with every fibre of my being! I want my female avatar to have curves, damn it!Curviness is next to Godliness!!! (Can I get an Amen?)
*cue organ music*
So out of the wilderness came my plaintive cry. And lo and behold, the shapewear makers heard my desperate plea for salvation! Thank you, sweet minty Jesus, for the talented and nimble Sansar content creators! (Who would have ever thought, a week ago, that shapewear would become a necessary category on the Sansar Store? Truly, it is a sign that we are living in the end times.)
Ravioli has created what he calls Thiccmarize shapewear, a rigged body attachment for the default Sansar Avatar 2.0 female avatar body:
Unlike Daisy’s solution (which you wear, drape your clothing over, then remove), Ravioli’s Thiccmarize shapewear is tinted in five colours to match your avatar skintone exactly, and you are intended to be worn underneath and with your outfit (even peeking through at the bust or butt!).
Here’s what Vanity Fair looks like wearing Thiccmarize shapewear, from the front, side, and back, in a Marvelous Designer-created dress plucked at random from my inventory:
Thus concludes my sermon. Go now, and spread the blessed Thiccmarize gospel to the slim and slender women of Sansar! And may God be with you. Amen.
UPDATE: Sorry, but it’s time to ditch the televangelist schtick and discuss a serious subject.
I have been rather sternly taken to task by one reader of my blog, for using the word “emaciated” to describe the new default Sansar female avatar. He shares the following picture of what emaciated really looks like (see right). And he asks me if I would be okay with the opposite trend of fat shaming.
He has a point. So, I will henceforth not use the word “emaciated” to describe these avatars, even though the arms on the default Sansar female avatar distressingly resemble this photo, in my own, purely personal opinion (please see the image at the top of this blogpost for reference). And I do apologize if I have offended anybody. I’m sorry. I hadn’t realized that I am still looking at things from a fat-person perspective and bias, and a First World, North American consumerist viewpoint. We all need to work on complicating our perspectives in order to make this world a better and more accepting place for everybody—thin, fat, “thicc”, and every variation in-between.
