Dear Skin Designers of Second Life:<\/p>\n
I am writing to alert you to a problem that you may not be aware of, since it has likely been a very long time since you were a newbie. I and many other educators are working with faculty and student populations to make them aware of the benefits of Second Life for teaching, learning, and research. Many of these folks have little to no previous experience with gaming or virtual worlds, and find the Second Life learning curve pretty steep. This isn’t a newsflash, I’m sure, but what might be is this:<\/p>\n
I have looked. I have been to all the freebie barns, stores, islands, OnRez and SLX, and every other source suggested to me.<\/p>\n There are, of course, many such skins for sale, but for educators like myself who are attempting to ease hundreds of new users into Second Life, it would be awfully nice to also be able to offer them some diversity of skin choices in our freebie avatar packages.<\/p>\n What does it say about our community if there are dozens of male and female white avatars that can be given to new users for free, but none for non-white skin types?<\/p>\n I know that many of you DO offer freebies at your stores, and that is very commendable, but that also requires the skill level needed to use search or find landmarks in inventory, teleport around, purchase and unpackage boxes, AND the time it takes to hunt them down. Skills and time are the very thing that many new students and faculty do not have, and for all of us who are doing our best to bring new users in-world, this is something you could help us overcome.<\/p>\n Please consider donating a fully transferable non-white skin to the cause and help make diversity in Second Life an easy choice for new users. If you choose to do so, let me know, I will be all too happy to acknowledge your contribution here and in-world.<\/p>\n Thanks,<\/p>\n Fleep Tuque<\/p>\n PS I am glad to see I am not the only one thinking about these issues, just today Poinky Malaprop writes about Avatars and Prejudice<\/a> and asks a very relevant question, via Ren Rennolds at Terra Nova<\/a>: Do virtual worlds liberate us from prejudices, or reinforce dominant stereotypes?<\/strong><\/p>\n I would argue that virtual worlds enable us to challenge dominant stereotypes, but it’s all in how we choose to use the tool. Perhaps I need to re-think my own avatar choices as a result of this conversation. Thanks Poinky!<\/p>\n
\nThere are virtually NO fully transferable skins for folks who wish to have an african, latino, asian, or other non-white skin type.<\/strong><\/p>\n