On the 29th of March (not 1st of April) the list of creators involved in something called “Project Mesh Revolution” was revealed via a post on Flickr, it’s quite a list.
I’m now wondering how many of them are still glad they joined in on the prank. Since it would seem that not all of them read the application form thoroughly.
I spoke to a couple of fellow bloggers before the release, who had varying opinions:
I can’t help but think it’s an April fools joke.
With another having the counter view
If it’s an elaborate April fool they’re gonna lose a lot of customers
I had my suspicions though, which I voiced in the discussion with one of the bloggers:
So at Midnight SLT on April Fools day, the group notice goes out and everyone piles into the various stores to get their free bodies, heads and apparel. I would guess some were laughing and some were crying when they unpacked their haul.
What actually got released was basically a pair of paper doll avatars, which have been around for years, just with changeable outfits and apparel from the listed creators. This is a key difference, the avatar genre has evolved to include easy modification, with this set of bodies.
There seemed to be a divide in opinion as to whether this was a totally upsetting letdown or an amusing prank that they were cute(ish) dolls.
Reading the group chat on the day, you’d have thought this was a totally new concept and Salt Peppermint was a genius for coming up with it, but it’s not. Paper doll avatars have been around for quite some time. Some examples would be those made by Paper Friends, whose store parcel was claimed in 2014 and a range of paper avatars by MOoh!.
The PMR avatars however do bring easy customisation back to Second Life, akin to the early 2000s when people made perfectly acceptable avatars for the time on the default system body using clothing layers, now known as Bakes-on-Mesh (BoM) layers.
Writing this a week after the release, the interest in these avatars doesn’t seem to have slowed down, based on the activity in the dedicated Discord server and the amount of search results now showing on Markerplace.
There was a claim made on Facebook that new users had signed up specifically because of these avatars availability. While anything that brings new residents into SL is good, when I asked Linden Lab if there were stats that support this claim, I was told: “We’ve seen a slight up-tick in returning residents”. I’d say that’s still a positive.
You can get these bodies on the Marketplace:
https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/PMR-Cardboard-body-head-CARDY-by-SP/27028090 – Female Body
https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/PMR-Cardboard-body-head-CARDO-by-SP/27028089 – Male Body