Ah, the marvels of the nightly contest. I have to praise the organizers for a really interesting theme idea. As posted, the theme last night was “Styling Before and After.” The organizers sent out a follow-up (hours before the contest) to let us know that we had a two-fer. They would be awarding prizes to the best “before” and for the best “after.” The task, as stated then, was to “style” the earliest avatar for a first competition, and then do a separate one with the current body.
When we reported to the stage, we were told that we were supposed to use the default avi’s that we signed in with and look as much like we did in the beginning as we could remember.
Huh?
If we took our original default avis then we don’t need to remember. Several of the contestants took that instruction literally and we had four people in identical outfits. I’m not exactly sure how that’s “styling” and I was not one who followed that instruction. My blog provided the documentation I needed to recreate my first look, so I undid all the styling I had done and backed off to the first documented avi.
The “After” part was easy …
There was so much wrong with this execution, I don’t know where to begin. It might have been more interesting to actually style the default avi’s. At least it would have permitted some differentiation.
The Results
In the Before category, I have no idea why, but I won.
What makes this incomprehensible is that I’m the only one not wearing a default avi. Which raises the question, why did those particular doppelgangers win over their counterparts? And why am I in there at all, since I’m obviously not in a default avi? Who knows?
In the After category, I didn’t place. Again, the selection of the winners in that category seemed to make no more sense than in the Before. Chalk it up to the randomness of SL.
One unfortunate happenstance was a repetition of the “mouth open” incident on the part of at least two of the models. This is the circumstance where for some people, the model appears to have a “mouth open” animation running, while to others — most notably themselves — the avatar looks normal. This is one of the most frustrating and aggravating issues to deal with. There’s nothing you can do about it since you don’t know it’s going on because it appears to be specific to individual client viewers. I don’t know how you’d stop it, even if you knew. Perhaps a gesture that leaves the mouth in a neutral position …
What Would I Do Differently?
It’s hard to know what might be more effective given the apparent randomness of the results. They are based, in part, on things that the judge saw (open mouth, for example) that nobody else was aware of.
Stuff
Before
Skin: Photorealistic Steve – Vera Voight
Hair: Cabelo MAsc Chanel – Sirus Gatter
Suit: Club Gentleman – Hjelmen Oh
Shoes: Buckled Dress Shoes – (Freebie, creator unknown)
After
Skin: LeLutka – Absolute – Pale
Hair: Uncle Web – Hibiki – Coffee
Eyes: E’s Gleaming Forest Green
Shape: Roland Zepp
Suit: Sartoria – Sartoria Project in Green
Shoes: Evocative – Cuban Ankle Boots (black)
Necklace: :sey – edokin
Glasses: primOptic – Crowe
It can be any size and any where. When you find it, buy it (it’s free, or should be), and inside you’ll find the treasure and a landmark for the next shop. Teleport to that shop and repeat.