I have written about how important are poseballs and animations for emotional interaction, how they give us a sense of reality, what commonly is called immersion.
I am a sucker for cuddles, but another thing that affects me deeply at SL is deeply looking in the eyes. Yes, the virtual ones.
We tend to justify how the beauty of an avatar affects us because it means the effort of its owner; he/she must have touched the sliders until reaching the desired result or, at least, tried some demos until finding a given combination of skin and shape.
At SL beauty can come from within… if our wallet is big enough to pay for what we want.
This could be applied to eyes, but it isn’t enough to explain the deep emotional response they can induce. Tenderness and an smile from a friend, a piercing glance in the heart from a lover.
I don’t know; maybe we are so accustomed to consider eyes as the mirror of the soul, that we project our feelings in them. Whichever the motive is, next time you are talking with somebody you like or care for, look deeply at those eyes.
I like to look people into the eyes, also in SL. Which is rather silly if you think about it indeed. But good looking eyes give a person just that extra bit of reality that adds to the immersive experience.
Good looking doesn’t have to be expensive btw nor very realistic, i.e. like in the atomic world. Most important is that they match with the avatar and the personality behind.
(And sometimes an other skin has a miraculous effect on the eyes *winks at Peter*)
Yes, he looks great with the new skin *smiles*.
/me blushes crimson red
I took in fact quite some care in selecting my eyes, but lately they look a little bloodshot to me. Any volunteers to select new ones with me?
I had never given any thought to my eyes… only the shade I like. *stares at them and wonders if she should change them*
Peter, Quaintly, eyes are a very personal matter. While I change hair to match my outfits, I tend to keep my eyes with a given skin and shape; in fact I only use three sets of my huge collection of 40 :-p
If you really want to change them, and you shouldn’t do it if they feel like “you”, my favorite ones are Miriel’s; we can go shopping someday *smiles*