Linden Lab launches their line of new mesh avatars - Lacy Muircastle reporting ....

On Thursday 15th May  Linden Lab updated Second Life's default avatar options with 24 new mesh avatars.

A sample from the new selection of Linden Lab mesh avatars

 According to the Linden Labs announcement "These avatars are designed to give new users a more appealing set of choices as they start their time in Second Life. Based on the most popular avatars picked at registration, these new options are much better-looking and take advantage of technology incorporated into Second Life over the past year (like fitted mesh and materials) for a more modern feel.

If you want to check out the new default avatars, just open up the Avatar Selector in the Viewer. Under the People tab, you’ll see a great variety of male and female mesh avatars to pick from. Under the Vampire tab, you’ll see those infamous creatures of the night along with some other monsters like zombies, werewolves, and winged beasts. (Tip: Make sure you’re running the latest Second Life Official Viewer for the optimal experience with these avatars.)

Under the classic tab of the Avatar Selector, you will find many of the most popular classic default avatars. Although not all of the old options will be available in the Avatar Selector, you can still access them all in your inventory library under Library/Clothing/Older Outfits - so if you were partial to one of them, don’t worry.

Login to your Second Life account and meet the new mesh avatars, today!"

I am not convinced that any of these options are truly an improvement on what was previously available (and  thankfully is still available). In my humble opinion aesthetically they are not terribly appealing and I certainly wouldn't want to swap my own current look for any of these new avatars. Being mesh also means that facial expressions are fixed, prim/sculptie clothing won’t work with them and they seem to be no mod. This means you cannot edit the shape using the sliders without swapping the base shape for something which is mod and is by no means newbie friendly. I am not getting the rationale behind the changes, maybe someone would like to enlighten me?

A male shape and skin available inworld

OR

One of the new LL options

Hmm I think I know which one I would prefer....