by 0xbc02db030361121dd43bbb2fcbcb4f9f98c1dc7d (Kramer)
Decentraland currently only supports two types of Adult avatars. Male & Female.
Idea is to bring in teen avatars that are maybe half the size of the exisiting avatars. Now why is this important? Well if we we want to attract the younger crowds (similar to Roblox & Minecraft) than first we need to make them comfortable when they first login. Aim of this exercise is to target the age groups between 13-18 while making Decentraland little bit more fun for all users.
This brings forward an important questions. How would the exisiting wearables work for teen avatars?
One solution to this problem is to have plenty of default teen avatar skins inside the backpack.
Other solution is; considering the current wearables can’t be adjusted/modified to fit the teen avatars is by giving our creators new opportunities to create & design teen wearables so they can monetise their skills. I believe if this implementation is accepted by our community, the news alone will bring many new users to the platform. Especially in the ages between 13-18.
Some female avatars have already experienced, at minimum, highly inappropriate behavior in-world. Creating a smaller and therefore a younger avatar will create even more opportunities for bullying and harassment.
The issue with users harassing others has been talked about in depth, with ideas of how to “mute” avatars in world when they do inappropriate things to other avatars against their consent (walking up to female avatars, putting a sword between their legs, etc). Even with some of the brightest minds in DCL working on this issue, we haven’t been able to find a way to hide the person being inappropriate without infringing on the rights of other users. The issue has been brought up to the Foundation, so hopefully we can find a solution soon.
I’m voting no for now, because we don’t have a way to protect users from inappropriate behaviors. Once we do, I’d support this if it’s what the community wants.
I don’t think this is what is needed for a platform to be attractive to the younger population.
It’s not like kids are playing Counter Strike / Fortnite / Roblox because they can run around in teenage avatars in there…
Other reasons why I don’t think this is what should be implemented atm:
What @DedHeadJ and @Canessa already brought up. I don’t want my daughters to be easily identifiably as a target until there are appropriate kid friendly tools in place to counter that.
It would introduce a new layer of complexity and increase the workload on all sides (platform and creators). This time is better spent on other things to make the platform more stable/performant/accessible/attractive/fun overall.
I don’t think it is a bad idea down the road, just not at this point in time with the current state of decentraland.
Players aged 15 to 21 make up the largest group of Minecraft’s player base at 43%.
I believe what’s been mentioned above are completely seperate to what this proposal is about. I for one would love the use the half size teen avatars along with many other users for once. So the teen avatars are not age specific. However if a teen want wants to use these avatars instead of the current default Adult avatars don’t you think this will be more welcoming?
Idea is to make all age groups feel comfortable in the metaverse.
Bullying and harassment will always be there regardless. The question is how we deal with it. What precautions we take. On the contrary not having the teen avatar option is a bottleneck for the platforms mass adoption. If we take the example (success) of Roblox & Minecraft we can all see and agree that this is a step forward and a proven model that works.
In-fact having this option (feature) adds more value to the platform. I can’t believe some of our active OG users are struggling to see it this way. Such shame.
Like I said, I don’t think it’s a bad idea down the road.
The main reason why I don’t think this is worth pursuing atm is this: It won’t accomplish what you want it to.
Users (especially the younger ones) spend their time where they have fun. This is why you find them in Roblox, Fortnite, CS, Minecraft etc. Not because they feel welcome by picking an avatar that matches their size. Just adding teen avatar won’t attract them, much less keep them interested in decentraland.
At the same time, adding different sized avatars will def increase complexity.
If you want to target and onboard this demographic, here are a few things that need to be addressed (and some of them are currently being worked on):
Hardware requirements & Device compatibility (mobile, Gaming consoles instead of a quantum computer just to run the client [still without ambient occlusion obv ])
Stability (Constant crashes are def not fun)
Interesting Content (Games, Events, …)
Simple but powerful building tools that even kids can build cool stuff with
Tech hurdles (Blockchain, Wallet, …)
…
Those things are bottlenecks to mass adoption. Teen avatars most certainly are not. They are nice to have.
The potential harassment issue is just icing on the cake imho.
I would vote for more customizable avatars, especially as far as size, also allowing VRM imported avatars… not sure about identifying avatars as “teen”.
I think idea itself is good for identity
And instead of shapes (additional models), i think it’s better to allow players change their avatar lenght through bones scaling, that way have much more pros than cons (as for me) and + to all of this idea i would like to also discuss that in future we can also should be able to add additional bones for physic animated things like hairs, skirts, boobs ( ), i believe that would be a next level for decentraland wearables (to allow creators adjust length by scaling, and allow to add models with custom bones for physics that will be parented to avatar bones)
I agree on what you said, my initial idea was not to classify the customisable avatars as teen avatars but I figured this was a good way to get everyones attention.
@theankou if there is a way for scalability inside the backpack like you mentioned that will be excellent.
Do you believe this is the root cause of why our market share is not anywhere close to Roblox with the teen users? Maybe discuss raising the age requirements and being more specific to the market we are dealing with. Currently, Decentraland seems to have more experiences targeting adults and yet we can’t capture a high market share with adult users. I personally don’t believe this is the priority at the moment. In fact, I think we should consider raising the age requirements.
Thinking I will repost this with some adjustments, rather than teen avatars, I want to include size adjustable avatars. Scalable. The default scale is the current one we have on backpack and it reduced to 1/3 perhaps. What do you think?
I find it really, really sad our “leaders” in the space continue to frame this harassment/bullying issue as a “Male vs. Female” issue. I have been harassed via males, females, and whole “Decentraland” businesses … and I identify as male.
Also, I don’t know if you all choose not to see the rest of the bullying in the space. It doesn’t stop at a text mute or avatar block … like via discords, dms, and other means where “mute/hide/blocking” an avatar isn’t going to stop harassment.
I think it draws a bit of sympathy to know males are picking on females, but the harassment is very much represented in all spectrums in DCL.
I tried bringing this up in the CBD space covering harassment that this isn’t solely a “male vs. female”, but wasn’t allowed to speak, lol.
Also, I don’t know if you all are aware of it … but “non-engagement” is a real thing in Decentraland and in the web 3 space. Like the Avatar blocking solution you all are working on … I see it being a benefit to the leaders/DCL DAO and other people that use ignore/block/mute to control an environment vs. address problems at hand.
I see a block avatar function as a way to handle inappropriate emote use, but could see it used for just whatever reasons people want to further exclude people in Decentraland … ie use the block avatar function to ignore and further bully people in the space.
Hi Zom, good points, and I try not to pinpoint that this is a Male/Female thing, it can affect all avatars. However this particular instance that I’m referencing started with a male presenting avatar doing things to a female presenting avatar, and when she asked him to stop, he did not. So for the sake of explaining this specific interaction, I referred to the gender their avatars currently present in the game.
As for the CBD aspect, can you elaborate? I’m not aware of this happening to you and if you weren’t allowed to speak, I’d like to know how/where. I feel like all conversations have been open and transparent, and if there is an issue I’m not aware of I want to know. Thanks.
), i believe that would be a next level for decentraland wearables (to allow creators adjust length by scaling, and allow to add models with custom bones for physics that will be parented to avatar bones)