Wagner James Au / New World Notes

Originally published on my Patreon here

There’s a controversial social media post that’s currently going viral within the Second Life creator community, written by a professional mesh modeler who works in SL. By the author’s request, I won’t share their name or link to their post here, but clearly, their assertions about the Second Life mesh economy are shocking to many. 

Roughly summarized, they charge:

• Many top Second Life brands outsource much or all of their mesh work to “shadow mesher” subcontractors without fairly compensating them. 

• If shadow meshers do outsourcing work for a brand, but are unable to access the brand owner’s sales/vendor data, aren’t recognized publicly, aren’t given legally binding revenue shares, or retain rights to reuse/resell their work, they are being unfairly treated.

• Many shadow meshers could make much more revenue if they just sold their original content directly, instead of outsourcing. (And then would still own the rights to their content to resell/reuse on other platforms.)

• In the real world (i.e. the game industry), professional mesh modelers are paid anywhere from $100 per item to $5000 or more for a detailed avatar/character model, with a profit share on top — and SL assignments will often require much more work, due to dealing with Second Life’s aging platform quirks. 

• The larger Second Life brands can often make over USD $5,000 per release — and a shadow mesher’s compensation should be a decent cut of that revenue.  

Or to put it more bluntly: Shadow mesh artists of Second Life, know what you’re worth, and demand better pay/treatment.

How large is the shadow mesh subcontracting economy? In my 2024 report on the SL economy, my survey of merchants suggested that only 7% had large teams of contractors. Then again, when you consider that around 1600 Second Life merchants gross $10,000 or more a year from their SL content, that could mean an estimated 100+ SL brands outsource mesh work.

“It’s very prevalent, especially on the bigger brands. ” a top virtual world/metaverse developer confirmed to me, when I showed them the post. “A lot use Upwork to hire artists. Also keep in mind exchange rates and cost of living. A full-time artist in China, Vietnam or India can cost anywhere from $500 to $2,000/mo. So it’s affordable to hire artists that way.”

My source also confirmed that yes, professional game industry mesh creators do get paid $5000 or more, for detailed avatar/character models: “A full AAA character, from concept to rigged output, would probably cost $30,000 for a triple A game, maybe more.”

I also showed the post to several professional mesh developers deeply familiar with the Second Life economy, to get their feedback. How much of a problem is this, both for the shadow meshers themselves, and the overall community they serve?

 

Mesh Creators on Shadow Meshing, the Brands Who Don’t Acknowledge It — and How This Distorts the SL Economy

“When I first started meshing,” one tells me, “I remember being surprised when I learned about shadow meshers. I was watching someone create an item for a well-known brand, and no customer or even event would know who they were. It definitely changed my perspective on how businesses were run in Second Life. Any skill can be commissioned. Way beyond the full perm items on Marketplace.

“Some people prefer that setup. Not everyone wants to deal with customers, branding, and event logistics. But what [this post is] highlighting here is important: a lot of meshers don’t have visibility into what their work is actually worth. Rates aren’t always talked about openly, so it’s easy to undervalue yourself. This is especially if you’re new or isolated. This kind of post brings awareness to both creators and customers, and that’s a good thing.

“More transparency benefits everyone. I also hope it helps set realistic expectations for new creators. It’s easy to compare yourself to brands pumping out multiple releases a week and wonder why you can’t keep up. “

Relatedly, this mesher finds it galling that some top brand owners take credit for their shadow meshers’ work:

“You see someone post a work in progress [calling it] ‘my latest’ or ‘something I’m working on,’ and the [positive] comments flood in… even though they don’t know how to mesh. It’s not even that outsourcing is wrong. It’s the performance of being the artist that gets weird.

“Like, there’s a difference between running a brand and taking credit for the artistry. Especially when the actual mesher is invisible, under NDA, or just underpaid and can’t even post their own work.

“It’s one of those behind the scenes ‘everyone knows but no one says anything’ parts of Second Life culture. So I’m glad she’s brought it up.”

“I think it’s perfectly fine to hire meshers or help generally,” says Salt Peppermint, owner and creator of the popular Salt and Peppermint brand, who raises a similar point about some brands claiming unearned credit:

“Pretending that you did everything yourself, while you have other people doing the work is unethical and just unfair. It also paints a picture which is problematic for newer and smaller creators who get the impression that this is the amount of items for price x they have to push out to be successful. It’s frustrating to say the least.

When brands fail to acknowledge they have teams working for them, she argues, it also distorts the community’s perspective on the value of new mesh content:

“[C]ustomers get the impressions that meshing and rigging is something that can be done quickly and therefore should be very cheap. Also very often shadow meshers are not paid properl”

On the last point, it’s worth noting that the Second Life consumer economy is relatively small, and meshers might not want to expect that they get paid the same amount for a model they create that’s enjoyed by millions of gamers on Steam, versus the several hundred thousand in SL.

“Overall she’s right,” as one developer puts it, “you could get paid more elsewhere, and should value your work properly; but on the other hand — it’s quite possible that the price is a natural fit – the market might simply not be able to bear higher.”

Still, since it’s relatively easy to promote your own content on social media, shadow meshers should consider creating their own brand, and seeing for themselves how much people are willing to pay them directly for it.

“Honestly ,” as another well-known mesh creator tells me, “if folk are talented in this they should be setting up their own stores and bringing more diversity into Second Life!”

Speaking of which, go here to tell me about smaller and new-ish SL brands which deserve more coverage. And my 2025 SL economy report has advice on how brands can best make an impact.

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