Why do we even use Ruth2 or Roth2?

I believe this is a question which many of those who use a body from the Ruth2 or Roth2 families have had to deal with: Why do they use these bodies and not one of those which "everybody" uses, Athena, Adonis, anything with Decadence in its name etc.?

Is the reason why we don't use Athena or Adonis because we don't know Athena and Adonis exist? Please.

Go to any freebie sim with mesh bodies that's listed on OSW. Go to the mesh body section. You will get Athena 6, Adonis 4 and all those "Free Bakes-on-Mesh" boxes slammed into your faces. As for Ruth2 v4 and Roth2 v2, you can consider yourself lucky if said freebie store offers them at all. If it weren't for my efforts, there'd be fewer than half a dozen sims offering these bodies on the whole Hypergrid.

So no, we don't use Ruth2 or Roth2 because we don't know Athena and Adonis exist. We know they exist. We don't need any Athena or Adonis boxes from you. Thank you very much. We'd know where to get them if we wanted them. Which we don't.

Or is the reason because we don't know how to use these boxes? Please, now it's really bordering on insulting us as stupid.

Ruth2 v4 and Roth2 v2 aren't really that much easier to use than Athena 6 and Adonis 4. Okay, what's easier is their out-of-the-box capability of using alpha masks, and even that is easier only when you're coming straight from the system body. Also, they come with a head attached. Everything else is, let's say, different, and some things are more difficult, especially when you come from a wholly different body. Also, these bodies require work. Work that goes beyond picking one of the shapes that come with an Athena head.

And actually, using Ruth2 v4 or Roth2 v2 may teach you things that you'd find useful if you ever used Athena 6 or Adonis 4, e.g. how to get alpha masks to work on the latter two.

So no, we don't use Ruth2 or Roth2 because we don't know how to use Athena or Adonis. No need to force Athena or Adonis usage lessons upon us.

Okay, so why do we use these bodies then?

Well, I can only speak for myself here, but maybe others have similar reasons.

First of all, I appreciate FLOSS (Free, Libre, Open-Source Software). And I even want my free-of-charge software to be legal. Yes, I do give a fuck about that. I've been using Linux since when most other people pirated Windows Vista and then the latest MS Office and the latest Photoshop CS and the latest Windows games just to have the hottest shit on their b0x3n for free.

Ruth2 v4 and Roth2 v2 are FLOSS. They're licensed under the GNU Affero GPL, and their sources can be found on Github (https://github.com/RuthAndRoth). Athena, Adonis & Co. are more like cracked commercial games.

Also, if you use these bodies, if you use them in public, you help promoting them. You help showing people that these bodies exist, that legal mesh bodies exist, that you can have a mesh avatar without having to put it together from stolen content.

Next, yes, Adonis looks like something between a stereotypical badass mafiya mobster and a professional male porn star out-of-the-box with just about any of the shapes that come with the heads. And Athena looks like something between a stereotypical gangsta slut and a professional female porn star out of the box with just about any of the shapes that come with the heads.

But what if you don't want to look like either of these? What if what you want is a guy-next-door/girl-next-door look?

Yes, Ruth2 v4 and Roth2 v2 need work on their shapes. A lot of work. But with that work, you can achieve these looks. And if you invest a great deal of work into your shape, chances are slim it'll look like the great deal of work someone else has put into their shape. Result: You don't even look like any other Ruth2 or Roth2. And with these bodies, you don't look like everyone else anyway, even if there aren't lots of different heads to choose from.

As for Athena, Adonis & Co., there are no ready-made shapes boxed with the bodies or heads that make you look like that. So you'll have to work on these bodies just as well. However, as they're so geared towards clichés and stereotypes, I've got my doubts that you'll get there.

The feet and shoes situation doesn't make things any better for Athena. Ruth2 v4 plus the Extras box makes it fairly easy to wear medium-height shoes which are actually available for Ruth2. Athena makes it increasingly difficult to wear any shoes that don't have 10cm heels, and medium-height shoes aren't available for that body at all, full stop.

I could go on with clothes in general. Non-skimpy bathing suits being available as layer clothes, therefore working on BoM bodies, but not as rigged-for-Athena mesh. Skirts and dresses over micro-mini length being made for Ruth2, but hardly anyone could ever be bothered to either make them for Maitreya Lara in SL or steal them from there for Athena.

Athena's only advantage in this field is the "petite" variant which didn't even exist prior to Athena 6.

Finally, I vastly prefer the way these bodies do certain things. For example, both Ruth2 v4 and Roth2 v2 support alpha masks with BoM on, not to mention that BoM can be completely switched off if necessary. I actually prefer alpha masks over using an alpha HUD because they allow you to save alphas without jumping through hoops (e.g. making copies of your whole body with certain areas alpha'd out by HUD). Also, alpha masks can be put on or taken off anywhere on the Hypergrid whereas an alpha HUD is likely to stop working after teleporting to another grid or even only a sim on the same grid that runs on a different robust.

The same goes for the way Ruth2's feet have been working ever since the old Ruth 2.0 days: Feet and toenails are replaced for different heel heights. Again, easy to save with outfits. Again, no HUD necessary. Again, works everywhere on the Hypergrid (except for maybe some small grids with Hypergrid 2 whose asset server doesn't know Ruth2 feet yet). The classic "shoes" in the Ruth2 v4 Extras box even allow you to quickly change your avatar height without editing your shape. So no going on tip-toes all the time because changing your foot position is too cumbersome or outright impossible.

I know this isn't how "everyone" does it. But just because "everyone" does things in a certain way, doesn't mean it's the only right way to do it or even the universally best way.