Stagecoach Island defects to ActiveWorlds

Well after all the fanfare about Stagecoach Island, it seems that Second Life turned out not to be the right fit. I received an email from Wells Fargo inviting me to try the new Stagecoach Island. After a quick registration and a 5 meg download, within about a minute I was signed into Stagecoach Island - built in ActiveWorlds and using the ActiveWorlds client. It seems the have abandoned the SL client in favor of AW.

While AW is quirky in its own right, the experience was immediately much better than the initial SL experience. The UI is attractive, and it steps you through choosing some options for your avatar - skin color, hair color, gender, and a selection of clothing. You chose all this just by clicking on a web page, a la There. It was a nicer experience for a brand new user instead of the hundreds of sliders.

In fact, the whole experience reminded me of a weird cross beween There and SL. Once you get into ActiveWorlds, it is attractive - though SL does look better overall, I think. Quickly some of the weirdness of AW becomes apparent. The movement of the avatar is very stilted, even more so than the SL ones. Spending a little time with it, you suddenly realize how much AW sucks in terms of usability also - though in a different way than SL.

What is even more surprising about Stagecoach Island being in ActiveWorlds now is that Bedazzle was unaware that this was happening. Their work on Stagecoach Island was reproduced in ActiveWorlds without their involvement. In fact, it seems that whoever did develop the ActiveWorlds version even took screen shots of some the textures from the SL version as a shortcut. They accidentally captured an SL chat bubble in the window on one of the textures (see below):



Kind of a strange turn of events. While businesses make decisions for all kinds of reasons and it is unclear why Stagecoach Island is now on a different platform, the whole experience points out some inherent weaknesses that SL still has. The fact that they kept Bedazzle's work is a testament to the quality of their work, though it is odd that they would do this all with no involvment of Bedazzle. It seems what they were unhappy with was SL, which is a shame.as the SL version was quite nice and it was a great opportunity.

Here are some pictures:
http://www.sluniverse.com/si1.jpg
http://www.sluniverse.com/si2.jpg
http://www.sluniverse.com/si3.jpg
http://www.sluniverse.com/si4.jpg
http://www.sluniverse.com/si5.jpg
http://www.sluniverse.com/si6.jpg
http://www.sluniverse.com/si7.jpg
http://www.sluniverse.com/si8.jpg
http://www.sluniverse.com/si9.jpg
http://www.sluniverse.com/si10.jpg
http://www.sluniverse.com/si11.jpg

If you want to see the AW version, you can go here:

http://wellsupdate.wellsfargo.com/m/p/wls/ibk/sc.asp

It is Windows only.

Impressive detective work on those textures, Cristiano.

Damn shame it's in Windows only. I'll never get a chance to see myself.

~Ulrika~

That's not a chat bubble, that's a name tag. Looking at the screenshot and the database, it seems to closely match an existing account named "Gand Freeloader".

Wow. I guess the quietly slipping out into the night holds true for corporate as well as individual users. I am also surprised that Bedazzle was not contracted to do the crossover work in AW much less unaware of the platform switch. I hope LL was involved in discussions concerning their dissatisfaction with SL or at least able to obtain feedback from Wells Fargo.

Fascinating.

Thank you for this report, Cristiano.

I was just asking the other day what happened with Wells Fargo; guess this explains it.

coco

From a business standpoint, I'd be interested in finding out if Bedazzled allowed for use of their textures outside of the project they were contracted for - especially on another platform. Why recreate the textures from screenshots if the original designers would give them to you? Seems a little underhanded of Wells Fargo, IMO, but I certainly don't know all the facts.

Either way, its a bummer to see them defect. I wonder what their reasoning was.

Whoa this really does suck. Especially for the SL residents who were 'farmed' out to Fargo to work as Fargo liasons. Wonder if they'll get gigs as Lindens now?

Very interesting. I wouldn't mind hearing from LL what happened; I doubt Wells Fargo will be forthcoming! Eggy, any news to share?

-Flip

Ack thank you I meant name tag. I was thinking chat bubbles because the whole thing had There on my mind.

This is just bizarre. All that work for nothing.

On top of that, apparently Wells Fargo simply screengrabbing all the textures to export into AW, which, I might add, is based on 8 year old technology, very clunky, and is scarcely hardware accelerated.

Does Bedazzled have any recourse? It seems awfully shady that they'd simply screengrab all the content to recreate it elsewhere.

Well. I can jump to conclusions on the 'reasoning.'
But... damn, that's underhanded.
Yes. SL does need a better UI for noobs to get their heads around.
Maybe even *cough*Branded Client UIs*cough*.
Oh well. Better luck down the road.
How much was LL making from Stagecoach, anyway?

It does not appear all the textures were screen grabbed - that one was just really obvious. Also, it is my understanding that the content is owned by the company they did the work for. Still, yes, it is quite bizarre.

As previously said, Bedazzle only just heard of this today

You happen to know if WF absconded with any non-Bedazzle textures from stagecoach? Does the AW version of this project now feature a *PREEN* I know nothing about?

I will go check with my top secret avatar. You will note in the screen shots I am named bobh. I couldn't think of anything when I was registering, so I registered as [email]bobhope@gmail.com[/email] lol.

Yes, very shady indeed. If they had to screengrab the textures that would imply that there's something underhanded going on (unless there's a more prosaic explanation, like somebody lost the original data and forgot to back it up, and somebody else thought it would be quicker to take screen grabs rather than download textures).

I look forward to LL's comments on this development. Assuming they make any.

Yup, they're supposed to have a copy of everything and indeed all the rights to use them however they want.

wow.

Yes it does! Except now all the object are owned by Aimee Weebler.

~Ulrika~

This is really sad for all or us who believe in SL as a platform for the development of more than just casinos and shopping malls for virtual club wear. Maybe it is an illustration of the inherent weaknesses of SL that we as enthusiastic residents tend to oversee - or underestimate. Some of those weaknesses you already mentioned in your original post:

1. SL's learning curve is steep, much steeper than most of us, who lived through the first days, will be able to imagine.
   
2. Many parts of the SL client are not really state-of-the-art usability-wise.
   
3. The stability of the platform leaves a lot to be desired.

Taken together all this is much more of a reason, why so many newbies leave SL after a few days or hours than any Impeach Bush sign or any griefer in the welcome Area. Yeah, and lag is a problem too. AW might be no as advanced as Second Life technology-wise. But at least it delivers a predictable performance. Accidently I blogged about this on SLOG a few weeks ago . (What is the reason for new users to turn their backs on SL? and No, we are not "there"! )

Anyone doubting this diagnosis might watch a "non gamer" making her first steps in Second Life (and "no coaching"!). Another very instructive thought experiment: put yourself in the shoes of the middle manager at Wells Fargo responsible for the Stage Coach Island project in the weeks following the update to 1.7. Nice feeling, eeh? Such snafus simply don't happen with a professional project for a large brand client!

And when they do happen, heads are rolling.

Ok so far I have not located *preen*, but isn't this a copy of the skydiving thing they sell at Abbott's Aerodome?

And hopefully not too many or it might crash the sim.

Yah, I heard that - but I have faith in your detective skills!