SLCC 2006 Sponsor No Longer Attending

Hello, I'll try to keep this short because enough people have posted excellent threads about recent Linden Lab policy announcements.

I am not boycotting the conference and encourage anyone interested in attending. FilpperPA has done an excellent job with his team of community volunteers to pull together this event. There are a number of exciting seminars and plenty of time for people to enjoy San Francisco, a city I had hoped to see for the first time, and meet and hang out with people who also enjoy Second Life.

The intent of my sponsorship was to discuss face-to-face with the Linden Lab employees in attendence the problems of user retention. Knowing full well that forums and e-mail can only do so much, I committed and have spent over $25,000USD over the last three months to research and build various things related to the issue of user retention. However, I am now a victim of that same user retention problem as I tier down and begin my exit from Second Life.

There are a number of salient points I will bring up here that I tried to word more elegantly as I developed my publication for the conference.

1. People who think there has been a massive population growth should realize in the same time it took Second Life to count 300,000 residents, Xbox Live signed up 2.5 million paying subscribers, using older hardware with a much smaller user base (Xbox consoles versus all the PCs and Macs in the world). The bottom line is watch the number of residents go up but simultaneous usage stay the same. In the end there is nothing to do here if you are not into creating or want something more than a crippled version of IRC in a 3D world. Add to that the fact that the non-PC online worlds went to voice communication years ago (both Xbox and PS2) you can see why many people wouldn't relish the notion of taking a technological backstep.
   
2. People, particularly the senior Linden Management, who think this is a technological breakthrough are living in denial. The technology behind Second Life could easily be replicated by professional developers in a matter of months. Why isn't it? Because there is no money in it, 3D worlds developed since the late 1990's that have not had a serious component of "gameplay" have never succeeded in drawing a mass of users. Second Life runs under five year old physics technology on a platform it was never fully developed for at the time, using a highly inefficient and poorly designed scripting model. The new front page seems to indicate that Linden Lab is fiercely proud of avatar technology from the Grand Theft Auto 3 era. The bottom line is you need the high-end hardware required to run F.E.A.R. to essentially run a graphics engine surpassed by PlayStation 2 titles.
   
3. What I loved about Second Life was the contiguous world full of awesome creations by its users. But this is really no more than the wonders we see walking around the real world. Eventually many of us tire of looking at the grass and yearn for something to do. The currently technology doesn't allow this to be accomplished. Whether you like it personally or not, the market has indicated there is a deep desire for online communication in a gameplay setting.
   

The third point was the reason for my sponsorship of the SLCC and my desire to show "skin in" to the Lindens when attending. I had been developing three things targeting user retention.

The first was Orientation Tour, an alternate Orientation experience that would use more elaborate in-world displays to illustrate use of the system, while taking users around the world by foot, car, boat and plane. This one has been completely aborted.

The second was SLHandbook itself. The current methods of finding places and products is fairly limited and has a cost associated with it. The idea was to use the amazon.com shopping experience but tie it to the aspects of Second Life that current and potential users could benefit from. Starting first with regions, then parcels, a directory of places to visit has been built. The next step was more extensive categorization to allow the sort of drill-down experience you get at a shopping site (i.e. start with clubs, then dancing, and I want contests, and for it to be Furry-Friendly... ah, here are 30 cool places to check out). The next step was to be products, also organized in the same fashion, but in the end linked to in-world places to purchase, and the option of seeing neighboring locations that might be worth checking out while in the area. All designed to show the breadth of resident's creations and how to get to them in-world. The ultimate goal was that some sort of in-world HTML interface (be it like the F1 Help or Mozilla-on-a-prim) would combine with this out-world database.

The final part was "SL Conquest", a combat system that would allow traditional multiplayer gaming in-world. For those of you unfamiliar with "traditional shooters", players usually fight for themselves or in teams to a conclusion (objective or time based) then return to a lobby to choose the next venue. Here was Second Life with its "fan kit" (http://static.secondlife.com/downloads/SL_fansite_toolkit_2.0.zip) touting "Last week I created a multi-player FPS in Second Life... ...This week I'm charging people money to play it." While I didn't want to charge money, I loved the concept of this image: once getting your shooter friends in-world, rather than just chatting in a lobby you had this exciting world to explore, the chance to create your own things, form relationships, go clubbing, shopping, simply exploring. Then when you wanted, hopping back into the fray, all within the same world. So I hired a group of talented people who are finishing up aspects of this system that was both meant for enjoyment by Second Life residents and a display to Linden Lab. The goal was to demonstrate the difficulty in implementing this very basic banner ad's premise, both because of technology limitations and cost. It's hard to charge somone for something they can essentially play for free, and it's hard to get people to develop in a system where people aren't ultimately interested because the content can't be compelling owing to those same technology limitations.

In order to satisfy any of these examples I needed to know what development milestones existed. As long as the current physics engine is in place none of will ever get prim limit relief or better performance. As long as the current scripting viryual machine is in place we will have both unnecessary development hurdles to jump and performance limitations. And those are just technology bedrocks, not taking into account the policy needs to ensure such upgrades aren't exploited. The concepts of "object classes" and extended properties and permissions were part of my document. With the advent of gaming degrees at college we're seeing an increased to desire for the field, and Second Life is on the edge o being a playground for these would-be builders. The level/map editors who in-world make buildings; the custom avatar creators who could design the next great game star; the texture artists who could be elevating the next environment from average to amazing. All these people could have a venue to display their talents while allowing us poor "gamers" to have our fun. Without the technology, however, we're living in the stone-age of graphics with no custom bump-maps, no pixel shaders, and no sign on the horizon that there is any interest in the backbone beyond long posted indications of upgrades to Havok 2 (already three year old physics technology) and Mono (already one an a half years behind the deployment of .NET 2.0).

So yes, this may not seem to be such a short topic, but I had planned a 24 page full-color magazine discussing user retention, loaded with examples from other environments, pseudo-code and screen mock-ups of interface Wizards and property sheets. I was extremely serious about trying to, at the very least, get a sense of Linden Lab's direction in terms of development. I think they have answered that question through their actions of the last two months.

Since the posting of "The Tao of Linden" I began to question why I even caed, when such a callous an egotistical post could be proffered at the same time the community was reeling from weeks of broken updates. The Forums closure however was enough to tell me my opinion is not needed, and perhaps not even needed.

I applaud the creators, the builders, wish the best to people who make friends and the most of their Second Life. I honor my committments and because of that the combat system will be available at last through January. The first buildis complete and the game tag under testing at:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/carnage%20island/244/128/31/

Two regions north is "DeathMatch Island" wher three more arenas are being deployed, including an excellent replica of the map "Warlock" from Halo 2.

SLHandbook will continue as I get time. Thanks to all those who have helped build our nearly 800 strong list of exciting places to visit.

And I'm sorry I'll be missing a chance to meet a lot of great people at the SLCC. I just cannot in good conscience arrive as a member of a community I am in the midst of leaving because of its management, or lack thereof.

Aren't you being a little too critical? Anyone can replicate true but how many of those people would be willing to relinquish alot of control in their game so people can invent games inside of their games, script and so forth?

Considering Second Life hasn't had much publicity, I say it's doing a good job

I'm sorry you won't be attending, but thanks very much for the kind words. Let's stay in touch - you have great ideas, and it's a shame we won't have you in our midst any more.

Regards,

-Flip

SecondLife is kinda like democracy, it really sucks in so many ways, but it's the best platform out there.

Dude. I feel your pain. Having joined almost two years ago I feel like we haven't really progressed much. Over the past few months it seems that less and less input is being taken from the community, and LL doesn't want to respond to any of our questions as they effectively alienate their customers.

another opportunity squandered

I CAN'T HEAR WHEN YOUR TALKING CUZ MY FINGERS ARE IN MY EARS AND I AM MAKING LOUD NOISES

ty for the effort, its the artists that keep me here, not the platform and disfunctional rule

good luck where the next step brings you

Are you serious?

He is. I can attest.

I noticed that and was wondering if this poster had noticed it, too.

a true leader my friend, you are a ture leader, sorry to see you go but your right, times change, people cange, thnigs change and as a result, we lose some of the best good luck my friend.

Losing Clubside is a bigger deal to me than losing the forum.

Just the things I personally use:
Clubside's Sandbox *manual return!*
Carnage Island
DeathMatch Island
SLHandbook

He's been a huge asset to the game, I'm very disappointed that the climate in SL and at LL has moved him to this decision.

Thank you for all you've done Clubside! You will be missed.

I'm so sorry to hear this, Clubside. I enjoyed knowing you, considered you an absolutely terrific asset to SL. What can I say.

Well, I can say, let me know if you find something else exciting that you are going to get involved in, so I can come take a look at it, too!

coco

Thanks to everyone who has posted here and contacted me in-world (which shows there are plenty of lurkers).

As I close my sandbox (the only non-casino, non-sex oriented area to be in Popular Places consistently for over two months) I will be back with a denoument and how my remaining committments play out.

The worst part of all this are the people celebrating the closure of the forums... like anything, there are plenty of residents who will affected, yet these people only care about themselves. Over the last few days I have helped more than a few newbies on the forums (as well as plenty in-world) and now, no matter where or how many third-party sites are set up, that single common resource will be dead for the "community".

This is sad, I'm sorry to see you go, Clubside.



I enjoyed working on the handbook, will you finish it? I'll do it for free, no need to feed and cloth my alt now.

Clubside, I don’t know you but everything you wrote resonated with my own experiences with people and groups who decided to take up the “be the change” mantra. The Cabinhead project met a similar fate as your project, after months of work and substantial financial investment, another case where established residents attempted to fill a void they saw in helping and retaining new residents but ended up shot down and/or ignored by LL and eventually the primary investor walked away.

It is apparent that SL is at a crossroads and LL has chosen their path. LL has functioned as our government up until this point and they just don’t have the staff or the interest in governing a “country” as Philip has called SL. As SL has grown in the past year, the demand for rules, structure and enforcement has reached a deafening volume. We look to LL to be our police force, but it is something they cannot do any longer and still attempt to craft a working product. The move in-world has long been towards island continents managed by SOMEONE ELSE, and it would seem that LL is taking the next step along that road and moving the cacophony of the forums to off-site islands managed by SOMEONE ELSE.

Honestly, I don’t know what to make of it all. LL has chosen a direction and I can certainly see why they’ve done so. SL as we all have known it is drawing its final breaths and evolving into something else. Replacing it will be a collage of smaller, managed communities (much like RL.) Our sense of community will go when these forums close and we all become just small islands in the platform. What this means as we evolve into smaller communities is anyone’s guess, however, it does give one a lot of pause if you’ve invested heavily in anything other than buying islands and creating continents.

I guess what I’m saying here is that my experience has been that doing anything to “help” LL grow SL is a good deed that will not go unpunished and ultimately ends in frustration and bitterness. A better investment is creating your own community and serving your own needs/desires.

You just got here, so you have no fucking idea how much publicity SL has gotten, son. I'd suggest keeping your trap shut until you know what you're talking about. Granville DOES know what he's talking about, so hush up and learn something.

As one of the regular users of Jizo, I can say it is a shade saddening to know he has been left with this decision, and I do fully understand his reasoning. It will be a shame to lose the funzone at Jizo, it has always been busy, as the sheer number of green blips on the RADAR constantly indicates. I also know the rest of the small group I belong to that based ourselves there in Jizo feel the same way.

can someone just give me the short version of what he said?

Mm, interesting. This is the sort of thing that LL will pay attention to, not a bunch of people saying "I'll tier down! No, really, I will! I mean it!"

its this kind of self rightous, patronising attutide of some of the "veterans" around here that really is off putting for us new folks who come here. Between all the doom and gloom posts of how SL was better "in the good ol days" and how LL are ruining SL and the like, its no wonder the forums are being altered. Don't get me wrong, you veterans have a right to express your opinions and your angsts, but treating us new folks like scum and children is pretty unfair - and honestly I really do get the feeling that alot of veterans feel that way about us new folks, that we are ruining their utopian environment and we are a big part of the problem.

This is actually very typical of that particular one. AR the post, I think she needs a vacation.

Makes ya wonder.

why are you always so hostile?


Sorry to see you go Clubside

Wow, I could cut and paste this right back at ya!

Seeya in 2 months.

I dont get why people do these dramatic "Goodbye cruel world" posts. I've seen Cubey and Torley both post that they were leaving SL, and they are still around. So are several friends that told all their friends they were leaving.

Yes, SL has its problems. But they will get fixed in time, and you'll be right back. When you do, will it be a public hullabaloo, or will you simply come back silently?