"We don't suck so bad if you compare us to ourselves in 2001!"

Did anybody else find Cory's presentation last night amusing, but feel that distilled down it basically amounted to 'SecondLife 2006 doesn't suck as bad as SecondLife 2001 did, so quit bitching at us!'? Nevermind he himself pointed out that a lot of the foundation of SecondLife 2006 still dates back to 2001, like the physics engine.

I was personally hoping for some peaks at upcoming future technology in SL, all this stuff they're allegedly working on and 'have working internally.' Instead we get LindenWorld 2001.

They also said they have 3/4 of their dev team working on bugs, but I imagine most people missed that in their rush to complain on the forums.

that video on youtube build looks fun.. I want guns and destructable builds.. and the water.. and the artificial life!!

Well it would be kinda fun to do terraforming via bombing. Thinking of a Cubey Terra plane, dropping bombs over my land to make a hole for a swimming pool.

Actually Lordfly, quite a few people rushed here to post that they did hear that and were appreciative, if not excited. One can only assume the problems related to the XUI transition that were mentioned may be behind the cavalcade of bugs being fixed now, bugs that don't qualify as the long-standing ones people have alluded to from before my time. Instead they are fixing bugs that were recently introduced by cahnges to the UI.

I enjoyed Cory's presentation as I posted in one of my threads, both for its technical competence and its point to odd future. Where the other Linden exeutives spoke of an ultimate transition to 3D space supplanting today's 2D web ethic, almost all of Cory's technological previews were of the sort that tied today's web or standalone applications to furtherance of the 3D experience. So which one is it, a wholesale 3D experience that "Everyone with a capital E" will clamor to be a part of, or a supplementary interface that allows for 3D wanderings as a curiosity, while real and useful information and entertainment resides as it does today, in 2D "space" and 3D gaming?

Sitting through the presentation I thought it was pretty good and was quite amused by the entire flashback on 2001 thing.

I think the understated "big" message of the entire thing is the opening up the interface so that people like libSL could really make in-world/out-of-world interactions seamless. That is a massive change. Official support of world interactions from outside of world in a more open form is a huge change and if done properly will make SL significantly more usable.

As with all things there are downsides, like if certain aspects are opened up - like being able to search and purchase from out of world easily - then things like Land swooping will go from an irritation to a major industry as people write scripts to automate land buying/selling/etc.. People might be able to write scripts that automatically "swoops" without the user ever launching SL.

From what I heard they suggested that you would be able to authenticate against the system and act in-world from outside, which could present a whole new world of possibilities but also a world where some of the negatives could be amplified if not controlled properly. Personally I'm all for it, I can't count the number of times I've said "man, I really want to be able to do X without logging in"... Hell, what I would give for a good Instant messanger that operated without being in game :^).

I didn't miss it. I pointed it out on Clubside's forums. Edit: And here; I just ran across it again, in the "It'll get better, honest," thread.

I will take this opportunity, though, to criticize the "showmanship" of this year's convention.

Understand, Jennifur and Flipper organized last year's as well as this one, and also probably didn't have a great deal of choice of venue, so don't take this as criticism of them or their efforts. (Though I know some of you will anyway.)

Here's my criticism: The SLCC isn't just what happens at the SLCC, it is also a show for us to all participate in vicariously.

As such, there needs to be a bit more showmanship involved.

Last year's convention was held at some university, and what we saw was a bright, well-lighted place, with tables that people were relaxing around, and banners from the sponsers. It was fun to watch.

This year's, by contrast was DARK. Dark. I mean, DARK. Everything black. The audience was rarely seen, and were all sitting in chairs in a dark auditorium. The stage had a table covered in black cloth, and a backdrop of black with nothing on it. No banners, nothing.

This is not riviting show biz, people! lol

Last year, due to the venue, we viewers felt that we were really there, watching everyone, and in a nice place. This year, I worried that everyone was going to SLEEP in the somambulant surroundings (particularly the cameraman).

And speaking of the camera, last year, the camera focused on people coming up to the mike to ask a question. Let me tell you that means a lot to those of us not there! We get to see what people look like. And more close-ups of those on the panel when they are speaking would be good, too.

Next year, I would like to see:

. Some attention to set - make it lively, put banners up. And some color, please, along with good lighting. (I feel the whole room should be lit up, not just those on stage.)

. Little foldy name cards in front of everyone on the panel, with letters big enough for all of us watching to read them. (Nice big name-tags on the people would be good, too.)

. In addition, let it be known at the start of the thing that everyone should ALWAYS say who they are before they begin to speak, at least at the start of a panel. They (and the person introducing them) need to say their names clearly and loudly.

. Banners from the sponsors. (They really do act as decoration and give us something to look at.)

. And the camera: Have it be on the person speaking, for starters; not a minute or so after another person has started to speak. And please, put the camera on the people in the audience like you did last year!

. The sound was better last year, too; I don't know why. This year, there seemed to be a problem with people talking too close to the mike.

Those are my suggestions, from the point of view of someone who watched it in game.

coco

I'll be impressed when they actually start fixing bugs, like ones that've been in the client at least since I started using it a year and a half ago.

I'm still waiting to see fixes on bugs I reported two full years ago, in 1.4 days. I'm really glad to hear they have more than half their people on bugs, but sheesh.

if you aren't happy you can leave too ^_^

If you think we have it bad...

try playing even if for a few minutes

http://www.knightonlineworld.com/


One of the most buggy games I've encountered.

But i love the Terms of Service section where you are under no illusion what will happen if you break the TOS, maybe LL could adapt it for here?

http://www.knightonlineworld.com/index.php?pg=policies_v2

Peace

Let's not complain that Linden Lab is being honest, eh?

Cory and Philip are both awesome speakers for Linden Lab, and Cory in a way that is very down to earth. I respect that a great deal from someone with his background and expertise.

Yeah, I kind of thought it was funny that Cory was kind of saying, "You complain now, look at the original!" But it was meant tongue-in-cheek. There's a very, very long list of features that I've seen added in two yearrs, bugs squashed, and ways that performance has increased. Two years ago, there were massive ghosting bugs, sim-crossing bugs, some permissions bugs, and none of the following:
- custom animations
- streaming video and music
- XML/RPC & httpRequest
- privately owned islands
- flexi-prims
- low-lag lighting effects

and the list goes on and on. SL is a very complex set of intereweaving features.

Cory's speech and showing off the old clients was perhaps my favorite highlight of the SLCC speeches. It was fun and sentimental and he was very open and honest with what they are doing to improve our product. It compares with Philip sharing his childhood story about cutting roof joists to install a vertically sliding door to his bedroom, and Mitch Kapor saying he had an epiphany while watching a YouTube movie Suzanne Vega playing in Second Life - that the walls between medias are coming down.

If any of them are interface/client interaction bugs, apparently they'll be extremely easy to fix once the interface is fully converted to XUI.

I attended the SL Views panel on the subject and it was fairly interesting. One thing that struck me was that many of the minor annoyances us builders put up with are not only acknowledged, but being worked on, or, on the flipside, completely unknown or unintentional (changing the cursor behavior I think was one of them.)

The Lindens are listening, but they have limited ways of hearing us out in an intelligent manner. Protip: this doesn't mean the forums are suddenly useful again. Every Linden I talked to couldn't wait to shut down the forums. They found them a waste of time and resources.

I'm better than I was in 2001. Mostly bug fixes, but some feature upgrades.

WOAH! Immediate bans for "not upholding the spirit of the game" and whatnot. (Those people don't sound like much fun.)

coco

I attended in world at Lewis's "Venue" with your mother, Lordfly!

coco

P.S. I also quite enjoyed the movies from early SL, as well as Philip's childhood memories.