Is the interest in SL waning?

With this christmas season, a lot of really cool games have come out/are coming out. A lot of the people I used to see logging in almost daily barely log in anymore. This has happened in waves in the past -- some other game distracts a portion of people for a month or two then things shoot back to normal.

This time it doesn't seem to be happening... and it's taking more than a few people. More than half of my long contact list used to be online when I logged in. Now scarcely more than a dozen of my less-familiar acquaintences will be on...

so it's got me curious -- is this happening to anyone else? And if you're not in SL because you'd rather be playing a game, what game are you playing?

I hope that this discussion will be able to guage the level of interest in SL there is. It might be a good indicator to LL of wether they're falling behind on the innovation meter.

Maybe all the drama on the forums tires people out?
It sometimes makes me less inclined to play.
Also the SL world is so huge now that I don't feel as comfortable wandering around. I tend to stick with just a few friends or by myself.

I used to be on alot more often than i am now, but only because of the Holiday Season and rush to parties and banquets and charity functions. and I know I am not on your calling card list, but would like to be. hehe . I have noticed that my list is the same as yours that no one is on anymore, too.

I have cut my in-world time considerably. I got my butt kicked by my wife last time she saw me with a cute avie in a tiny tiny bikini sitting on my lap, whispering nasty things in my ear. I am peace loving person, so I avoid SL when she's around.

And then again, I am also playing Half-Life 2.

- T -

Hee hee hee, I would LOVE to play Half Life 2.

I just started a new job, so I haven't been able to do much on SL. Add that to the fact that my DSL got cut off last week and a half --

But my interest hasn't waned, I'm suffering serious SL withdrawal symptoms.

I'll tell ya... it's a long list, man

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (sweet game)
Halo2
Everquest2
World of Warcraft (good game, btw)
Metroid Prime
Didn't the new Metal Gear Solid game come out?
Half Life 2 (good game)

There's just WAY too many games out right now. I know that about 40 folks just from the Umber crew are busy playing World of Warcraft incessently. Another few are playing GTA: San Andreas, a few are playing Everquest2, etc.

And that's just in one sim's "group" of people.

It wasn't as bad as last year simply because there wasn't like an infinite number of new games coming out that were actually any good.

People will come back... patience.

LF

I have witnessed the same effect and I did not notice the same seasonality effect last year. Speaking for myself, SL has gotten unplayably slow at EST prime-time and this does affect my desire to spend more time in game. I've spoken to others who feel the same.

To paraphrase the old joke: "SL? No one goes there anymore, it's too crowded".

We will be back icon. *looks over new games release list for first quarter next year* Yup. In gamerland, xmas starts on Nov 15.

bbc

I must admit my interest in SL has really waned. I used to be in SL 8-14 hours per day, seven days a week. Now maybe an hour a day, and a few hours on the weekend is all I can muster.

Damn this thing called work.

yeah, if it wasn't for the bills and needing to eat a bite or two, i would quite work and just play SL and i feel for everyone who is going through the withdrawals. I went out of town for the thanksgiving holiday and I almost needed serious medical attention from the withdrawsl systems. lmao!!!! but true!

Ummm... if they're not into SL anymore I'm guessing they won't be here.

I see I see... yeah WoW.

I don't get it.

Then again I was distracted for about 2 weeks when I dug up my old copy of FF V.

Personally, and I know this opinion is unpopular(what else is new) I really find computer games a pointless waste of time.

I used to be quite into asheron's call and I played a lot of starcraft with co-workers, but now...

RL and work got hectic for me for a while.. but over the last month I've been logging in daily again. Often for hours at a time. I miss the world when I have to be away, and always get a fresh outlook once I get to return. I'm now more involved than I have been for months and with the winter setting in, I'll be on more often than ever. I am constantly making new friends, and most of the close friends I have are still always on at some point. So I don't feel like I am missing anything other than the friends who are busy or taking a break.

yeah, I agree about Wow. I watched my brother playing it and it reminded me of Horizons which bored me to tears after a while.

which ac server did you use? i was on harvestgain forever. it used to infuriate me that i couldn't upload jpgs to put in a frame and hang in the villa. it really used to infuriate me that i couldn't plant trees around my villa. ooo that made me mad. now...

in the past year we've been through two very serious waves of people departing second life. some are more immediately final than others, but the migrations leave a noticable hole. fortunately, each has been followed by an even larger influx of newbies, particularly from failed mmorpgs. i imagine the same thing will happen over again this time.

Yeah, that is exactly it.

I was always waiting for them to add houses or something so I could set up a house. NWN came along and I got really excited by that, except that it was poorly implemented, and then SL came.

SL basically has absolutely everything I could ever want. Personally, it's hard to imagine a world without something like SL. Kinda like a world without the internet?

I think people from other MMOGs will just slowly migrate here as well. After being in SL and seeing the things that you see in here, all the other MMOGs seem .. pointless.

I was looking at WOW screenshots and was thinking, ohhh big deal, I could rez that.

I'd like to say, "it's a phase"... and that sometimes you gotta walk away from SL and then refresh yourself. I've heard anecdotal stories that the grid feels all-new again -- and especially with the high rate of change, I wouldn't be surprised if this was actually the case when my times comes to experience this. I have spent a fair amount of SL but I see RL starting to really overlap in the not-so-distant future, so from there on, I'll have to find a personal equilibrium.

I used to be more inclined to structure my day out and attend scheduled Events and all that when I first came to SL, but now, I'm really freefalling it and going for crazy, spontaneous adventures.

But, as older users step away for awhile to recharge, newer users come to the world (hope that marketing foundation keeps rolling on!), and while there is never one constant balance, the comfort lies in this:

You can step away when you want, and you can come back for the same reasons too.

Second Life is what you make of it.

The WTF are you doing in Secondlife?

You DO realize its a game, right?

I do get that feeling.. I do play video games, but I just can't spend hours playing them every night. It may be a sick thing, but I just feel too unproductive -- at least in SL I'm doing stuff that can be leisurely as well as productive.



Yeah... that's why I don't get WoW or EQ2 etc. They're all the same game just repackaged, different art, and a gimmick or two tacked on for good measure. They've been the same game since MUDs came around. Heck, you could say it's the same thing since D&D...

now not every idea is completely unique these days... but innovation means change. I still see people enjoy clicking their mouse button furiously on rats and bunnies, whacking away for a few more experience points so they can go kill some orcs or something.

you could almost argue that MMORPGs aren't games either -- there's no finality or end result of accomplishment. No "win condition." Except unlike SL, there are severe restrictions in how one interacts with the virtual environment.

woop.

The amazing thing for me is that Second Life certainly has pieces of its pie that qualify as games, but as for life-enriching experiences, SL has allowed me to explore that on a level that I haven't seen on any other "virtual world community" or whatever they're called on the market. For example, I tried There out before I entered SL, and while sporadically fun, most of my conversations only functioned on a shallow level. I like my convos to work on both shallow, deep, and more! An eclectic mix of esoterics and partytime.

And so, it has come down to the people again. And I've met wonderful people in SL. I used to laugh about the statement, "Humans are our most precious resource", but in some aspects it's not that absurd after all.

Here, I can roleplay as Cyberpunk Princess as I want. But I can also take time out to discuss what's going on IRL, without killing the mood. (There's that popular Summoner+Dead Ale Wives skit which shows what out-of-context can do to a fantasy RPG environment.)

Does killing misc. monsters interest me? Maybe for awhile, but not for stretches of weeks. Again, it comes down to the diversity of SL for me, and the spectrum and the individuality that is expressed by the creative people here -- and yet, our ideal is to be one as a community and come together when it's needed. We laugh, we cry, we spew particle blood when we fall on the best plywood on Earth (optional) . . . but behind our keyboards, we are still irrevocably, undeniably sentient beings (in most cases ) who have made a choice to be here, for ourselves... and for each other.

So for me, again, I reiterate: is Second Life a game? Yes, and much, much more.

YAYZERAMA!!!

Something like that.