Changes in 2007

So, I fell off the face of the world for almost a year. The last I was around, voice chat was in the works, and people were rather fiercely divided into camps that thought it would be marvelous or thought it would mean doom and destruction. A new continent was just being opened up and First Land had just been terminated, and no one had any real clue what was going to happen to the land market. Premium accounts were quickly losing value since they didn't offer anything free accounts didn't except land ownership -- and half the time you couldn't get into the land you owned because of lag and crashes. Rezzing problems and inventory loss were constant problems. Third-party viewers were a hint for the future, third-party sims were a dream unlikely to be realized, and no one in the general public had heard the word "sculptie" (I'm only vaguely aware of what it means now).

Now I'm back and trying to get caught up with what's changed and what hasn't -- but with a zillion blog and forum posts to sift through, that's not easy.

So what do you think are the most important changes to SL in the past year? Technical, creative, social, commercial, legal, geographic? And why are they important?

uhm.. i think sculpties were in the last year.. they rock.. more on that in the building forum..

windlight is beautiful and on its way to full release, stuff bout that as a releasecandidate or w/e.. uhm..thass all I know

Sculpties, Windlight and my underpants.

IMO: Windlight, Sculpties, and on the beta grid: Havok 4 physics engine!!! WOO-HOOO!!


*SL currently uses Havok 1 physics.

more griefers, alts & bots

Here is a thread that will give you a quick view of the 9 month history of sculpties.
/53/fd/182727/1.html

No one has mentioned that the gambling ban would be the end of SL yet, right?

2k Suisei's underpants.

According to the forums, the sky has fallen and LL has undeniably killed SL about a dozen times. I may just be sleep deprived, but I'm pretty sure it's a lot better now than it was when I started nearly a year ago.

From my personal perspective, the best thing to happen to SL in the past year was when I joined up.

*ducks a thrown pie*

Windlight is brilliant and absolutely gorgeous. Sulpties are great!! Though they take a while to load for some. Voice is still a very hot topic, still a divide.

Can't really say much more than that as i wasn't here last year to tell the difference.

Just don't forget about the panties, pie and penguins

In Windlight the Sky has fallen the black bands show where it once was, however we are allowed to put it back my tweaking our sliders

And while talking about Sky one of the most interesting and followed threads for some time was about Sky Eclipse who together with her faulty mystitool had the power some greifers would die for.

Oh and VAT, a European tax was added to costs for European players

Oh I remember that thread. I saw it by accident when searching and spend the rest of my time reading it. It was a brill thread. hehe. very interesting.
/327/1c/206162/1.html

A lot has changed and a lot hasn't. The Gambling ban, the ageplay/kiddieporn scandals, the Voicechat debate, there is still lag, griefing, scamming. We now have VAT, the Identity Verification Debate, Camping, Bots of all sorts, and the New Search. Windlight is supposedly great, I don't know, I don't use it. Sculpties make great shoes,most of the Coroporations haveit seems, and there were 2 Network TV shows that used SL in thier plots. Law and Order SVU used a SL like game as a background, while CSI:NY had an episode take place in SL with an inworld tie in. The regular Wednesday maintenance shutdown is no more, but now the Monkeys can start banging at any moment's notice. On the Forum we've been beating up Goreans, Kiddies,BDSMer's,Furries, people who cheat on their RL partners, along with each other. Welcome back.

Great summary Brenda!

Thank You.
Except I mispelled SHOES of all words.

The Forum Hangout?

Oh and Brenda was queen but abdicated.

WB

More dispersed people so that SL is bigger and yet less friendly ... this will fill up again and just get cosy in time for more land to be released.

Voice, sculpties, land management tools being improved, more groups, beautiful but system crippling Windlight ... positives. Many wonderful new places and people.

The asshat server, usual borkages and inventory loss. More idiots, of course. Popularity contests and ego inflation. Same old same old.

The clubs and places you liked are probably gone, luckily some things endure such as places like Svarga who are surviving against the odds.

The Ginko bank collapsed, so if you had deposits a year ago, you're now the proud owner of Perpetual Bonds that pay interest every, uh... well, they're listed on the WSE at htttp://, uh... well.... You got nothin'.

To replace the excitement of gambling, an element of Chance and Magic was added to the asset servers: for a few months, anything no-copy rezzed from Inventory would with varying probability disappear forever. Presto chango--*poof*--Now you see it, now you don't.

Don't forget to "Alakazam!!!! This prim is ... oh ... it's not deleted cos the asshat server didn't respond in a timely manner ..."

Thanks, Sylvia and Brenda!

So, what is Windlight? And why is it important? I assume it does something other than look pretty?

And what is this gambling ban of which you speak? Is there a ban actually in effect now, or just people still wishing there were?

Nah, looking-pretty is more or less what Windlight is all about.

The gambling ban came into effect in the summer and it was an all out ban, overnight, instantly, running a casino or game of chance was a TOS violation. It caused a big uproar among some and there are still the occasional argument or debate popping up now and then. Basically though, anything where you put money in, and there is a random chance of getting money (or something of value) out, is banned.

-Atashi

Gambling has been banned. Not sure on the deets, as it was just as I got here I think.

Windlight is a new viewer which shows different atmospheric effects. The water looks more realistic. So do Clouds. The sunset actually sends out an orange glow. Lights look more real with the glow. It just makes everything look wonderful. Have a look at some of the pictures on flickr or somewhere. Amazing! It seems to have different effects on computers too. some run better with it, some are the same, and some pack up when it is used.
Not sure what else it does though, other than making skirts disappear lol.

But it screwed the economics of SL up so badly, the Lindens now allow certain types of gambling that are borderline

Windlight produces amazing reflections, well in the water anyways.

No arguments there.. I didn't much care about gambling either way (although I did love the good ole 'sploders) but taking that much activity out of the economy overnight did have some ripple effects through the economy. It also came at a time when stability was in the toilet (search was down for a week at one point, along with teleports, asset server issues, etc etc) and IMHO it was a real mess.

The introduction of VAT, IDV and New Search have also had various effects on the economy, I think.

-Atashi

so sploders are technically illegal? Makes no sense I know of one in a popular dance club.

I bought my 'First Land' with a sploder win .. happy days.