If LL woke up...

No gameing company would take it the whole system on second life... sever side/client side is a joke.
The entertainment maybe... maybe but they prolly wouldnt either to much work would be involved to fix the system and the bandwidth cost would be WAY to high.

I'm not sure SL could be sold to any gaming outfit. It's not designed that way. But they could really change how SL and virtual worlds are seen and developed by teaming up with the Open Grid community. Pull together with OG and connect the hundreds (which would quickly grow to the thousands) of independent servers. Expand to really make a 3d internet possible. The sky would be the limit then...........but LL will not be the hub which is their stated goal from the beginning.

They'll have to eventually make a decision. The direction they are headed right now is a dead end. Not in the too distant future SL could very well be the historic predecessor of "The 3D Internet"..........key word HISTORIC. They will be history....no longer part of it.

Actually that's what I'm hoping for Brenda.....either that or a viable alternative 3D VW emerging. I've grown weary of the mis-managment of this game. It's not the same as it was during 2006 or 7. There use to be a buzz in-world...i feel deflated and think many others do too!

I've always been of the opinion that SL will end up being a little backwater world in the Metaverse, if it survives, and I've seen or heard nothing that changes that opinion.

But that is just my opinion, which isn't worth all that much in the grand scheme of things.

Your opinions are as valuable as anyone elses!

Reading all the opinions on this thread alone....i think we're pretty much in agreement that the future of SL doesn't look too rosy!

Actually, they still could be, I happened to be thinking of such a scenario earlier.

The way the perm system on objects is currently designed you basically have two choices so the objects can transfer between grids without being full perm:

1) Scrap what exists and design a new system.

or ...

2) Have a single entity manage asset servers for the network. Colocate in several geographically distributed points.

Of course, if the OG model takes off, eventually the asset servers would have to get even more distributed. But that gives time for LL to come up with another way to keep itself relevant to the OG network.

I think LL are right in exploring new markets, whether with the SL grid or with the new behind-the-firewall version, as long as the interests of us, the ordinary residents, are not sacrificed in the process.

I agree that a presence in SL is not going to be of lasting benefit to all commercial organisations. But in the future, when technology and has improved, we'll have better computers, LL will have beter severs and the broadband will be faster. Then, the benefits for organisations. as well as ordinary residents will be that much greater.

if LL - SL just was just about corporate and educational businesses and I as a sole person just wanting to create and meet and yes, frankly play at sexual games... I would not be in SL.

Frankly its getting harder to stay as it is. But I think thats more a point of me getting bored with it.

I have said in the past that LL should abandon their prpe dream of being the new internet, and focus on being a main portal to it. Despite the alleged Learning Curve, SL is still a fairly easy entry level virtual world for the average person I think. I figured it out, after all.

This can be accomplished by either making SL an ebtertainment platform OR a business/education platform. I don't think it is feasable to try to make it both, at least not in LL's hands.

I don't think that there's likely to be a new "3D internet" in the way that LL thought there would be (and a lot of other people did too, for that matter). Most users want to use the internet as a tool, and a 3D internet interface actually makes that harder.

There is a market that LL could leverage into, though: the new wave isn't _virtual_ reality, but _augmented_ reality. They could create a series of sims which correspond exactly to real locations - with exactly the same geography as the real places - and then allow people to create a virtual presence inside them; and then, create a client for mobile phones or simliar which allows the user to stand in the REAL, real place, and to see a view on their screen of the real view they're looking at, with the "extra" virtual content that was added inside the SL sim superimposed. That's a rising trend now and SL's interface is ideally positioned to be an editor for it, but of course, scanning real cities into SL is not easy.

On the issue of dream fulfilment and the existing customers, that basically comes down to the question I have been trying to ask here for months (and have usually been yelled at for daring to ask) if it is really possible for all customers of SL to have that, or if it is not because for one customer to have it depends on some number of others not doing so.

I think LL has to reinvent itself and by reinvent I mean make a new product. Several new products actually. I think that a lot of people.. the quiet majority... don't want to join an SL that's full of people who have been around for years. They don't want to join an OLD game community. I mean.. heck I don't want to join WoW cause I'd be a newbie and I there'd be all these alts of guild people running around powerleveling themselves and where every single person around you has a leg up on you. I want to join a NEW place. LL needs to make the new second life. All the graphic and physics improvements needed. Optimization to support more people. Better databases.. All that jazz. It would be reset. Square one where no one has a store or knows how to do anything. And it would be open to all ages and be more restrictive in terms of behavior and maybe even have verification from the get go. So you might say that you would never join a new SL, but that would be the point. LL could foster a separate world.. several worlds.. and then put in a little portal to other worlds later on. That's how I'd do it. Maintain a status quo on SL with continuous small improvements while working on a brand new shiny SL to bring in the new people.

No matter what they do to make the interface simpler (and thereby, less flexible), they can't get around the insanely intensive hardware requirements. As long as the thing doesn't run well (or at all) on yer $400 Dell special, it's not going to be usable by any kind of mass audience.

I think you're onto something, Bree. At the very least you've crystalized several ideas I've had about SL over the years into one theme. Noob Social Access. To me, SL started to go downhill with the bots. At first the landbots were my main ire as they directly affected me, and the copybots affected those I was friends with so they upset me as well, but about the time they went for the ageplay and then gambling bans, I began to realize something else was at disquieting me, but couldn't put my finger on it until now.

As I stated before, bots will ultimately lead to oligarchy. Oligarchies are only a dream for the privileged few. They are an RL nightmare for the majority, and a dream factory must cater to the majority in order to bring in new residents. How many came into SL to start a business they could never afford to start in RL, due to the fact that the barriers for entry are so high in RL. Viable small businesses need to return to SL, and noobs need a new way of earning (not being given, but working for) their first Lindens. If your goal is to bring in the highest number of users, and keep them in SL, then purely competative markets with a modest amount of strictly enforced regulation is the way to go.

Noobs also need clear, concise rules. This fuzzy language in TOS deters new users. If you don't know your boundries you are less likely to explore them.

LL is trying to make SL more technically user friendly for newbies, so on that score I give them a cookie, so long as they keep it up.

One area we disagree on Bree is the behavioral restraints. Sex and violent roleplay is a major part of SL, and it brings in a heck of a alot of new people. If anything SL should make it an easier affair. Not that they should admit to doing so, but they really should look into Red Light District, Alt.com, and other sexually-geared social networking sites, and take some cues from them. So long as they plausibly claim the new changes serve other purposes and are not meant to expand sexual play in SL, they can hide behind their record of technical misteps and the adult content creators will take it from there.

Finally, and this is where SL becomes a major marketing tool, once you've reinvigorated the population by making SL the dream factory it works best as, hire market researchers to figure out the best way to reach the masses you've once again attracted. Unlike WOW where there are set objectives for players, SL permits people to wander and evolve. I came in to be a voice escort, realized that SL had IM but no voice at the time, and soon found camping, failed at starting a gestational surrogacy roleplay, and then discovered real estate. I've tried other businesses as well, and am always seeking new opportunities, but that is SL's stregnth for marketing. People are living their dreams in SL. Marketing is about culling dreams in order to sell products and services. It's a no brainer, but you can't just assume it will all fall into place without a plan.

Businesses that would want to advertise in SL need a path, much like the noob. Buying a private sim and hoping for the best is too large of an investment, especially considering the failures in 2006. LL needs to grow the fanbase, while at the same time, spoon feeding the virtues of SL to marketers.

Over time, SL will have to work hard to prevent RL corporations from taking over certain segments of the SL economy through unfair competition akin to bots, and driving away users, but so long as they are serious about regulating, they can maintain the level playing field that is neesary to keep the most residents in world, happy, and spending, and expand SL's marketing potential indefinitely, becoming the next Google, if not the next internet.

A seperate Business/Educational grid would be another way of bringing in new users, if under certain conditions the two grids could be crossed, and the lessons learned on the main grid could serve to guide the developement of the Business/Educational one.

Interconnected but sepearate grids is my preferred way to go. I do enjoy some of the educational sims...NASA for example. But the corporate areas I would avoid like The Plague.

At the moment SL needs growth in it's user base, it's been stagnant for over 6 months now. Most SL businesses are feeling the pinch.
Today, I took visitor traffic readings in about 30 different locations....and traffic has nosedived....be it Main shops or Mall locations. The last 2 weeks i've seen the lowest readings of 2009. Even some of the SL Brand names are feeling it. I'm not surprised shops are closing....and it's compounded due to XStreet latest Fee proposals.



.

but on the other hand all my places i back are booming. But they are------oops wait for it! ------ entertainment venues not business per se.

But we all know that story about SL being a business platform and not an entertainment one. Shame.
I have no idea where sl is going but they better decide fast. that clock is getting mighty loud.

100% agree. Something more like Nebraska though but scaled down for use by normal peoples. Large city complexes with thier own rules to enter. I know sims have yaddda yadda yuaddda but this would be a "must check off on viewer to complete teleport" option.

If I ran SL I could have you all making cash and having (more) fun in no time.(*disclaimer-assuming I can get all new code and servers and a locked down viewer made) I really could. Yeah yeah some of you already do, well psst, youll make even more. It will never happen of course. To bad. I have some killer ideas im not giving away for free to the lab.

Always step back and look in from the outside window. and say "what if?" thats how change happens. Some of you are way to immersed or close in to the old SL to see the forest for all the trees. You dont think so. but you are dead on mindset.

case in point.
I can tell the land ownership makeup of a sim now by just looking at it most times
. I hate mainlands. Always have. Islands have always been wide open and availble to all, mainland lots of crappy boxes in a bigger box(screens)
NOW? go to many islands with new renters and its full of ex mainlanders who brought their 'I live in a box in a box mentality' with them. HELLO! its a fraking island we dont do screens on islands. maybe on mainland but not here. your ruining islands with your boxes. make a note of that next time you go sim hopping. youll notice it now I bet too.

thats it for now.
have a nice day.

Islands have NOT always been "wide open and available to all". I've been to plenty of islands chopped up into boxes, by design, by the estate owner... chopped up in ways that aren't even possible on mainland, using insane terraforming and using megaprims back before they were allowed on mainland. I've been to plenty of places on the mainland that are wide open and not "chopped up" at all.

This is just what the Lindens are wrestling with, though. SL can't really _be_ a dream factory while it depends on the social environment, since you can't require that everyone treats everyone else exactly the way they'd like to be treated. Yet, modifying it to not depend on the social environment would make people like it even less. remains a completely free social environment; and if it stopped being that, many users wouldn't like it, so it would be even further from that goal.

Also, "a dream factory" wouldn't necessarily be popular. It's strange, but psychologists have actually shown that human happiness comes less from being in a good situation right now, then it does from setting and achieving goals for the future. It's borne out by another study which shows that what people most want, from online games, is "progress".

And that's where virtual worlds fall apart right now: in most of them, there isn't "progress" available for consumer users. If they want something, they can buy it. If they wait, they can.. buy it later, for the same price. There's no way they can improve that. Maybe they can advance within a social group - but maybe not, because again other people can't be required to give them that experience.

Now, they can start a business.. and they might get to progress.. but that's a pretty big time commitment and isn't guaranteed to work. Moreover, the most likely progress they'll get is greater money income, which doesn't sound like a bad thing, but just might not be what that person wants.

So - if it can't do that.. then what can its big feature be? I don't know - and it seems the Lindens don't, either. That's just the problem.

Or buy another product, a better one, produced by a better creator. There has been continual and unrelenting improvement in the quality of goods in SL, thanks to UGC.

That isn't the same as the individual consumer experiencing their own progress, though.

It's exactly as much "experiencing their own progress" as anyone gets in any planned MMO.

(side note: Ceera's post is one of the best I've read. Well done!)

I see and appreciate what you're both saying Yumi & Argent. Can you suggest what experience of progress/development people get from FaceSlap et al? If it's just the social contact how could SL deliver that better?

Incidentally, that's one of the things that the US constitution got dead right "the PURSUIT of happiness" - no one can guarantee it for you and you probably wouldn't want it if they could. Contrast with all the wishy-washy 'human rights' included in our awful European constitution now.

I think you're mixing up the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, no?

Incidentally, the original phrasing was Locke's "Life, Liberty, and Property". That was considered too radical.

Well, not really. The problem is that there's no tie between their own actions and their own improvement. Waiting for a better product to come out arguably isn't an action at all (it's choosing _not to_ act) and is an improvement for everyone, not just them.

I understand your argument - that in planned MMOs the link and the gain are both artificial - but that's still better than nothing. The brain doesn't seem to demand that we consider the quality of the link, and gain is _always_ subjective, even in the real world. One person might think it's great that they can play a new chord on the guitar today, and someone else replies, "Who cares? You're still not good enough to play to anyone else."