The 5 Stages of Greif In SL

Which stage are you on now?


* 1. Denial and Isolation: When I am in my skybox everything works fine.

* 2. Anger: How could Linden Labs do this to me? I pay alot of money to be here. I am one of their biggest supporters. And look at my business now - in ruins! Land I bought adjacent to a telehub at inflated prices is useless. My Mature rated mainland parcel is no longer searcheable and OPEN ENROLLMENT! I want restitution!

* 3. Bargaining: OK here is what we can do: Just schedule updates once a month and we're cool.

* 4. Depression: I need to go back to There. This is killing me.

* 5. Acceptance: You know the Lindens are people too. Give them time to work out the problems. It isn't like they are doing this just to upset you. It is a new technology. It is bound to be somewhat glitchy. They don't even profit from it.

I keep hearing this, "They don't even profit from it." and i`m not sure I believe it.

I keep hearing 'they are people too' but they constantly ignore bug reports in beta, putting them into the main release with no change, silence their critics, and in general don't really seem to care (as a company) about their user base.

I would so much like to be in the acceptance stage, I do understand that LL are sailing in uncharted waters and have to pretty much make it up as the go along.

But a the same time it's hard to watch them sleepwalking over the cliff so often. Cutting edge or not, some of the mistakes they've made seem obvious to me. Opening the grid up for unverified free accounts without restrictions, releasing updates that aren't ready, trying to bolt new features on before old bugs are fixed etc.

Vale

#4

I don't know what is in the LL Business Plan, but to date, it seems to have errors.. some of the things they have done, seem to lack logic. Admitedly SL has no forerunner in which to base itself upon, nor serious compeditor to play leap frog with.. it is very much frontier stuff, but any sound business has a business plan before the 'first spade' is let loose on the soil.

Eachtime they have to divert resources to patch up existing problems, it delays the rollout of the larger steps planned. Investors have to be convinced to stay with the long term goals/strategies of the initial plan, any deviation can cause delays in rolling out the next generation of SL (the next Havoc engine version). This is where I believe the biggest issue is.

I've been at #6: Rejection, for a few months now.

i'd have found it hard to believe six months ago, but i only login to SL once or twice a week (if that) nowadays to chat with friends I made during my first couple of months as a member.

i owned 1/4 sim for a while, took on scripting work regularly, spent a lot of money in my short time here, and couldn't ever see the addiction ending. but when billing issues were added to my existing client/in-world problems, and i got unreasonably angry with an LL representative on the phone, i figured it was time to get out.

i sold everything, and gave-up a lot of inventory to friends who'd have more use for it. SL is just a social/im thing to me now. not worth investing in at all because i'm so rarely in-world.

Well, I'm not giving up on SL just yet, but I am starting to think that might be the real #5. I swear to god I can forgive bugs, downtime and honest mistakes. But the way LL is doing business these days is really getting me down.

I think I'm at #4

Vale

I think my personal #6: lowering your expectations. Don't expect to be able to do anything at all on a Wednesday, particularly an update Wednesday... don't expect to be able to do anything for at least 48 hours after an update... Don't expect to be able to TP, attach objects, hold prims in place, complete a purchase successfully...Expect that the cool place you found last week, and the cool people you met there won't be here this week; driven out of SL by technical issues and other frustrations.

When I began in SL (way, way back in Nov 06), I harboured hopes of having a little business, turn a profit...Not to be Anshe Chung; just enough to cover tier, maybe expand a little...Not any more. Now, I just aim to tinker a little, make some pin money, and spend time with my friends (hello Im, Val, Mr S, Mr L, Mr P, Mr O, ladies, gents...and most of all, Ran...), but everything is accompanied with a Caveat; grid permitting, lag permitting, bugs permitting: LL permitting. The enjoyment I derive from SL is more than the frustration it causes me...and until it reverses, or everyone I know leaves, I'm still here...

5. .. Irrevocably.

We all profit from it .. why else are we here?

As for Lindens are people too .. heck, Heretic is a person huh? .. or do you think they're the latest Libsecondlife creation .. a bot, huh?

Helloooo? it's awfully dark in here ... ooh, echo, echo .. !

Maybe #5 should be....

Realizing that there is no alternative, that no other system gives the power of creativity in a virtual world like SL, you stick with it and stop complaining.

Yep .. still 5!
Go 5, go 5, go 5 ....

I suspect that a lot of this is just "brute force" development - pushing ahead, leaving a trail of dust behind that slowly gets swept up. Obviously I have nothing to back this up, but in my opinion, this is deliberate. They realize that with all the public attention, corporate interest, etc, that they have to get an edge on their competition - before that competition even shows up on the playing field.

On the other hand, pushing new features out while bugs linger isn't an unusual practice in software development. Just have a look at the Queen Mother of brute force development - Microsoft. Bugs still exist, but on the whole, the fast track approach has resulted in many more things being "fixed" than a holding pattern would have enabled.

I must confess I go through all them on any given day.
But I don't want to go back to There. I go back to learning how to do content for The Sims or something else.

Stage 5 here.

Depressed that there's a good possibility that I won't be able to play SL until I can afford to buy a new computer.

Can we roll back again? Please? It makes me sad when my computer crashes.
I could take SL crashing. That's all part of it. But my whole comp going, "Ummm.. yeeeeaaaahhhhh... why don'tcha go ahead and restart me. That'd be greeeeeaaaat." after about 20 minutes on SL? Not so much.

stage 6 here .. i know you dont have one but i know if ya did it been a good one (lol ) and im at 6 now big time lmao

I agree - I think "giving up" fits more as the fifth stage. Seeing as the five stages Kubler-Ross outlined were essentially about letting go, acceptance in this case IMHO would be accepting that it can't be saved and moving on.

Not that I am in any way close to that yet, but in the 4 1/2 months I've been here, I've had a couple moments of 'stage 4'. Mostly due to the way things seem to be being managed and the direction it sometimes seems to be heading. I also sometimes get #'s 2 and 3 mixed up. I'm more apt to bargain first then get angry when the bargaining doesn't work

-Atashi

It's so unreliable I don't do much when I get on any more other than socialize.

Stage #6 for me is cashing out (done) minimizing my risk (renting) and doing something else (LOTRO).

I have several good friends, so I'll continue to pop in occasionally, but the days of spending a significant porition of my free time and expendable income in SL have passed until the platform is stable more often than it's not.

That is very depressing


K.

I'm at stage 6: Apathy

I'm not even on the Launching Pad. I'm in the minority, but this is the best viewer I've used so far...works great. *sorry, guys*

Even when it all falls apart and I get fed up there's always something to renew my interest. Making a new friend, making my first clothes, remodelling my home, my friend opened a club which was great to visit for a tour. Even today a friend invited me over to see her new boat, spectacular! Granted, SL crashed as we sailed but still! I can remember the first time I saw Bliss gardens and realised just how much could be done in SL and, as long as there are things like that left to experience, I can't see me getting too depressed

#6. Waiting for my premium account to expire. When it does I'll sell my land cash out and not be coming back. Presently I'm in SL maybe 10 minutes a day to check on IMs. Most of the friends I made when I first came to SL are pretty much in the same state, if not already gone.

That's what I'm talking about.

I'm still desperately in love with SL. I just love it. I love building and hanging and chatting and making stuff and figuring stuff out and all the stuff SL allows me to do with my imagination.

What I'm depressed about is that it seems that I'm going to have to get a new computer to play it, as this one crashes like crazy with the new update.

I'm at #9...

A little fluffy cloud