is there anything worth doing in SL anymore?

I had an event at my place last night and the place was packed with avatars, as many as 25 at one time, about 60 over the course of three hours. I sure hope they all found it "worth doing;" I sure did.

Probably what happened to you, since SL is dynamic and constantly changing, is that the LMs you had to places are a few months out of date, and some of those places have closed down or moved.

If you hang around here, and at the Forum Cartel Hangout in world, I suspect you will encounter lots of people and get more great ideas for stuff worth doing in SL than you will have time to actually do. Have fun!

*Sighs* I posted a thread like this and got much the same shamless plugs and answers from the exact same people.


Spoken like a true Linden! That is until they forget about us and go for the deep pockets of corporations. Oh wait....

I saw an edifying factoid yesterday. Chicago has the highest murder rate in the country...their victims exceeded the number of soldiers killed in Iraq over the last year. They have some of the poorest performing schools. Yet they have some of the most restrictive gun laws and the highest tax rate of any city in the country. Mr. Obama comes from the Illinois political machine...Chicago is the result of his policies, and those like him.

Weep, America.

It would help if the OP was a little more specific about what he was looking for. What did he do, where did he go before? There are many good suggestions here, and people are just trying to help...

And yet you are still here, so I trust you found some way to entertain yourself, other than come to the forums and complain that the help people give you isn't helpful enough?

ETA: Isabeau makes a very good point. (/me waves at Isabeau, good to see you again!) There is such a diversity of things to do in SL that the suggestions would be more apt if the question were more pointed. Dance/socialize? Build? Script? Listen to live music? Explore lovely builds? Role play? Shop for nice clothes, or silly avatars? There is plenty to do in SL. Some of the places the OP did those things months ago may have moved or closed, but there are others. It would be helpful to know both what you and the OP are interested in doing.

I'm never quite sure where people are going that they only see ghost towns.

I just logged in today for a few minutes - went to a yard sale that had quite a few people there, then went to a store I've been meaning to go see for quite awhile - LOTS of people there for the size of the store.

I think the last time this came up, I mentioned the dance venue "Frank's Place." If you ever feel that SL is a ghost town, just try getting in there and then moving due to the lag. (Nice place to dance, just very crowded usually.)

I personally prefer to not see a lot of people when I'm exploring SL, but I always see people anyway.

I've seen this assumption very often but I don't think it's borne out. In fact, the emptiness of SL can stifle creativity, if anything.

A long while ago - 2006 I think - a friend asked me why I didn't build a castle to go with a fantasy avatar I had. I gave him some random answer but I was never actually sure why not until a lot later - it's because, why would I, when it would just be empty? I'm not a good enough builder to build something I'd enjoy looking at (and I certainly wasn't back than), and though I could try to get better that's kind of artificial (why work purely - and I do mean purely, with no other reason at all - to be able to work again to make something I'd enjoy looking at, when there are other things I enjoy I could do right now?)

Now, ok, I could have friends over, but - and I don't know if this is a common thing - most of my real, long-term trusted friends in SL, I now only speak to in IM because we just don't _need_ anything more. We don't need to meet in a fancy build to "express ourselves" because we know each other so well that's not necessary anymore, and it's far more about the real people than the avs anyway at that point. I don't know if that's something that others have experienced but it might be a factor.

And this is sort of the problem. Casually suggesting to someone that they build or go shopping - but those things, in a vacuum, don't have that much value. I understand that to some people, they might, but if I'm just flying around the empty cities what difference does it make what my avatar looks like? I know you can say "don't let other people determine your SL" but isn't the whole point of using SL, that it is a networked service that can bring you in touch with other people? If you aren't hoping to benefit from that then you could just use opensim running on your local PC.

And as for "roleplaying", 90% of roleplay sims are either empty or locked. Yea, I know they have trouble with griefers, but still, that's the experience they deliver. (If a product is poor, people won't buy it just because there's a good reason for it to be poor.)

I feel that way. At first, it was simply the challenge of being able to make something/anything that got me creating stuff. Now, I'd like to show it to others. So, if no one is around to see my build or my sculpture, why bother keeping it rezzed? Yes, I love to stare at the damn spinning things I make, but with no one else looking at them, I lost motivation to create more.
Totally happens with me. I have long-term SL friends that I IM every week, but NEVER see.

LOL. Same here. In fact, a lot of them I've never seen inworld. In fact most of my time inworld is spent in solitary exploring, or RP. I do most of my socializong here and at SLU

I love these posts... Or what I really love are the3 people who start screaming...
"No its not! There is lots to do!" lmao.

SL is dying BIG TIME. Has been for some time.... Insert sky is falling here.

Hell the sky is way past falling. I went on a venture the other day and 90% of what I used to know has vanished into thin air... Gone... Dust in the wind.
And these were hot spots at the time. Why is it so hard for people to jsut say yep it does seem to be dying. I swear some people will still say it's fine when all sims are ghost towns which has more then started.

The world is in bad shape right now and yes that does have some to do with it... Hell I bet it has alot to do with it but I also think the fact is that the Lindens went on a major advertising quest about 2 years ago if that which made SL main stream problem is the steam is gone.

People have moved on to better things because for the simple fact they have become bored simple as that.

Right now there are too many other VR worlds right around the corner getting ready to be the next big thing. I am not sure what direction the Lindens are attempting to go but they have done their best it seems to kill what made SL "busy". Lets not even get started on the who gamble thing.

Right now it seems SL is for artist who just want to create, people who are over sexed or under depending on how you look at it and people who have never been here so they login to check it out then leave.

I know it hurts... I wish it was lies... But its all true and its time to face facts.
The hype is over.

If the Lindens were smart and really wanted to put SL back on the map they would launch another huge advertising quest but that will not happen. I think their direction was to do what Traveler! did and that is to dump the people for business however that did not work out so well for them either... RL companies just are not leaving SL they are running.

Just my 2 cents. Let the flame begin.

Unfortunately, You'll be OffenBach

Based on the Month-to-Date numbers for November, SL land is contracting at an annualized rate of 65-70%. Those numbers could pick up quite a bit as we get closer to the actual price increase dates for the opensims.

Is there anything worth doing in SL?

You speak like there's no such thing as blimps in SL!! Nothing could be further from the truth!

I think that line in Team America: World Police captured it best; "It's our duty to read the papers each morning, and repeat what we've read as if it were our own opinions!"

The sky is falling, SL is dying, the Lindens are the stupidist , most evil people on the planet, I'm going to XYZ grid, I can't wait for ABC grid, etc. All well and good. But most of those comments are coming from people who still keep logging into SL. Again, that's fine. But, if I got so much heartbreak from SL as some profess, and despised LL as much as some say, the fact that there is no other option besides SL would not keep me banging my head against the wall. Personal relationships can be caried on n other ways, other creative outlets can be found. It isn't worh the level of anger some are showing. It isn't healthy

LOL. Bullshitters reading bullshit.

Hey, but George Clooney's dad actually went to Darfur you know. So he knows. Oh yes.

ok my take .... yup it is me lol

You make SL what you make of it.

For me a bit of building, socializing, chatting, sometimes shopping, oh and dancing of course

Where else can I get home from work. Take a class if there is any, build something even though most might not like it hehe, chat with group chat & friends, shop for textures, and of course dance with my honey.

Hey my world and I LOVE IT!

B

...in October, the showcase sims stayed busy 24 hours a day for the most part. I think the Showcase last month made a lot more folks actually start using the thing. Before early October, I never even payed attention to the showcase.

There's a group called SL Things To Do, that's good to join if you wanna stay up on some real cool Sims to explore...also if you use SNAPZILLA on sluniverse, look @ Torley Linden's photo album...lotta fun spots in there.

If Anya's figures are anywhere near right, half the population is bots and campers and doesn't need land. Also, according to LL, about 44% of SL is Open Spaces. So I'd expect the land area to contract about 40 to 50%. This should actually be a positive impact on most users' SL experience...because they'll find more real people per sim.

It will benefit LL because they will have the same number of customers, but only need two thirds as many servers to support them.

There's pain now, but I think that in the end the consolidation will be good for SL.

That is of course unless most of the people using the OS sims do not leave SL after having everything ruined for them. Just a thought, its going to be an interesting few months as things continue to change here

... Except that inevitably, consolidation also eliminates the value of building - because if people are consolidated at place X, they are not elsewhere. Great for the owners of place X, but not so great for everywhere else.

Oddly enough, I don't think building is impacted that much. Building depends on prims. While the *land area* of SL is contracting, much of that is due to consolidation of OS sims into full private estate regions...with no change in the overall prims supported.

Builds will be closer together, but people will still pile prim on prim.

I think many more Sims will be lost than consolidated into full Sims and its also the economic changes that will happen over the coming months, the land is just one small part of what will become the bigger SL picture in the months ahead imo.

A group I know bought two full sims and four open sims.

A team of talented and dedicated builders spent months and months creating an amazing roleplaying area, setting up groups and encouraging people to join.

Now they're probably going to ditch the opensims completely and reduce to two full sims .... while investigating other grids with a view to moving out of SL in the future.

To say they feel betrayed by LL and disillusioned at the prospect of all their hard work just vanishing into thin air, barely touches on how they feel right now.

I don't see how this can be good for LL's business because surely they are losing the very people that they need onboard to create an interesting and vibrant world?