The current status of Second Life?

I am brand new to Second Life. My account is only 3 days old at this point. I'm wondering about the current status of Second Life. By that, I mean how does Second Life in 2009 compare to Second Life during it's first few years?

Do a lot of new people still join Second Life regularly?

Do the developers still make regular updates?

Is there any point in creating new items to sell or has everything imaginable already been created?

Is Second Life still all the rage that it ever was or has the excitement level dwindled over recent years?

I'm afraid maybe I ended up waiting too long to join and missed out on all the good opportunities.

Thanks in advance!

Welcome aboard!


Yep.


Yep but frequently not the ones we ask/beg/scream for..


I dunno.. How good is your imagination?


Dwindled, I'd say. Partially because of some business decisions that LL has made (and is still making). The platform itself has gotten more stable since I joined but it's been somewhat stagnant in many other ways.


If your only goal is to make easy money, you might be right.

The numbers are still creeping up.From time to time.Making things is fun. Selling them is a bonus. I always think the biggest competition comes from freebies - there's a lot of good free stuff around.I have no idea as nobody else I know in real life belongs to SL, as far as I know.The best opportunities are for creativity, escapism and socialising. If you come with the intention of making a profit, you're likely to end up disappointed. If you come here for fun, you'll be happy.

Constantly.

See above.

There is ALWAYS more to create. The beauty of an imagination is that it has no bounds. You can think and think and think, and come up with things no one else has. It's wonderful. And, in SL, you can realize those imaginings, more often than not. There's plenty of reason to Create in SL, and there're tons of resources out there to learn.

Depends on who you ask. For some, it's old news. For others, it's the best thing ever, still. I still love it, as do many, many, many others.

Not at all. There's still a ton of stuff to do, and see, and new things every single day.

First of all, then, welcome to Second Life!

It's a LOT bigger and that has its pros and cons. It's less like the Wild West than it used to be (but still too much like it for others). You're going to hear lots of differing opinions about it from residents.

Yes, very much so. As with most online things competing for people's eyeballs, some stay, most leave after trying it. I have brought 8 people into SL, and one is still here.

Oh yes, most definitely they do. They company, Linden Labs is VERY active in developing the world further. New client software comes out fairly regularly. There is lots of information about what is going on over in the SL blog.

This definitely depends on how good your imagination is. Has a t-shirt been created that has a picture of your avatar on it? More than likely not. The question is whether that is anything someone would buy, or whether you care about that or not.

Was it ever a "rage"? If so I kind of missed that. I think it ebbs and flows, to be honest, depending on what sort of publicity they have managed to generate for it. I haven't seen much recently, but that doesn't mean that there won't be any.

Opportunities for what? What are your goals? If it's to make a quick buck then, as others have said, if there ever was a boat, then you missed it. The Economy of SL is bigger than it ever has been, I would suggest - tempered a bit by the current recession - but it's still there.

But so many people come to SL just to experience a virtual world, to be something that they can't be in RL, to visit places that have, to that point, only existed in someone's imagination. To meet others with a common interest.

And, for some, to engage in retail therapy for a fraction of what it would cost in the "real world" *grin*

Once again, welcome!

"The advancement of the arts, from year to year, taxes our credulity and seems to presage the arrival of that period when human improvement must end." - Henry L. Ellsworth, commissioner of the Patent Office.

Don't be. Second Life isn't like other virtual worlds. There is always something new and exciting both in creation trends and LL additions. The press tries to force things into an oversimplified hot-or-not, but as with any creative endeavor or evolving place, being the fashion will wax and wane.

Yes.



Yes, although they tend to be less sweeping than they used to be.



Not everything imaginable has been created. However, a few things have changed. First, the quality bar has risen a lot higher - you will probably have to work and practice for much longer before you are noticed, whereas a while ago just being interested in creating was enough to draw attention. Secondly, a lot more of the world has been defined; there are standards for many activities and for what certain items represent. Bear in mind that these standards have evolved through the market and are probably not a result of someone getting in early and making the decision, but just the market refining the product over generations.



Excitement has dwindled a little bit.



People were already saying that in 2005, they were wrong too.

Welcome to SL, and to the forums.

There have been a lot of changes in the two years I've been here. Technically speaking, they've been changes for the good. We now have 80,000+ people on line at a time without crashing the grid. That's double the number from just two years ago. The viewer software has been improved, too.

On the social side, there have been good and bad changes. The grid is becoming more "civilized". There are no more casinos, and no "banks" promising you 2% per week interest on your money. The ugly rotating ad farms have been outlawed. There are changes in the works to segregate "adult content" and restrict access to it.

Content continues to improve. I see more and more really good looking clothing designs, hair, skins, and animations. The bar is constantly being raised.

SL is a great place to meet people, to socialize, to explore and to create. Enjoy!

Ack! Did we just get surveyed?!?!

Thank goodness at least one other person isn't getting sucked in to the con.

Pep (A cynic is what an optimist calls a realist)

None, ever. The fact that you're not here pretty much proves that, doesn't it?

In the last couple of years, all we have really seen were a replacement of the rendering engine, a replacement of the physics system, a rewrite of all the underlying protocols, an all new scripting engine, the addition of failover databases, asset storage and networks, an entirely new search system, custom sculpted primitives, the first little steps toward in-world web integration, release of the viewer source code to enable third party versions etc., the introduction of voice chat, and maybe a few other things. So yeah, I guess it has been pretty stagnant.

Everything that the human mind will ever be capable of imagining has already been implemented. Trust me on this, I have a time machine and checked it out last weekend.

Why...I believe we did.

/me sends you a pair of cute shoes.

Well, at least it was better than the survey I posted yesterday where I just wanted a yes/no answer.