A Look Back, A Look Ahead

We invite you to post your favorite Second Life experiences and builds in this thread. And check out M's latest blog post "A Look Back, A Look Ahead" for some of his favorite Second Life discoveries --


Greetings all!

M Linden here. I’d like to wish you, your families, friends, partners and loved-ones a happy and healthy New Year.

As we come to the end of the year, I thought I’d share some of the wonders of Second Life I’ve encountered over the past seven months and talk about what’s ahead in the year to come.

This has been an incredible period of discovery for me. Second Life is a wondrous place, filled with amazing avatars, beautiful places and unbelievable things. I can’t do them all justice in a blog post, but I’d like to share some of the experiences and content that make Second Life unlike any other platform for creativity, connection, discussion, interaction, innovation and commerce. After the jump, I've listed some of the many things I've enjoyed, been inspired by and admired in and around Second Life since I joined Linden Lab in May. I’d love for you to post your top picks in the Forums for all to enjoy, too.

Moving ahead into 2009, we at Linden Lab are continuing to pursue our world-changing mission. We are working hard to create a virtual world that "...advances the capabilities of the many people that use it, and by doing so affects and transforms them in a positive way."

To make real progress, we're continuing to focus on a small set of strategic initiatives:

* Ensuring the platform is stable and able to scale with the growth
ahead

* Improving the first-hour experience (on the web, in the viewer and
inworld) for all Residents and especially for new users so that we
can continue to expand our active user base

* Making the mainland experience more attractive and fulfilling for Residents

* Localizing our content and experience in key international markets

* Developing new products (e.g., land products as well as new social
and commerce tools) that offer Residents more opportunities to
create, connect, socialize and transact

While the majority of our resources are focused on our core market (content creators and consumers), we are also focused on building the business and education markets. Second Life is a powerful platform for doing business, collaborating, teaching and learning and we want to ensure we remain a vital platform for businesses and educators worldwide.

To support our growth, we will continue to recruit key staff and executives to the Linden Lab team. This year, more than 100 new Lindens joined the company. Three of them (FJ Linden, T Linden and Howard Linden) are senior leaders who bring decades of highly relevant management experience to our leadership team.

I feel very fortunate to have joined Linden Lab at this stage of the company's development. It is immensely gratifying to be part of this amazing thing called Second Life. You -- the Second Life Residents -- bring unbounded creativity, passion and commitment to the virtual world. You -- with the content you create and the experiences you craft -- make it an amazing world.

Thank you and Happy Holidays!

First of all, your statement is presented exactly when SL is down LOL LOL.
Hmm, well, you know, i would really love to see sl being able to support my business in rl.
Untill now i really see it as an entertaining platform and not much else.
I know that LL is seriously working on making the platform more stable however the changes been made are really so so. Take viewer 1.21 for instance.
Have you noticed that it is severly slower even on the newest pc's with the most advanced graphics card.
Check http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-8824
Nope, i don't need any advice; code just sucks... pardon my words.
And why do i hear many complaints about that inworld...

Did you know that many businesses in rl still run XP 2 or 3 with a less advanced graphics card.
Did you know that sl still crashes at 'online 70,000' where that figure had been 60,000 at Dec 2006? Come on... I do understand that sl is a very complex system, but bringing my rl business into sl? *Chuckles*

Loving sl, but please fix it ok ?

...and i bet half of the avatars he seen are bots...

As for great places ive seen, INSILICO so far is the winner for me...

Boy Catherine... posting this when SL is down?!?! I suggest ducking and running for cover!! lol

Yeah Laura... ducking for cover and deep, that's what i would do... LOL

Indeed! We're on top of it though and the team worked hard to get things back up again. Overall, our downtimes have been reduced quite substantially since late Spring. Still more work to do though.

Not getting the point M...

I give you that M... the downtime has greatly improved since last spring.

But please understand something... when dealing with addicts, there is no reasoning!

Down time is one thing, service is another

Hi Linda. I definitely get it, didn't mean to seem flippant in my post above. Stability is listed as number one on the list of priorities.

We're hiring, investing, changing our vendors and processes. We will get the platform to where it needs to be!

/me still wants a bear from M. Gotta get one that Mari doesn't have yet!!! (and now one from Catherine too, please! edit: and Everett! )

To make a comment on the most advanced computers and it being slower

I finally got my self a new computer thinking maybe just maybe that I would notice a vast improvement on the way second life runs ( ie: less lag etc )

Below are my computer specs

Quad Core2 2.5 Ghz CPU
8 Gigs Ram
9800GT Nvidia Card
30mb/30mb Fiber Optic connection

And I still get lag so bad sometimes can't move and things don't rez correctly

Now think about the average user of your game that doesn't have a system or ISP of those specs and think about how bad there experience is.

You claim to make everything better but in all my years here in second life i've seen things just go down hill

Like somebody said bring your RL business into SL anymore is a Joke

The only people making any real money in this game anymore is you Linden Labs ..

I know that you changed Data Centers but I believe at one time you used to host servers at a NOC called The Planet ( well you could rent servers from them the high end specs needed to run a sim for around 80 USD a month ) I know cause i've colocated some boxes there and also rented ones in the past .. so lets do the math you charge 1000 usd up front to put a sim online and then 300 + dollars a month to keep the sim online now lets take that and multiply it to the thousands of sims that are online and my rough guess is that Second life ( linden labs ) is pulling in around over 20 + Million dollars a month just off server rental please correct me if i'm wrong but i'm sure you will never make that # published .. but it was once posted how many sims were online and some of us did the math.

I gave up sim ownership along time ago thought about redoing it again with open space sims but the bait and switch that is being pulled now just made me re-think the whole process

I"ll enjoy the social networking of the game and talking with friends but beyond that will never waste my money

Great places? I have been to many.

Off the top of my head, the Costa Rica sims are beautiful, educational, full of things to do -- and they have anteaters!

I could name more but I can't get in world at the moment to look at my landmarks. That's okay. Hey, we are all still pioneers as far as I'm concerned. We can weather these things.

Okay M... thanks for the reply. Usability would be another issue.
You are working on that too i know.
SL can be more stable, and yes, downtime has improved.
However half of my relations rezzing for about an hour?
They claim to have modern equipment. Hmm please have a look at that 1.21.
I really believe there is something fundamentally wrong with it.
At least analyze that deeeeep. Much appreciated
I would be severly laught at would i invite rl business relations... i can't afford to
play with my rl business image !! Untill now i hush hush...
Opportunity for sl... I know by now that many in sl are professionals... *wink*
If only they would see the real potential of it... I do see it... however...
issues... not a little... counting on you M !

I'll send you one!

Usability is a H U G E focus. We have a big effort behind that and have for several months. The viewer is complex and it needs to be much simpler. As for 1.21, we're on it Linda.

But anyway. If the database is maybe later happy again, pls send me 2 bears too

I would be interested in knowing when some features which have been asked for again and again will be implemented.

Back in June of 2008, a Scripting Projects Priority Survey was conducted by Linden Lab, outlining 8 Scripting projects, and what the community felt their priority should be. Glenn Fisher presented the results at the end:

Survey:


Results:


Now HTTP-IN is coming along, and it seems Script Resouce limits are now coming with the Openspace changes. It leads one to wonder, is this survey of what residents want having any bearing on what LL plans for the future? Or will LL continue to follow their own agenda?

There is a good reason that 4. LLGiveInventory and LLGiveMoney With Confirmation was ranked so high. Can we realistically expect to see this feature coming anytime soon? Or will it be relegated to the bottom of the priority list, despite overwhelming support?

You got it

Great to see you in forums, M.

If anything, just interacting with people here is possibly the very best move of all - better than any new tech or downtime solutions.

One singularly important thing I've learned, is that Second Life residents will really stand behind anyone that works to understand and relate to them, regardless of whatever problems there are.

Warm regards and happy New Year,

Des

Hi Darien. I'll check with Glenn and get back to you.

Thanks Desmond! I like to connect with Residents. It's easier on an evening like tonight when I'm on vacation with a bit of time on my hands. Appreciate your post.

I realize I put you on the spot, thanks

At the risk of never getting a bear, I gotta say I'm not sure you do, M. Not necessarily related what Linda was saying but what residents have been screaming for a couple months now.

The land size of the grid dropped almost 2000 regions in November. December is looking like it's going to be a similar number. This is before the openspace/homestead price bump even happens and well before the real price hike happens. With the grid being about 30k regions or so at the end of October, these are numbers that I'd be tempted to call 'staggering.'

Y'all can talk all you want about first-hour and enabling newbies and all that but LL, IMO, has become it's own biggest obstacle to growth. It's not just letting people log in and stay in, it's also about letting people know that LL is serious about the long game.

I shell out US$125/month (minus L$5k or so of donations and such) for my mainland areas. Do I have any confidence _at all_ that you guys aren't going to raise my monthly fee by +50% next year and force me out? No. Of course not. LL has proven, multiple times, that you don't go in for that wimpy few% increase once or twice a year when you can just drop a nuke on us every couple years instead.

Given the kinds of pricing actions LL has done on the openspace and the 2006 private island tier change, if a RL friend of yours asked you about joining SL with the intention of making some product that would get them some mininal return - just enough to cover expenses - could you honestly tell them it was safe??

/me is grumpy about the openspace stuff but still wishes the best for LL and residents. And can I have a bear?

edit:

Oh, geez.. Now I feel all guilty for yelling..

/me looks really embarased.

All i wanna know is when are we going to be able to log on again? I have not been able to get on for hours now..... I also have a gaming computer and rez and Lag and all the above!!!
vick