What's Needed To For SL Be Ready For Prime Time?

A grammar checker for the thread titles in the forums.

Comprehensive group reform

Improved chat system

Permanent records of conversations

Choice of LSL, C#, VB, Perl, Python, and Forth languages, all available with a full featured IDE, increased scripting memory limits, and not-in-world syntax checker

Fix the freaking Other Person's Avatar Invisible Except For Attachments, Fixes By Changing Active Group bug. For a virtual world that makes a big deal out of interaction between avatars, not being able to consistently display avatars is grossly unprofessional and gives the impression of not ready for the garage more than not ready for prime time.

Text to speech and voice.

Group teleport

Music streams listed in profiles, audible gridwide

Better padding on the camp chairs

Ruby!

*stamps foot*

(edit: Forth???)

Streaming is *definitely* the way forward.

How am I supposed to see new content? Buy a CD and have it shipped to me via sneaker net?

Where's your imagination? You have to close your eyes and imagine it.

I was going to add in "the one the starts with R that I can't remember the name of" but it was to cutesy, even though perfectly honest. So yes, of course, Ruby too.

Forth is cool, besides one needs a reverse Polish notation language just because the phrase "reverse Polish notation" sounds neat.

There's another one, I think of it as a script language, Rex?

I think Second Life is marketable to programmers who would enjoy both purely recreational programming for their own pleasure as well as trying to make money writing programs for pay. Both groups need more choices of language and a real IDE for more fun and more profit. There is a side benefit to making things better for the programmers: scripters will make things that other people enjoy, so making it easier to write more complex programs that run faster and make better use of algorithms you can find in books without massive rewriting is a real good way to improve things for the entire user body.

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Also needs something along the lines of Travis's Landowner's Rights voting prop, the name of which escapes me at the moment, and possibly also Tiger Crossing's script and object control voting proposition's suggestion. People paying money for land need absolute control of who gets to do what, and what gets to do what, and what gets to get done on the land they are paying for, and they need a clear definition of their property boundaries, e.g, how far up their rights extend. Their rights needs to implemented in the program such that they can enforce their own rights rather than reporting abuses after the fact and hoping for possible punitive responses on the part of an overworked abuse staff.

Kind of depends on what you mean by "prime time"...

If you mean for RL business to begin to make a home in SL in quickly increasing numbers then I think the following;

1. Assurance that criminals that attempt to disrupt resident business are delt with severely by RL authorities,

2. Grid stability and lag issues improved dramatically,

3. Integration of SL and 3rd party software commonly used in business.

If say someone was coming into SL from say oh I don't know WoW or a compairable online game. I think their first thought is "what the fuck is wrong with this software, I can't fricken move." Followed a few weeks later with "Confirm cancell account?"

It's like walking threw soup trying to get anything done. Things that used to take a few min to create, now take 30 min. No thanks.

Priorities: Security and Lag.


Until then SL is a "cute" product.

A Shrubbery!

I doubt it will ever be "Prime Time" if by that, you mean massively indulged in.

Some things are missing, and not built into it's system, that will keep it from ever becoming a household name.

My guesses at some of these are listed below:

1. Expense. Sure..you can get a freebie account, but what you get for that is a glorified chat program. You get to socialize and see the sights. This can be great, but not great enough to attract a huge number of users.

If you want to really get involved and get creative, it costs a fair sum of cash. More so than your average MMORPG.

2. Goals. Folks like things that move in a linear stream. They like a beginning, a middle, and an end. They like to look at easy statistics to see how much they've improved and how much further they have to go before they come become even more powerful.

3. Sparkle. Oddly, in a world where almost anything is possible, the bang and boom and jaw-droppers are sorely absent. You don't look over the crest of a hill and see an awe-inspiring or fear-invoking sight. For the most part, you see places trying to sell you something. There is beauty, but it is static and lacks the interactive and costly sacrifice that brings folks together. You don't look over at your fellow warriors, after a tough battle, and say "Job well done. Behold the Citadel of Doom."

4. Consistant Performance. Try driving your bad motor scooter across a few sims. You'll get the idea. If the world of SL is built to look physical, it would be nice if it behaved at least semi-physical in a smooth and orderly fashion. If I wanna party at a huge and fun event with 100-500 other residents, then that's what I want. If I want to drive fast and hard, without dropping through the world or going off the edges of the map, then that's what I want. If I want to walk into an elven enclave, with glowing trees and radiant leaves and magic forces in evidence around me, I'd prefer that it didn't lag me almost to a stand still.

5. Consistant Guidelines. As much as I enjoy the freedom within SL (it's why I keep coming back), many folks would find the lack of clearcut rules and behaviors disturbing. Freedom and anarchy isn't for everyone.

6. Redundancy. AVs with those smooth and sexy skins all start to look alike. Clubs seem to all have much the same atmosphere. Money seems to rule the world, whether seeking it or spending it. Shops everywhere. Events parroted to a sickening degree. A sure-fire way to boredom.

7. Too Vast. While this seems like a plus, so much room and so much to create, it can be a negative. You don't run across folks like you did once. You don't hang around a city center in more then a handful at a time. It's huge. Too huge. It's grown to the point of being daunting and with that vast space comes the feeling of isolation and a disconnection from the community.

8. Lack of Guidance. Frustration, confusion and a feeling of being unimportant or overlooked grow without an active and vibrant team of folks to show you the steps that lead you to the right paths.

Anyway, that's a few guesses. I think SL is unique and could have been, and once was, great. It might be again. But you make anything all about money and the sour taste of greed begins to spread.

On the plus side, there is a team of hardworkers at LL, that seem fairly open to ideas. Creativeness is still greatly possible. There are great minds and personalities walking the SL world and folks are generally nice.

It is wonderful in it's way, and sad in others, but will it ever be mainstream? I don't think so.

Rexx

Ah, I remember that (via ARexx on the Amiga)

If I were looking for a new platform from which to launch or expand my venue, I would have to pass on SL.

I have never stated an opinion regarding SL takeovers of SL-spawned business and I won't start to do so now. However, after 1.5 years of reading the forums and observing past events, I could not risk investing my RL money and RL time in this platform. The money I DO invest in SL is for my entertainment only.

What is needed to attract RL business is the ASSURANCE that SL will not take over my business once they see it's a gold mine! Yes, of course there will be competition, but the competition could not, should not EVER be SL itself.

There is something lacking to entice a RL business (and I'm talking BIG business) into functioning in this virtual world: stability, reliability and the most important of all: INTEGRITY.

I wish I could state these feelings in a better way, but ....english is not my language.

Were I a RL business I would never accept the TOS in the first place.

and can I have a bouncy crotch please?

Honey, nobody but you could build the BEST bouncy crotch in SL, so get with it!