Doom and Gloom: For Drama

I avoid mainstream media, I don't read the newspaper. Christmas was especialy commerical and I kept it more in my heart and my home than out of my checking account. There are ppl like me out there who do not find "value" in a good commercial, commercial property, commercial investment. We find more value in the small mom and pops stores that seem to be nearly non existant these days. However be that as it may SL is what it is. Made up of all things commercial, sex balls, clubs, casinos. Ect. Balance would be nice but I don't remember stumbling upon mass residentail areas nor do I find much value in my us dollar for the slut o rama clothing lines spewed everywhere like dirty laundry. Real value in SL is far and few between threw my eyes. Again be that as it may its still the only 3D world where I can build and get immediate input back on my builds. I do know however at this point if another Co. were to suddenly spring up and be what SL was suppose to be. I would jump ship in a New York min. My current investment in SL is min. compaired to what I had invested; both time and us dollars.

Why? Your right from a technical standpoint it has a long long way to go and I got tired of waiting for the lag and bugs to end.

MarCat

they're actually in the basement roflz

Assuming the biblical Exodus was historically true, the destination was not "somewhere else" but "not here".On the rare occassions when I log in now the disjunction between what drew me to SL and what I see today is so great that I log out pretty quickly. On a positive note, it has done wonders for the organization of my overly-large photo collection.

I'm still waiting for the novelty to wear off.

Sure there are things I think could be improved. There always will be. SL is like a work in progress that will probably never be completed because there doesn't seem to be too much of a limit as to what can happen in it. Watching how it unfolds fascinates me, from the changes in player demographics to changes in policy, new features etc...

I think SL is too much of a good idea to ever die, although I'm sure there will be lots more bumps along the way as it grows. I don't think there's anything wrong with voicing one's opinion about what they find annoying, or excellent in SL, as long as it doesn't become trolling.

Your vision of the future of virtual worlds is very close to mine...and a logical extrapolation of other technological trends. Barring any RL world-wide stupidity that causes us all to be huddling in the ruins eating rats.

I'd like to see LL survive and flourish in that future, partially because I've really enjoyed the last two years in SL, and I'm established here. I hope the evolution is fairly slow, just because I want to be able to keep up without dropping out of my RL. I also hope our RL society has time to adapt to the new challenges an increasingly cyber world will bring to human relations. Humans have a bad track record of their technology changing faster than they are able to cope with it.

There are always people who cry doom and gloom for every change. The majority of people are resistant to change, even for the better. Part of my RL profession is designing User Interfaces, so I know about people screaming everytime you touch something. Also, a fair number of people are not good at evaluating if change is positive for the community as a whole. Sometimes because the change hurts their vested interest. Sometimes because they lack knowledge and reasoning skills. Sometimes cause their lazy and bitching is easier than suggesting viable alternatives. It's always easier to scream about a "problem" than to suggest or implement solutions.

Anyway... speaking of work.. back to it.

Heh. You think of that too? That's always a sort of unspoken qualifier for me when I start talking about the future of tech. I didn't realize other folks were thinking in those terms as well.



I think that the most optimistic outcome for SL is that it becomes a gateway community, like MSN or AOL (Or CompuServe or E-World). There's going to be an enormous new world out there, but I'm not sure yet if Linden Lab will be its master. Ultimately, I think for the success of a global, open 3D environment, there will need to be no gate keepers. The ideal for Linden Lab, of course, is to stop being the gatekeeper and start making the garden by selling the software to anyone who wants to use it. Will they get there before something better passes them by?

Time will tell.



Wow, that wraps it up pretty succinctly. I've heard a lot of kvetching about numerous problems. Yet, the folks who kvetch very rarely actually offer potential solutions, to say nothing about enacting solutions.

I agree that all the "end of the world" hand wringing is a little silly and that offering helpful suggestions is preferable. However, when offered in the spirit of constructive criticism, that complaining is good and even necessary.

If you want to come up with solutions, that's great. I think some people wonder why they are paying a fairly high monthly usage fee and also being asked to problem solve everything from virtual societal concerns to LL technical issues.

Personally, some communication gaps leave me wondering if LL is just sitting back and waiting for residents to give them direction. I know this is silly, but frustrations build easily and answers often come slowly.

Ding ding ding, we have a winner! In a world where everyone thinks it's their world and their imagination (not yours, damnit!), being able to go with the flow is a necessary survival skill.

Is there any value to Target in having their virtual Target store in a simulated environment that connects to a virtual Wal-Mart and a virtual K-Mart and so on, as opposed to a stand-alone virtual Target?

Given fiber optic connections there might not be much need for streaming something as small as a virtual Target. Just load it when it's needed, like a Flash animation.

I can't really envision a way in which a 3D Target would be better for shopping than a 2D.

What benefit accrues to a shopper having a 3D model of a store compared to 2D web page?

The SL web shopping services are much more efficient that manipulating an avatar around in a 3D model.

There would be value in having 3D models of the products, like accurately reproduced clothing, with weave and folds and flow, but what good would it do a shopper to have that 3D outfit hanging on a simulated hanger on a virtual rack and having to manipulate an avatar through the virtual aisles to find it?

Incorrect. Assuming the Exodus story is true, the destination was always Canaan, the land from which the Hebrews claimed their forefathers came.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled squabbling.

I can see this done for a grocery store though. If my neighborhood grocery let me virtual shop the same way I RL shop (go down each aisle and browse), then drive by and pick up sacks of food.. I would be very happy.

Oh.. and as for buying clothes, if I could create an avatar that exactly replicated my body, I would virtual clothes shop online like a bandit. I hate & despise driving all over creation looking for clothes.

You're presuming that the clumsy interface model we currently have will remain static. It won't, I think, anymore than the command line interface did. Interaction will become a lot more intuitive as the technology improves. Pre-scripted avatar guidance, for example, to make navigation more fluid and natural.

True, but not nearly as much fun.

Yes. Who wouldn't prefer that to nasty, tiny fitting rooms with bad lighting? I hate going to the mall. But I can see that mine is not the popular view.

In looking at what others seem to enjoy about it one thing does stand out. That is the social aspect. Young people are the most obvious blenders of the social and purchasing aspects of shopping. I think people like to discuss their purchases with friends, get their opinion, and just plain show them what they got. As we get older and acquire more responsibilities and demands on our time, finding time to shop, much less coordinating shopping expeditions with others, becomes more difficult. I think that's an area with potential that is being overlooked.

Why would it be advantageous to have a common entity for the various 3D stores to share? As a rule, happy shoppers spend more. Consolidating the market into one place, a place which puts the consumer in a pleasant state of mind, a comfortable place to catch up with friends one hardly has time to see anymore; access to this group would be highly desirable and not as likely to be achievable with fragmented virtual retailers. Think about the communal areas at the mall. Would they do better to eliminate this "wasted" space and maximize the space with items for sale? I don't think so. People who take a breather and relax, dine and socialize, take the kids to the play area,... spend more time and, in the long run, more money than those who can run in and pick up what they need real quick.

2D is a subset of 3D. I think the distinction between "the web" and "virtual reality" will not be meaningful in the long run. I think SL's lack of a full-featured UI API and limited connectivity to the internet exaggerate the sense of seperation. When I go to Borders I browse the aisles but I also use their terminals to do searches. I don't really have to choose between the two. Similarly, if I'm looking at a piece of furniture in "virtual reality", there's no reason I shouldn't be able to look at a screen with 2D text and images, still inside "virtual reality". Or I could be looking at a brochure which has a window into "virtual reality" on the page. Whichever. When SL incorporates HTML I think the distinction will start to fade.

The sky is falling... the sky is falling!

We already have virtual 3-D representations of items for purchase on the net. I love to be able to turn an item to view it from any or all angles before I buy it! "Holding it in actual pixel hands" doesn't seem vital, though it could be fun, and yet another option.

However, I'm not just personally dying to be able to log into SL or n order to be able to shop as an avatar in a real-life store.

And it would seem to me that what is more likely to happen would be each individual real life store would prefer to have their own 3-d web sites, much as they already do, on those sites where I can turn the item, zoom in, etc., rather than have to do this hugely cooperative thing through someone else.

It just adds another layer to get through for both the customer and the company, before one reaches the actual item for sale on the web.

coco

Many of the stores in SL lack even rudimentary directional signs leaving one to wander around aimlessly looking for something that may not be there.
In many of the stores lately the textures on the items for sale won't even all rez, part of the merchandise display is always gray loading textures.

In many ways shopping in SL sucks.

With regard to shopping for real life merchandise using the computer for help, when I'm doing that I don't want to have fun, I want to find the right item at the lowest price at the most convenient spot as rapidly as possible. Fun is irrelevant.

Speaking out against something is not the same as being "resistant to change," or "not good at evaluating if change is positive for the community as a whole," or "lacking knowledge or reasoning skills," or "being lazy" or "finding it easier to bitch," or "screaming about a problem" rather than "suggesting or implementing solutions."

It could be - rather than character flaws in individuals resistant to change - simply the fact that the changes in question are punitive and undesirable.

When nearly all the changes taking place are sticks and no carrots, it's not surprising that some, like me, would see this as a bad trend.

It's not true that I or anyone speaks out against any and all change. (That would be stupid, wouldn't it.) In fact, I have listed before a list of changes I thought have been good. In addition to cheering other things I have thought good - while lots of the so-called cheerleaders in this thread decried them; one might say "lamented" them.

As for suggesting a solution - that is what I have been doing. The solution: Stop replacing all the carrots with sticks. Start making changes that actually please the players. It's elementary, Watson.

Of course, if they are trying to get rid of everyone who uses SL to have fun in, then I'll shut up. However, I've been told that they want to grow, and they want more premium players.

In which case, beating everyone to death with sticks "for the greater good of the community as a whole" is a strategy I don't think is going to work very well.

coco

Clearly.

Does the grocery information actually become more useful or easier to make choices from by having it displayed on 3D shelves?

Picking produce over the internet is not gonna work for me at all.

As for clothes, a realistic avatar would be useful, although I bet that in many cases seeing a realistic avatar would be so depressing that instead of buying clothes people would just turn off the computer, get rid of their mirrors, and stay inside so no one could see them. I've already done that so it wouldn't matter in my case.

However, is there any value to the merchant at which you are using your realistic avatar to clothes shop to have a system in which you can build 3D models and import animations and sounds and write scripts? Is there any reason for them to maintain a persistent virtual reality world with competing clothes merchants in existence to lure you away from their merchandise,or any persistent virtual world at all?

The clothing would need to accurately model the sizes of the real items, and it would really need to fold and drape and flow realistically. Neither realistic avatars nor realistic clothing seems to to be on the horizon in SL. Maybe on a Playstation or an Xbox.

I suspected someone would pick up on that line, hee hee.

I had some fun fairly recently in SL, at the snowball fight. I spent many hours there.

The next most entertaining activity I have had in SL lately was when an underaged person they won't kick out sent me an IM , I went to where she was and there was a DVD playing of the second one of the Sandra Bullock FBI beautiful agent films playing, I moved the camera so the DVD filled the screen and watched the pixellated image a fairly good while. So SL was being a low quality player of an almost certainly illegal copy of a video.

A friend, knowing that I had Coco on mute, PMed me to say I needed to read this one entry. I was of two minds... continue to ignore, which pleases me greatly but allows a warping of the intent of my original statement, or reply and get entangled again in drama. I guess I must have some lingering addiction to forum drama. A sad character flaw.

Which changes are punative.. all changes? I adore p@p teleporting myself. Was that bad? What about the multiple select drag-drop delete change. You'd be hard put to find a content creator who doesn't adore that change. Introduction of custom animations? Well that was bad if you count the 3 days I spent up in a skybox "quality assurance" testing a bunch of new animations.

Resistance to change regardless of if it is necessary or good is a well documented human trait. Software designers, user interface designers, engineers, project managers, teachers... to name a few are familiar with this and learn strategies to cope with it ranging from "seek user buy in" to "ignore it and force the change." The more elaborate the technology or complex the situation, the greater the resisitance.

Many people are resistant to change for just the reasons I stated. Those here who take those reasons as a personal indictment must have some reason for feeling stung. People rarely care about shoes that don't fit them. (to mangle a cliche).

The other end of that spectrum is the early adopter person who knows every bell and whistle on everything they own. I admire them, but I think their insane.

Coco sees sticks. Others see hippos. The most successful people have very flexible plans and the capacity to see new opportunities where others see roadblocks. They know which battles to fight and where to put their resources for maximum return. They act while others talk.



No one represents all the players in SL, regardless of how much they say/think that they do. So broad, sweeping statements such as Coco's are empty. Evidence (premium accounts ) suggests that most of us are having fun in SL. We define that fun broadly, which is as it should be. I know I'm having fun, and most of the people I know are too, well except for a friend who wants a succubi harem.

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On a side note. Traffic will go away. That's my prediction for 2006. Anyone who models their business on traffic always being there after reading Robin's post, and after watching LL's business methods, is a tard.

Many of us were predicting the end of DI, some in the forums, at least 6 months out. Business is about risk... there are no guarantees. Not in RL, not here. Don't gamble more than you can afford to lose. And if you do make poor business decisions, then deal. Some outrageous percentage like 80% of all RL businesses fail in the first 5 years... what's that in SL years?

I don't think this is going to happen tomorrow, but ten years from now wouldn't surprise me at all. I recently read an article about how movie theaters are having renewed $$ troubles because the trend is to stay home and watch DVDs on your home theater. Online shopping is through the roof too. I can't remember the clothing site, but I've seen an online store that let you create an avatar to your measurements and model clothes on it. I thought it was the cat's ass.

My thought, and maybe En's too is that eventually all the elements of SL will be broken up over various vendors. The 3D world would be a huge environment, some of it shopping, some of it socializing, some of it virtual whore house (just waiting for that "pet the chicken" suit) and that you would buy your avatar, lease your 3D social space and visit the virtual malls.

The basic technologies, and most importantly the IDEA already exists. If there proves to be a market, then the refinements and improvements will come. Sheeze... the PC was created within my lifetime and look at it now. My grandmother remembers the first phones and loves her tiny cutting-edge cel.

This is true for myself as well. I base my opinions on the observations of others, particularly new and less adventurous users, rather than my own singular habits. Commercials and spam are effective marketing tools in spite of the fact that I don't like them. Understanding the market potential of new users coming online and up to speed with technolgy will not be easy. It will likely be a significant factor in determining survival and success.