Fragmentation

Second Life is a "world." Jarod calls it a "wora'uld" implying that the Lindens operate it about as well as the Goa'uld do the their empires in the Stargate universe. But Philip will insist that it's not only a world, but a better world than first life can offer. Most of that verbiage seems to point to the fact that SL faciliatates collaborative building and global socialization. The former is debatable. Comments are welcome from anyone that has either built, or attempted to build, collaboratively.

It seems that the latter is simply not true due, in large part, to the limitations of the system. Namely, we can only fit so many people in a sim at one time. Processing hardware is one culprit; but numbers of attachements, prims, scripts and textures tighten the limitations. Now we're faced with wanting to express ourselves radically, in fabulous virtual surroundings, but having all those things severly limit the number of people that can participate in our gatherings.

So we settle for building a nice environment and sharing it with the same few friends on a regular basis. I've noticed from popping around to rental properties on various estates, including the Linden estate, that the people who live there party there, socialize there, build there, even shop there if shops are available. The world amounts to hundreds of small collectives that've effectively isolated themselves for the sake of familiarity and framerate.

I'm beginning to think that most of these communities would just as soon live with their friends in a sim, or small collection of sims, invisible to the wora'uld. How many people do that already? How many of them would just as soon be attached to a (stable) grid that was only updated once a quarter and had very little downtime and very little toleration of griefers?

The compelling argument of groups forming on the mainland is passe. Groups hit Second Life already formed in real life and having no intention of mingling with others. They just want a sim or two and to be left alone, or at least not bothered with anyone that will drag their framerate in their private world. Am I being myopic? Do I just not see the compelling betterness?

Hi Khamon


I have several times built collaboratively. The first was a loose collaboration over Mysterious Journey in the first Game Dev competition, the second major project was Numbakulla, and the third was a project which came to nothing for a commercial pitch.

It isn't straightforward, building with other people, but when it goes right and you pick up ideas and run with them, it can be an exhilarating thing to do.



Well...I think I have global socialisation off to a fine art LOL. I don't see the limit on the number of people who can be crammed into a sim as a limitation on global socialisation, because true socialisation doesn't occur in huge audiences or parties. In order to properly socialise, you have to talk to people, get to know their interests and background. You can do that as easily in a sim with 4 people as in a sim with 40 or the larger numbers you indicate might be desirable.

I love to talk to people, and I love to get involved in lots of different activities. Thus I meet people and think...ooooh he/she would have a lot in common with X and if I have an opportunity I introduce A to B on the hope that they will have something in common. Sometimes it is shared interests in RL or sometimes shared interests in SL.

The people I have met in SL come from all over the world, and in all likelihood I would not have met them any other way. Sometimes I meet someone who already has a wide circle of friends, and I gain more friends that way. I have not found that many of the people I meet already have a circle of friends before they come to SL. Some have.


Some do that, it's true. Some visit every clickable link they find on the forum. Others just seek out the things they are interested in. Everyone is different. I think the trick to SL is finding out your true interests and pursuing them, with no pressure to conform to a certain ideal or a certain way of being. Some people like to reproduce their dream house down to the clothes pegs and live in it. That's fine. Some like to dream of better communities and build them. Also fine. Some like to complain endlessly about the commercialisation, etc, and as long as they do it in their own thread on the forum and don't make me read it, also fine.

I think that the game of secondlife is that there is no game...and you have to find your own. Learning who you are and what you enjoy/dislike, is all part of that. It's a game of finding yourself and your interests.


I'd say...some groups hit secondlife already formed. Others form in SL and draw people of like mind together. Some people like to stick to their square of SL turf and keep everyone away from their land...others like to explore, meet new people, build new things.

A HUGE number of people would like to meet others, if only they knew how. They are in search of like-minded people and haven't a clue how to find them. That's one of the challenges for the next phase, I think.

It is what you make it, like RL. *More* than RL, on the whole, because a whole lot more is possible.

I think fragmentation can be called diversity. All the negatives can be described in positive terms too.... It's just a question of perspective.
Cali

Perhaps you are just a bad machine.

(I tried to find a picture of the scene from Midnight Express but is was for naught.)

I understand where you're going with this, Khamon, but I think you're missing a couple of key points.

First, social dynamics are never static. From my own personal perspective, I've been involved with probably 4 distinct and separate social circles since joining SL. In some ways they overlapped each other but in other ways were completely different. And they were neither static nor linear - as one group evolves or dissolves, another group takes their place. I'm now orbiting around a couple of other circles as my friends list changes, and I enjoy the variety.

Second, it's also part of human nature to stick with people with whom you feel you share commonality. For example, I'm not big on hip-hop music so I don't go back to clubs that do hip-hop and spam chat channel with "~Howwwwwlzzzzz!~". I will, however, frequent good discussion groups on relationships, sexuality, designs and building -- or a quiet club that plays 80s music where the DJ knows his stuff.


You're seeing the migration of groups from other worlds -- mainly TSO for the past few months. Of course they come with pre-existing dynamics, that's a solid assumption. But I've befriended at least one such small circle and they had no problems welcoming me, so I can't say they're xenophobic at all. I just had to rush the gates with wit, charm, and devastating good looks (~cough~)

Every incoming new group will be subject to the same group dynamics that existing SL groups are subject to -- they, too, will morph, dissolve, grow, shrink and change as they're exposed to SL's virtuality. It might take a little time, but nobody will remain unchanged by it all.

I try and work with the folks on adjacent parcels, to try and make them look like they're actually part of the same world. It doesn't really take much effort... just compromising on the terraforming and continuing things like fences, paths, and other parts of the builds across borders does wonders for the look and feel of both builds. It still amazes me that people don't do this as a matter of course.
Why, sure, just like the real world!

Collaborative building? Yup, every day.

I got imported as team lead for Isle RFyre (going public soon) when there were already two good builders associated with the project. You'd think that would result in instant lethal drama! But it's a friendly association, with each person doing one level: skybox, cloud level or ground level. It works because the people are laissez-faire types, no controlling personalities or office politicker types. In addition the team includes artisans whose work brings life to the structures. The project includes a major retail component, so that's a further pool of stakeholders, some of whom have given valuable input incorporated into the design tradeoffs.



Sim owners need to get serious about lag, and some are doing that, for example by requiring renters to use the sim's minimal lag vendors in shops. But what does the sim owner do about visitors who show up in new flexible zillion-torus hair? I don't know. We've seen a bit of an arms race where each lady wants to look more stunning than the others, so they try to outdo each other with their hair and outfits. Guess we can expect that to continue. As far as the fabulous virtual surroundings go, my personal opinion is to cut lag by cutting back on clutter (for example lawn ornaments like gold birdbaths with a happyface in the center), and substituting more views of gorgeous dramatic terrain. Terrain tends to be low prim too. : )



Since LL intends to let residents operate private parallel grids this is worth considering. I'd be looking for a portal system to stay closely linked with the other participating grids, however. By close I mean teleport and you are there.

It is interesting how easy it is to fall into nitch communities or small circles of social activity, and how hard it is to break that habit or get out of that rut.

I'm very social at times, and have worked in SL for 2 years to bring at fragments of at least one type of community or subculture together so that folks can meet each other, share ideas and generally stay in touch.

But interestingly (to me anyway), is that I often feel like I've lost touch with the SL-world at large. I find it suprisingly difficult, even with friends lists, IMs and events, to really get to know others and to have good, interesting conversations and social interaction with all but a few friends, or occasional long-time fellow residents that I tend to not see much.

I explore, I chat here and there as I run across folks, but SL still gives me a very strong impression of being very, very fragmented and, at times, even lonely.

One thing I've noticed is less community-wide events or special attractions. It may be that I'm just missing them, but it was great when builds and projects like Oz, Neverland and similar large and immersive events were up and running so that folks had a place to gather and talk and run across old friends and make new ones. What was that prehistoric one? That was wonderful.

I know there are still occasionally fairs and benefits, and perhaps I'm too out of touch these days, but it does seem less and less like a community and more and more like small circles of people that keep to themselves.

I know lag is a huge issue for these gatherings now, and SL seems to run slower and slower as time passes, but I'd sure wade through some heavy lag to see the crowds gather and talk and laugh and smile, outside of a club environment and with a wide variety of personalities and backgrounds and interests.

I'm not sure if that's bad, or simply natural. But for the newbie, or even some of us midbies and oldies, it can lessen the overall SL experience. And yes, I know I could take the initiative to do something about it, but I'm just speaking to the way it feels to me and how easy it is to fragment.

BTW, please feel free to drop in on me anytime I'm on.

Global socialization has nothing to do with socializing with the world of SL (thus how many people you can cram together in a sim or whatever). It is about socializing with a broader slice of the REAL world.

I randomly have had folks from Germany and Australia drop by my property in Caledon and chat with me. I speak with people from England and the Phillipines on a fairly regular basis.

I can do (and have done) these things outside of SL, because the internet facilitates global socialization as well. But it isn't as frequent or as common an experience as here, probably because the internet (as a whole) is more passive, more informative, less social, less interactive.

If people come to read your website or whatever, odds are good it isn't to chat and you will probably never interact with them, unless you run a wiki or forum or some such, and even then its not necessarily likely that you will actually socialize with them. Even if you do have something set up to chat, most likely it is chat about a particular, somewhat-narrow topic of mutual interest, which is a common means of starting socialization, but probably does not suffice as socialization itself.

Take, for instance, this forum. The topic is nominally SL ... and that carries a bunch of related topics like virtual worlds, and subtopics like scripting and clothing design and such. But conversations outside of that area would tend to get shoved into off-topic (which some people refuse to read, simply because rant-filled junk like "Intelligent Design" and "Politics" also gets shoved there), and that is precisely where interaction changes from mere conversation to full-fledged socialization.

SL is a little different, because you can be there as a person, and there's no topic per se. It's treated a bit more like real life, because it looks a bit more like real life. Even the more interactive things on the internet as a whole (forums, etc.) tend to be less sociable, simply because you don't seem so much like a real person as a disembodied presence.

The closest experience I've seen outside of SL is when I spent large amounts of time on IRC over a decade ago ... where eventually the nominal topic of discussion faded away, and the channel became more of a social group.



Limiting the quantity and sorts of people you regularly interact with, and limiting your shopping and such to nearby stuff, is a combination of human nature (of which familiarity is an element) and simple efficiency, and has nothing to do with SL's performance.

If nearby shops and people already serve your needs and do it well, why go out of your way to find something else, especially when things elsewhere are at least as likely to be inferior as superior, if not more so? Some people are driven to exploration, but most people rarely indulge. (I'd say they problably do it in SL a lot more than they do in RL, because it's easier.)

People join communities in SL because they want to be in those communities, because those communities have a high chance of fitting the person ... not because they just randomly are stuck there. Nobody in SL is born into a particular area (aside from the welcome area) ... anyone (if they live anywhere at all) can choose where they live right from the start. And if the area where you live ceases to fit your needs, moving somewhere better is a lot easier to accomplish here than in RL.

The key point to understand is that the internet (and by association, SL) enables global socialization by playing on this principle ... it's easier (not for everyone, but for more and more people every day) to get online and talk to someone on a completely different continent than it is to walk next door and talk to your real life neighbor.



I strongly suspect that most people would prefer to live in a region that wasn't isolated per se, it's open to visitors and potential new members, but only on a limited scale and only on the inhabitants' terms. Those terms vary from person to person, and community to community, obviously.

I've always said (in the context of online things that involve lots of people, not SL particularly) that I'm not especially interested in "Massively Multiplayer". I want a Moderately Multiplayer setup. Mostly composed of people who are fairly compatible with me, but retaining the ability to encounter new people (read: new interesting and well-behaved people) from time to time.

Nobody lives in a vacuum, but nobody wants to interact with literally everybody else in the world, either, especially if they aren't compatible. As you add people to your own personal social circle, there's a point of diminishing returns ... a balance that needs to be struck between "too little diversity and freshness" and "too little consistency and similarity", not to mention simply "too bloody many people to keep track of".



I've seen groups of RL friends in SL, but those don't seem to be an overwhelming fraction of the groups that I've seen. And the largest portion of them have been two-and-three person groups formed for specific purposes (e.g., prim allotment consolidation, etc.) rather than for the explicit purpose of isolating themselves.

And more personally, very few people in my peer group in RL interact with me or each other in SL, even though nearly all of them have been here. My social circle and all of my SL groups are composed almost entirely of people I either met here, or met in another online setting.

The problem with the "wora'uld" so to speak is its top-down nature. A lot of features are missing or severely lacking simply because the system can't handle it, not having something very simple because the Lindens see no need to add it. Everything is thrown into one big pot; changes are made to the entire system at once.

Contrast this with the bottom-up, "organic" approach, where the system starts from a smaller scope and gradually grows in complexity. I honestly think this is the way LL should have done it from the getgo, allowing for specificity and features to be added in smaller, modular units.


Imagine, for example, that you could pick and choose features from a list of what you "want" in your Second Life viewer, similar to what several software packages do. Imagine, in addition, being able to build modules - "mods" - to the system that anyone could use in their viewer and were enabled on sims not unlike a Flash plugin in a browser (as opposed to just being hardcoded in, as they are now).

This, in addition to the ability to separate content in a more granular fashion (as with backup inventories, sims, etc), is direly needed. Yet, in the pursuit of higher profit margins and anticompetitive, "our world before the competitors" atmosphere growing in Linden interactions with users, I just don't see it happening.

(Note: The "UI" attach slot is so far off the mark as to be trivial. If you are prepared to argue this, be advised it is highly limited in scope and direction, and still functions without any control over the Second Life viewer itself. This was cause for the cries for an "API" back in the day.)



I have always said that, while I like the original intent, the perceptions at Linden Lab need to change drastically to meet their intended scope. Yet I am seeing a form of mindlock from up-on-high, due in no small part to the high switching costs of a better system.

It has led me to one conclusion: Second Life will not be the standard we're all hoping for. Another program built with SL's failings at heart, will. If LL has the resources to do this, or to convert all content to this sort of platform, great. If not, someone else will.


Coming back to topic, the whole "little fiefdom" thing is a good analogy for how the internet exists today. Consider this message board in the scope of the entire internet, before you all point the browser somewhere else. It is a matter of choice and specificity that allows for these things.