BUNGIE developing in SL?

Something interesting crossed my inbox today. I can't really say much about it. But there's a possibility of something going on with Bungie and LL. Or just Bungie happens to own a hidden sim somewhere and are doing development. Something about a naval sim, and them buying fancy clothes from known vendors to use in beta testing.

I'll know more as my source knows more.

How nice of them to finally develop Pimps at Sea.

Not s urprising, since valve is doing something in this arena as well.

Anyways, makes sense that bungie would try to develop in here and learn from all of SL's mistakes.

Maybe bungie is thinking of buying out SL...

Bungie is a studio under Microsoft.

But with that aside, why would they do that, Anna? How does Second Life come anywhere close to fitting in with their current objectives?

Oh, the whole xbox live crew is all ga-ga over user created content.

Community created content is the corporate flavor du jour as well (and perhaps, it should be).

I have a hard time thinking that a bunch of people aren't looking seriously at buying SL right now. I mean, look at that SL techtalk for google? I doubt that was just for fun..

I mean, seriously, 2 weeks later and we hear about the buyout of sketchup or whatever that 3d collab tool was?

It's all coming to a head folks.

Valve expressed an interest recently in developing collaborative games (which is more and more sounding like PLMware to me).

Microsoft purchased a company last year called Groove that comes pre-packaged in my CAD system which, iirc, integrates into the PLM suite from that company. MS might be leveraging Bungie to start making a push into that space. And no wonder... what with all the "Play is Work; Work is Play" talk buzzing about.

Interesting news.

In order to prepare you for this great change - we should plan ahead and find out our pimp names

You may now refer to me as 'Master Fly S. Kicks'

Arrrr fetch me another cabin boy - this one be burst!

Dopetastic Prefect Rock, in the house!

Professor Truth Bauer Rock, fo-shizzle!

I would be impressed if they could develop anything elaborate in Second Life that did not break every other patch.

But then again, who am I to judge these things from experience?

Funkalicious B

Yeah. Especially when they start porting Halo to SL. and adding features from the second one.

Dopetastic Cookie Loco.

Works for me!

coco

P.S. No wait - how about Fine Ass Cocoanut Slither!

Loggin into Second Life you may wonder why
It's kinda hard bein S.I double G Y...
But somehow someway
The Lindens keep breakin' my shit nearly every single Wednesday..

Let me kick a lil somethin for the F.I.C.
And I rez up my hair - it's a weave do....
You see it's 2 in the morning and that club is still laggin
It's right next to my home...

I gots zombies in those camping chairs lagging the sim.
So many c*nts there I nearly couldn't get in..
So... I'll rez some splody cows....

Sim down - Newbz out...
Let you motherfuckers think bout' thaaaaat

The massive sucess of The Sims, and the buzz created by Hot Coffee have together brought the idea to the attention of the suits. (Along with Will Wright pushing the concept *hard* for Spore.)
I often ponder - "If I bought LL, what would I do?". Looking at it as a businessman, I keep coming up with the answer - "Spend a year refactoring the entire sucker from top to bottom then nuke the existing world and start afresh". (I come up with the same answer for AW - "Preserve Alpha World as a museum and launch Beta World".)
Persistent 3D worlds have been on the horizon for years - but with broad band becoming ever more prevalent and the "user created content" meme... It's only a matter of time before the Big Boys decided to step into the arena. (And when they do, LL won't get crushed - because they won't even noticed.)

If the single ever comes out, I am so buying it.

Dang, I was just thinking about Pimps at Sea this morning. I know it was just for a laugh, but then...

One of my early bouts of computer fun, in the early 90s, was playing one of Bungie's early games--Marathon. This title holds secrets within its terminal text that are being revealed to this day. It's that deep.

At the time, I enjoyed playing with the map editor. There were some shareware ones, and then I think Bungie released Anvil & Forge for more "official" results. I did some multiplayer fun with it in a Mac lab, but something which always came back to me was the creation aspect of the map editor. It was funny to make the aliens all big-size or change the physics. Tweaking all those variables, including the lights.

Marathon was pretty advanced for its time too. The water (primal ripple water, you might even say, LOL) in Marathon 2 was way ahead of its time, as was the ability to look up and down with the camera beyond just eye-level.

I think Spore is really going to be refreshing too. Funny how it was almost dubbed Sim Everything. It's retro in a sense, not just because of the procedural algorithms like one of those old Amiga demos, but because how it touches on Will Wright's love of creative games since the early days of the computer-based interactive entertainment era.

I watched the whole Spore presentation video on Google. I really liked how bouncy it felt. Just a lot of wiggle and wobble.

So, I also think there is a lot of growing emphasis on flexibility: namely, moving away from the "hard edges" of earlier computer interfaces. The aesthetics of not just rounded corners and gumdrop buttons, but transitions between modes and more "forgiving" interactions that are less binary, and more creatively soluble.

Within Second Life, there are going to be several aspects that really emphasize that: the current (I'm so glad I can say it in present tense!) FollowCam is certainly one, giving extra "spring" to your camera. Some of the micro UI touches are related to this as well, such as animated transitions (e.g. open a folder by clicking on the > arrow) instead of two step on/off. More dynamic lighting will be a big boon. Another, literally put, will be flexible objects. As featured in Ben Linden's video.

And:

FROG BLAST THE VENT CORE!

Some good points, Torley!. You got me thinking. I wonder if LL added another 1000 bugs to SL then it may become self programming. It'll be like - "Wow, lets see what Second Life is like today!". We wont need progammers with all those bugs in place! Second Life will self programming!!. It'll be like Spore, but a whole new level!. It'll be like playing a new game every day!.

Oh, I see it now. I've seen the future!

From now own, everyone shall refer to me as

Funk Master Levy Squeeze

And if I see the redtail video spouted out as what's coming one more time by a Linden - even a popular Linden - I'm going to puke. My Bipolar Superpowers can smell PR Hogwash a mile away. Fluid objects will not be in SL any time soon, and it is borderline fraud to keep acting otherwise.

"Trick Magnet Shang Sweetness"


I'm down with that.

I have no idea what ya'll talking 'bout

Devious Honey V. Tickle

Of course back to the topic at hand - just to be unpredictable...

If someone like BUNGIE decided to get a sim, or two, or ten, for rapid prototyping - or brainstorming (I'll give credit here - it is VERY easy in SL to run with an idea and see if it heads in a direction you like.. even for us non professional farties), they will probably find the self-same problems that a lot of us find.

This is a good thing.

Why?

Because as a newfound potential customer base - an experiment ... lets verb it..

If BUNGIE is 'stagecoached' then LL has a vested interest in making it 'work'. If our problems are their problems then we have a whole new motivation for things being fixed-finished.

This is of course leaving aside issues like side contracting to residents for help with things if needed...

It all sounds good...

Plus... WE GET TO BE PIRATES!!! ARRRR ARRRRR

Do you think it's a hoax?