SLApathy

Well the initial - "Wow, this is great, I can build anything." has worn off. I now log in just to say howdy to feniks, do a round of Voting and Log off.

The "Lag" is getting worse, there is no reason to do anything. I can make he coolest thing in the world and that's all it is. Bank accounts soar since nobody buys anything. The economy is a huge welfare system. Really what's the friggin point - collect more money so I can build bigger and better.

I go to events and people are now using them the same way the voting booths are used. They are just to make money and there is no content or thought behind them.

This also applies to open houses - an open house should amaze me - and I have seen a few places that I was amazed by.

If the big picture is social interaction - well I have that IRL - I want to be entertained. I want / need goals to work and strive for. I want my time and effort to show in some way other than my big bank account. I guess I just want purpose for my SL existence.

... and I also want a pony, and one for Mayor Grimm.

Xavier

I felt exactly this way about a week ago. Then I got ideas for 1 or 2 really fun things to try and the magic came back, and I'm all exicted about SL again. (Secret projects, details may or may not be revealed soon. )

As you said, SL is, at its base, a social exercise. You get to meet and interact with people with a shared interest (SL, and other things), do fun things together and try make a group of people go "oooh, aaaaah" at the cool thing you made or did. That seems like an end in itself for me.

I think it's harder for scripters because the first flush of the affair with SL lasts longer. You can log in and just play with code all night and do neat things and not have to worry about finding new people to interact with and things to do. When that finally starts to wear off, you have to find ways to entertain yourself in SL. People who are not hardcore coders or builders have to do this much earlier in the SLives. (Or say, "this blows, I'm going back to team deathmatch".

So I guess what I'm saying is take a few days or a week off, let ideas cook in your head, then come back on and find new things to do. If you don't like the events and open houses, put on one that you would like to attend. People will see that it is good in immitate and innovate on that. Or find a group project to work on, that's rewarding and you get to interact with people with a common goal.

What SL is: A medium for creativity
What SL is not: A game with a finite goal or object
What SL needs: More economic competition, more mini-games (in-world games, and contests)

I agree with Xavier on at least one point: money. It's way too easy to make money. When I started SL I made a big long list of scripts I could write to make money, but I haven't written any of them, cause I haven't needed to. I have a low rating, between 30 and 40, I think, and I still get enough stipend to pay my taxes, and about once. So I'm not forced to make stuff to sell, or be more social, I'm just a hermit, I don't spend a whole lot, but I make more than enough. The strong economy should, however, encourage those of us who are eterprising, to take advantage of the situation, by making sellable objects, and selling them at the high price people can aparently afford (maybe then I'll get to live my dream of owning and entire sim, bwahahaha)

I'm a scripter, and I get my drive from wanting to create cool stuff. My ideas come and go, but I'll always be interested, and enjoy SL. The problem is people who aren't very creative, and just want to be entertained. In order for SL to be a financial success, this type of people must be included in the user base. I don't want to see SL become more of a game over all, besides stiffening the competition in the economy, but we definitely need more in-world games (like Linden Ball). That is my main focus in scripting at the moment.

-Pat Murphy

As I mentioned before, the biggest hurtle to playing SL is the lack of hours, and truthfully, I'm just not a *night* person. The socialization is what keeps me interested when I do log on in the evenings, but again, this competes with my r/l social activities. I know I'd be able to accomplish so much more in SL if I had long blocks of uninterupted time to build cool things and to learn scripting, such as on the weekends. Now, I feel quite limited when I get on, as I feel "obligated" to attend the various activities (not that I don't enjoy them ), but this leaves precious little time for other things I want to be doing. Even when I do have the whole evening free to do stuff like build and script, I don't do nearly as well I would if I could do that stuff in the mornings or afternoons, hence I log off and go to bed..lol.

So, at least from my personal standpoint, SL will improve tremendously when this goes 24/7, as I won't be limited to when I can and cannot work in SL.

Xavier, you mention that lag is getting worse for you, whereas for me, it's gotten better...have you tried doing an uninstall/reinstall of ver .4.1? That really did wonders for me, as I hardly ever lag enough now to the point when I can't do anything, and I don't have log in and out every 5 minutes like I used to.

J

True Xav.... I fell the same way... But when I get new projects my interest is sparked again! but... it's true that sometimes...

Nexus -> goes around... sees what evil plan is up to again, goes back to his bunker....

I know i'm not suppose to complain... but lag with many ppl is getting bad! I don't know how this could be resolved but it needs to!

Xavier, stay with us!

Great thread so far - what other specific activities beside your own building do you want to see? I've seen Pat talk about mini-games, Nexus dream of driving cars. What else?

As to the economy, we are certainly still tuning. For the beta team (you guys!), we've probably driven things a bit rich so that you can really go crazy with early building. Also, the world economy is self-stabilizing, so that if personal holding approach the global money supply, stipends will drop. As more folks get online, we'll see that happen.

As to mega-cities (or at least Lindenburgs), we are going to fix the lag! So hang in there - we've already made some solid progress with 0.4. The next challenge is keeping the simulators fast when there are large numbers of users in the sim - look for major improvements there in next release.

It would be cool if there were some sort of avatar interaction. It would be great to shake someone's hand or for Charlie and Lynnix to be able to hold hands.

I'll make a thread for possible av<->av emotes that people think would be fun!

I have to say, even with any "problems" here it still beats the pants off of other games I've tested (or that have since gone live). What makes the difference for me? LINDENS!

The Lindens have been much more open, available and communicative than my prior experiences. I really feel they are really listening and responding. THANK YOU!

Some of the problem is that the world IS user created. We need to dream up more fun & interesting stuff and challenge the Lindens to help us make it possible.

Well thank you Nicole we actually experimented with ideas to be able to hold hands but instead we found multiple bugs and a sim crasher lol.

But so far I see very many valid points. There have been many times that my creativity has grinded to a halt. But, the castle and the Palace were a result of post burnout. So I get my ideas after a break of sorts. Right now we (Lyn and I) are in a "Um what now" Phase.

As far as the lag....The sim performance was unbelievable at the wedding. It wasn't riddled with screen jerking lag, instead we either had slow motion or no lag at all. Big improvement....btw that sim was full at the wedding, and I could move like I normally can when lag free.

So I have in the interests of keeping it real (no offence to those just seeking money) I will not and have not, made events or open houses at lame or uninteresting buildings/sites that I create(at least to my opinion). So we will stay out of the lime light till we have another wild crazy or otherwise awe inspiring build.

I'm almost finished my build out in Perry and I think I'll take a break myself. You can't keep building one creation after another without a rest, and with RL stuff needing to be looked after it's even more so. I think it's natural that there are going to be peaks and valleys in creative output in the game.