One Year Malaise

I suspect that some part of a reduction in joy with SL can in some cases be attributed to being snide, rude, mean, hateful, condescending, etc. in the forums.

There may be some sadistic pleasure in such behavior but I wager it wears away at your soul over a prolonged period.

It's a heck of lot easier way to feel smart by oneupmanship than by building, scripting, painting, animating or otherwise creating something new.

Lmao

I have malaise here as well and I don't do that, but I surely understand from where your perspective lies.

LoL

Yeah. Sure glad I don't have to worry about that.

If you do register an alt be sure to stop off at the Alts Only Please thread and answer yes.

Non alts are welcome to check out the thread and respond as you wish but I do ask that you lie and answer yes in order to skew the results to make it look like are only a few people here with 40 or 50 accounts apiece.

!

LoL

i have been called dense and thick and the like

but c'mon...

hehe.. Suez and Blaze remind me so much of each other. You two should hook up!!

Dem's fighting words!

I think they're fighting words.

I got discouraged when I was paying 75 a month tier and couldn't get on my land because of Club Laura, and sim border crossing issues at my location where tremendously bad.

Dropping to zero tier makes the technical problems a lot easier to take in stride, but it does make you feel like you don't have much right to a say in things, not even to expect to be listened to at all.

Bah. I disagree with you on a great many things. But I would sure hate it if you thought you couldn't post your thoughts on our forums. And I'd be pissed at anyone who tried to make you stop.

I've never had a right to be listened to myself. It is dumb luck I think that some like me. haha.. I'm pretty simple in the grand scheme, and I don't care if you are a jerk or a saint. I'll listen.

I still hate we get moderated so much. And I know that is something you fight for. But we will just have to disagree on that issue.

You weren't talking about Blaze Polonsky were ya?

I've had this malaise on and off a couple of times in my two years here. My solution (which works fine for me, and keeps my quite happy) is simple... I just log in when I feel like it.

I hardly build anything nowadays, and prefer to dabble with my android skins more than anything. In RL, I'm doing more in 3dsmax - experimenting with ideas and technical solutions to interesting problems mainly - and catching up with shows I've missed whole seasons of (i'd forgotten just how good Stargate SG1 is!).

Ingrid summed up the daily work-burnout well. My job is pretty extreme most days... we work very hard, and after the 45 min drive home, any neato ideas I had for SL on the drive into work have lost their lustre.

Still, nothing could make me leave SL, and I view my current "log-in-a-couple-of-times-a-week" scene as transient. Sooner or later, I'll get a bee in my bonnet about a new build or scripting project in SL, and I'll be in world more often.

But yeah, taking a step back, and doing more things you enjoy in RL helps put your life in SL in perspective. For me, I discovered that SL can be a big part of my life, even if I'm not logged in every spare hour. But then I have Fallingwater sitting right next to me, logged in most of the time, so I'm always connected in some way

Taking a break can be just what the doctor ordered. I kinda like my half-on-a-break / half-still-here approach.

I've seen so many replies go by that attempt to explain away the ennui by pointing to factors extrinsic to the game. I can think of no better example of Festinger's cognitive dissonance than what is demonstrated here. For those who are unfamilar with the concept, please read the article, as Festinger's experiment was truly an elegant masterwork and has broad implications in explaining so much of our motivations.

People have invested so much of themselves into a decidely craptastic game that is is psychologically untenable to accept that they've been lied to. The fault is not in ourselves, dear Reader, but in our King. Why do I care to point this out? Because I'd prefer people not blame themselves for the failings of others.

That's a complete load of crap. Perhaps you should spend some time examining your own psychology. You might want to look up solopsism while you're at it. Just because you feel this way doesn't mean anyone else does.



Uh, no. You point it out in an attempt to validate your own bias by projecting it on to others.

I've run into periods where I don't feel like logging in...

I generally take some time off - I have taken up to 5 or 6 weeks off before - and when I come back, I invariably feel reinvigorated.

I try not to overthink the reasons behind it, because I find that can amplify the "malaise".

As with anything in life, especially hobbies and past times, we simply get the blues, or get bored. Then it is just a matter of taking some time off to recharge the batteries.

I find blaming LL not to be a beneficial thing (for me). I am in no way compelled by anyone other than myself to pass my spare time here, so if I am not having fun, I look within first.

Well said..

I find it utterly unreal that anyone could get burned out by SL.

I agree with the first 3 posts, I feel the same. This inconsistancy and constant change for the good of "the company" not the "customer" is also wearing thin on my opinion of SL.

Mar

This invariably happens to most of us. I don't think it is specific to SL, but I believe it is worse when it happens here. I have gone through many cycles of this in the last few years. It usually is triggered by some event out of my control (nasty SL bug causing content loss, poor LL policy changes, bad customer support, forum trolls, people copying original designs, people open sourcing others original ideas, the overwhelming sex culture, griefers, juvenile players, etc...). I agree that taking breaks is essential to SL. But I also have found that coming back each time gets a little harder. Also, I used to look forward to looking at the event calendar. I loved going to building and texturing classes, show & tell, art exhibitions and the like. Exploration usually helps bring back that SL spark. I really enjoy flying around the new vast open expanses. And stumbling across some new unique build, scripted object, particle/texture effect is great. I also love running across one of my own products in some remote corner of SL. Hang in there, I think SL still has a lot to offer as it continues to evolve.

Oh, btw - staying away from these forums is probably one of the best ways to keep upbeat about SL.

Good customer service is about setting and then meeting expectations. Let's review:

1. We'll have Havok 2 in September 2003.
   
2. Now that we have incoming XML-RPC done, we'll have outgoing XML-RPC ready in two weeks, maybe a month. So, before summer 2004.
   
3. We're working on this rad new rendering engine. You'll be able to see FOR MILES. It will be done around April 2005. No, hold on, more like Summer 2005.
   
4. ...OK maybe more like early 2006.
   
5. OK seriously we mean it this time, Havok 2 in 1.7.
   
6. Also HTML.
   

Software development on anything REALLY complicated does not lend itself to firm release dates. Have you ever seen one of those fractal zoomers, where you think you are looking at the whole thing, but as soon as you zoom in on some portion of it, it exposes endless intricacies that were TOTALLY invisible before? Complex programming is like that. You might think to yourself, "This project will take two months," but if there are significant new things you will have to do in it, you may find that it takes several times longer.

I've made this mistake in the past and have decided never to provide firm release dates on anything I haven't done thoroughly in the past. Doing otherwise is just asking for trouble. In many cases, the product isn't done on time - or, even worse, it is rushed. It is then released half-done, and you wind up spending more time putting out fires than you would have just doing it right in the first place.

UNLESS YOU ARE DOING SOMETHING TRIVIAL OR OLD-HAT, NEVER PROMISE A RELEASE DATE. If you have to tell them something, give a window and periodically update the customer(s) if you think it will change. Oh yeah... and be conservative about the estimate. Assume you are going to run into unforseen complications ahead of time - because you probably are.

Good points, Huns. This is why developers of most development software (like animation and graphics apps) don't reveal what they're working on for a next release until they're almost ready to go gold. You never know what's coming in the next release of PhotoShop or 3dsMax until the official announcement of the impending release. I think it's great that LL is much more open with us than that, and sorry that it always ends up biting them in the ass. Goals aren't promises. They're simply goals.

It's a balancing act, what with people demanding to know what's in the works all the time. I see this as a side effect of the amount of input we enjoy here versus other online environments.

You have a point with your first paragraph relative to expectations, investment of time, and why people will continue to adhere to a belief past when it may seem rational to do so. It's helpful to understand the underlying conditions which influence our behavior. But SL is much more complex than a boring task delusionally thought to be fantastic because people don't want to believe they were mislead. There isn't a decidedly better washing machine that makes your adherence to this one somewhat questionable.

When you get into the blame the king and not themselves I stop. That's so one side or the other with far too little consideration to personal responsibility and accountability. I haven't found much of anything in life which can be reduced this way. SL is not Fantastic or Craptastic, it's both; sometimes more one than the other. LL has failed to live up to yours as well as its own expectations and goals in many ways. The individual is always responsible to continually evaluate their own investment of time. Decisions should be made by evaluating positive and negative factors.

If you reach the point where the things you needed to have happen in order to justify your time aren't there, a reeavaluation of your course is in order. For some, the course will be to maneuver the roadblocks and move forward. Some will need time to regroup and figure out the detour maneuver which works for them. For others it will be the shortest path to the exit. I think it's a wise to consider the worse possible scenario and if that's something you can deal with (not be satsfied with but can deal with) then move forward. Bitternesss suggests a regret over past decions made based on promises and intentions made by LL. It's your point of view to take, of course, but even given the current state of the platform, I don't see your efforts as a waste of time.

It is unnecessary to point out what my opinion is worth; I am fully aware that your opinion is the only valid one regarding your time.

I also believe that where one is at on their own personal journey is a major factor in their point of view and that point of view will evolve over time as they do.

Q.E.D. Thanks, Chip.

Just to jump in and be annoying...

"When Prophecy Fails" is an excellent book and a total landmark in sociological studies that should be read by everyone. Cognitive Dissonance on the other hand, always sounded kind of made-up and unproven to me.

I'm not sure that's really applicable, unless your premise is that SL's "true believers" feel that way based on what they believe SL will become in the future rather than what it is right at this moment. Or perhaps you're suggesting it in the context that some of the disillusioned got that way by having unrealistic expectations to begin with? Either way, looks like a fascinating book

Well I was just interjecting because of my huge ego I suppose. I don't necessairly mean to suport or deny any of the argments on the thread, just that I am one of the few people I know who have read the book, and bought the book, yet I don't necessarily buy into cognitive dissonance as a real thing.

One of the reasons I think it's a cool book though is that one just can't do Sociological Studies like that anymore becasue of ethics guidleines. They had to lie to their subjects and study them without any permissions forms or notice or anything. Not that I am necessarily arguing for lower ethics in Sociology but it was just so neat the way they infiltrated the Flying Saucer Cult and posed as "regular" nutty UFO believers. Possibly the only way to find out some of the things that they did find out.

I am not sure that any of this has any application to SL at all though. Maybe Malachai knows.