Bugs, events, lag and features

I have read Alex Lumiere's posting and wanted to add a couple of things, but can't of course in this forum, and so I am forced to make a separate post.

In the course of the year I have been in SL, I have built big things, small things, held personal events, mentor events, made games, shopped, explored, assisted new people, met and befriended people. That I enjoy SL is an understatement, it has replaced most of my leisure activities, including sleeping. I have tried to contribute to the community by making about 10 per cent of my output free to copy, and the rest affordable for most people. When I had land, I shared it with other people. I spend a minimum of 70 hours here a week...that's a lot of time. So much for my SL qualifications.

The frustrations which have been expressed on the forums over the past few days have been building up for some time. Each new update has brought new features, that's true, but it has also brought days of instability, things added to the list of bugs, and others being broken and mended, broken and mended. To a certain extent, in a complex virtual environment, that is expected, and understood. What is not understood, is the lack of understanding about the priorities of the players, and the continual emphasis on the new before the old is working.

There are some occasions when I am glad that LL stand back with a shrug. But you can't afford to do that when the community strongly expresses their dissatisfaction with something. It takes quite a lot to mobilse a community as big as SL, the inertia level is high. When many different people with different levels of experience and commitment express themselves coherently and agree that there are problems with ...events, say ...you need to take notice. I have had to tier down to no land and I am effectively prevented from posting events, even if a landowner lends me some land. Yes, yes, you are making land available! Then you shouldn't have changed the event posting rules until it was!

The impression which is common among players is that even once you are able to hold an event, the problems are not taken seriously. Getting good answers on what causes lags and crashes and how to avoid it is difficult. It also doesn't appear to be taken seriously by LL. Most players in SL are not technically qualified, or able to diagnose problems themselves, and they need support. But my experience, that one Linden will say that torii cause lag and crashes, and then the next will dismiss that, or another will blame light prims and the next will deride that idea, or yet another will blame terraforming, and the next will deny that...my experience is common. Getting an authoritative answer from Live Help or the Lindens or the forum or this hotline is hard. Even on issues that are central to a player's experience of SL.

The answer on a LOT of questions of a technical nature is to blame the player's computer...even if an experience has been common to a number of players, with widely varying computer hardware. I do understand that this can be the root of the problem...but you need to be giving more feedback to players, as Alex says.

After an update, the player is on their own...they don't know if the experiences they have while in the game are normal, a new bug, and old bug, the result of the software on their computer, the result of their hardware. Personally I feel adrift in strange waters, building near to an update. I have resorted to posting on the forums as a way of trying to understand whether what I am experiencing is a common experience or not, and whether there are workarounds. It is not perfect - people manage to post about linking bugs without mentioning the word link, about building bugs without mentioning the word build...and so the same thing is reported in many diffrent places...or over and over again.

I don't even necessarily need to know the ETA of the bug fix, or that LL are working on it - just knowing that it is NOT just my cackhandedness...that there are other reports coming in from other people of the same problems...would be something. As Alex says, with a critical bug, where crashes occur before you even reach SL, it is very frustrating to be locked out of the game, with the status page invariably saying that SL is open, not knowing if hundreds of people are locked out, or just you. Not knowing if the problem is being worked on, or everyone is asleep in California, and so the nightwatchman and his cat is watching the failed logins grow. Again, I tend to watch the forums, or post here, to try to ascertain whether it is a general problem or just me.

As for your recent Town Hall...I do not know if you realise what a slap in the face it is to European players when you schedule a Town Hall for 3/4 am European time, Philip. I can see that from your point of view it would have seemed the right thing to do, to come talk to the people, despite being on holiday etc. But you automatically excluded this part of your Empire. I realise that with world-wide coverage, it is difficult to keep everyone happy, but it is logistically possible to hold meetings at times which are not totally impossible for most players in a region. Or...have a minion hold a town hall for other players, at a time reasonable for Australia and Europe. Or, alternate the times, announcing the next one for another region when you hold this one at a time suitable for the US.

I love being in SL, adore building, meeting people, and all the possibilities which this world offers. If I am reaching a critical level of frustration, you can be sure that other people have already reached that point. To conclude, my message is:
*deal with the bugs and provide good information which is updated regularly about what is happening (even if that is only XX people have reported problems with...)
*sort out the events system!
*provide good information on the best ways to avoid lag for builders and event holders
*put bug/lag solving before features
*put bug solving before new continents/new grids/new pushes for membership
*treat your Imperial subjects equally, no matter where they live....
*let the original poster give some feedback on your answers on this part of the forum

with very best wishes
Cali

Hi Cali,

Thanks very much for your insights and constructive criticism. We are ambitious! And we've taken on a lot over the last several weeks. However, we're painfully aware that we have made a lot of changes and there have surely been more stumbles getting them implemented than we want you to experience. Our aim is your continued enjoyment of the SL environment and we will marshall the resources to address the technical problems, communication issues and integration of changes so that it is not such a burden as we keep working to improve the world.

Communication has been challenging from the beginning, whether it's a system wide crisis, changes to key systems, or even announcing a meeting. It's been daunting to find effective ways to reach all of the SL residents with important news. The reverse is also true -- we've tried hard to create both web-based and in-world channels for residents to reach us with support questions, bug problems, ideas and feedback. But I fear we have created a confusion of choices. My priority is to streamline the communication options so you can all tell us what we need to hear, and you can hear our response.

Bug fixing and new features are both important. But most important is that you can all continue to have fun and collaborate in this amazing place. The company is committed to increasing resources to make sure performance is improved, updates are less bumpy, and we can still add the tools you need.

In our efforts to be responsive, we sometimes trip. We do recognize that the complex interplay between aspects of SL -- events, traffic and dwell awards, the in-world Find directory and the economy-- results in one change sometimes reverberating through the whole. Our process of iteration is faster, but sometimes may also seem frustrating when something may only be partly fixed or it's clear there's a better, if more longterm solution.

I see that you'd like to discuss this further, so I'm going to post this in the General forum as well, so we can all talk about it. Cory will be holding a Town Hall this week, and I'll be holding one next week, and we can bring the conversation to more people in-world. We'll try to stagger the timing of those meetings, so SL'ers from all time zones can attend at least one.

The work you and the SL residents have put into SL is inspiring, and we will be doing everything possible to retain your love of the world and your loyalty.

Bravo, Caliandris! Bis, Bis!

Excellent Cali, thank you

Thank you Robin for moving this to a place where we can all discuss.

However Cali's post pretty much said it all for me, so for now I'm just going to leave it at that.