Instant Messaging From RL (resurrection of earlier thread)

This was sort of discussed in this thread, back in August: /13/b3/4309/1.html

What I would like is an extension of in-game messaging to allow chatting between RL and SL. There are lots of good reasons for this -- and lots of equally good reasons to avoid it -- so I thought it would be fun to discuss.

Reasons for it:

1) When I'm in-game, I'm cut off from the rest of the world, because more of my communication happens through AIM than through the phone. I'm chatting anyway, in game -- being on the AIM network too would keep me in touch.

2) When I'm *not* in game, I'm likewise cut off from SL.

3) (this is the big one) If my objects could have real-time communication with the outside world, it would open up a whole Pandora's box of possibilities. I could easily write an object that would chat with a bot on the outside -- query the LL wiki, or a joke database, or my local weather ... it would be a revolution in interaction between RL and SL, overshadowing even our new monetary exchange rate.

Which brings up, of course, reasons to avoid it:

anti - 1&2) Maybe being cut off from SL in RL, or RL in SL, is a good thing for the immersive experience. Although people could choose simply to not use such new connectivity, the temptation would be there and might be tough to resist.

anti - 3) Having objects in touch with the outside world changes this thing from an isolated utopian island to an extension of the whole general mishmash. Instead of a 'glorified chat room', SL then becomes a glorified web browser, with your choice between Geocities and MSNBC Online. This could have a disastrous effect on the community.

I haven't been here long enough to predict which side of the argument in my head makes more sense. The general concept of programmatic interaction with the outside must have been discussed before, though I can't think how to search for it. What do you all think?

Hehe, I'm all for a little more interaction.

We could at least start with enabling llGetNextEmail(). That way, I would be able to check on things while I'm not connected into SL. For example, I may want to query an 'answering machine' in my home to see who's stopped by today, and if they left me any messages, or maybe I'd like to check on the status of one of my running experiments, or see what I've sold today, etc.

For the especially geeky among us, we'd be able to 'pull' information into SL from email autoresponders. I don't think plain text information itself would be intrusive to the world of SL, but web pages would definitely be too much at this point.

It'd be kind of fun to build an object which automatically creates a 3D representation of information fed to it from outside sources.

I think the concern is email has a lot of overhead. My answer to that is to just put a big delay in it like they have with llInstantMessage() so that only 1 email per 30 seconds can be read/sent.

I like the idea of starting with something more limited than realtime chat -- it would be a good way to test the effect on the environment.

As to overhead, I would be interested to hear that that was the issue. Even if each person was allowed to constantly send and receive, say, 100 characters, every second, that would only be a total of .1 K/s per person, uncompressed. I can't imagine it having a greater total impact on resources than adding a couple of new subscribers.

Is there something I'm missing?

... Or just supply an API that coders can plug stuff into.

all coders (C++, etc) would need is simply like:

SomethingSaidInChat(char *sender,char *message);

IMRecieved(char *whofrom,char *message);

and possibly output functions like:

SendIM(char *targetname,char *message)

and possibly later
SendChatMessage(char *message)

With such an API, just those four stuff 'exposed' to outside DLLs or plugins or something you could have millions of possible uses (including integration with IM clients such as ICQ, etc).

<devil's decaf advocate>

anti 4: Spammers.

</devil's decaf advocate>

Interesting. I definitely see accepting messages from outside as being an opt-in service -- you'll only get them if you want them, and if somehow spammers learn to send them, you can switch them off. I personally would be just fine getting AIM-spam occasionally in exchange for the benefits, but I don't think it would be very hard to ensure that people who do mind aren't exposed.

What about the issue of messages from outside that violate the TOS?

If we can get in-game messages from people who are not SL account holders and have not accepted the TOS, well, it sounds like a problem to me.

Just curious here, couldn't you play SL windowed? I do, helps when I want to take a quick peak at the forums or check my email.

Yeah, but it slows down the machine somewhat, esp. when swapping application focus. :/ I don't mind so much the slowdown, as I dislike playing SL fullscreen (short attention span, must have many windows )

Julian: let's say I request to have an AIM screenname which is forwarded to SL, and one of my RL friends uses hate speech in chatting with me. I've asked to receive the messages, and they're from my correspondents, so I'll hardly hold LL responsible for the contents. No one else in game will be exposed to the chat, since it's directly to me, so they won't be complaining. If I then set up a repeater which broadcasts the same messages in game, then I'm the one who's responsible, and I have agreed to the TOS. Where does the problem come in? I can imagine that LL might have to put in writing that they aren't responsible for what my RL buddies say to me -- but I doubt anyone would argue with those terms.

Jellin -- now that I have my second monitor up, I do play windowed, and it's awesome. Even better is to run full-screen on both monitors -- I have like a 180 degree field of view. :) Anyway, you're right, that does nicely solve the issue of staying on AIM while in game, leaving me with only two out of three reasons.