Playstation Home: What is LL going to do about it?

Because heaven forbid that Microsoft should work within the market as it is, rather than arrogantly trying to redefine it.

The problem is that whenever this point comes up on the forums, forums people say it will never be a competitor because they can't make things there, etc. But this forgets the point that a) 75% of SL users never make anything anyway, and b) that way griefers can't make grey goo, prim dongs and guns.

SL will inevitably eventually become a world where only RL professional creators can make things that attract any attention. The alternative is to somehow try to hold them back and that would create an environment hostile to everyone's creativity. Once that happens, why not allow only the professionals to create?

The paragraph above, about sculpties, actually shows up part of the problem. The Lindens are in fact planning to make an in-world sculptie editor but that is beside the point. The point is that you sound like you are complaining about sculpties, and thinking that things are unfair, even though you will not lose anything when they are introduced - it feels unfair just because other people are getting to make sculpties because they have experience with external packages, and you don't. Now consider that some new people actually feel the same way about building at all - yes, they have access to the building tools (just like you can download Blender) but they feel it's unfair that they don't get to make things because they don't have the artistic ability. But in worlds where no-one makes things, this doesn't happen. You don't see World of Warcraft players complaining about how they always wanted to 3D model an Orc but never got to because Blizzard got there first with dedicated professionals. So, there is a benefit to a creation-free world..

Forget Playstation. EA is a bigger threat.

Virtual Me combines cutting edge avatar creation technology from EA with popular TV formats from Endemol to give consumers a breakthrough way to meet, compete and socialize in online digital worlds. Avatar creation takes a leap forward with a high performing, easy-to-use tool that creates astonishingly life-like cyber-clones, with uniquely customized appearances and identities.

http://info.ea.com/news/pr/pr929.pdf

Um, at what point did I say that I don't have experience with external packages? I've been using CAD software for about 15 years now which is one reason why I struggled like hell to grasp the over-simplified building tools in SL, but now I have I'm happy with the results.

I do understand what you mean about how sculpted prims won't harm me, but I'm a little peeved that LL have finally added something other than a simple primitive but they expect us to have access to external programs to be able to use these new features. They shouldn't be assuming anything.

And I don't know where you get your figures from but according to some LL figures used on that Mono presentation with Microsoft they claim that almost all of the population create at least one thing per month. OK so they may not be building their own homes but they're building something, or at least they're trying, so they must want to do it surely?

I'm glad that you guys don't see Home as a threat anyway, that's great news, now I hope that the rest of the SL population feels exactly the same. I still want to be able to have a better looking SL experience though. So I'm shallow, I don't care!

Here's the majority of people that will leave SL for Home...people with no technical skills that want to play music for each other and all the griefers that wish SL was an FPS and dress up like characters in video games.

SL is safe as long as Home can't offer user created content and the ability to even go outside!! Home is 100% indoors!!!!

Then there's the part about having to spend 500.00 on a machine to use Home when people already bought computers...then there's the whole "PS3 doesn't have very many interesting titles available yet" issue...

Well, I did notice in the sculptedpreview application screenshots that the icon for the program (in the upper lefthand corner of the window) is an XBOX 360 controller.
https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Imageculpted-preview-03.png

Maybe LL is planning on an XBOX 360 version of SL, and that is why they care so much about adding the voice-chat feature.

Because otherwise, I don't know why in the hell they are adding the voice-chat feature, since it is going to ruin Second Life, making it way too "RL" for anyone that is really into a truly "virtual" environment.

-=GE=-

No, I think that icon has something to do with the meathod used to create the program. I've seen it before on some free games.

Saw another similar thing advertised, claiming to have 5 million members (free registrations like here then eh? *sighs*):
http://www.imvu.com/

Looks like basically what Sony Home will be, limited content to choose from to rigidly control what is there. It doesn't seem to have a requirements page anywhere, looks like you have to register before it lets you download, and I can't be arsed since it doesn't look very good. So I dunno if it's cross platform or not.

It does however show that competition is just around the corner, none of it hitting the same level as Second Life yet, but it's not an impossibility in the future. But the thing that these will have as their greatest appeal is stability, if SL can't get that soon then people who do play SL just to socialise won't stick around, as other platforms are appearing in which it'll be a much more seamless experience where you don't have downtime every two-weeks and bugs all over the place. They may not have the same degree of creative freedom (though how long is that going to last in SL I wonder?), but the appeal of a stable platform to chat is strong if freedom to create is hindered by bugs and performance issues.

Well I'd like to say a big thank you to LL for intriducing Windlight. Even at this early stage it makes SL look so much better. It's a shame volume clouds seem to have disappeared though, not sure how 'Little Silent Hill' will look on the mainland now

Exactly! Eye-Candy can only go so far. Its about "gameplay". Something which many games lack nowadays.

Does one wish to have all content approved of by 1 company or does one wish to have "free will" in what can be made/done/bought/sold?

SL is VERY open-ended, where as "Home" is going to be rigidly controlled. Didnt see any Furries, Tinys, Dragons, or Goreans either

This is true.

I would like to see better in-world building tools. If all these 3D Apps use OpenGL then SURELY someone at LL can do the same with what we have?

How cool it would be to have vertex editing & REAL UVW Coordinates to work with!!!

I would love to see SL use all the current "bells & whistles" that can be graphically done. But I also understand its all about time, money , effort and in the end- Can the User Base still run it as such?

Anyone for realistic skin shaders??

Much of SL's builds lack any real substance, but on the other hand, the platform allows for a lot, if someone's proud of what they did they can put it on display, they can sell it if other people want it, they can learn and grow and do more. In one respect it's fancy eye-candy, but it's an ever-changing tool that allows for complicated and often rather stunning results.

Look at the Isle of Wyrms avatars, Daryth left SL and only came back at the heed of someone who wanted a dragon avatar, now she makes so much money from that she owns two islands AND makes a RL income from it.

Who knew she was such a talented artist?
Or how about Anshe Chung? No one knew she could be such a good business woman.
Or a thousand other people who confined to the rigors of their real life caste would never have excelled because the tools to their intelectual freedoms weren't available.

Now it's much more than eye candy.



And that is reason enough to never buy a PS3.

Exactly! SL may not have the "bleeding edge" graphics, but the opportunities here are greater than some glorified Game Lobby.

When you look wide enough at how many styles and types of games SL offers, you will be more than hard pressed to find a single 'game' that encompasses such a wide diversity.
You can build, buy, sell, have VR sex, create avatars (not from a set menu) to look almost anyway you can, you can own an island, get VR married, have VR children (although I don't know why), you can roleplay in Star Trek, Star Wars, time themes, run your own business from a pile of simple prims, make movies and display them, play your own VR band to a live audience from around the world, build a castle, a fairy grotto, undersea complex, space station.... not because it's GIVEN to you, but because the basic building blocks are there for all.

SL is very very open, no hand holding, virtually no limitations to stunt your imagination, boundary breaking in whats acheiveable within SL, thats not in any other form. People that use SL for creativity and commerce, do they gain the same satisfaction/rewards from any other single 'game' available, or even across the vast internet from a single source? I think not.

This may only be true for a couple of more years, but I for one will make the best of it.

Hopefully the next generation of the Havoc engine promised for SL will see a rise in its 'just above There.com' eyecandy genre. I would also expect prims to be developed to give us better more upto date features (I am not talking about sculptured prims) like subtractive prims at least.

It's also a good place for people to steal your ideas and make loads of money from them no?

Well, I have to say - that's a great, fantastic goal for Second Life.

But unfortunately it isn't viable. With the opportunities for real money to be made, companies are already gearing up teams of a hundred professional artists to build SL content. The fact that you have the same building blocks as them is mostly irrelevant - they're just better, and have a hundred times the time.

Daryth's success is great, but what happens to the next person who arrives on SL with no experience making dragon avatars? They won't get noticed. And what can we do about that? Throw Daryth out? Of course not. The market on SL will inevitably tend towards the best and most efficient, just as any capitalist market does.

Plus, what about the *tens* of thousands of people who enter, all fired up on this "uncovering hidden talents" thing - and then discover that they don't actually have any hidden talents, and SL has just absolutely confirmed that for them? How would you feel if you'd always dreamed of being an artist but felt that "the man" was holding you back, and then someone actually came up to you and said "no, I can prove for you absolutely, it's just because you're rubbish and will never be an artist". People have rationalisations all the time, many people dislike them, many people think they're pathetic, but that doesn't make stripping them away in any way a safe or pleasant process..



The "creative wonderland" model for Second Life was a big part of Philip's vision, but he's discovered that it isn't viable and the grid is gradually discovering that too.

Sorry.

Actually if you check out the sims the companies own, you'll find the content is made by a SL Resident, not a team of artists hired "by the man".



This is what a Market is all about. Not as good? Lower your prices. Make better goods. Better customer service (#1 thing). If what you said was true, there'd be only 1 goth/bdsm/gor/furry seller in SL.



Well then, sounds like that person just got a taste of Reality. Not every person in SL makes stuff. If they did, why bother selling anything when you can just make it yourself? And if it takes something like SL to make the person realize they aren't "an artist" thats just well.... pitiful.



I'd say more its the over-reactive media. Doesnt help that every media piece has "Make Millions of REAL $$$ Here" somewhere in it. That, and about 100 other things that should or shouldn't have been done.

I doubt "Home" is a threat. Even Nintendo is beating Sony. For example, note the 3rd and also the Last paragraph down in the article:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19090812/

Home will be nice tho!! Keep the kids outta here. Keep them where they can "play gamez!! d00d"

Often the professional artists who they hire are SL residents. That does not mean they are no longer professional artists.



No, because the process of maximising efficiency takes some time. But I know that there are already a limited number of large brands in several of these areas - large enough that people are backing off creating things due to their presence - the others I have no experience of but I would be surprised if it was not the case.



Draco18s was suggesting that the ability to discover hidden talents was the primary entertainment value of SL, the thing which was going to make it distinct from PS3 Home and other services like that. But if it will only apply to a very limited number of people.. and those people aren't paying customers (they want to _make_ money, not _spend_ it).. then it isn't really any defence against competing virtual worlds at all.

Got some bad news for ya- If you came here thinking you'd be a millionaire overnight, think again.

As for people not wanting to spend money, I can bet Sony wont be offering the 'content' for free either. Spend $600 for the console, then a few bucks here N there for a hat, a couch, etc, etc. In the end they're all the same.

And lets see: Spend $72/yr for Premium, or be a "free account". Buy $L2000 for about $7. Use 'freeware' to make content, @ $L10 per upload or just build it free in-world. Sell that content (at a reasonable rate). Hmmmmm..... dont see a problem. For what I'd spend a month playing "Warcraft", I can easily make 4 times that in 1 week.... and have.

True- not everyone can do this. You'd have to be kidding yourself to think that. But also people's "hidden talents" might not be in the 'creation' process. If all you can see is the 'content creation' side, then you have a limited view of whats going on in SL.

With the PS3, it'll do fine for those who have NO talent or skills what so ever and can only talk to their fellow Teens. Keeps 'em off Mom & Dad's PC and outta SL

Some people do well in a limited, rigidly company controlled enviroment. Some dont.

Had to add: Can you show me the numbers of people who've signed up and are already enjoying the benefits of "Home"??

I, personally, didn't. But any time a competitor to SL is mentioned, lots of people - especially on the forums - say that the ability to create things and make money will always distinguish SL from any competitor. But the problem is, if this ability only applies to a very small number of people, it won't help.



That's not all I see (why do people on these forums believe that no-one ever makes a point that's not related to themselves as a person? ). But content creation is always presented as Second Life's competitive ace. And I've seen this happen - I actually have a friend who I invited to SL who wound up leaving SL for IMVU because their culture is less centred around creators.



But for the purpose of business competition, you have to ask - how many are there in each category? And how much money do those people provide?

Just to point out I heard from someone who is very excited about Home and had him describe it in detail.

It's a bunch of advertising.

All of the base functionality it offers can be accessible via the dock/toolbar/whatever-they-call it.

Home has your appartment which you furnish with free-doesn't-look-nice items or pay for that-looks-bitchen items (TV, bed, radio, god only knows what else) and the "outside world" which would look a lot like New York at night above the streets.
http://p.vtourist.com/2379010-Times_Square_at_night-New_York_City.jpg
Mmm! Look at all those ads!

Now there's a harsh, but accurate assessment of the situation...

http://www.despair.com/potential.html

There it wouldn't make a difference wether there are inworld sculpted prim editing tools or not - if people lack the ability to use them it doesn't matter where those tools are and how good they are.

I think PS3 Home would attract those people who are in denial of their obvious lack of creative or business skills and thus choosing an environment where such a thing wouldn't be apparent...

...but sadly that would be still quite a broad user base of SL, and even more sadly quintessential consumers recruit majorly out of them. Because ... who would buy if everyone can build anything on its own?

When people 'relate' SL to RL terms, what they forget is that once you make an item for sale, YOU sell a copy... If RL manufacturers could only do that!!!