A Long Time Resident of SL Speaks

I think, honestly, that yes SL has changed. But so does RL. Pets dies, our car insurance goes up (or down), we get married (or divorced), we get new jobs (or lose old ones.) All of life is about change. Do we honestly want SL to be static and unchanging? That's almost as bad as entropy. It's up to US to make it change the way that we want it to.

Re: new SL features like Voice. They're a part of life too. I get new features tacked onto my RL all the time. I consider my new husband to be a "feature." He's great, we're great, but it's still a huge change that we both have to adjust to. I think that we all would just really appreciate it if LL would stop introducing new features so quickly, and fix all the old features, get them running really seamlessly, let it ride for a while, THEN introduce something new.

I'm old, too. Can I have a cookie? Or do I have to write a book-length post to get one?

But seriously, you can blame voice and the Lindens all you want but unfortunately you are all on the outside looking in so you don't know the whole story. Neither do I.

What I do know is that a lot of the original Lindens have left to pursue other interests just like we all do from time to time. I don't think this is neccessarily them seeing the "troubling direction" LL has taken but it definitely effects how things work when the guys that first put them together go away.

Also, if you've ever worked for a small company that suddenly got big you'd understand the situation a lot better. I worked for Nextel for 4 years and half-way through that they got big (this was back in 1998 to 2001) and lost a lot of the qualities that I liked about the place. They were impossible qualities to hold on to if the company wanted to be able to grow like they did.

I see what's going on as a huge series of growing pains. LL and SL are going through puberty and it's gonna suck for everyone around.

But I can also see where they're trying to go with this and I think it's a good idea.

Give it time or give it up, folks!

Yeah,but one of the reasons why residents don't know the whole story is that the Lidens lost contact to their residents and don't communicate what is going on or what is really borked. And this, I believe, is one of the things that actually pisses people of most.

Not the fact that the Lidens may or may not have the time any more to TP across the grid to talk to people but just the fact that 95% of the blogposts don't tell you nothing and then you get posts that state "resolved" when everyone in the fourm is going mad about nothing working.

No. The question is, if this performance disaster has anything to do with adding voice to the grid, COULD they even tell us?

You do realize that this goes for just about every MMO in existence right?

My technical problems involving Second Life really multiplied at the same time I downloaded the viewer that asks me, every time I start it up, if I would like to enable voice.

Surely it's possible that the "official" implementation of voice and my technical problems came at the same time purely buy coincidence. But I think that it's a reasonable assumption that the two are related, unless I read something that would support a contrary conclusion.

Though I don't have a great deal of knowledge when it comes to computer technology, I do appreciate that Linden Labs is trying something technically ambitious. However, I deal with them on a contractual basis, not on a personal basis that makes me have any sort of emotional affect for Linden Labs. What I do know is that I was induced to come through advertisements, there is a contract between us, and I have paid them a bit of money, and I have invested further money and time into Second Life. I don't feel bad about demanding what I expect, based on the expectations of the advertisements and contract and past dealings.

I will add, though, that my personal experience in dealing with clients, with whom I have business and contractual relationships, that a little bit of communication avoids a lot of bad feelings. Often, clients and customers are willing to extend some patience if they are told, "I'm sorry I didn't get this done, here is why, here is what I'm doing to get it done." That short little communication goes a lot further in preserving the business relationship than dodging inquiries. That's my experience, anyway.

I played Everquest for about a year when it first came out, and I played City of Heroes for about a year when it first came out. Though each game suffered random problems in which the servers might come down for a few hours, I have no memory from either game of any ongoing technical problems that were not adequately explained to the users.

In fact, I remember one night when I was at the height of pissed off at City of Heroes. The villian I needed to defeat to complete a mission got stuck in a wall, and I had to wait two hours for a customer service person to come reset the mission.

Heh, imagine that, pissed off because I had to wait two hours for customer service to respond to me.

Hey I was reading the news and I saw this:


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6940309.stm


Imagine putting some of THOSE technologies into SL!

But I definitely have seen the downward spiral this thread refers to. I see SL as a babe on the frontier of virtual worlds. We either stick with it and ride out the glitches or wait until someone builds a better mousetrap. But either way....this is still a fairly new animal and my guess is the Lindens are scrambling to maintain SL. You can't please all the people all the time..... but I have to believe they've done some kind of market research to justify the upgrades they implement. (I am not the least interested in voice...but windlight was cool sh**)

I figure I'll continue to ride it out....over-all my issues with SL are minimal and most of the bugs that turn up, seem to be gone with-in a few days. My only challenge is going to be keeping my computer up to speed and remembering to update my Nvidia as SL becomes more advanced and requires more jiuce from my PC *sigh* What strikes me is how incredibly serious people take SL....and other virtual world/games. If it's buggy...it reminds me that I have a 1st life and perhaps it's time to get off my ass and water the lawn or feed the cat....or maybe just catch some Comedy Central or Discovery channel. After all...SL is just an indulgence.... and hey, if I really need to be in front of my computer that badly....there's always the huge pile of PC games sitting on the floor next to me that I could re-download. lol

That's odd...mine only did it the first time. Maybe you need to mess with the preferences a little more.

SL isn't very entry-level user-friendly like an iPod is. A lot of my problems were solved when I came across articles and blogs showing different things to check for to reduce lag! And this was a year after I started!!

You're looking at Everquest and such through rose colored glasses then.

Yes, it worked most of the time (Though at release it was horribly unstable). I played EQ for 5-6 years and like every other MMO it went through periods of stability problems (especially after expansions and major patches). Most server stability problems were attributed to just that, a very generic "We are experiencing stability problems with the server hardware on "X" server(s). Our network engineers are working on the problem(s) and we expect to have it fixed soon"

Not to mention, EQ has some of the absolute worst CS I've ever experienced in a MMO.

You can google "Grau monk" to find my EQ Maglo, if you care.

voice has been live on the main grid for at least 2 months before going into the 'mandatory' viewer


your assumptions that voice is playing a role in the havok of SL is unfounded.


But in true SL muck raking rumour mill fashion, if you have no clue.

just make crap up


nice work long time resident

i totally agree, Kathy.

i think that's why we are having the Ruthfest this weekend. a little protest.... a lot of voices coming together to hopefully sound out as one big voice.

is the Ruthfest listed in upcoming events?

First things first, all though I agree that SL has been in a downward spiral for a while, Particularly pertaining to customer service, I have to say that I just dont see a whole heap of the problems that a lot of you see... which gets me to my next point...

The single biggest problem with SL is the people who use the grid. Not the people who made it, and when you read these forums on a regular basis, that becomes more and more apparent. A classic example of this is in this very thread...
"My technical problems involving Second Life really multiplied at the same time I downloaded the viewer that asks me, every time I start it up, if I would like to enable voice."
The unfortunate thing about that statement is that there is a very real person on a computer, having issues that they cant sort out. Also unfortunately, that person is likely to associate the issue that SL asks them if they would like to enable voice every time they log on, with SL being somehow dodgy or unstable, truth of the matter? Its in Amity's system or something in that particular installation that is to blame... not really a SL issue.

but...

9 times out of 10 (and I am not suggesting that you have done this amity...just using you as an example) people have these issues with SL and they contact customer support. and Quite rightly so I might add... and someone from what would appear to be an immensly understaffed LL, has to try and work out why and how the problem is happening whilst 300 other residents are busy with their own personal issues trying to contact LL and get help of their own.

Take another look at these threads and see how many times people suggest to one another to "AR them" when problems arise with a neighbour or whatever, when realistically, they should be trying to act a little more mature and perhaps deal with issues themselves. Can you imagine the load that all those AR must put on the customer service staff at LL? I bet you it is in the hundreds (if not thousands) per day!

Then there is the LAG issue, boy oh boy... how many times in a SL life do you hear the words "The lag here is terrible"? I think it must be the most over uttered sentance in SL. I used to run a few clubs and it would always amuse the hell out of me that someone would stand in a club with 40 or 50 AV's dancing and howling...and complain that there was lag. Then, the other side of the coin is the person who walks around complaining about lag.. when there really isnt any to be found (suggesting again that the problem is in their connection or machine moreso than the servers).
Then, as if all that isnt enough to deal with, you get the nasty,aggressive, insulting and just plain rude messages on the forums from people that realistically shouldn't be allowed near a keyboard, let alone be a part of an online community. (Yes i mean you.... put the scissors down, you can't hurt me from there anyway!!)

I really think that SL cops a bit of a bad time of it all. Sure, there are MAJOR issues with the way issues are dealt with, and to say their customer service needs work is an understatement...but people, next time you are in world, and you can't teleport, and you are experiencing lag, and your neighbour has placed a giant prim on your land, and you cant purchase money, and you cant log on and all the rest of the issues, why don't you stop, relax... take a break and think...
"now... is there ANY way this problem could be somehow caused by me, my computer, my modem/phone/cable line, my ISP, my little brother playing half life online downstairs on the home network the 60 people that were in the sim I was just in, the 100 spinning porn ads or my 50 "show and hide" sex balls " or the many other things that really COULD (and probably are) causing the majority of your problems.

And if all else fails remember, for the most part SL works almost PERFECTLY for me!!! lol

My aren't you lucky.

Best post of all, Ms. Pinkerton!

Dear SL Residents:

I promise to make this post much shorter than my last. I did want to respond to a few things I read here in this thread. First, a few of you commented that SL is in it's "baby" or "new" stage. SL has been around and open to the public (after BETA) for 4 years. How many years does it take for us to be patient and get out of this "baby" stage? Ten more years?

Also, in response to another post regarding those residents in SL who probably are only having the issue because it is due to their own computer systems. I guess when 15,000 residents all have the same exact problem, we must be having the same computer issue! I didn't realize that 15,000 people had the same exact computer to have the same exact problems in SL! I guess you learn something new every day. And to think it is my computer that is causing that invisible wall that I deleted 3 days ago to stay on my land. Hmmm... for all you residents who have tried to walk through my invisible wall and can't? It must be YOUR COMPUTER!!

Seriously, I don't post much here, but all of the posts in this thread are so thoughtful and well spoken. I only wanted to make a point. I have written to Mr. Rosedale, just because I want to be sure, that he does know FOR SURE, that we have thousands of unhappy residents.

Thanks all for keeping this post alive.

The best to everyone, and I as much as most of you would like to come back and spend time again in SL when it is not hampered by all of the technical issues.

Kathy Dayton

Kathy, i say if you are that unhappy, just quit and find something else to do with your free time.

3Ring hon, she has 3.5 YEARS invested in the game, I think just walking isn't a great option for her. This is the trouble with virtual worlds, and particularly with virtual relationships in them ... they become part of our reality. Usually, when a company fails or messes up, it doesn't take several thousand chunks out of people's personal lives. LL is truly in a strange position, I don't envy them.

People who are unhappy have the same right to be here as people who are happy.

LL needs to know that people care about SL, and what the problems Residents have with changes made.

They dont get much useful information from the people whose lips are superglued to their Linden butt.

Except maybe that they might need to go on a diet...and maybe eat more fiber.

this isn't about rights. you guys misinterpret my intent. i'm simply saying that if someone is so grieved by an extracurricular activity, regardless of personal or financial investment, it's not worth going nutty over.

i've been in SL for 6 months or so, and it's been one buggy glich after another. but i don't really get bothered by it. i've decided it's part of the experience. i lost a dog, and if it hadn't been replaced, oh well.

i guess i just don't have the emotional investment that others have... yet.

I had an account with Sl in 2005, spent way too much money and quit for a few months. But, I do remember the "good ol' days" that the OP talked about. I remember being able to call live help, and waiting ten minutes for an answer seemed endless, but WOW, I always got an answer! I came back to Sl because, well, there just isnt another platform out there like it, where you can create your own world and live in it. Lately, though, it is becoming less "fun" to be here, and I find myself not logging in as often. I really WANT to be in SL, but the problems are making it so difficult to play and frustrating as HELL! I dont want to quit, so dont tell me to quit and go somewhere else, I just want a stable platform to play on. I keep hoping, just a glimmer of hope, that the next time I log on, I can walk without going 50 feet underground, or TP somewhere and actually arrive, or for the most important to me, have my customers be able to purchase their items!

i think the day will come that it's all working right. we just need to be patient.

How long was the computer around before it actually became useful? That was a good 20 years or so. How long before the internet became the thing we know an love today? About 10 years or so? What about the wonderful bug free software that is called Windows? 20 years and counting.



If 15,000 people have a problem, does that mean the other of the 100,000 don't?