Demands Equal Constraints

I promise to keep this short, from my end...and let me say, for anyone who has been lucky enough to avoid my other posts, I am NOT an LL "fanboy", if it's objectionable to me, I will try to get my fair hearing. If you have, you may argue I am contradicting myself here, but this is my view, on reflection after reading the posts in Jeska's blog about the ramp-up of voice (which was VERY well written, btw).



Reality: Residents want a platform that works
Reality: Residents (myself included) demand that current "buggy" structures get highest attention
Reality: Sculpties and new ways to create in/manipulate the environment are add-ons
Reality: Voice is a feature offered by other virt-worlds with which SL sees potential competiton
Reality: Residents see Voice as potentially destructive in some camps, while others view it with enthusiasm

Finally, THE Central Reality: Linden Lab MUST find ways to stay ahead of the competition, or Second Life renders itself obsolete.

Here is where we have brought ourselves, and, as I see it, there are really only two options, or a mid-road blend of the two: 1)either we have to let the development team keep Second Life ahead of the competition by allowing them to embellish the environment with new add-on technology, OR 2)we have to let them do it by integrating current technology known to work on other virtual platforms, thereby continuing to stay ahead by offering all their competition do, and then some.

The ONLY reality, for us as residents, that is worse than less-than-optimal peformance of the system would be for Second Life to slide into obsolescence, where death on the bone pile WOULD be inevitable. Low performance, if it WERE dramatic enough to drive residents off, would have already resulted in leaving...and since you are still here, reading this, just as I am here typing it...well, let's just agree that death-by-competition is the worse fate for SL, and give them a bit of room to breath...and the long-term application of new features to First Look DOES give all of us the chance to look HARD at new features, without sacrificing inworld time...I for one will feel hypocritical if I DONT First-Look a feature and I rant about it later, wont you?

There is no comparible competition that offers anything near what SL does. Its their refusal to flat out work on bug fixes that makes the game unstable, and THAT is pushing people away.

Considering the state of first look and normal viewers, and my testing time in the beta grid, in wich 90% of my major bug reports were still in the main release..no I would not feel hypocritical, LL has shut itself off to criticism, and for no good reason.

People have been leaving. Friends in game and people announcing it on the forums.. its happening. Linden Labs is not listening to its customers. Here is one example:

/142/7a/185654/1.html

To put it short to break youre two roads comment - THERE IS NO COMPETITION.

I absolutely agree with this statement, and I will add:

"Staying ahead" is a delicate balance of re-invention to improve performance, reliability and features. The addictive mystery of "a better tomorrow" needs to be nourished with regular and visible signs of progress. And things that cannot or will not be fixed should be acknowledged and explained, otherwise hope turns to despair and despair into cynicism. (and the forums are full of cynics already. )

Or something wordy and handwavey like that.

To me, it doesn't really matter how many new features they add. If stuff that was broken before stays broken, and stuff that wasn't broken gets broken, then I think it's only a matter of time before "fed-up" turns into "pack-up."

If the current infrastructure can't even support text chat, what makes them think that it can support VOICE?!?

This isn't entirely true. LL will be looking at this strategically where competition isn't just direct competition, but also includes substitution. Substitution comes in many forms for their product which includes MPORPG, social networking sites such as Myspace etc, consoles and indeed real life. Therefore there are a number of drivers the force LL to continue to develop and deliver a stable environment for us all to enjoy.

... which is why they got someone else to run voice.

In any case I'd hate to see them completely stop adding new features just to fix bugs, because for me it's the new features that make me want to keep using SL. To not have any more new things to experience and try out would mean SL would just be the same all the time, sure it might be less buggy, but that wouldn't affect my experience in it. Instead of logging off when the bugs got too annoying, I'd just log off when SL got too boring.

Considering the sheer NUMBER of bugs there are?

I'd rather see them FIX for a few patches instead of installing new shineys.

Not that the shineys (windlight, etc.) aren't cool, but if I have a hard time doing anything to enjoy it, it's LOST!