Second Life: Why is it thriving? *New Vid*

New article on why, against all the naysayers, SL is THRIVING!!.... with informative video by Philip Rosedale!!




http://www.vizworld.com/2010/02/life-work/



or straight to Philip Rosedale's vid:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3LFqX6YNY0&feature=player_embedded#

Filmed a while back though

"Philip Rosedale, founder of Second Life, discusses the future of virtual worlds. Filmed at Singularity University's Graduate Student Program 2009, NASA Ames Research Center, Silicon Valley."

Uploaded January 31, 2010

I just love this quote from the speech right at the beginning on the trying Second Life: "...if you have any questions about it, or are, you know, feel like you are crawling over broken glass trying to figure it out, as one person said the other day, which I thought was just, just a great description of the Second Life new user experience..."

While for the long time Second Life user, it's like being fed broken glass.

Interesting video. Philip says some things that remind me of stuff I've thought about.

SL is Thriving? I have kept some stats off and on for a year or so..

Last Updated: Friday, November 7, 2008
Reflects data through midnight, November 6.

Population
Residents Logged-In During Last 7 Days 501,193
Residents Logged-In During Last 14 Days 665,226
Residents Logged-In During Last 30 Days 900,412
Residents Logged-In During Last 60 Days 1,287,651
Total Residents 1 15,774,573
--------------------------------------------------------------------
-records date="2009-08-06" report="logged in users"

Residents Logged-In During Last 7 Days" value="571986"
Residents Logged-In During Last 14 Days" value="731804"
Residents Logged-In During Last 30 Days" value="1002942"
Residents Logged-In During Last 60 Days" value="1389075"
---------------------------------------------------------------------

records date="2010-01-19" report="logged in users">

Residents Logged-In During Last 7 Days" value="594285"
Residents Logged-In During Last 14 Days" value="768473"
Residents Logged-In During Last 30 Days" value="1022916"
Residents Logged-In During Last 60 Days" value="1403590"

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
records date="2010-02-01" report="logged in users">

Residents Logged-In During Last 7 Days" value="607617"
Residents Logged-In During Last 14 Days" value="772817"
Residents Logged-In During Last 30 Days" value="1044965"
Residents Logged-In During Last 60 Days" value="1404640"

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Not a huge change there........

... from across the room with a slingshot.

Um... when you're company is making $100,000,000 dollars a year... it's thriving... trust me on that one.

/me pulls the shards of glass out of his hands and feet...

Thanks for posting the link. I watched the entire video. Very interesting - the way Philip Rosedale had his vision of a virtual world and stuck with it and gave us what we've got now.
Amazing.

It brings home how Second Life is something that simply has to be pushed forward and to maintain its lead over other virtual worlds in order to survive. I keep an eye on the Virtual Worlds News and nearly all the newcomers in virtual worlds are of the primitive, cartoony type, and quite a number of those also close down too.

The ultimate goal I think has to be a universal 3D world which can be used for everything from realistic animation to commercial quality simulations.

I know we get problems with performance and stabilty and often people say it would be better if LL fixed what we have already than chasing after new features. But I think they need to do both in order to survive long-term, so it's a difficult balancing act.

Please point to evidence that supports that claim. Last post I seen from a Linden said they were barely profitable. There is a difference between revenue and profit.

And yet are claiming that maintaining a common piece of forum software is beyond their capabilities and resources. Maybe M is spending too much of that 100Mil on psychic readings or something.

And yet...I gotta say...

Trying to help a newbie usually goes something like this.

/me watches someone walk into buildings repeatedly, in the newbie av. Checks profile - born today.

/me asks, "Hi! Do you need any help?"

About to leave when suddenly in local chat, "I sure do!"

/me replies, "Great! What would you like help with? I can help you however you want. Ask anything."

/me waits, two, three minutes, to no reply, then sees the newbie walk into the same wall.

"Do you need any help?"

"Huh?"

"What would you like to know about Second Life?"

"Where can I do tha sex/get money?" or, "How do I go somewhere?"

"Well, (watching the newbie walk into teh wall repeatedly) why don't we go just over here, and sit?" (watches the newbie begin to follow, then stop, and 'faint' while the 'away' sign appears over their head.) "Are you here?" (/me begins to answer my IMs and sort inventory, waiting for them to come back. Ten minutes later. Newbie walks into a different wall, and seems to have totally forgotten the conversation a third time.)

"Let's go over here and sit, out of the way (hovers in the air, ready to lead them to the bench two meters away) and you can ask any questions about Second Life."

(newbie teleports away)

/me sends an IM. "Hello? Did you crash?" (the IM goes through, they did not crash)

/me sighs and goes shopping. Thinking, well, I guess they didn't need help after all.

Ten minutes later, "Sorry I...was texting someone/got a phone call/left for dinner/went afk/watched American Idol...." etc.

Ok not word for word but that's usually how it goes. My point is, the new user experience has to rest halfway on the user as well. Including taking help when it's offered, or at least, being polite enough to reply with a "Thanks so much but I can't right now...I think I'll just muddle through for now, and learn later."

Give it a year and the new admins of SL will have us logging in through a Flash app on facebook and looking at our prims in 2.5D.

If they have their way, everything that makes SL special will be dead and gone as soon as possible, and it will just be another e-commerce website.

I'd say a year is about right. Maybe a bit sooner.