Lalo Telling

Hamlet does it again:
How To Make Second Life Truly Mass Market, Part 1: Deep Integration With Facebook

Yesterday we were treated (via Pixels and Policy) to examples of the "dumbing down" of SL by people who are more concerned about the number of names they have on their friends list than the quality of the friendships... and who are so trained to passivity that the only thing they can think of to aid that effort is to turn themselves into "pick-up bait".

30 years ago, that was called "Looking for Mr. Goodbar"...

Now Hamlet is advocating that LL deliberately go after more of these bimboids (of both apparent genders).

It's all about the $$$.

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Telling: Like it Is

Ann Otoole

hamlet is the mouthpiece of his master mark klingdon ceo of linden lab.
so now we know why amanada (came with klingdon from organic) is pushing to out all rl identities in SL.

I for one am all for every linden's rl name and address being outed. I think linden lab needs to publish all their employees real life names and addresses.

Siggy

Agree

Disagree. If LL is a company I expect no more nor less than any other company... and I for one wouldn't work for a company - ANY company that published my ANYTHING.

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And as it was in the beginning, so too shall it be in the end. That bullshit is bullshit, it just goes by different names.

Lalo Telling

"There's Klingdons on the starboard bow, starboard bow, starboard bow..."

Got link?

Jura Shepherd

I'm sure the fact that YoVille has essentially zero system requirements and that my granny could figure out how to use it has nothing to do with it's popularity.

Kate M.

SL as it stands now is always going to be a niche for several reasons:
- system requirements. It requires something approaching a high-end gaming machine to run well and look nice.
- lack of apparent "in-game goals". This throws some people and they never really see a point to it. This is closely tied to how SL looks now - because it looks and feels like a convention MMORPG, gamers expect it to behave like one.
- complexity and UI. Personally, I love SL's current UI. It's unobtrusive, yet displays a lot of data quickly, with only a few clicks or keystrokes needed. This is the hallmark of a good UI. But for a lot of people, learning where everything is and how to interact with the world is daunting and it never "clicks" for them.

As I stated in my opening line, a truly immersive, streaming 3d world that requires a lot of computing power is NEVER going to have the mass market appeal of what is essentially a flash app (I'm looking at you, farmville). If LL wants mass market appeal, one of two general things has to happen:
- SL has to change to be simpler and easier to use, as well as easier to run. Unfortunately, that would ruin the experience for a lot of us.
- LL has to created new ways of accessing their virtual world from different platforms. A huge, graphics-intensive app for high power PCs (what we've got now). A lighter-weight viewer that renders the world more simply for old computers and netbooks. Something for pocket PCs and iPhone-like devices that somehow still gives you a visual window into the world, and then at the bottom, a text-only device for cell phones.

Along with these technical-side changes is a branding change for LL and SL: instead of just a virtual world, it is a social medium that you can access from anywhere. The MMORPG people figure out it's not just a game and jump back in. The user base explodes because people can choose a way to access it that works for them.

I've seen early signs of this approach already in some blog posts and forum postings. LL has a roadmap, and they know where they're going.

Ryanna Enfield

Totally missing the mark. There is a reason why I'm here in SL and not there in yoville or any of those other places. When LL figures that one out, they just might be able to finally understand the dish they are serving.

I absolutely can't stand Facebook. It is entirely intrusive. People posting old pictures of you or posting information that you never wanted the entire Facebook collective and all ten of their brothers to see. Old stalkers contacting you just to make sure you still want absolutely nothing to do with them. Random news from people who insist upon making every little thing they do throughout the day public, yet you still have no idea who they are, or why they are sending their shout-out to your wall. Family members who don't know how to check the privacy settings and don't seem to understand that when they post about private family issues, everyone can see.

Just... No thanks.

MaxDesoto

ummmm, wot?



I don't want my RL identities out in SL!!!

Or did I miss something.

Links plz!!

Lalo Telling

katie, everything you say makes sense.

The question is: Do we want mass appeal?

Unfortunately, quite often LL's roadmap leaves its residents behind as road-kill.

Ariane

Considering that 1) Facebook has booted people on the service that are using their SL names rather than their real names, and 2) the "online utopian" philosophy of FB is directly opposite with the "role player" philosophy which attracts most players to SL, this idea is a non-starter.

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Merlynn D

i still think the economic meltdown was brought about by entirely too much tweeting, blogging, facebooking, plurking, lurking, u-tubing, myspacing and not enough working...

Kate M.

Lalo,

The current residents of SL may not want it (I for one don't), but there's a lot of evidence that LL does want mass appeal, because they know that's where the money is. They don't want to remain small-time forever.

For us, as residents that like SL mostly as it is, mass appeal has the added bonus of making LL, and thus SL, more financially stable and less likely to go belly-up at some point.

I gather that most of us have read Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash novel. When I first heard about SL, I couldn't shake the feeling that suddenly, irrevocably, we were living in Stephenson's dystopian world. It was downright eery how closely the virtual grid Stephenson described and SL resemble each other.

That novel, and SL's appearance, cemented in my mind that something like SL, an immersive virtual world, is inevitable in some form or another. Even if SL goes belly-up and disappears, something very like it will quickly fill the void. Virtual worlds, in some form or another, are here to stay. I think LL has a good start on everyone else and has done a lot of things right. Yes, you heard me: I think LL is, for the most part, doing a very good job at running a virtual world. Think about it - this is something that has never been done before, ever. They've had to invent everything, from the very basic protocols, all the way through some form of government. I think us as residents usually forget how truly pioneering this is, and how much originality it takes to keep innovating and improving.

As for the second part of the quote...

I think LL has such a long-reaching road map in mind they are willing to upset a certain number of early adapters in order to move forward. They're looking 5, 10, 15 years down the line and seeing what SL can become, and they (LL) know in order to get there a lot of things have to change - the SL of then might be unrecognizable compared to what we have now. As long as most of us are mostly happy, they still have enough user base to stay in business to move forward.

Am I making sense or am I rambling like a crazy person?

Lalo Telling

Yes, katie, you're still making sense.

Snow Crash has been, and still is, so iconic in the creation of SL and the discussion thereafter to be nearly (if not definitely) a cliche. I personally tend to think that, plot aside, Tad Williams' Otherland series is more apt, in terms of how Second Life feels to be in.

Change is inevitable, and we know this, yet it still makes us uncomfortable -- especially since we, too, are still finding our way as the world forms around us. We see that, in some ways, our influence helps in the shaping, and it gives us a sense of ownership that has little to do with the hardware it lives in, the code that creates and sustains it, or who owns and maintains that. We are jealous of that connection; knowing that it's so tenuous only heightens the vigilance in some of us.

"Quality of life" pertains to Second Life as well as "first". I hope that I, and the rest, will be able to ignore the invasion of Myspace mentality that will inevitably come with LL's forays into that market. If not... well, there will be other places in the Metaverse, and while SL may be poorer for our absence, it will go unnoticed amid the masses.

Kate M.

Lalo,

You've just added a book (or several books) to my very short "to read" list. Thanks!

If LL can realize this, and articulate that realization in how they act and what they say going forward, they would create a user base so fanatically loyal it would make the hordes of Genghis Khan look like couch potatoes by comparison.

Unfortunately, I have serious concerns that they will pick up on this. LL is first and foremost a software company. They are used to dealing with bytes and programs and computers, which are very predictable things. This bias comes across in what Prokofy tends to call "embedding morality in the tools". Simply put, LL is not used to governing people.

So far, they have tried to govern simply by giving the tools certain capabilities. But this approach as serious limits, which is quickly shown by griefers and copybot et al. To remove the possibility of griefing one must lock down the region so it's no fun for everyone, and in the case of copybotting, the toolset LL developed and the morality embedded in it is completely circumvented.

Anyway, based on what they do with user input to their blog on certain topics (Zindra, copyright protection, etc), it seems they have decided that having a fanatical user base is not worth the trouble of actually giving us meaningful input. In the long run, they are probably correct since the changes that must take place are so incredibly drastic, almost everyone will disagree on some point and they simply don't want their hands tied.

At some point in the future I think one of two things has to happen: either LL hires a bunch of politicians and public administration folks to actually govern their world, or they set up a citizen's government - a democracy. The latter is fraught with difficulties, but I think in the long run would prove to be a better choice and result in improved citizen engagement and participation.

Because I feel like going on a technical rant here are my biggest issues with SL currently. This is kind of OT, but pertains to changes that need to happen, so here goes.

1. Sim crossings.
What can I say? They suck. For me, they make me very reluctant to explore because I know at some point, even on foot, I'm going to hurtled bodily through either the air or ground at mach 3 and then unceremoniously plunked down at some random coordinate in the new sim, usually 5 seconds or more later. There are 2 easy solutions:
o Make sim crossings faster and more predictable. Possibly make the child connections to adjoining sims start sooner and transfer more data, so all of the av data is in two sims at once, and just waiting for the handover. Maybe optimize the physical layout of grid servers, so certain high-load sims are on the same physical server.

o Make sims bigger. If the sims are bigger one will encounter fewer sim crossings and the problem is reduced. In a big vehicle, (I've got a 80+m long zeppelin, for instance), you run through 256 m awfully quick.

2. Search.
This absolutely needs to improve, it's so archaic it's embarrassing. Indexing by traffic instead of keywords first? Please. By making it hard to find places and things, residents have more difficulty getting engaged in the world. SL is primarily a social medium, and having a search that actually inhibits connecting with people is downright idiotic. I hear this is going to be better in the new viewer, so we'll see.

3. Data Transfer and # of Avs on a sim and/or cache improvements.
These three go hand-in-hand. When you revisit a sim, it seems like the viewer re-downloads an awful lot of data even with a previous visit cached. What would be better is to download a differential file, so the only thing you have to transfer are things that have changed since your last visit.

Now this doesn't work very well with live editing, so perhaps a special "mode" is needed when someone is altering the sim. This is poorly thought-out (what about rezzing simple objects?) but you get the idea. If the viewer needs less object data av data can make up more of the bandwidth, but av concurrency is mostly a server-side issue.

And finally in this category, organize the cache better and make it more of a "permanent" download. More like Blue Mars maybe. This has its own host of issues of course, but currently SL is very bandwidth hungry which is not a great thing.

Okay, that's the end of my rant. I am VERY sure I'm not making sense now! :-)

Sansarya

I don't know whether or not I agree, but this is an awesome thing to think about (and read aloud ). Thanks

Argent Stonecutter

Like, perhaps, almost not at all?

Second Life is not very much like the Metaverse, and a lot more like the Other Plane from Vinge's True Names.

Lalo Telling

Having no idea where this came from, and not being answered about a link, I went and dug for it myself.

The Time for Work Avatars has Arrived

An official SL blog entry, dated October 14, in which Amanda Linden interviewed Sam Driver of ThinkBalm.
. . .

Quote:

Amanda: Assuming that Second Life will eventually offer the option to use real names, how will avatar identities shift? Sam: Offering people the option to use their real names for their avatars is one of the best strategic moves Linden Lab can make to bring Second Life into the professional limelight.

Anne took Sam's words, put them in Amanda's mouth and then framed a question based on her misreading:

Quote:

So at some point in the future you are going to allow us to create accounts using our real life names or are you intending to force our real life identies out...

In short, this was about "Nebraska" before we knew what Nebraska was... and where the "outing" came from was out of Anne's head.

Brenda Connolly

I must be the only person in SL who hated that book..or at least the less than half that I tried to muddle through.

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Brenda Connolly

I think there may be some truth in it.

BTW...great av, Sans.

Brenda Connolly

They way LL bungles every decision they seem to make, they better worry about SL 2 years down the road, not 5 or 10.

Brenda Connolly

That doesn't mean things can't change. There are a lot of SL names on FB, including mine. No reason FB and LL can't come to a partnership.

Ann Otoole

Well I have never seen Hamlet so insistent about anything before. Normally he tries to show a little journalistic integrity but he seems to be under orders to trample any opposing viewpoints. Guess SL's days are numbered lol.

Brenda Connolly

I have to admit, that article was a big steaming pile of bullshit. The SL he proposes is one I won't be anywhere near.

eku Zhong

I HATE FACEBOOK

for many many reasons.. but above all because even though ppl are their real life selves... they are shallow and replace real human interaction with the shallowness of apps to all on their list and mass poking.

SL might be a clump of anonymous users.. but theres more REAL ppl interacting with each other than anywhere on facebook.

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Ann Otoole

All I can say is you might want to commence the arduous process of exporting your inventories out of Second Life. Before LL erases it all and gives you a choice of 5 2.5D brat girlz avatars to choose from and all your content is erased so you have to buy new sketchup crap from the LL store to furnish your "apartment" that costs you $300 a month.