Second Life’s “A Year in the Life” Video/Ad by PookieMedia Raises the Bar on SL Expectations for new and current Residents.
PookyMedia has always done Amazing Machinima, Including this new video about a Year-Long experience of a Resident that explores SL and in the meantime meets people, it even made me miss my First SL year. But I’m afraid it raises the expectations for future Residents too much.
First of all, such Graphic Qualities of SL are only in Expensive Desktop Computers which probably make only 3% of all new users and possibly 10% of the current users which felt the need to upgrade.
Second, Sims 3 anyone? Everything is over-animated which I’d love to have in SL and it is possible. I might even start to make gestures to wave my hand when I say Hi, Hey or Hello and etc.
I think I love it, but it’s a View into the Future, or and ad for current Residents that need a shot of excitement about SL (me and many 4+ Year old residents)
Linden Lab’s Anticompetitive Moves
It all started when Linden Lab stopped being a Land Provider and started to Make side jobs that the residents should do like the Editorial Work on the Showcases and that “Sandbox” newsletter. Most of the time, when Linden Labs gets in a Market they kill it by taking over it. But when is it forgivable?
Web Marketplaces
2 or 3 Years ago Linden Lab purchased the two most popular web marketplaces, XStreetSL (Previously named SLX) and OnRez and launched their own one.
Why you can forgive them:
It makes it easier for everyone, you don’t need two passwords, you don’t have to go to an ATM to deposit money for that separate account and merchants will get the new direct delivery system soon that will work better than Magic Boxes.
Why you can’t forgive them:
They Killed a market and also any chance of further Innovation, they could just have made API’s to get closer to that experience and they could use more of their staff on the important stuff that needs to be fixed.
Social Networks
Linden Lab bought and Killed “Avatars United”, which was a pretty big social network for many Virtual Worlds and MMO’s, they also Just released web Profiles for Viewer 2 that Include Status Updates “Friends Suggestions”, which is some sort of a small Social Network that will probably kill the need of any other Network. (Check out my blog post on what It could potentially do to kill this market too)
Why you can forgive them:
Second Life is already a social network, even if you don’t like how it sounds. Having the need to sign up for another site to Socialize with people is too much. It’s easier, all your friends are on it already and you won’t have to worry about another Social Network in your life.
Why you can’t forgive them:
They could just make Viewer Plugins that would be like advanced HUDs (Shared Media HUDs are a start) and anyone that wants to start a social network could do all that or more.
Editorial Work
Linden Lab has many people doing “Editorial Work” Like choosing which places get into their showcases and even started making Fashion and Decoration choices in their “The Sandbox Newsletter”.
Why you can forgive them:
It makes it easier for new users to like Second Life, which indirectly helps the market. That’s the single reason I can think of.
Why you can’t forgive them:
This affects multiple markets, it makes Mainstream Businesses richer and those new ones loose most of their chances to ever succeed. They affect the Editorial Market too, not that much since most people kinda hate it. Bloggers and Magazines should do that job, not Linden Lab
Conclusion
Most of the time these Business moves help Second Life survive to make it easier to use for less tech-savvy people, which helps the growth of the grid, something that will make everything better in all ways. Other Virtual Worlds like Active Worlds didn’t do these and they stayed as underdogs for even a longer time than SL, so at least we are not on the wrong path. Like it or not, this is how SL is evolving and succeeding
Second Life is Getting Social
I’m already in love with Second Life’s new Social Network. Why? Because everyone is in it already, there’s no need to ask your friends to join an external social network anymore, It has all the potential to succeed because it can’t fail. It already has what all social networks dream: people.
It still needs a few additions but I’m already more attracted to it than to Facebook or even Twitter because it’s right in the Viewer and it can post to those social networks automatically, but I have a huge wish list for it:
Image Sharing
They could Implement it into the already working Snapshot system and maybe replace postcards with that since they stopped working properly for ages.
Web Groups
I Imagine that Linden Lab will work on the Groups the same way they did with Profiles, They could have more of a “Wall” for all of what we call notices today by turning them into Posts, removing the needs for most attachments like Images or so.
Ecosystem
Revamp the Events system and Integrate it with Web Groups, Profiles and even the Little Location sharing system we currently have on Status Updates. This way we would have a Social Network that has all the things we want from a Real Life ones without getting deleted and with everyone on them by default. I could Imagine myself signing up for an event via a group Invitation and sharing it with my friends, and when I arrive at the place making a Check-in in my Profile’s Timeline. Check-ins could also Improve the current “What’s Hot” Event list on the Login Screen and so on.
I’m really excited about the possibilities of this new Social Aspect we’ve never had before and I hope Linden Lab won’t leave it how it is today and improve it and hopefully make my Wish list a reality. There are other things like Mobile Apps for this but i think It’s a bigger priority to have a more useful system.
An Update on what I’ve been doing
Hi everyone!
I’m sort of back in SL actively and I’m really excited about it. Most of the things I’ve going on are really interesting. They are new paths I’m taking and also comebacks to things I’ve done and loved before.
RL
Back in December I felt like quitting SL because I felt it took so much away from my Real Life. In Autumn/Winter 2009 I took some Decisions that gave me way too much time in my hands for SL and It was all great for the first 3-4 Months but then I realized that I became a monster that had f*cked up sleeping schedules, that didn’t talk to much to his friends anymore and so on. In Spring 2010 I decided to start changing that and on the last months of 2010 I felt like I got my life back and it was awesome.
I took huge breaks from SL, sometimes weeks and I even felt like leaving SL, not just because of what happened to me but because all Issues SL had kind of got amplified for me after all that. Now I’m using SL as a “Creative Outlet” and to talk to my friends I’ve met over the years.
Lionheart
Since I haven’t been very “Stable” I was unable to do my periodical work as an Estate Manager (Checking sims and so on) so some other colleagues took those responsibilities for a while and I was the “Dude Next Door” making some Land Sales and Helping Residents as an Estate Manager.
I will start to be a full-time Estate Manager again and I am also thinking on some projects for the LH Community.
New Projects
AVENUE
You don’t know me well enough if you don’t know how much of a Fashionista I am both in RL and SL so I decided to get more interested in the whole Fashion domain and I Joined Avenue’s Models Academy. The Courses started in February and they only finished a few weeks ago, I had my Final exam about a week ago and I passed. The next thing that will happen will be our Graduation show which will be sometime in May (I’ll keep you posted on that).
Fashion Blog
I am starting a little fashion blog at http://alvihalderman.wordpress.com it will feature outfits that express or challenge my style which will be pretty fun to watch. I might later re-post stuff on this blog or something like that. I don’t want to piss off the readers that come here to see the casual Rants or the gadget reviews I do, nor piss off the fashionista that just wants the fashion posts.
Content Creation
I might be Getting a better computer soon so I’m able to do some proper Machinima and Photography with very high graphic settings.
Starbooks
It is one of the favorite things I’ve done in SL, It lasted about 2 years and It’s always been really close to the Lionheart Community. I decided to close in January because sales just dropped dramatically, I can’t explain it but anyone would tell you that selling prim coffee cups that copy the model of a Real Life Coffee Shop company can be “Unstable”. There were some nice upcoming products but I just didn’t feel like going on with it anymore, It could have a Slim comeback on the SL Marketplace for the fans and the people that almost considered it Pop Culture of Lionheart.
Viewer 2.6 Beta Review
Linden Lab just released a new Beta Version of their Viewer 2. 6. On the Log in screen you get to choose between “Basic” and “Advanced” mode. Basic mode is very similar to the Gaikai Web Viewer that Linden Lab has been showcasing for a while already.
However I think that there are some severe mistakes with their vision (if they plan to keep it this way). My Vision for two separate viewers would be a “Consumer Viewer” and a “Developer Viewer”. This however, is more like a Preview viewer that would be great for the cloud.
- You have no Inventory, monetary or editing system. Meaning you can’t buy things.
- You have no Settings window. The Graphics preset for my computer was too high and performance was worse than on Viewer 2.5 “Advanced”
- There is an odd “My Avatar” button that lets you choose between several newbie outfits. Again, that would be great for a complete stranger that just wants to preview some place in SL.
- There is the same issue with the Destinations button, it takes you to featured places and not the whole world. That feels like a desperate attempt from LL to filter the porn or other content that already harmed their image before, which is kinda sneaky but clever
- No Mouselook mode. I think that anyone that wants to just “explore” might want to do it in a first-person mode.
- No Voice chat.
Maybe it would be good for new people that want to get used to SL, but even they might find it frustrating. I could Imagine a future scenario where the noob-cliche/question would be “How can I buy stuff” and when they switch to the full mode they get overwhelmed by options.
