SSP?

[diamond Marchant]

6 minutes ago, Coffee Pancake said:

7 hours ago, Mike McGregor said:

Those shoreline sims there are currently among the slums of Second Life. While it is so easy to solve that right away.

The sailing community winning friends as usual ... 

Many of those properties are quite nice There are occasional challenges when flying over them

 

[Aethelwine]

27 minutes ago, diamond Marchant said:

Here is a slightly revised map of the protected water path from Stromberg to Atanua, showing channel widths. There is a 90 degree corner in the SW corner of Eostre and a 90 degree corner in the NW corner of Chuginadak. We do depend on governance to keep these channels free from overhangs.

It doesn't take much of a slow handover in that Chuginodak corner to end up on someone's land. There are 3 parcels there fortunately currently in sympathetic land owner's hands... but depending on their goodwill for an intercontinental connection doesn't seem wise as a long-term plan. 

[Trinity Blakewell]

on another topic:

Anyone have a clue as to what we can expect next from LL regarding the homes? Will there be any additional styles this calendar year? How about updates to the Traditionals?

[Vico Vandervoort]

In the real world projects on this scale are exposed in the open by the initiators and project developers. The users may then shoot or embrace it. Apparently things are different in Secondlife. In this world we have to wait and see what 'people' (I don't know them) have come up with for us. In itself this is remarkable and at the same time the source of all speculation. It would be so much better if LindenLabs were a little more transparant, clearer. I can handle that. And it's always nice to be surprised! 

[Petros Aabye]

2 hours ago, Coffee Pancake said:

The sailing community winning friends as usual ... 

I've tried to smarten up and open up some of this area, showed Diamond a part last year.

Most of the water is open, with most neighbours leaving it that way for passage.

I will put an LCC Rez post & clubhouse in there if it was ever open to the sea. Currently the area is openly adevtised as a place for mermaid community to swim around. Fendhal & Absorbaloff.

[Persephone Emerald]

This plea was also posted by one of the land holders in Khan (where there is a small corner of protected water connecting to the strip at Blofeld and Klebb).

The region owners at Blofeld have it all accessible. Most of the water at Klebb is currently as well, though a large parcel of land and water there is for sale, so that could soon become blocked.

I think it's wonderful that Bellisseria is getting all this water to go boating on, but owners of mainland are paying for Premium subscriptions, so it would be nice if they could get a bit more sailable coastline too.

Edited August 9, 2022 by Persephone Emerald

[SarahKB7 Koskinen]

Now that's very interesting, I never realised until now that there are protected boat channels along the coasts of Blofeld and Klebb.  I'll have to go looking for more! 

EDIT: I've just finished looking around all the 19 sims south of Stromberg and have confirmed Blofeld, Klebb and a tiny southwest corner area of Khan are the only sims with protected coastlines.

Edited August 10, 2022 by SarahKB7 Koskinen

[Nika Talaj]

8 hours ago, Mike McGregor said:

Apparently things are different in Secondlife. In this world we have to wait and see what 'people' (I don't know them) have come up with for us. In itself this is remarkable

Is it remarkable?  It might be better to compare SL to other "games", rather than the real world (tempting tho that may be because of SL's extensive continents).  There are many MMOGs that allow users to create content, but are there any that give users a voice in defining new content that the game makers are developing?

[Honest question, I know very little about other MMOGs]

[Vico Vandervoort]

9 hours ago, Nika Talaj said:

Is it remarkable?  It might be better to compare SL to other "games", rather than the real world (tempting tho that may be because of SL's extensive continents).

You are absolutely right, of course it is more realistic to compare SL with other games and not with real life. But I don't know anything about other 'games', if you can call SL a game? The moment you yell 'Hi' in my IM, you are already in my real life. That's how I feel.

I'm someone who even thinks it's a good idea to create an electable civilian board in SL, hence. An electable participation committee would be a good start. This is just a wish! I am not telling others what to do, please. Sure hell, SL would become ungovernable,... 

I do know that the residents in SL build the content (partly), but at the moment they have nothing to say about the infrastructure. That's a little 'shame', I won't change that, my contribution may even be undesirable if I read some of the comments here. I'm just trying to create a better and, above all, optimally usable world. No, I don't pay attention to the costs. A new sea strait between Bellisseria and the Blake Sea (the old land) is also just a wish, but probably the best idea. 

Edited August 10, 2022 by Mike McGregor

[Theresa Tennyson]

7 hours ago, Mike McGregor said:

You are absolutely right, of course it is more realistic to compare SL with other games and not with real life. But I don't know anything about other 'games', if you can call SL a game? The moment you yell 'Hi' in my IM, you are already in my real life. That's how I feel.

The moment you sit down to use a game or any other application on your computer, you're already in your real life, just like every other moment between your birth and death.

[diamond Marchant]

8 hours ago, Mike McGregor said:

I'm someone who even thinks it's a good idea to create an electable civilian board in SL, hence. An electable participation committee would be a good start. This is just a wish! I am not telling others what to do, please. Sure hell, SL would become ungovernable,... 

This thread will be FOUR years old on August 20. It has provided hours of entertainment for those of us who enjoy speculating about something we have no real knowledge about. The policy of Linden Labs has been to provide no details about the future... just vague statements about "new themes" or something might happen "soon". A good insight comes from @Abnor Mole, who has shared that "regions must pay for themselves".

Given the current state of affairs, I believe this policy of opaqueness is entirely justified. In the scheme of things, Second Life is super tiny. We have but 40,000 active users on a good day... we could all sit in Fenway Park and watch a Red Sox game (baseball). Additionally, we are not growing which is not a good look for any business.  The best we can hope for is that Linden Labs is breaking even so that the decision to shut us down is not a no-brainer. They do not have the luxury of telling us what they are planning, much less allowing us to participate in any meaningful way.

[AzureWaves]

2 minutes ago, diamond Marchant said:

This thread will be FOUR years old on August 20. It has provided hours of entertainment for those of us who enjoy speculating about something we have no real knowledge about. The policy of Linden Labs has been to provide no details about the future... just vague statements about "new themes" or something might happen "soon". A good insight comes from @Abnor Mole, who has shared that "regions must pay for themselves".

Given the current state of affairs, I believe this policy of opaqueness is entirely justified. In the scheme of things, Second Life is super tiny. We have but 40,000 active users on a good day... we could all sit in Fenway Park and watch a Red Sox game (baseball). Additionally, we are not growing which is not a good look for any business.  The best we can hope for is that Linden Labs is breaking even so that the decision to shut us down is not a no-brainer. They do not have the luxury of telling us what they are planning, much less allowing us to participate in any meaningful way.

This is so insightful and a sad reality about Second Life. They're not giving us actual metrics so we don't know the actual growth rate, but if it is growing at all, I would guess not by much. In some ways I think Linden Lab is not trying to please the current user base, they already have our money and attention. What they want is to attract younger crowds, the tiktok-ers, etc. What do THEY want? Linden Lab is spending a lot of time and money attracting them with music venues (Club Arcane), comic regions, games, etc.

[Persephone Emerald]

52 minutes ago, AzureWaves said:

This is so insightful and a sad reality about Second Life. They're not giving us actual metrics so we don't know the actual growth rate, but if it is growing at all, I would guess not by much. In some ways I think Linden Lab is not trying to please the current user base, they already have our money and attention. What they want is to attract younger crowds, the tiktok-ers, etc. What do THEY want? Linden Lab is spending a lot of time and money attracting them with music venues (Club Arcane), comic regions, games, etc.

I think it should be at least moderately encouraging that Bellisseria is growing so fast. Remember that LL doesn't want to build new regions if they don't think they'll pay off. Every one of these regions represent about 20 people paying for a Premium subscription. Of course some houses will be empty, but LL must have data to make them think there won't be too many empty ones. 

I suspect some of this growth is in preparation for removing the old Linden Home regions, but those aren't that full. What is being added is far more than what will be necessary to absorb those Premium account holders.

Edited August 10, 2022 by Persephone Emerald

[Nika Talaj]

3 hours ago, Theresa Tennyson said:

The moment you sit down to use a game or any other application on your computer, you're already in your real life, just like every other moment between your birth and death.

Yes and no.  I think it is important to remember that for a WHOLE LOT of people, gaming, particularly SL, is all about escapism.  In SL you can easily escape to be a completely new persona, you can use SL as a scratch pad to develop new traits, you can escape limitations of your real life to be the person that you may always have imagined yourself to be ... a person whom those who see you daily in real life DO NOT KNOW.

A person whom those who you interact with daily (perhaps not positively) ... cannot reach.

[Vico Vandervoort]

4 hours ago, Theresa Tennyson said:

The moment you sit down to use a game or any other application on your computer, you're already in your real life, just like every other moment between your birth and death.

Now we're getting philosophical,...

(Sometimes I meet people that like to separate there SL from there RL)

All is Real Life, I agree!! This means there are (yes/no) computer games, and (yes/no) virtual worlds, but indeed if you look at it that way. That, then, is the moment my father impregnated my mother,... That, me, when I was 15, and bought a computer, is an afterthought. It won't be long before I die, I'm so terribly old already. Kiss, smarty pants. I think I have said enough and move on.  

I think this forum is perfect, I am just joking!

Edited August 10, 2022 by Mike McGregor
I think this forum is perfect, I am just joking!

[Beryl Greenacre]

Second Life is not actively trying to attract the under-25s, they can't because that age group is playing games like FFXIV, Genshin Impact, League of Legends, PUBG, Smite, Apex, Fortnite, even Overwatch. They want to build a house? They play Minecraft or Roblox. 

SL's largest population is aging and happy with opening our wallets to pay for fake houses and bodies/faces. We are what is referred to in the gaming industry as "whales" (FFXIV even has a flying whale mount you can buy in an ironic meta humor reference). One of my gamer friends calls people like us "wallet warriors" since we pay to win - and winning in SL means more land, bigger houses, more clothes/accessories, etc. 

People over the past few years have been whisper-screaming "metaverse!" and I think the Lab figured they might be able to capitalize on this trend. I just don't think they can make it happen, and I think the whole idea of a true metaverse is a fallacy anyway. When a company only gets a couple thousand views on their You-Tube videos about their product, Twitch has banned them because mass amounts of adult content could pop out at any time, and there's no real way to make TikTok vids within the game - Linden Lab has bigger problems than being a part of the "metaverse."

The fact that the Lab is investing money in expanding Bellisseria is proof that the wallet warriors are the true kings and queens of SL and the ones who pay their bills. They've never been 100% forthcoming with what their future plans are about anything in the game, but that is typical of all gaming companies. Bless their hearts, though, Linden Lab keeps trying to evolve even as they come up with Premium Plus to help keep the lights on, the moles paid and the servers running while they try (once again) to figure out how to be more socially relevant. I truly wish them luck, after all I've been kicking around this game for over 19 years myself.

[Persephone Emerald]

I think the LDPW has made the channel at SSP Landho and SSP Josie Banks wider than it was originally.  Looking at the channel on the north east end of what might be a water passage between the Newbrooks and Chalets,  I wonder if they'll widen it on that end too?

[Lloyd Overland]

Remarkable progress by the moles, this is how far north the new land now extends:

[Nika Talaj]

The new area is largish.  I flew around its edges and did not see any sharply cut off land, but Abnor is still there creating it, so didn't take pics.  On its east edge it extends straight up for 4 new regions from the current regions, is 3 regions wide at its top, and then on the west there are a couple of stairsteps making it broader until it rejoins the existing houseboat regions.  If that whole area will be houseboats, when they're done they will have built a continent of houseboats larger than Sakura now is.

Also, in other news, I've never seen this before.  Most of the tile buildout area up in SSP land are offline, except for specially named ones.  The regions seem to still exist at this moment, tho who knows, perhaps on their way out ...

[Abnor Mole]

21 hours ago, Persephone Emerald said:

I wonder if they'll widen it on that end too?

Hmmm. Considering that would essentially involve moving and redoing everything on at least half the region... including terraforming, parcels, infrastructure, and every bit of content squeezed by the widening of the waterway... AND another full QA pass... If the question is "Are we going to take a region that is completed, done and ready for release to make a water channel a few meters wider?" Let me see...

Edited August 11, 2022 by Abnor Mole

[Persephone Emerald]

6 minutes ago, Abnor Mole said:

Hmmm. Since that would essentially involve moving everything on at least half the region... including terraforming, parcels, infrastructure, and every bit of content squeezed by the widening of the waterway... If the question is "Are we going to take a region that is completed, done and ready for release to make a water channel a few meters wider?" Let me see...

I was not expecting all that anyway. Maybe one house changed from a 1024 m to a 512 m parcel and then the sidewalk in front of it moved back? But given that the region is close to release, I didn't really expect that either. 

Thanks for the reply, and it's better than "Reply hazy, ask again".

Edited August 11, 2022 by Persephone Emerald

[SarahKB7 Koskinen]

From the official SL Map website... https://maps.secondlife.com/index.php?q=Stromberg

Stromberg: "I've been expecting you, Mr Bond!"

SSPTiedown Inlet: "Eh? Err, I'm not James Bond and how the hell did you find me?"

Stromberg: "By using my Super Secret Pointy-clicky (SSP) SL Map machine!"

SSPTiedown Inlet: "Oh okaaaaay.... err, nice to meet you?!"

Stromberg: "And I see you've brought fifteen other spies too!"

SSPTiedown Inlet: "Are you feeling quite alright, Mr Stromberg?! It can't be easy being stuck out here alone for so very long."

Stromberg: "But Mr Bond! I am not alone! *manic laughter* This continent is full of other SPECTRE Agent named sims!"

SSPTiedown Inlet: *blinks*

😜

Edited August 11, 2022 by SarahKB7 Koskinen

[Persephone Emerald]

9 minutes ago, SarahKB7 Koskinen said:

From the official SL Map website...

Stromberg: "Hello there! I've been expecting you for a very long time, Mr Bond!"

SSPTiedown Inlet: "Eh? Err, I'm not James Bond and how the hell did you find me?"

Stromberg: "From my Super Secret Pointy-clicky (SSP) SL Map machine!"

SSPTiedown Inlet: "Oh okaaaaay.... Anyway, nice to meet you, neighbour!"

Stromberg: "And I see you've brought fifteen other secret agents too!"

SSPTiedown Inlet: "Are you feeling quite alright, Mr Stromberg?!"

😜

Two more regions! Two more regions! 

/me does a happy dance.  💃 😃

[Persephone Emerald]

I found Stromberg is also the name of a German comedy series inspired by The Office.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0428167/

Edited August 11, 2022 by Persephone Emerald

[SarahKB7 Koskinen]

There's a replica of the James Bond villain Karl Stromberg's secret underwater lair (called Atlantis) hidden in SL.  But unlike in the film, it's not underwater.  It's inside a huge volcano found in the final level stage sim of the Linden Realms game regions!

Try not to steal Magellan's whisky if you find it....

Edited August 11, 2022 by SarahKB7 Koskinen