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And @Mal Avro - I have no idea where you're coming from, but your experience with Second Life and Linden Labs is clearly completely different from mine, and from just about every other veteran with whom I've interacted.

@Ergo Brandeis: ALSO well said. Q: "What's this game about?" A: "It's not a game, it's a platform for the imagination - YOUR imagination, if you are ambitious enough."

I'm really sick and tired of people defending behavior on the part of Linden Labs that would get very bad attitude from both them and others, were it being conducted by the people who PAY THEIR SALARIES. In as much as, yes, Mal, we could just leave rather than complaining, like some of the others who have expressed their discontent here, I have invested over 5 hard-fought years to make Second Life something to be proud of - and when Linden Labs, whom I have given tens of thousands of U$, continues to welch on the implicit deal they struck with me at the beginning, I do indeed get pissed off.

That said, ultimately, if it gets stupid enough here, I *will* walk away rather than throwing good money after bad. Eventually, someone else will do this project right, be it Microsoft or Sony or whoever, and Linden Labs will end up as an asterisk in the virtual reality platform saga, if they continue to flounder as they have in the past three years.

I tried this and loved it. Well done to Linden Labs.

Listen to your user base LL. First fix what's long overdo, more ram, and a brand new graphics engine? It's a shame that my laptop that plays BF3 on ultra chokes a bit on SL in ultra with all the eye candy on.

yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee yo me uno jiji

 

bueno ya esty ahora quiero jugar y divertimerme mucho en lo que mas me gusta

 

ok, I've been to Linden Realms, been to all the sites, collected crystals, fired the canons........Now what?  Is that all there is? If so what a waste of time,   

@Toni Deir: Exactly, precisely correct - Linden Labs has built something that is, in and of itself, a complete waste of time. If they were producing new functionality to be shared with the residents and showing it off here, that's great, except we've seen no indication of such. Even if they were preparing to transition Second Life to target the 10- to 14-year-olds in a new version of Free Realms or Wizard 101, so be it - I'd be pissed, but that's their choice.

But no, what they've done is apparently wasted resources (which I have partly paid for, through the thousands of U$ I give them every year) on crap that is dead-end for those of us who are using Second Life as it was originally sold and intended: a platform for creative development BY THE USERS.

OI

 

So has anyone actually finished this thing ?      I guess what im wondering do you earn enough linden to put up with the serious lag issues? I would be kinda mad  if i spent an hour for only 10L   no what i mean!

I went over and tried it and it's cute but really. I have to agree with some of the comments here. We need other things much more than an in- world game. We need smooth region crossings, lower tiers, better performance overall and a way for region owners to have more control over their own regions. We don't need a game! SL ISN'T a GAME! Why won't you listen? We are the one's who live and have businesses here.

I've been stuck on the mission "Return to Tyrah's Workshop to share your findings." I've returned to her shop FIFTEEN TIMES and it won't move me on to a new mission. Is there a trick or something I'm not aware of?

You can earn between L$80 and L$100 playing the Linden Realms game. Not enough ta all to be worth doing it just for the money, though I am sure some individuals are finding ways to cheat the system and milk it for L$ rapidly.

If you're stuck at a point that doesn't seem to work, try leaving Linden Realms, finding another portal park, and resuming from there. Many of the functions, like firing the cannons, seem to be glitchy, and don't always work in all LR sim instances. The good news is that have multiple instances set up, and if you go from one to another, your game status goes with you.

This is wonderful. I'm in awe of all the creativeness that has gone into the project. I think its wonderful. It surprised me and made me laugh. Its that what games are all about? Please don't stop. I look forward to your growth in this area. And when you get into the "adult that children can not attend" I would like to take part in that as well. ^^ Cheers and Congrats!!

The whole premise of this is contrary to what Second Life is supposed to be. If you're looking for a gaming platform, the Second Life viewer is mediocre at best; you would even do better with Adobe Flash or Shockwave.

But Second Life was NOT supposed to be a game, in any event.

While it is possible to create games with the platform, I DO NOT AGREE IN ANY WAY, SHAPE OR FORM that it is Linden Labs' mandate to take MY MONEY and spend time working on creating such tripe.

To those of you who enjoy it, is that really what you're paying your premium subscription and tier for? And if you're not paying subscription and tier, then frankly I don't think you have any opinion of value to express in this matter.

What happens to the HUD once you leave?  I can't get my HUD back, so all my progress is gone?

@Jahman Ochs

I understand your mood, but I wish to remember an important thing: SL is whatever users wants to be because they are the REAL Second Life. It's a platform created by Linden Labs where programmers, modelers and virtual artists are god-like^^ (they create everything existing on SL, SL is what they made throught years).

So it's sure SL is a platform game like it's a social network like it's an erotic chat like whatever-you-want....

So the question is: what's for you ? Why are you spending your money on SL ? To buy a land and create your own world/club ? To have your own home in a virtual world ? To buy fancy wears ? This is good, because it's for YOUR use.

All of us are free to decide how (or if) spend their money on SL. If you have a particular event you wish to ask at the LL, just ask. If you don't like platform games, than I don't think you have any opinion of value to express in this post.

I believe its an interesting concept for LL to have a game such as Linden Realms available on SL since for one, it draws the majority of the MMORPG fan base into playing in SL. It also competes with the likes of World of Warcraft and the new Star Wars Old Republic game which will be available soon. I will try the game firsthand and who knows, I may be hooked to the game, but hopefully the lag won't be as bad though.

 

 

@Malcom - How long have you been in SL? How much have you invested? I have an opinion alright, and it's of infinite value if you have any idea what I'm talking about. If you don't (and I suspect not, given the nature of your response) then please do not take my objections to task. Linden Labs is doing one of two things: they are either changing the mandate, direction and audience of Second Life, in which case they owe those of us who have spent time and money building it into what it was; or they are wasting resources on efforts that are either, at best, obtuse or, at worst, a complete white elephant. Either way, I object, and I defy anyone to argue that I don't have the right to do so, here or anywhere else.

@Joni, Linden Realms in no way, shape or form has any prospect of competing with ANY of the products you suggest; anyone playing any of the games you mention (and just about any other MMORPG out there, for that matter) would laugh at the idea of spending even a moment on what Linden Labs has produced here. As mentioned elsewhere, this is more akin to a lag-ridden, simplified version of a 3D platformer - a bad attempt at Mario-style gaming. To paraphrase a political classic: I've played World of Warcraft (and Star Wars: The Old Republic, for that matter), and this is no World of Warcraft.

What it REALLY is: a waste of MY (and everyone else's) subscription and tier fees writing garbage that is being foisted on the community for reasons that have yet to be clearly divulged by a company that has become increaingly opaque over the past three years.

@Tavish: The status of your progress in Linden Realms is maintained server-side. The HUD only displays it. If you leave LR and return, you get a fresh HUD, which updates with your prior status information, and you resume where you left off.

The down side of this approach is there is no "starting over". You can't reset the status and start from the beginning again, except by playing with an alt that has never been there before.

Honestly....why? Seriously fix things that need fixing before embarking on something soo.Mundane like this!! I tried it out, it was semi fun for the first 5 miss then after that it gets a little repetitive, monsters do the same thing and pretty much attack the same way. Directions need to be way way clearer and honestly what on earth do you do with these gems? I still can't figure it out. I'd rather fixed lag issues, and perhaps faster servers than a silly gem collecting game any day. 

@ Cassandra No joke I miss last names. I seriously hate the stupid "resident" which is the reason why I will never ever get rid of my avi and that I love it so much

Quoth the real "god" here:

"One of the key goals of Linden Realms was to learn more about what tools Residents could use to develop richer experiences in Second Life — and boy, did we learn a lot! In Q1 2012 , we will be releasing new tools used to develop Linden Realms, which will allow Residents to create even richer original experiences in Second Life. To prevent abuse of these tools, we will introduce a "creators" program in which verified members will be given access to these very powerful capabilities."

(This from http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Featured-News/CEO-Rodvik-Humble-Shares-Highlights-From-2011-and-his-Outlook/ba-p/1298823. Another interesting article is here: http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2011/12/2012-linden-lab-pivots-from-second-life.html.)

In summary, apparently we will be getting these new toys, but they'll be restricted to those who are "approved" (and probably pay a fee, no doubt, since the name of the game is generating more revenue since all of their previous efforts have been so disasterous to the SL economy) - can you say "Blue Mars"? - and, from what I've seen, that will be a good thing only if they can improve performance. Otherwise, just one more way to make your sim lagged to hell.

And, as Rodvick and the NWN blog suggest, SL will ultimately take a back seat as Linden Labs trys to become Zynga.

Oh well, it was a nice dream while it lasted. Too bad Philip left and we had to wake up from it.

I'm guessing a lot of the scenery in Linden Realms is mesh because I use a viewer that doesn't support it, so when I tried out the game I was running around a bunch of giant green blocks. It was interesting trying to read the signs too.

If from the beginning there was an honest attempt to communicate with your customers directly instead of doing it only for show, second life might not have been what the original developers expected, that is for sure, but it would be a platform that would have survived, which is more than I can say for where I think it's going now if all of your efforts are spent making it into something users clearly are not interested in.

In theory it is a good idea but not before Second Life can truly compete because as the previous poster metioned and what I've mentioned in previous posts, no one will down-grade their experience no matter how hard you want to believe this could work so, use this as a means to measure the climate and go from there, provide tools to the community as you plan to but I wouldn't expect very much, you need to undo all of the mistakes that were made in the past somehow before you can move forward. 

Oh FFS guys. *Groan* 

Every single blog post LL does about almost anything invites the same old moaning and whining and bitching..the internet truely does bring the worst out in humanity doesnt it? 

I wonder what % of these same bitchers would act and speak the same way if facing the CEO or indeed any person in a RL face to face, eye to eye situation...my guess is less than 1%

Okay those moaning about how they paid for premium JUST to gain access to this game thing...do you also walk around the January sales whining to the RL store staff how a sweater/jacket/trousers/ etc you purchased 4 weeks ago is now marked down in the sale and how unfair that is or how "I only purchased that *blank* because I liked it now EVERYONE will be buying it at discount!!"

Thats life - both on the net and in the high street.

To those moaning that the CEO of LL used to be involved with EA GAmes and "THE SIMS" and this game is competing against the merchants in SL...try thinking outside of the box or you limited imagination.

This is THE very thing that draws new people to SL and new people means new money into the economy.

The two main issues that effects new member retension *spelling?* is:

1) People log in for the first time and then think: "What now?" 

2) People are baffled by the UI it IS quite a steep learning curve compared to most other online games and platforms.

So this offers some kind of game type interaction whilst also allowing newbies to gain experience with the UI and the theory is once they are comfortable with how to move and navigate the IU and get bored with this entertainment they notice they have L$ (from playing the game) and then start to explore other areas of SL perhaps to develop their avatar ID , own their own land with privacy, buy a pet, have simulated sex and so on and so forth.....

Long story short? "It injects more user to user transactions long term"

Its really not a rocket science business move... it has no interest to me but if I was new then yes it would and I can see the bigger picture. 

@LillyBeth - I would say EXACTLY the same things to Rodvick that I'm saying here. If they want to promote SL, there are a lot better ways to do it than produce an inferior "game" that will make the new user think "Oh, this is Wizards 101, and not as good". That will do nothing to promote what Second Life has (had) to offer over the past eight and a half years.

You're right, it's not a rocket science business move at all - it's a move of desperation motivated by a lack of understanding about what the original intent of the platform was - and trying to patch previous mistakes with a direction which does not adhere to any logical market niche into which they can fit it.

You want big picture? I can talk big picture all day. This is small potatoes, and they're doing it wrong. So, fine - call me the 1%, but I don't see myself as expressing anywhere close to the worst of humanity...