Why does Second Life seem so boring to me now?

[Ren Toxx]

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CaptainCrazy wrote:

If 29 is young...

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Indeed. You're actually far too old to still be acting like a teenager.

[Jo Yardley]

I find it hard to imagine being bored in SL, and yes I'm old and I have been in SL since 2009.

Maybe not that long, but I've been active almost every day since then, having a LOT of fun, LOVING SL... and I never even leave my sim.

The secret of SL is that if you can't find something you like, build it yourself.

I find 99% of things other people do in SL boring, I don't care about shopping, hanky panky, chatting, going to a club with modern music, etc.

I could not find a sim that had something I liked, so I build one myself.

I was a total noob, barely knew how to move, had a very old laptop and had no idea what I was doing.

3 years later I have 2 full regions with a very successful roleplaying sim and shopping area.

We have a great community, I have lots of friends and to me SL at the end of the day is just like going to my local pub for a few drinks.

And I don't think I'll ever get enough of that, although sadly virtual drinks don't get me drunk.

I think that going to SL and looking for something you like to do may be the wrong way.

First think of something you like to do and then start looking for it, can't find it, build it.

[Czari Zenovka]

I agree with everything you say, Jo.  I am not "bored" in SL - it has just lost something for me.  You found a project that you enjoy and can pour yourself into and that's great.

I am an "average" builder and have a small store.  I go through phases where that is my full focus, but there is just an illusive "something" missing.  I'm not denying it's within myself.  I am also not alone in wishing for the SL of "yesteryear" as I mentioned.

[Jo Yardley]

Ah yes, I understand.

Things change, I think this happens in RL just as well as in SL.

I too long for things long gone, the excitement of a new venture, new friends, new events.

When something is new, it feels different.

People come and go.

But the feeling of missing something is replaced by a new feeling, a feeling of tradition and comfort.

Maybe the main reason I'm still feeling great in SL is because of my sim and the community.

Because we have people here who have lived here for 2, sometimes 3 years.

The sim has not changed much in that time and many of our events are exactly the same every time.

So even though I too miss those early days when I had no idea what I was doing, when people wandered into the sim who would later become good friends, when we we're like a bunch of wild young kids on a deserted island, I love the new feeling of "coming home" when I log on, when a sim truly feels like a place where I feel comfortable, where I meet friends and neighbours, where everybody knows your name, where they are always glad you came.
 

I'm just guessing that is it though.

But maybe it is just because I sill love playing with virtual lego.

[Randall Ahren]

People always get bored. You find a new lover and you're happy for awhile. Tomorrow or next week you'll be tired or annoyed with your new love and start looking for another. You get a new car and you're momentarily joyous. Next month, you want a new model because you're bored with your recent purchase. It goes on and on ad infintum.

 

[Jo Yardley]

Really?

I've never gotten bored with the person I love and I've been happy with almost all my posessions, even if most of them are at least 70 years old.

[Czari Zenovka]

I can understand that feeling of community   I've lived on the same sim for 99% of my time in SL and on the same parcel for a good 75% of that time.  I really enjoy the sim - it's a water sim and the parcel on which I live is bordered by two Linden oceans so the view is amazing.  Also, unlike some of the horror stories I've heard of mainland sims, this one has stayed "pretty" and most of the builds/homes are in theme ie. not clashing with each other.  There are a handful of us who have lived on this sim for years so, although we don't see each other that often, the same names are generally on radar which lends to a sense of continuity.  Both the neighbors next door to me and the one behind me are so friendly.

When I first began SL and began visiting Caledon, I so wanted to live there and be a part of that community but, at the time, they had a waiting list of at least a year.  In the meantime I was partnered and for the next three years enjoyed exploring and experiencing SL with him.  2008 was my "Year of Taking Classes" - sometimes 3 a day - which introduced me to building - then later trying my hand at running a little business.  I checked out Caledon again about a year ago and now there are vacancies, but my RL situation had changed and I could not rent there without letting my current parcel go.

This was my meandering way of saying...I agree with you...again...lol.

[Randall Ahren]

Then you must be some kind of super human or possibly an artificial intelligence.

 

[Jo Yardley]

Nope.

Just old fashioned.

[Orca Flotta]

Randall, believe it or not, for some of us loving a person and loving a car or a computer are two different things. Once I found my love I have a biological autolock that keeps me from looking further. I'm 25 years with the same guy now, 15 of those married. And we're still happy, even happier than 25 years ago.

I wouldn't call people like Jo and me superhumans, we're just levelheaded grown-ups. Boring? Maybe for you or the OP. We still have more and more fun if LL doesn't get in our way with their technofetish.

[Ceka Cianci]

cause i'm not in it?

[Freya Mokusei]

I've found reading this thread to be mostly disappointing. I joined SL in 2006, never wandered and never wavered; I was delighted by everything I found here. I joined SL as it was an evolving world driven by a service operator with big ideas. I drifted through many emerging VWs, finding them lacking in the right 'spark', not creative or progressive enough.

Unfortunately, my personal dream for SL remains unrealised forever since some point in early 2009. No harm, no foul, the gods of our world had different ideas. I moved on! I found other, cooler stuff to do in SL. It still exists, it hasn't gone anywhere. But you have to stay enthusiastic, because nothing lasts forever and stagnation is worse than death.

Mesh is great, shadows and DoF are amaaaaazing. I spent most of last night turning one of my attachments into a light projector. Why? For fun! Do peoples' old computers get left behind? Sure, nothing lasts forever! Does it suck for people who are resistant to change? Who cares! If SL 1.23 was still the most recent viewer, if Windlight was never a thing, and without mesh or sculpt then SL would be an footnote in some old reference book on making money online. Stay still and you start dying.

People have been complaining about the onward march of progress since time began. Calls for LL to 'stop giving us new shiny' are not new, and I'm SO GLAD no-one's listened. In the same vein, SL forces people to entertain themselves, and that's a skill that's impossible to lose so long as you keep using it.

Find new stuff, whether it be in SL or OS or RL or any other place. Just don't be bored!

[Christin73]

Hobbies come and go. SL is like a hobby. After a while we get board and move on to something else. Evenud ourselves back doing the same hobby we were board at months or years later. For SL to stay interesting it is up to us as individuals to keep comeing up with new ways to have fun on SL. Face it Cant just do clubs and not get board after a while. We have to keep things interesting. I too get board every once in a while but then come up with ways to make it fun. Also cant get so wrapped up in it that you spend hours on end a day on it. Yes after spending 4, 5,6 hours a day on SL it  will get boring.

[Orca Flotta]

Freya, it's not about resisting the changes. Evolution is great. People will be left behind, no problem. What bothers me is the inconsequential way LL is enforcing half-baked ideas on its users. They never listen, they have no idea about what we're doing in world, they are often counterproductive and breaking more stuff than they can fix. Not we users but LL themself are hindering the development and progress of SL. And look what they ended up with: a broken product that won't become any better by adding a patchwork of bugfixes for bugfixes over some earlier bugfixes.

Maybe it's a sign of our time that "professional" coders have the attention span of a house fly and are easily bored and distracted. So what, it's their problem. Fire those guys, as imaginative and cool as they might appear. There is no place for wannabe visionaries and daydreamers in a data center.

New shiney! YAY! Gimme it!

If it works ok-ish I'm all for it.

But mostly it doesn't.

So I say stop the crap! Rebuild the grid from zero and make it functional. Hire a bunch of hard-working networkers and server gurus ... and let your playkids first run their ideas by them before implementing. Get their behinds slapped by people who know a bit more about realistic approaches.

In other words: quality control should be done inhouse and not be left to the paying customers.

[Orca Flotta]

Christin, you're serious? Since when do hobbies come and go? Maybe you're talking about pastimes like scrapbooking, knitting and other small stuff. I hardly would call those activities a hobby.

Let's have a look at my hobbies:

Sailing: started when I was 7. Would still be doing it if my life hadn't changed so drastically. Will take it up again one day.

Music: playing keyboards sinve 10 and guitar since I'm 13, still doing it.

Motorcycles: riding since 18, still doing it.

 

So I really dunno how your hobbies could turn you into a piece of wooden shelfing (board).

[Freya Mokusei]

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Orca Flotta wrote:

Freya, it's not about resisting the changes. Evolution is great. People will be left behind, no problem. What bothers me is the inconsequential way LL is enforcing half-baked ideas on its users. They never listen, they have no idea about what we're doing in world, they are often counterproductive and breaking more stuff than they can fix. Not we users but LL themself are hindering the development and progress of SL. And look what they ended up with: a broken product that won't become any better by adding a patchwork of bugfixes for bugfixes over some earlier bugfixes.

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Definitely can't disagree that a number of toys and features we've been given add little or nothing to my experience. I don't like Voice and SLM is unsuited to just about everything. There's been sections of time where viewers, TPVs and regions all suffered from ridiculous code at differing points, and some changes to the viewer have made me pretty fussy for short periods. But as I said in my previous post, nothing that comes close to the frustration, bile and active hatred visible in the wide majority of posts in this thread.

Comparing specific experiences isn't useful; my main reason for posting in this thread was that it seemed baffling to me that people are blaming SL for 'not being fun'. If it wasn't fun, people like me wouldn't be here.

But 'never listen', 'no idea', 'breaking stuff' etc etc? This seems hyperbolic. 'Broken product'? Haha, no. Most of peoples' complaining SL is because they project their own thoughts and perceptions of how SL should be on to LL's product. Demonising the service operator is great fun, but takes arguments nowhere productive.

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Orca Flotta wrote:

Maybe it's a sign of our time that "professional" coders have the attention span of a house fly and are easily bored and distracted. So what, it's their problem. Fire those guys, as imaginative and cool as they might appear. There is no place for wannabe visionaries and daydreamers in a data center.

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This reads like a grudge against the IT industry, I guess? Or just projection. I have no idea but again, I don't think discussing is of any use; LL's hiring process is its own.

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Orca Flotta wrote:

So I say stop the c***! Rebuild the grid from zero and make it functional. Hire a bunch of hard-working networkers and server gurus ... and let your playkids first run their ideas by them before implementing. Get their behinds slapped by people who know a bit more about realistic approaches.

In other words: quality control should be done inhouse and not be left to the paying customers.

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Hard-working networkers and server gurus would NEVER let anyone build another Second Life. The IT industry at the moment is a sea of banality in terms of content, direction and innovation. No-one's willing to take chances, and SL ALWAYS needs to take chances. Restarting everything over is a non-sensical approach to a problem that seems largely rooted in perspective.

As I said before, MAKE it fun, or find something that is. Stop resenting LL for things they won't fix - and that no-one can change - and work out whether you can enjoy SL for what it is today, because all the resentment is what's boring.

[Orca Flotta]

Yes, Freya, you're right. I have the same resentiments about the OP and ppl like him. They have no purpose in SL and blaming their lack of fun on SL. You must understand that I'm not one of those.

But your post sounded, particularly in the last paragraph, like an attack on everybody who's voicing their frustration over the lab's inept techy side. You gotta admit they are really actively helping to curb our enthusiasm. I have enough stuff I love to do in SL, am always busy. Only LL's incapability to run a functional grid often makes the experience rather frustrating. So many projects are non-starters because we can't count on the grids stability.

And no, I don't have a grudge against the IT industry. But I don't really see LL as an IT company, they are rather a bunch of childish wannabes. That's good in the, say, inspiration department. But to run an operation like LL it needs so much more than just utopian ideas, it needs a lot more groundlevel grunts to do the unsexy jobs and keep the infrastructure in working order. I believe at LL those jobs are done by the "creatives" too. And that's the big mistake.

So I have a grudge not against the IT industry but against people under 30. :smileyindifferent:

[Freya Mokusei]

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Orca Flotta wrote:

So I have a grudge not against the IT industry but against people under 30. :smileyindifferent:

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I'm gonna end my responses to you here. No point dealin' with bigots.