My Opinion About The Next Generation Platform

[Perrie Juran]

Since the initial leakage about what is currently known as Project Sansar I've been reading and following the litlle bits of information LL has deemed fit for release as well as reading much of the speculation by others about it.  And I have arrived at a conclusion, my opinion here in this matter.

Linden Lab does not care if we, the current users, migrate from SL to the NGP.

Outside of small number of current users, we are not the target audience.  But there is in LL's mind another currently undefined audience that they are looking for.

First of all, the majority of users don't have computers that will be capable of running the NGP.  The minimum specs are going to be way higher.  So there goes over half the population.

The technical skills required, especially if one wants to build are going to be higher.  There are many of us who like to "tinker."  We might not make anything "big," but we enjoy tormenting prims, playing around a little with scripts, etc.  So unless a person wants to take the time to learn all these outside programs you can rule them out.

Though it might change there is currently no plans for a Mainland.  (At one time there were people at the Lab who understood why Mainland was important but they are long gone).

I could babble on but will leave it at this for now.  ;)

[Rhonda Huntress]

I think you have reached the right conclusion but I don't believe the path is as dark as that.

 

LL owns servers.  Lots of them.

LL needs users to pay for those servers.

Since the user base has shrunk, LL needs to attract more people to their servers.  It does not matter what software the servers are running; just that people are using them.

So yes, you could say they don't care if you stay or move.  They would probably rahter you stay.  If LL needs to attract 1000 more users with Sansar, then every person that moves off of SL means they need to attract another person to either platform to reach their target.  Therefore it is in their best interest to retain as many SL users as possible.  People who move do not impact hardware usage.  One server comes on for sansar and another is decommissioned fron SL. They need new users.  If they can make you happy enough to stay on SL, they will. 

You are not the target.  Not yet any way. When they need SL's hardware to keep up with sansar's demand, then you will become the target of promotions.

 

[Cinnamon Mistwood]

I have to admit that I am less and less excited about Project Sansar everyday.  LL asked people what was important to them and the top answers were community and being creative.  ( I tried to find the poll and couldn't find it) I am not seeing that in all the hype of the new platform.  All I see is that a few extra-skilled creators will be creating and your "land" will be an individual island of sorts - not attached to anything else.  I could be interpreting it wrong, but that is what it sounds like.  No more tinkering, no communities, no neighbors.  I hope people like individual, isolated experiences, because they have not stated how people will meet others.

Waiting to see before forming a final opinion, but as it looks now Project Sansar is not being created for me.  It does not appear that I am in their undefined target audience.

 

Cinn

 

The 'Ask a Linden Anything' thread actually made me even more discouraged

[AlecDeBoeuil]

LL will set up SL V2 (I refuse to call it a ridiculous name like Sansar) and when they think they have enough new members - at an aggregate fee which they deem adequate - they will pull the plug on SL by offering inducements to migrate (although you won't be able to take your stuff with you) with an implicit threat that if you don't you might find you have nowhere to go.

Alec - to point out that is Microsoft's "migration" policy, and Ebbe has learned nothing new since he failed there

[Perrie Juran]

Perhaps the final name choice for the NGP will be FruitCakeVille.  

And I agree, the time will come when we will have to kiss SL good bye.

[sirhc DeSantis]

OK, some of your points.

'users don't have computers that will be capable of running the NGP'

Please point out some links to what equipment will be required. Not to run some "distributed platform", naming no names, but to actually access what the Lab are working on. And also please point out how this would be any different from the years of the same complaint anyway ( admission - there are toasters out there with better specs than my old boxes ).

"..tinker.. learn all these outside programs "

Been using 'outside programs' in conjunction with in worls tools for all the time I've been on. Yeah, maya is a bit daft but if I can make a resonable stab at bender and the Gimp (all free with boatloads of info) so can anyone ( admission - I can't draw a straight line with a ruler )

"currently no plans for a Mainland"

Actually, I reckon this is a big mistake - but* (see below). If you take a look at all the little wannabe grids they all have raised the idea of or are trying some sort of Mainland equivalent. Its what makes SL unique and yep still spend time there even now. I agree, old danger even asking why its important does point to a special sort of - disconnect. ( admission - barely bothered even skimming that thread after that bit )

*But - wherever did you get the idea that 'We' ( current SL users ) or You in particular were ever the target audience anyway? The 41k logged on as of the top of the hour isn't *too* bad, considering, especially compared to the alternative similar VWs but if you think thats what the new stuff is aimed at with a hope to grow bigger....erm can I interest you in some slightly swampy prime real estate?

Yep will still dip a paw in and perhaps more. Just as I do for anything else.

[Perrie Juran]

---

sirhc DeSantis wrote:

OK, some of your points.

'

users don't have computers that will be capable of running the NGP

'

Please point out some links to what equipment will be required. Not to run some "distributed platform", naming no names, but to actually access what the Lab are working on. And also please point out how this would be any different from the years of the same complaint anyway ( admission - there are toasters out there with better specs than my old boxes ).

"..tinker..

learn all these outside programs

"

Been using 'outside programs' in conjunction with in worls tools for all the time I've been on. Yeah, maya is a bit daft but if I can make a resonable stab at bender and the Gimp (all free with boatloads of info) so can anyone ( admission - I can't draw a straight line with a ruler )

"

currently no plans for a Mainland

"

Actually, I reckon this is a big mistake - but* (see below). If you take a look at all the little wannabe grids they all have raised the idea of or are trying some sort of Mainland equivalent. Its what makes SL unique and yep still spend time there even now. I agree, old danger even asking why its important does point to a special sort of - disconnect. ( admission - barely bothered even skimming that thread after that bit )

*But - wherever did you get the idea that 'We' ( current SL users ) or You in particular were ever the target audience anyway? The 41k logged on as of the top of the hour isn't *too* bad, considering, especially compared to the alternative similar VWs but if you think thats what the new stuff is aimed at with a hope to grow bigger....erm can I interest you in some slightly swampy prime real estate?

Yep will still dip a paw in and perhaps more. Just as I do for anything else.

---

As I stated, this is just my opinion....I never claimed to have facts to support them all.  

[HarrisonMcKenzie]

I don't think it's fair to be freaking out just yet. Sure the project doesn't have a community yet. That's because it's in testing. Heavy, technical testing. It's going to be oriented on content creation to test the new platform, but I hardly think it's only going to be about that.

Once whatever it is or isn't is launched, we'll see it then. If people want to roleplay, they will roleplay. If people want to build a community, they'll build a community. Just because that's not being tested right now doesn't mean it doesn't or won't exist.

[Perrie Juran]

---

HarrisonMcKenzie wrote:

I don't think it's fair to be freaking out just yet. Sure the project doesn't have a community yet. That's because it's in testing. Heavy, technical testing. It's going to be oriented on content creation to test the new platform, but I hardly think it's only going to be about that.

Once whatever it is or isn't is launched, we'll see it then. If people want to roleplay, they will roleplay. If people want to build a community, they'll build a community. Just because that's not being tested right now doesn't mean it doesn't or won't exist.

---

I'm not 'freaking out' one bit.

 

[Cinnamon Mistwood]

---

Perrie Juran wrote:

I'm not 'freaking out' one bit.

 

---

 

OMG OMG OMG *throws popcorn, pulls hair out, rips shirt in total anguish*

Cinn

(Too much?)

[Rhonda Huntress]

---

Cinnamon Mistwood wrote:

(Too much?)

---

Yes.  Lose the popcorn; more tearing.

[Perrie Juran]

---

Cinnamon Mistwood wrote:

---

Perrie Juran wrote:

I'm not 'freaking out' one bit.

 

---

 

OMG OMG OMG *throws popcorn, pulls hair out, rips shirt in total anguish*

Cinn

(Too much?)

---

Can never get too much breast........except maybe in SL.  

/me fears suffocation.

[Kelli May]

---

sirhc DeSantis wrote:

OK, some of your points.

'

users don't have computers that will be capable of running the NGP

'

Please point out some links to what equipment will be required. Not to run some "distributed platform", naming no names, but to actually access what the Lab are working on. And also please point out how this would be any different from the years of the same complaint anyway ( admission - there are toasters out there with better specs than my old boxes ).

...

---

Not specific, but there's an implication that this will be the case:

"Sansar will require higher specs than SL, especially when using VR HMDs. At some point, someone's going to create a workable streaming solution, which will allow low-end systems to run experiences like Sansar. OnLive delivered the tech, but the business didn't work." - Danger Linden

https://community.secondlife.com/t5/General-Discussion-Forum/Ask-the-CEO/td-p/2948995/page/6

[Derek Torvalar]

I think you are pretty close to the mark there Perrie. On all counts.

Especially the part about mainland. Everyone will log in to their own 'spaces', like HiFi. They  may have a chance to then join their spaces with others to create larger contiguous continents but otherwise there will be no 'mainland' as we now know it.

[Conifer Dada]

---

Derek Torvalar wrote:

I think you are pretty close to the mark there Perrie. On all counts.

Especially the part about mainland. Everyone will log in to their own 'spaces', like HiFi. They  may have a chance to then join their spaces with others to create larger contiguous continents but otherwise there will be no 'mainland' as we now know it.

---

Here's hoping the new 'spaces' aren't big rocks floating in the sky.  Please no more rocks floating in the sky!

It would be interesting to know how interconnected Project Sansar and High Fidelity are, given that Linden Lab is listed as one of the six major investors in High Fidelity on their website.

[Derek Torvalar]

---

Conifer Dada wrote:

---

Derek Torvalar wrote:

I think you are pretty close to the mark there Perrie. On all counts.

Especially the part about mainland. Everyone will log in to their own 'spaces', like HiFi. They  may have a chance to then join their spaces with others to create larger contiguous continents but otherwise there will be no 'mainland' as we now know it.

---

Here's hoping the new 'spaces' aren't big rocks floating in the sky.  Please no more rocks floating in the sky!

It would be interesting to know how interconnected Project Sansar and High Fidelity are, given that Linden Lab is listed as one of the six major investors in High Fidelity on their website.

---

Be careful Conifer, any suggestion along those lines usally gets met with a hostile rebuke form the LL Sansar fanbois stomping their little feet screaming, "It isn't the same!!!!, they are two completely different companies!!!!, it is a whole new platform that is completely different!!!!, and it IS going to  be wonderful!!!"

[Parhelion Palou]

The high-powered PC requirement comes from the VR displays, not necessarily Sansar. Here are the hardware requirements for the Oculus Rift:

NVIDIA GTX 970 / AMD 290 equivalent or greater
Intel i5-4590 equivalent or greater
8GB+ RAM
Compatible HDMI 1.3 video output
2x USB 3.0 ports
Windows 7 SP1 or newer

[Qie Niangao]

An eagle eye across the street spotted an article about Project Sansar in Variety, of all places. This dramatically changes my perceptions of Variety -- and of Project Sansar.

As I read it, the article very much reinforces the idea that Sansar is Not For Us, but rather is to be a platform for customers to peddle their content to a mass media market hungry for 3D "experiences" such as games, news, and commercial telepresence. That's not completely disjoint from SL, true, but the emphasis seems very different.

As to hardware, we know one target is the "talented and Rifted" all of whom come pre-equipped with the latest hyper-spec'd computers. I suspect, however, that the overall target is much wider, with much lower hardware demands -- and if they're serious about a real mass market by 2016 had better include iOS and Android clients (and not Linux, as we know).

[Theresa Tennyson]

---

Qie Niangao wrote:

An eagle eye across the street spotted

an article about Project Sansar in Variety

, of all places. This dramatically changes my perceptions of Variety -- and of Project Sansar.

As I read it, the article very much reinforces the idea that Sansar is Not For Us, but rather is to be a platform for customers to peddle their content to a mass media market hungry for 3D "experiences" such as games, news, and commercial telepresence. That's not completely disjoint from SL, true, but the emphasis seems very different.

As to hardware, we know one target is the "talented and Rifted" all of whom come pre-equipped with the latest hyper-spec'd computers. I suspect, however, that the overall target is

much

wider, with

much

lower hardware demands -- and if they're serious about a real mass market by 2016 had better include iOS and Android clients (and not Linux, as we know).

---

Some time ago I came to the conclusion that Project Sansar is meant to be what the mass media thought Second Life was in 2007 or so. Hordes of people and companies interested in that story tried Second Life back then only to leave when they discovered that it wasn't what the stories said it was. Still, a demand was demonstrated for a virtual world - just not one built the way Second Life is.

[AlecDeBoeuil]

---

Qie Niangao wrote:

An eagle eye across the street spotted

an article about Project Sansar in Variety

, of all places. This dramatically changes my perceptions of Variety -- and of Project Sansar.

---

From the Variety article:

"Why spend a lot of money to build a presence in Second Life if it could only be visited by only 70 people at a time? Project Sansar wants to solve this issue by allowing for unlimited copies of an experience. In other words, instead of just opening one restaurant, McDonalds could open hundreds or even thousands of eateries in the new virtual world, with just one customer in each."

Alec - to change things, just a little bit

[Gavin Hird]

---

Cinnamon Mistwood wrote:

I hope people like individual, isolated experiences, because they have not stated how people will meet others.

---

They are catering to the selfie generation. Maybe the new viewer will come with a selfie rod. – Kindoff like an Occulus mounted on a rod theater binoculars style. 

 

[Drake1 Nightfire]

---

Cinnamon Mistwood wrote:

---

Perrie Juran wrote:

I'm not 'freaking out' one bit.

 

---

 

OMG OMG OMG *throws popcorn, pulls hair out, rips shirt in total anguish*

Cinn

(Too much?)

---

I was eating that popcorn, thank you very much...

BTW, niiiiiiiiice boobs.

[BobbyGeorge]

I just can't see the NGP working. And I'm not a harbinger of doom, but LL's business practices never cease to baffle me.

For a start, SL has never produced a clear vision of what it's meant to be, other than 'Your world, your imagination'. Clearly, that can be interpreted in myriad ways. When it comes to enforcing 'the law', though, LL has always, weirdly, come down in favour of one side. Namely, the older users who want to manage a virtual holiday home and dress up their dollies, rather than push the platform's physics to the limit.

For people immersed in the game, it's worth pointing out: SL means next to nothing to the majority of the world's population. This is an extremely fringe platform; I'm sure that some whacked-out conspiracy forums get more genuine traffic. In a way, LL's decisions have killed off a lot of the potential for immersionism, to its detriment. SL or Sansar or whatever will never compete with FB; it's an entirely different dynamic. LL seem to have disregarded its ideal, target market with a series of dim decisions and futile attempts to 'be' something it can't.

'Sansar', IMO, is ultimately a forgettable name. Won't register or strike a chord with most folk.

You won't be able to transfer most (or any) of your inventory; retaining AV names is still a moot point (I still haven't seen any clarification on the issue of names); it seems it will be a completely different beast altogether. I think SL as we know it will grind on for a while, but why on earth would a company looking to make profits invest in a dead horse? SL will probably become like Inworldz for a couple of years and then fizzle out altogether.

As for Ebbe as an individual, I've yet to encounter a more wooden, dry and evasive public face for any company. His distinct lack of enthusiasm alone makes me wonder why he's been appointed to take forward a platform that's supposedly meant to stoke personal creativity.

Part of SL's amazing, initial dynamic WAS that clash of cultures and user intent. To have a grid that hosted educators, Gorean women on dog leads, genius scripters and redneck C&W DJs alike. It created an interesting frisson, at least. LL has now weighed in on the side of a vague 'nothingness', some undefined 'typical' user who doesn't exist, and has ignored/ deterred a lot of the dedicated obsessives and geeks who made SL what it was - and who would (probably) have clung on to become core customers in the long run.

I really can't see Sansar attracting anyone other than current SL users. Likewise, I can't see SL still running by the end of the decade.

[Bobbie Faulds]

Here's what I know from my housemate that's done some scripting for one of the Alpha testers. LSL won't be used at all...currently all the designing for stuff is usins Maya, a rather expensive program that produces a different kind of map than Blender, which most people use. There won't be land, per se, not like the SL model anyway. You'll pay a yearly fee for a domain and host your land yourself. Since the new platform won't be sharing the inventory server with SL, the stuff you have isn't going to trasfer over. 

As long as SL continues to be a viable, money-producing platform, there are no plans to close it down.

With the model the way it is for the new platform, it won't be for casual users like SL is.

[Gavin Hird]

---

Bobbie Faulds wrote:

There won't be land, per se, not like the SL model anyway. You'll pay a yearly fee for a domain and host your land yourself. 

---

That was exactly what I did for Highfidelity.

I have said it before, the new platform is codeveloped with HF, and there will be some changes that sets it apart, but technically very much the same.