So... does anything exist anymore?

[ADBalor]

Hey. Im a returning player, from 8+ years ago. Last time I played this game it was so vibrant and fun with so much variety, and you could be rping with one group of people doing some unbelievable **bleep** and then taking part in a completely different genre the next minute, you could earn L$ for free when you started up camping out so that you could at least make a little start and decide if the game was for you, you could meet people EVERYWHERE.

 

Does any of this exist anymore? Every rp island seems dead, every piece of land seems empty. Did SL die? I was looking forward to finding a whole new advanced set of combat rp islands with new HUDs and more advanced systems but what I found was the remnants of sims that seem long dead.

I hope that it hasnt, but it certainly seems like sl shrivelled up into a husk of what it was. Does anyone know of any of these kind pof places still alive and well?

[Pamela Galli]

I don't know, but there is a destinations forum where destinations are discussed.

[Lindal Kidd]

Second Life has shrunk a bit...but there are still over 20,000 regions in SL and it's still the largest virtual world out there.

What you are probably experiencing is that a lot of the places you used to visit are gone or have moved.  Things are always changing in SL!  But others have sprung up to take their place, all you have to do is find them.  There are many roleplay areas, thousands of stores and clubs, and endless beautiful places created simply for you to enjoy.  Search is your friend!

There are very few camping spots left, though, because traffic has been downgraded as a factor for search rankings.  You can still earn a few free $L, though, by playing games like Linden Realms or Paleoquest.  I recommend simply buying your $L though, it's so much faster and easier.

Use Destinations or the "What's Hot Now" listings on your sign in page to find popular places, and spots where you're likely to meet people.

There are many new features in SL too.  Mesh objects, clothing, and avatars.  Hover height adjustment.  Avatar body physics.  More realistic textures.  Pathfinding and Experience functions for games and tours.  Project Bento has just added a lot more bones to the avatar skeleton for hand movements, facial expressions, and nonhuman avatars...that's so new that creators haven't yet begun making content to take advantage of it.  More control over trading off realism for performance.

This week, a lot of "vibrant and fun" can be found at the SL13B Birthday celebration!  Search SL13B and go see the exhibits and events.

[Ilithios Liebknecht]

There are lots of things that exist with lots of people using them. The landmass of SL is huge and of course there are not people covering every inch of it at all times. there are popular places and deserted places. It has been 8 years since you have been here. You're just going to have to take the time to find the places where people do the things you like to do.

Unfortunately, not being into combat all that much, I can't help you much in that respect, but populated combat HUD places of various different genres most certainly do exist.

[Phil Deakins]

Just technical:-

Traffic wasn't downgraded in search at all. The reason that camping virtusally disappeared is because the gaming of traffic was banned.

[Qie Niangao]

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ADBalor wrote:

Hey. Im a returning player, from 8+ years ago. Last time I played this game it was so vibrant and fun...

---

It was "so vibrant and fun" that you didn't come back for 8+ years?

What, you've been in prison all this time?

Otherwise, maybe SL needed to adapt to something less "vibrant and fun" to attract customers who return a little more often.

[Rhonda Huntress]

Combat RP sims?  It was never my thing so I don't even know what was there before to compare to now.  From what I can tell most of the RP now is based on community life, families and domestic life; it's just the time and settings are changed.

[Nalytha]

I agree, it's not the same Second Life that I left either. Maybe partially the same, but it feels much smaller. Smaller in the sense that there is this huge world, but the smaller population is spread more thin across it.

 

It takes time to find some fun stuff to do, especially if you like to socialize. If you are looking to socialize, this might be a good first step:

 

https://secondlife.com/my/community/events/?lang=en-US

 

If you keep up with the forums, some RP groups advertise.

[ChinRey]

No, nothing exist anymore. In fact it never did. Reality is just an illusion - or possibly a delusion.

 

Seriously, yes, Second Life is dying, it's not nearly as lively and vibrant as it was even just three years ago when I joined. It's not going down fast thugh and unless something unexpected happens, there should be plenty to do and plenty to experience here for many years still.

But a role play sim does not last for eight years. Think about this: Tier for a full sim is at least 190 U.S. dollars a month. That's almost 20,000 dollars over eight years. Who's willing to pay that amount of money just to give strangers a free place to have fun? There are always new people willing to give it a try though so there are new places to replace some of the old ones.

The trick is to find them. Neither the Destiantion Guide nor the Events Guide are very well maintained so they aren't of much help. An inworld search is a slightly better option but even there you have to be prepared to check out dozens of dead places before you find a good one. We really, really need a new properly maintained guide to quality destinations in Second Life but who's going to spend all the necessary time and effort to create and maintain such a guide? Ilithios Liebknecht has done a great job with his Adventure Game Nexus but adventure games are of course just a small part of SL - we need similar features for other activities and we need to link them all up to each other. Any volunteers?

(Edit: I completely forgot about the Gor hub. That may be a good place to start if you're looking for combat rp)

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ADBalor wrote:

you could earn L$ for free when you started up camping out so that you could at least make a little start and decide if the game was for you

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If you add a camping chairs or a money trees to your land, somebody will come along with an army of bots to exploit them. It's not doing any short-on-cash human users any good and if you want to give the illusion of traffic, it's cheaper to run your own traffic bots instead.

There are some games that pays out in Lindens. Linden Realms is officially run by Linden Lab and then there are the Gold Hunt and at least two fishing games. For all I know there may well still be clubs that use freeplay sploders to draw traffic. Such clubs don't last long of course but there are always new optimists who think it's a good idea.

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ADBalor wrote:

...

you could meet people EVERYWHERE.

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Could you? I've read old blog posts and internet articles from back then complaining about how empty SL was.

[Phil Deakins]

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ChinRey wrote:

If you add a camping chairs or a money trees to your land, somebody will come along with an army of bots to exploit them. It's not doing any short-on-cash human users any good and if you want to give the illusion of traffic, it's cheaper to run your own traffic bots instead.

And against the rules

Bots are fine as long as they are registered as bots, but not traffic bots. They game traffic and, therefore, they are banned

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 People who set up camping on their land were generally perfectly happy if bots used them. Bots counted for traffic so, from the owner's point of view, there was no difference. That was before it was possible to register bots, of course.

[ChinRey]

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Phil Deakins wrote:

And against the rules

Bots are fine as long as they are registered as bots, but not traffic bots. They game traffic and, therefore, they are banned

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Yes but there is the eleventh command: "Thou shalt not get caught".

I suppose in theory it is possible if somebody ARs a traffic bot somebody at LL will pop over and take a look. If they do, they may even ban the bot and even react against its owner. And there is always a possibility the actual owner has been stupid enough to make it possible to trace the bot back to them.

But... let's be a little bit realistc here.

(Edit - don't read this if you hate math!: To clarify: let's say there is an 0.1% chance somebody will file an AR, an 0.01% chance LL will check the AR, an 0.1% chance they will be able to confirm it's an unregistered bot, an 0.1% chance they wil do something against the bot owner, not just the bot and a 10% chance they are able to find the actual owner. What's the risk?)

[Rufferta]

We ain't dead yet.

I prefer the online Second Life Destination guide to the inworld Destination Guide because it offers more options; however, I've found hundreds of other places inworld that offer their own destination guides.

Here are two: Expedition Central above Chilbo (arrive flying in case of prim drift). 

The Cultural Community Hub at Inspiration Island. 

You might also try googling "(insert name of your interest here) in Second Life" and seeing what comes up.

Welcome back!

 

[ChinRey]

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Rufferta wrote:

Here are two:

Expedition Central

above Chilbo (arrive flying in case of prim drift). 

The

Cultural Community Hub

 at Inspiration Island.

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Thank you Rufferta, those lok like really valuable resources for explorers!

But the Expedition Central also highlights the problem with such static hubs: they get outdated fast. Lots of places long gone listed there and of course no more recent places included.

[Kimmi Zehetbauer]

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Phil Deakins wrote:

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ChinRey wrote:

If you add a camping chairs or a money trees to your land, somebody will come along with an army of bots to exploit them. It's not doing any short-on-cash human users any good and if you want to give the illusion of traffic, it's cheaper to run your own traffic bots instead.

And against the rules

Bots are fine as long as they are registered as bots, but not traffic bots. They game traffic and, therefore, they are banned

---

 

People who set up camping on their land were generally perfectly happy if bots used them. Bots counted for traffic so, from the owner's point of view, there was no difference. That was before it was possible to register bots, of course.

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Spaking of "Camping" --- Aree those Lindo Kiosks legal?  I'm seeing them pop up in some spots.