Linden Realms ... RUINED!

[Sylvia Wasp]

Okay so I logged into Linden Realms today and everything is completely ruined.  WHY?  

The entire game has been re-textured (inexpertly and *incompletely* re-textured BTW), to resemble some kind of "zombie apocalypse" making it really dark and UGLY with burning fires and pee coloured water everywhere.  As well as being horrifically UGLY, DARK and VIOLENT, it has had the effect of keeping the good players out of the game and INCREASING the already large amount of CHEATING going on.  I mean WTF Linden Labs?  

The fact is, that most cheaters are teenaged boys, griefers, etc.  Anyone who's played Second Life for any length of time knows the people I mean.  Go to any Linden Hub or help Island and watch the antics of these juvenile idiots.  They RUIN THE GAME for everyone around them so smart, mature players who are actually *interested* in Second Life learn to avoid the and avoid those areas.  

Linden Realms attracts these people because you are able to CHEAT and make actual lindens for the effort.  Everyone who plays the game is aware of these a-holes and we've even had to actively form our own defence groups etc. to call them out and report them for the harassment, cheating, theft, etc.  

SO WHY F*CKING REDESIGN THE WHOLE GAME SO THAT IT IS ATTRACTIVE TO THE PEOPLE WHO CHEAT, STEAL ALL OUR STUFF, KILL US, AND HARASS US?  

Almost every "normal" adult human person I've played Linden Realms with and talked about it with likes Linden Realms almost more than Second Life itself.  We are housewives, business people and various other completely normal people spending a bit of our time in Second Life playing a simple, yet consuming game.  The CHEATERS and the GRIEFERS are there but they are a minority.  Why make the game "UGLY" to the good players so they will be discouraged from playing it, and at the same time make it ATTRACTIVE to teenaged boys who CHEAT??????

I stood there in the Portal Park today and watched as CHEATER after CHEATER, gave a huge "Hurrah!" to the changes and jumped right in, while all the normal adult players that I'm friendly with LEFT, their heads hung low.   I do not understand why this has happened.  Why not spend some time trying to stop the CHEATING instead?  

There might as well be a sign when you start the game suggesting that it's "just for teenagers" and "cheating is allowed."    

 

[Patch Linden]

Sounds like we achieved what we set out to do.  Thanks for the feedback!   

[Patch Linden]

On a more serious note, if you watch the video for the continuation of the story behind and presenting the future of Linden Realms, there might be much more up my sleeve than I'm willing to share right now.  

 

[Skell Dagger]

14 minutes ago, Sylvia Wasp said:

Okay so I logged into Linden Realms today and everything is completely ruined.  WHY?  

Because of this, perhaps?

 

[Chic Aeon]

45 minutes ago, Sylvia Wasp said:

 

There might as well be a sign when you start the game suggesting that it's "just for teenagers" and "cheating is allowed."    

 

To the OP.  I haven't been over lately but I do know there were some graphics card killer attachments in play last time I was there.

HOPEFULLY this is a preface (see Patch's hint above) to the "coming soon" game changes hinted at the end of the year.

MEANWHILE if you still want to play on the realms, you CAN make some improvements (from your point of view). Change your Windlight(R) setting to a happier one. Right click on the flames (they are mesh) and derender and blacklist (this in the Firestorm viewer) and you will see something more friendly. We cannot of course change the terrain textures back to happy green.  

Hopefully some other newness and another quest etc will emerge in the not too distant future.

 

I LOVE the little guy in the video BTW. 

Edited March 15, 2018 by Chic Aeon

[Chaser Zaks]

Seems like LR is more of a "Living Story"(Stealing this term from GW2) than a Static Story.  That being, as the story progresses, the world progresses as well.

Personally I like that LDPW continued the story. Modifying it adds more content and story to explore.

[Patch Linden]

I'm open for interviews, shows, etc.  Happy to discuss the strategy too.  It's very much taking the path of being a living story.  If you have followed all of our work, and especially through the story being told in the videos, they all lead from one, to the next, and so on.   So if you're ever curious about the back story, there is a lot of it out there.  

[Love Zhaoying]

You know what’s funny about this, what’s odd? It’s almost as if..the Lindens are..creating content!

[Patch Linden]

13 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

You know what’s funny about this, what’s odd? It’s almost as if..the Lindens are..creating content!

 

*wink wink*

[ChinRey]

27 minutes ago, Patch Linden said:

If you have followed all of our work, and especially through the story being told in the videos, they all lead from one, to the next, and so on.

I've always wondered, Pyri Peaks part of it too or is that a completely separate game?

[Love Zhaoying]

11 minutes ago, Patch Linden said:

 

*wink wink*

 

[sirhc DeSantis]

I love it

[Sylvia Wasp]

1 hour ago, Chic Aeon said:

To the OP.  I haven't been over lately but I do know there were some graphics card killer attachments in play last time I was there.

HOPEFULLY this is a preface (see Patch's hint above) to the "coming soon" game changes hinted at the end of the year.

MEANWHILE if you still want to play on the realms, you CAN make some improvements (from your point of view). Change your Windlight(R) setting to a happier one. Right click on the flames (they are mesh) and derender and blacklist (this in the Firestorm viewer) and you will see something more friendly. We cannot of course change the terrain textures back to happy green.  

Hopefully some other newness and another quest etc will emerge in the not too distant future.

 

I LOVE the little guy in the video BTW. 

Thanks for the reasoned advice (as opposed to the smarmy remarks from the Lindens), but I know how to change my wind light.  It doesn't really alleviate much of the horror of the new textures.  

[Patch Linden]

Just now, Sylvia Wasp said:

Thanks for the reasoned advice (as opposed to the smarmy remarks from the Lindens), but I know how to change my wind light.  It doesn't really alleviate much of the horror of the new textures.  

Unfortunately we had only the assets from 6-7 year old content to work with left from places we had to recover them from.  We did the best we could with what we had.  We apologize that it doesn't please you.

[Sylvia Wasp]

46 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

You know what’s funny about this, what’s odd? It’s almost as if..the Lindens are..creating content!

As someone who plays Linden Realms every single day for hours a day and has since almost it's inception, I can say fairly categorically that no one actually cares about Lindens "creating content."  I have literally only ran into one single person who actually even read the backstory or is playing Linden Realms "for the adventure."  I remember it because it surprised me when they asked me questions about the "quest" which I was unaware of even after paying the game for many months at that point.  

People play Linden Realms to get crystals and then cash in those crystals.  

Pretty much ZERO people actually give a rat's behind about the "story" and "where it's going."   

Also, everyone in the game is always talking about the CHEATERS.  If they were going to change anything, they should have made changes to make cheating less likely or more difficult.  I have personally reported (I keep records) over two dozen instances of cheating to LL and NOTHING has happened.  The same people using their scripted devices and weapons and shields are still cheating in exactly the same way as they always have.  

If you SAY anything to a cheater, they usually attack you.  As a result I have personally reported roughly 20 or so incidents where another avatar attacked me (or several people), threw us out of the game, crashed the sim etc.  and again ... NOTHING happened.  NOTHING.  

There are several players in particular that run with scripted attachments that LAG anyone within two sims to a complete STANDSTILL, so they can then simply trot around that sim all by themselves picking up the crystals.  This was the case when I first started playing, and has only INCREASED since then.  These people have been reported to Linden Labs MULTIPLE times by MULTIPLE different people including myself.  NOTHING has happened.  

We've even had to form our own group to track the cheaters and report them to LL because Linden Labs won't do ANYTHING.  This has resulted in an increase in abuse and cheating reports, but said increase in reports hasn't actually had any effect on the cheaters.  

TO BE CLEAR ... this is NOT random cheaters coming and going, being caught and then being replaced by a new cheater.  This is mostly the SAME cheaters, operating since the beginning of the game, who have been reported for cheating MANY MANY times, but still NOTHING happens.  

I could give you a list right now of 12 major cheaters that play the game, that have been reported many multiple times but yet still play the game.  I can't because LL would ban me from Second Life for saying it.  They are surprisingly good at shutting down anything PUBLIC that affects their image, but somehow less effective at stopping actual ABUSE.  

Sylvia

[Sylvia Wasp]

18 minutes ago, Patch Linden said:

Unfortunately we had only the assets from 6-7 year old content to work with left from places we had to recover them from.  We did the best we could with what we had.  We apologize that it doesn't please you.

Well, reasonable people might argue that you should have just kept the "6-7 year old content" (not that I believe that number), rather than changing everything into some kind of juvenile "zombie land" (without zombies!)

See, this is what gets me as a designer myself ... You made it looks like some typical Zombie game, but there are no Zombies in it!  You put burning fires everywhere, but they don't kill or hurt anyone and burn forever with no purpose.   It's completely idiotic.  You've also significantly reduced the number of blue and green crystals it seems.   

I say "inexpertly" because even in the 20 minutes or so I played the game, I noticed at least a dozen instances of places where the old textures were still in use, incongruously placed side by side with the new dark textures.  So it's amateurish as well as offensive.  

Most importantly, the changes serve no purpose, and as per my original complaint, it both REDUCES the number of "normal" people who might play the game as well as ENCOURAGES the a-holes.  

AND it's a change based on the FAULTY heuristic that people want to "follow the story."

Edited March 15, 2018 by Sylvia Wasp

[Love Zhaoying]

6 minutes ago, Sylvia Wasp said:

As someone who plays Linden Realms every single day for hours a day and has since almost it's inception, I can say fairly categorically that no one actually cares about Lindens "creating content."  I have literally only ran into one single person who actually even read the backstory or is playing Linden Realms "for the adventure."  I remember it because it surprised me when they asked me questions about the "quest" which I was unaware of even after paying the game for many months at that point.  

People play Linden Realms to get crystals and then cash in those crystals.  

Pretty much ZERO people actually give a rat's behind about the "story" and "where it's going."   

Also, everyone in the game is always talking about the CHEATERS.  If they were going to change anything, they should have made changes to make cheating less likely or more difficult.  I have personally reported (I keep records) over two dozen instances of cheating to LL and NOTHING has happened.  The same people using their scripted devices and weapons and shields are still cheating in exactly the same way as they always have.  

If you SAY anything to a cheater, they usually attack you.  As a result I have personally reported roughly 20 or so incidents where another avatar attacked me (or several people), threw us out of the game, crashed the sim etc.  and again ... NOTHING happened.  NOTHING.  

There are several players in particular that run with scripted attachments that LAG anyone within two sims to a complete STANDSTILL, so they can then simply trot around that sim all by themselves picking up the crystals.  This was the case when I first started playing, and has only INCREASED since then.  These people have been reported to Linden Labs MULTIPLE times by MULTIPLE different people including myself.  NOTHING has happened.  

We've even had to form our own group to track the cheaters and report them to LL because Linden Labs won't do ANYTHING.  This has resulted in an increase in abuse and cheating reports, but said increase in reports hasn't actually had any effect on the cheaters.  

TO BE CLEAR ... this is NOT random cheaters coming and going, being caught and then being replaced by a new cheater.  This is mostly the SAME cheaters, operating since the beginning of the game, who have been reported for cheating MANY MANY times, but still NOTHING happens.  

I could give you a list right now of 12 major cheaters that play the game, that have been reported many multiple times but yet still play the game.  I can't because LL would ban me from Second Life for saying it.  They are surprisingly good at shutting down anything PUBLIC that affects their image, but somehow less effective at stopping actual ABUSE.  

Sylvia

 

[Ipecac Burnham]

and if we can't even get into the door because of the crashers in portal park?

[Love Zhaoying]

Wish you could summon a Linden - oops it’s 2018, not 2006.

[LexxiXhan]

So now wouldn't be a good time to have a go at this Linden Realms I've been hearing about..?

[Chic Aeon]

23 minutes ago, Sylvia Wasp said:

Well, reasonable people might argue that you should have just kept the "6-7 year old content" (not that I believe that number),

 

 

The Realms are indeed that old. Lani (my alt) couldn't get in at the VERY beginning as we didn't have a viewer that would see mesh (not being in the Linden Viewer camp).   https://chicatphilsplace.blogspot.com/2012/01/linden-realms-101-beginners-guide.html   which is back in my popular posts sidebar again (it reoccurs fairly often even though ancient).

And to be precise, the Realms are in much better shape griefer wise and crystal wise than many other times in the past when whole SIMS were simply not there or all the crystals missing from others.

I suspect you will either need to be patient to see where this leads or find another source of income.  Good luck on that.  

 

[Ipecac Burnham]

For what it's worth, I'm interested in the story.

 

The Glytches took far more of my playtime than the realms ever have, and hopefully will take more... I'd hate to guess how many Glytches are in my Inventory.

 

Getting messages about "Tyrah" as the code in Horizons was NEAT!

 

The whole premise of Ruth's Revenge is FUN!

 

Sure a few L's for a  texture upload here and there is great, but not at the cost it comes at when a select few are quite literally ruining it for "everyone" because noone's slapping them on the wrists anymore even.

 

It's the players pushing me away, not the content, I'm really enjoying the content, and hoping it pans out to something much more in-depth and involving.

 

After 8-11 years in SL on and off, Portal Park and the games within it to me are Amazing, I all but quit SL and started learning Unity instead until I started seeing more stuff happening, The Realms, if anything, show us the Lab DO care, they made us games, toys, gave us a way to find L's without all the "strings", in essence it's the answer to newer people not having a stipend while also having nothing to do between the periods of spending it.

 

It should be a win win, We get some fun, and a little help, LL gets involvement, Investment, feedback and a really well deserved pat on the back for sharing their toys again...

 

I hope it still can be.

[Theresa Tennyson]

2 hours ago, Sylvia Wasp said:

See, this is what gets me as a designer myself ...

https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/184651

Mmm hmmm...

[Pussycat Catnap]

8 hours ago, Sylvia Wasp said:

As someone who plays Linden Realms every single day for hours a day and has since almost it's inception, I can say fairly categorically that no one actually cares about Lindens "creating content."  I have literally only ran into one single person who actually even read the backstory or is playing Linden Realms "for the adventure."  I remember it because it surprised me when they asked me questions about the "quest" which I was unaware of even after paying the game for many months at that point.  

People play Linden Realms to get crystals and then cash in those crystals.  

Pretty much ZERO people actually give a rat's behind about the "story" and "where it's going."   

Also, everyone in the game is always talking about the CHEATERS.

Have you ever considered that the intention of the content might not be to 'farm money' but to create a story... and the attention it is getting now is designed to 'fix' the 'problem' of people playing it only for cash?

That in essence... all we have here is two feuding camps of people that are BOTH using it improperly, and with a story being expanded out, they hope to attract the intended audience.

I actually DID play the quests of this thing way back when it first came out. Not all the way though. As is my nature, I got sidetracked.

 

[Aislin Ceawlin]

10 hours ago, Chic Aeon said:

I LOVE the little guy in the video BTW

I am absolutely in LOVE with Punkee, lol!