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Exploring The Digital Ruins Of 'Second Life'

Jazzimus Maxwell
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Arduenn Schwartzman

Arduenn Schwartzman

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I remember hangout out on Digg. It used to be a Slashdot/Reddit-kind of thing. Did it turn into some sort of blog site without commenting capability? Nice illustrations, though.

As for the writer's question where all the users are: the majority can be found at the shopping events, spending money on sexy clothes and furniture and then upack it all at home, (un)dressing up their big mesh butts, redecorate, take snapshots, post on Flickr, rince, repeat.

https://www.flickr.com/search/?text="second life"&view_all=1

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At some point, Linden Labs (sic) will meet one of the many dire but inevitable fates of most companies. "Second Life" will disappear. The nude beaches, the vast forests, the Demo Dicks, the memorials for those who devoted time to build and maintain it, will all crumble apart into a digital blackness. The people will go elsewhere.

This last parapraph of TFA made me feel like I just read a whole library of Russian literature. Someone please pass the Prozac.

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Ceka Cianci

Ceka Cianci

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I enjoy reading peoples different experiences..He seemed to be pretty much a short timer..You can't really expect  too much from them..

They didn't even get the name right..It's Linden Lab,not Linden Labs..

Soon as he said that I knew.. hehehehe

Still,it was an interesting read.

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Sukubia Scarmon

Sukubia Scarmon

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That would not happen even if Presidon't Trump voiced it, and oh boi do I dislike that voice, heh.

I prefer my journalism as objective as possible - the only thing I enoyed about the article that sparked this thread was the art. The writing just made me roll my eyes and sigh reaaal loud.

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Ceka Cianci

Ceka Cianci

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39 minutes ago, Sukubia Scarmon said:

That would not happen even if Presidon't Trump voiced it, and oh boi do I dislike that voice, heh.

I prefer my journalism as objective as possible - the only thing I enoyed about the article that sparked this thread was the art. The writing just made me roll my eyes and sigh reaaal loud.

Yea same here..I would read a little of it, then scroll to the next picture..I definitely didn't read the whole thing..

I could pretty much see where it was heading just from the skimming of it.. There have been a few of those in the past that have popped up..

The world is full of people that just graze something and think they are now some sort of expert..So He got grazed back..

hehehe

 

Sorry,I added a little more to it..it's that time of the morning for me..:$

Edited by Ceka Cianci
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chibiusa Ling

chibiusa Ling

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Having read the article. I agree and disagree with what its saying. Comparing SL to what it once was…most of the areas I jump into today are slowly becoming baron ghost lands if not already baron ghost lands. The amount of sims that you could consider busy (that are not sex sims populated by sex starved avatars bombarding you for a quick fix) are slowly dwindling more and more.

SL clearly isn’t what it once was and will probably never be that popular again. That is not to say however that SL is dead. The areas that ARE being developed and ARE popular are still hives of buzzing activity. Roleplay communities such as Star Wars, COLA and many others are still going strong. Combat Sims such as Infernalville, XCS and Toxic City still have fairly high traffic. Dance clubs such as Wonderful Dreams, Franks Jazz Club and Musical Cafe are still pulling 50+k traffic.

In that article it sounded for the most part like he was just hopping around the adult side of SL which in all honestly can be fairly hit or miss depending on where you go. You either get a region that is fairly busy, inhabited by semi afk sex starved fetish zombies who occasionally return to their computer to shuffle towards you, arms outstretched, desperate for human contact (think 80s movie zombies but replace the cries of “BRAIN” with the cries of “sex SEXXXX”) or a region devoid of human avatars but filled with afk sex bots or finally….just an empty region. Using them to showcase SL as it is now is not really the best idea IMO.

But the article does bring to light some good points :

-SL does have large areas of abandoned and disused land. It is filled with once popular regions that are now mostly empty or in the case of mainland simply abandoned and now owned by governor linden.

-The destination guide is mostly a joke where half of the places listed no longer exist. I gave up with the destination guide long ago. Places are listed and stay around for 10 minutes and are gone again yet never delisted. Or the description is just flat out deceptive with promises of "fun, adventure and a journey through the bowels of hell and back" and lead to a 512m2 piece of land containing nothing but a bonfire and a tree.

-The attitude of the girl mentioned in the first part of the article that asked "why are you messaging me" is pretty relevant also. SL is very cliquey these days and it can be hard to integrate into a community or group of people in world if you are new. Even as a older avatar I find it difficult to make new friends as most people already have their friends and do not seem to be interested in making any new ones.

-Comments about the population levels are fair also. The population has dwindled drastically over the years. Yes we still have a lot of players but for those of you who only joined SL within the last 5 years you may not have noticed the decrease so much. But for those of us that have been around since 2007 and before and experienced SL at its hype and have watched it decrease over the years the difference between now and then is hugely vast. I am not sure what LL could do to attract more people besides appealing to certain sub sections of society that would greatly benefit from what SL has to offer. Such as people with disabilities who may not be able to get out as often in order to meet new people. Or those who are reclusive loners who do not have many RL friends who could do with actually talking to someone once in a while (could we get Second Life recommended by mental health professionals xDD).

But for the most part while reading that article I can’t help but feel that he didn’t put too much effort into actually exploring SL on his return trip. He mostly just hopped around a few adult places, spoke with two avatars and visited a few regions listed on the obsolete destination guide. Now whether that is his fault for not trying hard enough, the labs fault for not having more clear instruction on where the current happening are or someone else fault entirely has still to be decided. But if I really want to find a busy region all I have to do is type any of the following key words into search : combat, role-play, dance, shopping, gothic, urban, anime etc etc and lots of places will pop up that still have fairly high traffic. It saddens me that people have these experiences when they log into SL, then spend an hour or two here, make a series of assumptions and write an article like the one that was posted on Digg. It makes me want to contact him and be like “Okay, come back…il give you a tour…il show you where everyone is hiding…there are actually people here I promise you…”.

But here is a question for you all. How could we actually attract people back to SL to increase the player base besides what I stated above (appealing to certain demographics that would benefit from its use)

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animats

animats

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Posted (edited)
13 hours ago, chibiusa Ling said:

How could we actually attract people back to SL to increase the player base besides what I stated above.

"Attract" may not be the problem. LL still claims 10,000 signups a day. Most of them never show up in-world. Yes, some are alts, but who needs that many new alts? Smoothing the onboarding process might be enough to turn the slow loss of users into a slow gain.

A big question is, where does SL lose those new users? How many ever launch a viewer? How many make it through the tutorial? How many find something to do in SL? Where's the biggest lossage?

I've talked to some of the Firestorm new user gateway people and some of the Oxbridge Caledon people about this. What keeps coming up is that many new users expect to be told what to do. One Caledon staffer says people think he's an NPC who gives out quests.

The group on the forums is atypical. Most of the people on here are creators of one form or another. They're comfortable starting with a blank sheet of paper or a blank screen and creating something. They came here and were not lost in an open world which has no built in goals or plot.

This is not typical of the general population. Most people need more structure. That structure should be available for those who want it. People need comfortable roles into which they can fit. LL has tried to do this, with things like the Horizons Experience (boring) and the new user areas where users can earn Lindens (overrun by griefers). I don't know what will work, but the way you find out is by trying things and monitoring the results.

SL's web site, if you're not logged in, says "Have an adventure - Become a Creator - Make money". New users can do the first, but won't find a good adventure easily. Becoming a creator is hard. "OK, first you have to learn Blender." Making money in Second Life is tough, too. The new user who expects any of those will be disappointed. The initial pitch to new users needs to change.

Edited by animats
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CobaltBlue Mill

CobaltBlue Mill

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All internet venues have their rises and declines (sometimes, rinse and repeat).  SL is no exception.  When I joined in 2006, I almost immediately joined a then-thriving community.  Slowly it fell apart.  But that is the nature of online communities; be they an AOL Anxiety Disorder and Flirting chatroom, an IRC writers channel, a Palace social palace, or a SL Pagan group.  Facebook and Twitter are poor substitute for real-time chat (although I have problems imaging the Twitter in Chief grasping the complexities of SL).  There are probably steps LL can take to ensure SL's survival.  Adopting a more realistic view of SL's profit potential for individual avs or groups is a big one.  Also realize that land ownership is beyond most avs means and make it more affordable--SL should be about building communities, not a wealthy person's plaything.  And off-topic, I read the article when it was posted on Digg, which led to some people attacking Digg.  Yet Digg was indirectly connected with my joining SL.  Digg co-founder Kevin Rose used to work for the late, lamented TechTV, with Leo Laporte who went on to start the podcast This Week in Tech..  One episode in early '06, talked about SL and got my interest, having recently left the Palace and looking for another place to chat.  The Palace still exists in some form, IRC is around but a far cry from it's 1990s glory days, SL will survive, not as it once was, but where else can you fly around looking like a scorpion?

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KanryDrago

KanryDrago

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One way of helping sl grow is all of us that wish to see it grow being nice to newbies.

For example if I am somewhere and not busy and I see a newbie I will usually im them, say welcome, give them some landmarks to places I know give out stuff like a 500l$ in store credit to accounts under 30 days old. Then engage them in conversation, find out what interests them and point them at places they might like to visit. Ask them if they are finding anything difficult and see if I can help that by answering some questions or walking them through how to do something. All it costs is a little time and patience . Often they still won't stay but you have probably raised the chance of them staying

*check they are really new - for some reason a 1 day old char on a starter avi will get quite indignant that you offer help if its just a new alt*

Edited by KanryDrago
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Prokofy Neva

Prokofy Neva

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15 hours ago, CobaltBlue Mill said:

All internet venues have their rises and declines (sometimes, rinse and repeat).  SL is no exception.  When I joined in 2006, I almost immediately joined a then-thriving community.  Slowly it fell apart.  But that is the nature of online communities; be they an AOL Anxiety Disorder and Flirting chatroom, an IRC writers channel, a Palace social palace, or a SL Pagan group.  Facebook and Twitter are poor substitute for real-time chat (although I have problems imaging the Twitter in Chief grasping the complexities of SL).  There are probably steps LL can take to ensure SL's survival.  Adopting a more realistic view of SL's profit potential for individual avs or groups is a big one.  Also realize that land ownership is beyond most avs means and make it more affordable--SL should be about building communities, not a wealthy person's plaything.  And off-topic, I read the article when it was posted on Digg, which led to some people attacking Digg.  Yet Digg was indirectly connected with my joining SL.  Digg co-founder Kevin Rose used to work for the late, lamented TechTV, with Leo Laporte who went on to start the podcast This Week in Tech..  One episode in early '06, talked about SL and got my interest, having recently left the Palace and looking for another place to chat.  The Palace still exists in some form, IRC is around but a far cry from it's 1990s glory days, SL will survive, not as it once was, but where else can you fly around looking like a scorpion?

The idea that owning land is only for "wealthy people" and only "benefits land barons" is one of the strange socialist myths around SL that even Lindens perpetuate.

If you pay for a premium account, it is US $9.50 -- which you can annualize and save money at $72 or pay for three months at a time at $22.50 ($7.50) That gives you now 1024 meters of land, which is plenty for a nice furniture and house.

What, you can't pay $9.50 a month? Then how are you able even to get on the Internet? That must mean you're in a third-world country.

But wait, you could have a rental on the Mainland for as low as US $2.50 or even less PER MONTH with the same 1024.  So you're in that third-world country and you don't even have that much?

That's ridiculous. You might be one of those people who earns over $100,000 a year as a computer programmer, or even $35,000 at Walmart's, but recurring bills annoy or even scare you. That's why rental is better than premium in the sense that you can suspend it and then come back later without losing land you paid for.

The reality is, for most people with average or even low, fixed incomes in the North America or Europe, where most of the population of SL comes from, having an SL account with some land and content doesn't mean you sacrifice groceries or payment of your electric bill; it means you trade one form of extra consumption or entertainment for another -- it means you might have two less latte per month, or say, about two Crown Royale Cold Foams at Starbucks. Go to one less movie. Buy one less magazine or paperback novel. Buy two less bags of chips. Because you have a much more compelling form of entertainment.

The reality is, people who have modest livings in real life shell out even US $95 for a whole homestead every month as they want the space and the privacy. But you can spend a tenth of that and still have a nice experience.

I was actually on Tech TV once, or rather, Will Wright mentioned a story I made out of the Sims Online using the Family Album, and showed the story and my avatar at the time. That was an interesting show. I wonder how many people did come into SL then because of that. Other elements of the tech world were actively hostile to SL, like TechDirt, which hates copyright, and Valleywag, which just hated anything that wasn't in their precious circle.

 

Edited by Prokofy Neva
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