Remedies to declining SL?

[Isis Owatatsumi]

On 12/30/2018 at 12:53 PM, KanryDrago said:

Perhaps stop believing your sl experience is the same as for the rest of us. You also claimed you never meet genuinely new people too

I use voice more than 50% of the time and also meet new to sl people all the time. Maybe you need to expand your horizons

I use voice 50% of the time,but thats because of my friends .  Most of the people I know do not use voice and are here to socialize and chat with people.

I meet "new to sl people"  every month and they are  1) from IMVU  or 2) created an account months /years ago  and decided to finally give it a try .

YES SL is dying !  People used to build sims just to provide an  "experience" or to create a community for FREE . 

 

Edited January 1, 2019 by Isis Owatatsumi

[Isis Owatatsumi]

On 12/23/2018 at 3:43 AM, animats said:

Yes. Press coverage in recent years:

• "The Digital Ruins of a Forgotten Future" - The Atlantic (2017). "Second Life is no longer the thing you joke about; it’s the thing you haven’t bothered to joke about for years."

• "First They Got Sick, Then They Moved Into a Virtual Utopia" - Wired (2017). "Yet some communities have quietly continued to thrive in the virtual world. One of these is the disability community, a sundry group whose members include people who are blind or deaf, people with emotional handicaps such as autism and PTSD, and people with conditions that limit their mobility, such as Parkinson’s, cerebral palsy, and multiple sclerosis. There are no official tallies of their numbers, but Wagner James Au, who has written extensively about Second Life, estimates they may account for roughly 20 percent of users. Some active members estimate the number higher — at as much as 50 percent."

• "Virtual world provides a real-life haven for the disabled" - Los Angeles Times (2018) "UC Irvine anthropology professor Tom Boellstorff ...  published a book, “Coming of Age in Second Life,” and then turned his focus to the disabled, who make up 40% to 60% of the game’s population."

That's most of the mainstream press coverage in the last two years.

 

 

JUST WOW !  I guess I knew some of this , but I didnt think the numbers were so high 

[GooseBad]

I think it's a testament to Second Life's strength as a community and platform that it's stuck around for 15 years. Plenty of other games and sites have come and gone since then, or are essentially abandoned. A slow decline is probably the best one can hope for in such cases. I doubt there's some way to dramatically reverse the trend (though of course that doesn't mean new user acquisition and retention should be neglected). As others have posted, SL will never be the hot new thing on the internet ever again.

But I think it still has a niche it can fill. As a relic of an older internet, maybe, but that appeals to some people. At least it does to me. Sansar, HiFi, Sinespace and the like offer a rather different experience, which may be more in line with the general trend of the internet- smaller spaces, siloed off communities. But I prefer the big, weird, semi-contiguous world of SL.

In the end, as long as it's profitable, SL will probably stick around for a long while yet. If the data provided by LL is accurate, that seems to be the case. 

[ImaTest]

1 hour ago, Isis Owatatsumi said:

YES SL is dying !  People used to build sims just to provide an  "experience" or to create a community for FREE . 

People still do

Lots of them

When's last time you paid cover charge to enter a sim?

 

[Isis Owatatsumi]

4 hours ago, ImaTest said:

People still do

Lots of them

When's last time you paid cover charge to enter a sim?

 

Huh??   Never but the sim is usually promoting a business, shops or club where someone is being tipped for paid.

Im referring to cultural sims,combat sims, etc .  Of course these sims still exist but some of the best have left SL .

Edited January 2, 2019 by Isis Owatatsumi

[chibiusa Ling]

1 hour ago, Isis Owatatsumi said:

Huh??   Never but the sim is usually promoting a business, shops or club where someone is being tipped for paid.

Im referring to cultural sims,combat sims, etc .  Of course these sims still exist but some of the best have left SL .

Your post reeks of ignorance, no offence. I have hosted several combat sims in my time in Second Life all hosting a combat system of some form that I have coded myself. Ranging from basic systems through to MMORPG style systems with questing, teaming, npcs, stats, game money, action bar spell system etc etc. Even though I gave out the main HUD and maybe a starter attack or two for free the rest of the stuff you had to buy using lindens. Lots of these "FREE" combat, role-play, whatever sims do exactly the same thing and sell items on the sim in order to make some kind of money....especially before the tier reductions....to go towards the high cost of maintaining a sim like that. I can't think of all that many sims in the past near 12 years of being on SL that have given you absolutely EVERYTHING for free and have shouldered the $295USD cost (at the time) of renting a sim. Most if not all of them have had some kind of secondary revenue stream whether its renting stores to sim members, selling products of their own or charging for more advanced tools and weapons. No offence but not all of us are super duper rich and can afford to just throw hundreds of dollars at SL each month so self entitled nitwits like you can have somewhere to go and play entirely for free, we as developers need monetary help also to go towards the cost of doing something like that. 

If you feel that SL is dying and people should be creating totally free experiences for all to enjoy then perhaps you should go and teach yourself how these things are developed and create your own experience on a 20k prim sim, shoulder the cost and give out all the products YOU make for free. There is nothing to stop you from getting up off your lazy backside and doing something about that instead of sitting around complaining in the forum that "SL is dying!". SL is a world where the residents decide the type of content that is contained within. Its easy enough to start complaining on a forum so put your money where your mouth is and do something about it?.

Iv been coding in LSL for around 10 years now and over that time have taught myself skills in modelling, texturing, animation, hud design, sound editing, particle design. I now use those skills to create things relating to my passions. They range from role-play and combat MMORPG sims to random little knick knacks. All it takes is a little effort and the willingness to try. If you want more in SL....CREATE IT

Edited January 2, 2019 by chibiusa Ling

[Isis Owatatsumi]

2 minutes ago, chibiusa Ling said:

 

If you feel that SL is dying and people should be creating totally free experiences for all to enjoy then perhaps you should go and teach yourself how these things are developed and create your own experience on a 20k prim sim and give out all the products YOU make for free. There is nothing to stop you from getting up off your lazy backside and doing something about that instead of sitting around complaining in the forum that "SL is dying!".

Did you take this personally ?  LOL .  I wasnt trying to insult you .

I can think of two combat sims where I was never asked to buy ONE thing . Now that I think of it, some of the sims I used to frequent  did have affiliate vendors .  No  I do not feel like it should be done for free and that wasnt what I was trying to say . I dont want anything. My point was that people are no longer passionate about building and creating in SL .

[chibiusa Ling]

Just now, Isis Owatatsumi said:

Did you take this personally ?  LOL .  I wasnt trying to insult you .

I can think of two combat sims where I was never asked to buy ONE thing . Now that I think of it, some of the sims I used to frequent  did have affiliate vendors .  No  I do not feel like it should be done for free and that wasnt what I was trying to say . I dont want anything. My point was that people are no longer passionate about building and creating in SL .

No, I didn't take it personally. Just imparting some wisdom. We have SO many people that come on this forum that make exactly the same complaints and I pretty much give all of them the same response. IF you want there to be more in SL then YOU have to be the one to do it. Its easy enough to complain but you like so many others are not willing to make the changes you all call out for. I agree with you on some parts, there is definitely less in SL than there used to be and if I see one more "hangout" sim ima loose my sh*t  (Okay not really but everything is a hangout sim now). But its down to us as the residents to change that.

[Isis Owatatsumi]

Well you are wasting your time and I wasnt making a complaint. I do not want wisdom from someone who needs to insult people to make a point .  My avatar is 11 years old and I have spent more money then I want to admit creating content and events for free.  Why dont you get off your " lazy backside" and socialize in SL ?  I think you need a hug and some friends.

And please, excuse me for forgetting where I am . Secondlife forums in general can get nasty and if you are going to post, you better be ready lol !   Its rare that I get talked to like that inworld.

Edited January 2, 2019 by Isis Owatatsumi

[chibiusa Ling]

11 minutes ago, Isis Owatatsumi said:

Well you are wasting your time and I wasnt making a complaint. I do not want wisdom from someone who needs to insult people to make a point .  My avatar is 11 years old and I have spent more money then I want to admit creating content and events for free.  Why dont you get off your " lazy backside" and socialize in SL ?  I think you need a hug and some friends.

Now who's offended?. You were making a complaint. My point stands. If you want it to change....do something about it. I socialise plenty in SL but my main reason for being on SL is creation and development.

[Selene Gregoire]

[Love Zhaoying]

6 minutes ago, Selene Gregoire said:

This is right before the zombie attacks, right?

Edited January 2, 2019 by Love Zhaoying

[Love Zhaoying]

If your SL is on a decline, try walking uphill. Then, it will be on an incline.

[Oct Oyen]

[ImaTest]

On 1/1/2019 at 10:31 PM, Isis Owatatsumi said:

Huh??   Never but the sim is usually promoting a business, shops or club where someone is being tipped for paid.

Im referring to cultural sims,combat sims, etc .  Of course these sims still exist but some of the best have left SL .

Some great ones have left

Always been the case

Since day one

Nothing can stop that from happening

Lots more great places been built too though

All free, not advertising, not businesses or clubs

Maybe you need to get out more 

To see them 

 

[ImaTest]

On 1/2/2019 at 12:05 AM, Isis Owatatsumi said:

My point was that people are no longer passionate about building and creating in SL .

Do you know everyone?

No?

Then you can't be right.

Tons of people still passionate about creating

Maybe you're not

Some people aren't anymore, it's ok

But you're not everyone either

I love building and creating

I do it all for fun and let others enjoy things, too

[Ethan Paslong]

On 1/2/2019 at 6:05 AM, Isis Owatatsumi said:

My point was that people are no longer passionate about building and creating in SL .

i think this is seriously wrong. Just that people do just this for their own, or friends doesn't mean it's not passionate, or even non existant.

I build, rebuild, decorate, re decorate ... and so on, every single day i'm inworld. But i do it for myself, not to entertain others.
But hasn't that been main thing since start? It's what you, me, we make of it.

All those thousends of sims, and the smallest tiny parcels that are in use, ask for building and creating.. and get that from their owners, it's allive and kicking.

[Sassy Kenin]

On 12/27/2018 at 12:57 AM, Klytyna said:

Are you confessing to spiking the staff eggnog with illegal, experimental "CIA brainwashing Test Camp" drugs?

 

[animats]

Second Life now has a new problem: competition. Fortnite Party Royale launched a few weeks ago. It's a non-violent virtual world for Fortnite users. Ryan Schultz, who has been uninterested in Fortnite until now, says it's a serious threat to SL. Forbes has an article, Fortnite Party Royale will become Second Life on its way to being the metaverse.

It's not really that great yet. Epic has been making Metaverse noises for several years, and this thing is kind of disappointing. It's not a big seamless world; it's sharded, like Sansar was.

Unlike the other wannabe virtual worlds, Epic has huge resources. Fortnite has 10 million concurrent users and Epic has several billion in cash. They have licensing deals with Disney, and can use most of the Disney/Marvel/Pixar/Lucasfilm characters in world. They know how to make low-lag online worlds. That the trade press sees them zeroing in on Linden Lab's territory is a big deal.

The Forbes article makes an interesting point. Fortnite's world is cartoonish. Not because Epic couldn't make it realistic. Look at Unreal Engine demos; they have the technology. It's a style choice they made. The Forbes writer sees this as a plus for Epic. Facebook, with the defunct Facebook Spaces and the promised Facebook Horizon, went that way too, going even further to legless characters. VRchat is also cartoony.. Many people are more comfortable with a cartoon-like avatar, apparently. 

SL is in the uncanny valley - almost photorealistic, but not quite there. The Wikipedia article on that subject is worth a read, especially the part about how Hollywood had to fight their way through the uncanny valley. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001) and The Polar Express (2004) were the first attempts to do photorealistic humans on the big screen, and they were terrible flops. Two decades later, Hollywood is out of that hole. Games are getting to the far side of it; some of the better combat games are painfully realistic. SL is stuck in the valley.

The Forbes article says "These days screenshots of Second Life unintentionally make it look like some sort of porn sim ..., while Fortnite’s Pixar-like animation and brand deals with Marvel, DC, Star Wars and more are combining different IPs in one place in a way that no other game has before in a better-looking world." That's an interesting perception.

SL isn't going to go backwards to cartoon characters. (Although, as I mentioned previously, issuing new users the 70s Disco Guy avatar makes one wonder.) So, SL needs to push through to total photorealism. On to Reality!

 

[Lillith Hapmouche]

I'm not sure if there is really more to say than, "lol, no"... 😎

[Alwin Alcott]

44 minutes ago, animats said:

On to Reality!

i have enough of that.. in RL

[Sassy Kenin]

56 minutes ago, animats said:

The Forbes article makes an interesting point. Fortnite's world is cartoonish.

One of the biggest gripes by many in High Fidelity was the cartoonish avatars, likely that helped keep it from major adaptation as a lasting bad first impression.

1 hour ago, animats said:

The Forbes article says "These days screenshots of Second Life unintentionally make it look like some sort of porn sim ..., while Fortnite’s Pixar-like animation and brand deals with Marvel, DC, Star Wars and more are combining different IPs in one place in a way that no other game has before in a better-looking world." That's an interesting perception.

They have published several bias hit pieces in the past against linden lab, often using photos from 2004 and unverifiable facts, they are developing a verge type reputation along many tech observers.

[Seicher Rae]

There's nine pages of this thread already beaten to death from 2018...

[Janet Voxel]

Oh no! A game populated by 10-14 year olds is a serious threat to Second Life because a blogger said soooooo!!!

OMG whyyyyy?

Time to pack it in.

[Lillith Hapmouche]

No, no, no, no... that Forbes guy said so, too, because he was at one frigging concert, which blew his mind and probably other body parts, because he had absolutely no clue what modern media can do. 

Besides that, SL sex is de ebil, as we all know.