Is SL's Player Base Declining?

[Alwin Alcott]

1 hour ago, Sashiku Kas said:

Who cares? No.

sure thing  sweety

you don't need money to create a place, there are thousends of public areas where you can set up meetings. Your RL situation doesn't matter a lot, you can log in , and in that dó it.
 

[Alwin Alcott]

12 hours ago, Selene Gregoire said:

Hiya Kettle. 

there's a little difference .. i'm just a blunt bastard.

[Bitsy Buccaneer]

12 hours ago, FairreLilette said:

Well, I've never been spoken to in a sexual way from a tiny in IM, not even once because sexual activity is not even possible. 

Tinies have been (used to be at least) one of the most creative and imaginative communities in SL. And anything is possible with imagination.

If Tinies fell in love and wanted to, they could.

[ChinRey]

23 hours ago, French Couturier said:

I can't imagine this game still being around by 2030 unless they make some major changes and improvements. 

The ex-boyfriend of a friend of mine did some contract work for Linden Lab back in 2008 and he said that some of the Lindens he had talked to, were surprised Second Life was still around. LL only intended SL to be the first in their ever expanding product range, not their one and only hit, and they didn't imagine it would last as long as five years.

It's not realistic to expect SL to ever regain its former glory and it'll certainly never achieve the universal popularity many naively thought it would. But its a cult phenomena and the cult members are fiercly loyal. Unless LL does something insanely stupid, the end of this virtual world will be when the last old timer dies of old age.

 

9 hours ago, animats said:

Getting the performance of SL closer to modern game standards is not impossible. It's tough technically, and would take considerable development and a larger dev team, but it's not impossible. I've written about this before. Speeding up SL is far, far easier than getting an SL-sized user base for a new virtual world.

Sorry, no more pictures of trees.

I know this from a content creator's point of view of course. I've illustrated and demonstarted it so many times before here, even with fairly moderately optimized content a typical SL scene could easily have its render cost and load time cut to half even with no changes to the software. Reduced load time will of course also reduce sim crossing and teleport issues.

There are three content related changes to the software that I'd like to see because I think they will seriously improve performance in the long run:

• Fix the LOD factor to one specific value - probably around 1.5
• Make ALM and advanced shaders mandatory
• Fix the default day cycle windlight

Edited March 16, 2020 by ChinRey

[Selene Gregoire]

5 hours ago, Alwin Alcott said:

there's a little difference .. i'm just a blunt bastard.

You call that being blunt? pfft. You ain't seen nothing. If it wouldn't get me banned from the forum I'd show you what being blunt is. Instead, I'm going to just walk away and pretend you weren't trying to tell me what to do. That will backfire on you. Every. Time.

[Selene Gregoire]

4 hours ago, ChinRey said:

when the last old timer dies of old age.

Then you all have another 10 or 20 years to go. And if your lucky another 30 - 40 if I live to be 100.

[FairreLilette]

5 hours ago, Bitsy Buccaneer said:

If Tinies fell in love and wanted to, they could.

Of course.  I was engaged to be married in real life at 5 years old.  He was 5 years old too.  He asked me to marry him and I said yes but I told him he needed to ask my Dad first.  Is this any less love than any other kind of love?   Of course my Dad said No and we moved to another town around that time....so I never saw him again.  This is the story of two 5 year olds who fell in love.

Some Tinies are partnered in SL.  Let's say you have two flower avatars...who is to say they couldn't be partnered?  It's not against the TOS.  

I think the tinies I hang out with know I'm looking for friends not a partner though.  

And, it is very creative and the lag drag is gone.  

Edited March 16, 2020 by FairreLilette

[Bitsy Buccaneer]

39 minutes ago, FairreLilette said:

Of course.

So you'll stop saying that it's impossible for Tinies to engage in sexual activity then?

Really hard to tell from your reverie.

[Alwin Alcott]

1 hour ago, Selene Gregoire said:

I'm going to just walk away and pretend you weren't trying to tell me what to do.

me waits patiently till the next lemon is squeezed .. won't take too long

[FairreLilette]

55 minutes ago, Bitsy Buccaneer said:

So you'll stop saying that it's impossible for Tinies to engage in sexual activity then?

Really hard to tell from your reverie.

Okay, what two tinies want to attempt to do in SL is their business.  What two cardboard boxes attempt to do in SL is their business.  However, you said in their imagination.

Well, imagination is one thing...tiny avatars another.

Some tinies cannot even do the basic sit animations and need a special animation for a sit - mostly tinies and titchies.  The words tiny and tinies et al can be kind of confusing too.

Dinkies are a kind of tiny and are referred to more so as Dinkies rather than tinies usually and have about 15,000 triangles as their avatar body.  They don't have the armature that adult human avatars have and therefore don't have the pose-ability quite the same as humans.  

Although Dinkies can do quite a good variety of the adult animations that are already created as far as dance, AO's, sits...some animations do not work due to the tiny size and the arm and head being quite different from an biggie human avatar.  

I've already said in other threads I think Dinkies could kiss and hold hands Kim Anderson style.  Kim Anderson photos below.  Awwwwwwww, reminds me of a rl someone.......

Edited March 16, 2020 by FairreLilette

[Fauve Aeon]

On 3/15/2020 at 7:41 AM, Sashiku Kas said:

I looked up kids places on the search.. only 6-7 places.

Try Escapades and New Babbage, 2 places with very good, strong kid communities that I can personally recommend wholeheartedly. Network with some good kids there and you’ll find the right kinds of places you’ll like to go. I only RP as a SL kid part time with an alt in a specific RP based in New Babbage so my experiences as a ‘kid on the grid’ at large are purposely limited and specifically directed, so I’m not in SL to immersively act out or live out a second childhood experience per say so I plan OOC as my adult self, then the RP is written/happens.

With that said,  I just don’t go many places or wander around as an SL kid because I already know that there are a growing number of places that kid avatars do NOT belong, I have no wish to press or challenge that, and yes there are some people looking for activities that are against the TOS, some acted out with kid avatars - and yeah it’s squick as heck but there’s no need to highlight it either and get traumatized, just think things through and be careful. To keep clear of most all of it, you just have to pay close attention to the region ratings, associated groups and the covenants etc. Aside from a couple of questionable surface inquiries, I can honestly say I’ve had very little trouble with anyone acting inappropriate at all towards my kid alt and I’ve been in SL since 2008. 

[FairreLilette]

23 hours ago, Alwin Alcott said:

 

23 hours ago, Alwin Alcott said:

A glimpse into TinyLand, you may find...

[Bitsy Buccaneer]

2 hours ago, FairreLilette said:

Okay, what two tinies want to attempt to do in SL is their business.  What two cardboard boxes attempt to do in SL is their business.  However, you said in their imagination.

Well, imagination is one thing...tiny avatars another.

Some tinies cannot even do the basic sit animations and need a special animation for a sit - mostly tinies and titchies.  The words tiny and tinies et al can be kind of confusing too.

[long diversion]

Fairre, I think you've gotten so caught up in your lectures about the distinctions between species that you're sort of missing the point. You've made pretty specific statements about tinies being asexual and contradicted someone pointing out that this wasn't a universal. Now you're framing it as attempts because of needing special animations. Truth is, it doesn't matter if they're not rigged to get jiggy - animations are only one way of going about it

It's grand you don't have experience with that. But trust those who do when we say that visual depictions are an option not a requirement. Words can be very powerful indeed.

[Fauve Aeon]

Yes, there’s a decline, I saw a chart. But it’s a long slow gentle one. 
No, I don’t care, I’ll ride it to the burning crash just still trying my best to do what I like there with some other eggs in other baskets, Kitely, etc...because I’ve honestly never thought that the much-touted social groups in SL have really been all that, 😉. 
...probably personal and certainly anecdotal but I’ve had more satisfying social group interaction online via hobby and art forums and by using other meeting software since I use a mic and webcam for several non-SL meetups/meetings.
 

IMO, for being such a visual world, so many people insisting on binding their SL communication to a text input box is, well...clunky and unwieldy at best, it’s really very outdated compared to other ways we interact in so many places online so when people say ‘Oh hey, you can work, play and meet in SL’, most new people don’t expect...just typing...and that’s what they find so I’m not surprised that many may just nope out in favor of something more lively and immediate, places where the people speak. 
Friends in SL? Sure, I have quite a few from my earliest days even and I continue to make them, but SL social and even hobby and work groups? I have honestly found most to be pretty dysfunctional unless they are purely work oriented or remain just very casually social. 

[Sashiku Kas]

18 hours ago, Cindy Evanier said:

You do realise not everyone speaks English as a first language so calling out people for their spelling is wrong.  

I wasn't being serious. I figured they didn't speak english as their main language. Didn't you see *I had to* after i wrote that? I said it because it's the same way they spoke to me, meaning I was trying to show them how rude it is.

[Sashiku Kas]

8 hours ago, Fauve Aeon said:

Try Escapades and New Babbage, 2 places with very good, strong kid communities that I can personally recommend wholeheartedly. Network with some good kids there and you’ll find the right kinds of places you’ll like to go. I only RP as a SL kid part time with an alt in a specific RP based in New Babbage so my experiences as a ‘kid on the grid’ at large are purposely limited and specifically directed, so I’m not in SL to immersively act out or live out a second childhood experience per say so I plan OOC as my adult self, then the RP is written/happens.

With that said,  I just don’t go many places or wander around as an SL kid because I already know that there are a growing number of places that kid avatars do NOT belong, I have no wish to press or challenge that, and yes there are some people looking for activities that are against the TOS, some acted out with kid avatars - and yeah it’s squick as heck but there’s no need to highlight it either and get traumatized, just think things through and be careful. To keep clear of most all of it, you just have to pay close attention to the region ratings, associated groups and the covenants etc. Aside from a couple of questionable surface inquiries, I can honestly say I’ve had very little trouble with anyone acting inappropriate at all towards my kid alt and I’ve been in SL since 2008. 

Thanks for the recommendation. yea, I love to explore and go on adventures. I always go to PG land never adult ever so I stay away from a lot of that, but even PG places aren't safe now. I don't like playing an adult so that option isn't really there for me. I have an adult avatar *I tried to make her very pg and covered up which is hard in SL sometimes* for taking pictures of my creations in SL which means I rarely play her. Even so, She gets hit on by others and I hate it. It makes me very uncomfortable so I can't see myself having an adult main. Being a kid should make that less of a problem. I think I will just start hanging out with the tinies again. They were really kind to me last time and I honestly feel safe there.

As for the traumatized part, Something very bad happened out of nowhere that I do not want to get into on a public post, I will just say that it really scared me. I am just going to have to be extremely careful now. If there were another game I could go to, I would. But currently, there is not. I am glad you haven't had any issues with people being inappropriate to you, but that is probably because you don't main a kid. I don't RP a lot on SL. I used to do some light rp like going to school and scouts but not anymore. I just login to build or talk to friends.

[Lux Voxel]

I think people are not commenting because some things not need be said.