Last names nearly here - and more. Yay!

[Drayke Newall]

35 minutes ago, JUSTUS Palianta said:

I heard about that concert because i love that type of music.  That used to be SL we heard about on the news and in the media.  That is how i found SL.  Now when you google SL the first thing that pops up is ... is Second Life still even a thing …

Exactly and my posts above regarding the other virtual world on android avakinlife I gave as an example was hounded on yet Fortnite of all things did what SL is known for streamed across more device types than even SL is on.

Also note the similarities between Second life and what they did. In world band playing through a virtual world (just as second life does) running the event across simultaneous instanced performances of less than 100 people each (SL regions are at least this amount) and perform generally the same way. Custom stage and virtual lighting (all possible in SL). They even motion captioned the DJ and band for the movements (all possible in SL).

Sure people are going to come in and say but that's all pre made stuff and not user created SL wont work on mobile, lag blah blah blah. True it isn't user generated, but this is 2019 where 5g can have a theoretical download speed of 1/2GB/s with many users, a max speed at 2.6GB/s or 1TB/s as tested in lab conditions in the UK recently. It only comes down to the software of which the SL viewer is antiquated and the lack of LL response to putting hard stops on uploading unoptimized content.

Edited November 23, 2019 by Drayke Newall

[JUSTUS Palianta]

Oh i play a zombie killing game on my phone, i searched for apps like SL, i gave serious consideration to joining avakinlife it looks a lot like SL, im just not sure my real life could handle me be addicted to a new VR, unless i gave up SL, some people might not think twice about changing VR but i have done a lot of work here and want to see SL succeed.  I was actualy kind of shocked to see how many of the avatars of 3dxchat forums were the same  people as the SL forums, it kind of scared me, like everyone already left SL a few years ago and i missed the boat, lol.

[AyelaNewLife]

4 hours ago, Pussycat Catnap said:

Wishing it so doesn't make it so.

The technology is identical.

The only thing about SL that makes it not an MMO is the players saying it's not an MMO.

I love the way you were proven right in the very next post.

The whole "it's not a game!" thing started as marketing by LL, and continues so middle aged players/residents can justify why they spend hours of their life playing a video game as an adult. It's insecurity-management, nothing more.

Which is fine I guess - so long as people understand that the label you slap on the box makes no difference to its contents. As you say, technologically its an MMO, and SL follows many of the trends that affect MMOs, calling it a virtual world changes none of that.

[Garnet Psaltery]

7 minutes ago, AyelaNewLife said:

I love the way you were proven right in the very next post.

The whole "it's not a game!" thing started as marketing by LL, and continues so middle aged players/residents can justify why they spend hours of their life playing a video game as an adult. It's insecurity-management, nothing more.

Which is fine I guess - so long as people understand that the label you slap on the box makes no difference to its contents. As you say, technologically its an MMO, and SL follows many of the trends that affect MMOs, calling it a virtual world changes none of that.

No, I must disagree strongly, for three reasons at least.  1)  SL is certainly not a game to me but an extension of my real life.  It is a creative outlet and a place of social interaction.  2)  Simply having some characteristics of another construct does not make it the same thing.  3)  I need no justification for how I spend my time as an adult.

[AyelaNewLife]

15 minutes ago, Garnet Psaltery said:

No, I must disagree strongly, for three reasons at least.  1)  SL is certainly not a game to me but an extension of my real life.  It is a creative outlet and a place of social interaction.  2)  Simply having some characteristics of another construct does not make it the same thing.  3)  I need no justification for how I spend my time as an adult.

So long as you don't deny that the shared characteristics exist - and that includes population trends, basic backend stuff - that's totally fine by me.

[Monderas Bristol]

I understand that the last names if changed are from a select list and that if upgrading to premium, members that already have a last name can change their first OR last name.

What I want to know is what effect changing a first name only has on a sirname. Can someone change their firstname and KEEP their existing sirname? 

[Garnet Psaltery]

4 minutes ago, AyelaNewLife said:

So long as you don't deny that the shared characteristics exist - and that includes population trends, basic backend stuff - that's totally fine by me.

I have no reason to deny something that does not affect my argument, even had I seen the statistics.  In any case we are straying from the topic. 

Edited November 23, 2019 by Garnet Psaltery
Typo.

[LittleMe Jewell]

2 hours ago, Monderas Bristol said:

What I want to know is what effect changing a first name only has on a sirname. Can someone change their firstname and KEEP their existing sirname? 

The wording within the latest blog post implies a Yes on that, though initially we were told that if you wanted to make a change you would have to pick a last name from the current drop down list.

[Adam Spark]

8 hours ago, Pussycat Catnap said:

Wishing it so doesn't make it so.

The technology is identical.

The only thing about SL that makes it not an MMO is the players saying it's not an MMO.

 

The tech behind it does not make it a game. Games have storylines. And while some, like World of Warcraft, can be played in a manner of your choosing, choosing to go back and fight NPCs you already destroyed does very little for your advancement. The principle of advancement doesn't even exist in Second Life. Every time somebody asks me "how do you play SL?" I tell them you don't play it. You log into it and you discover it.

Logging into Second Life is akin to visiting another country or planet, with the exception that it exists online. It is a world, not a game.

We aren't players. We are residents.

You can make a game out of it. That's fine. But in and of itself, its no more a game than Facebook.

[Adam Spark]

9 hours ago, Drayke Newall said:

No, do you know how the cloud works and how instanced zones work? I said venues submit those things, you know, high demand massive shops or clubs etc which are huge download demands when downloading in large spaces. Since when is a house a venue lmao. I even stated the house zone could be instanced. As far as Bellissera goes why do you think LL repeat the style and textures of homes in the area and don't care about smaller objects within the house. I'll give you a clue, its the same reason why I said venues submit their textures..

Plus its an EXAMPLE I gave. In other words not everything is stated or thought out. Do you seriously think a CEO of a company brings to a meeting the entire system already worked out. No, he says I want this and that and think it could work like this and leaves the details to be thought out later of what can and cant be done.

I have never understood why so many SL residents are hell bent on a mobile client. Its as if they think it will destroy SL and not improve it.

Homes are just an example. Venues do the same thing. I own one and I am redecorating. You'll have to excuse me if I can't be convinced that doing so on Linden Lab's schedule (with faith they won't break something) would not be a deal breaker.

I know how instancing works and I know it exists in the abyss known as Sansar. It basically is a way to scale. You can have hundreds if not thousands in a venue without killing resources. Problem - I wouldn't see you if I was in a different instance.

One of the reasons I stopped trying out Sansar.

Edited November 23, 2019 by Adam Spark

[FairreLilette]

4 hours ago, AyelaNewLife said:

The whole "it's not a game!" thing started as marketing by LL, and continues so middle aged players/residents can justify why they spend hours of their life playing a video game as an adult. It's insecurity-management, nothing more.

Which is fine I guess - so long as people understand that the label you slap on the box makes no difference to its contents. As you say, technologically its an MMO, and SL follows many of the trends that affect MMOs, calling it a virtual world changes none of that.

I think there is often confusion between MMO's and MMORPG's  Some people think they are inter-changeable and lot of people don't want to fall under the assumption it's a role play only when they come to SL or talk about SL to others.   I will role play a little as a Dinkie but mostly I'm just me with no real character nor part to play.  

When I first heard about SL, I was told there is no specific role to play...it's a virtual world created by it's users.  I liked that.  

As far as the topic, Garnet.  I like seeing that you have a last name.  It is something I am considering but not fully understanding yet nor how much it will cost...it's a long thread already and I need time to read the blog and read through it all.  This is the first I'm hearing about a contest though.

Edited November 23, 2019 by FairreLilette

[Sommerland Starostin]

Think its great that they're doing this. Yeah let the users pay lol. They the ones that were complaining that they wanted their OWN last names in the first place so they can pay for the trouble of going back. I got my name hehe. People always complaining about the lindens and something they're doing but this IS a business that has to be run.

[Nalates Urriah]

On 11/21/2019 at 11:46 AM, Tarina Sewell said:

The WHOLE reason Sl did away with last names is so people COULD have a vanity plate. And that is making their own names up.

No.. that is not the reason. They removed last names as they figured out having to choose a second name was causing a large percentage of people to drop out of the signup process. The idea was removal of last names would get more people into SL.

At the time this last name thing was a major topic of discussion. The Lindens explained their reasoning and reasons.

On 11/21/2019 at 12:02 PM, Orwar said:

   I personally don't see the appeal of surnames. I put mine in my display name instead.

...how else are you going to keep up with who is doing who?    🤣

On 11/21/2019 at 1:10 PM, Eva Knoller said:

Yay for last names! It doesn’t affect me directly, but I completely get why plenty of people are excited about that. But, I already have trouble remembering where and when I met half the people on my friends list, how in the heck am I going to remember anyone when everyone changes their name?! 
 

*Note to self to clean out my friends list before this goes live*

That is not going to be a problem or so the Lindens say. Part of the reason this took so long to implement is figuring out and programming what has to happen when someone changes name. How do I keep track of my Friends? The Lindens say when a user changes names we will see the name change reflected in our Friends List and lots of other affected places.

Keeping track of people and interactions with them is a thing for Profile comments. Those comments sort of make up my little black book.

On 11/21/2019 at 1:13 PM, Vanity Fair said:

No, you have to be a Premium member to select a last name.

There is a nuance here that is confusing people. It is the difference between "having" a last name and "changing" a last name.

It has been awhile since I've heard them discuss the signup name choice. If I recall correctly the idea was a new signup could pick a last name or postpone a last name selection and have one free name change... The idea is everyone will have a last name, just as they do now (Resident being the current last name for years).

So while everyone will have a last name, only Premium members have the option to change them.

On 11/21/2019 at 1:25 PM, Selene Gregoire said:

There is a conflict of what Patch said and what the blog post says.

...

So which is it?

Read the response above the quote of you. The simple answer is both blog and Patch are right.

Edited November 23, 2019 by Nalates Urriah
fix a couple of confusing misspellings

[Orwar]

48 minutes ago, Nalates Urriah said:

...how else are you going to keep up with who is doing who?    🤣

   Virtual Secrets? I don't know, the only partner I did let take my surname thus far, I never had a sexual relationship anyways.

   Besides, if you pick the names from a list ... Well. That's going to make it look like one heck of a love triangle.

[Alyona Su]

1 hour ago, Nalates Urriah said:

The Lindens say when a user changes names we will see the name change reflected in our Friends List and lots of other affected places.

My understanding, based on Linden comments from so many different sources by now that I don't remember which... it is that even if I change my name from Alyona Su to something else totally different like "Felda Hortense" - you can still find me, pull my profile, see me on your spyware activity-panels by Alyona Su. And that this aspect is the actual hard part of the work on getting this implemented, because Spaghetti Code (As @Tateru Nino coined it way back when on her blog). LOL

[Adam Spark]

1 hour ago, Nalates Urriah said:

There is a nuance here that is confusing people. It is the difference between "having" a last name and "changing" a last name.

It has been awhile since I've heard them discuss the signup name choice. If I recall correctly the idea was a new signup could pick a last name or postpone a last name selection and have one free name change... The idea is everyone will have a last name, just as they do now (Resident being the current last name for years).

The confusion lies in the idea that Resident is a true last name. It is not.

When they did away with last names, the system, in various ways especially scripts, continued to assume that last names existed. A placeholder, Resident, was introduced to keep everything working (since the Lab couldn't be bothered with anything more difficult than patchwork systems and workarounds, thus the poorly implemented Display Names).

Here, nothing changes for you unless you are premium. Basics with no last name will continue with one name, using Resident when a two name identity is required. Resident is rarely actually seen anymore, as at least in TPVs you can trim it from tags and friends lists and the like.

[Pussycat Catnap]

6 hours ago, AyelaNewLife said:

I love the way you were proven right in the very next post.

The whole "it's not a game!" thing started as marketing by LL, and continues so middle aged players/residents can justify why they spend hours of their life playing a video game as an adult. It's insecurity-management, nothing more.

Basically yes.

A generation of people who were in their 30s as video games came out and were told "this is for children" so they live in denial that they play one.

There's a SEVERE amount of 'gamer insecurity' in the SL community.

But what we have here is basically a bunch of people driving a pickup and saying "this is NOT a car"... But... it is... it's just branded a little differently.

Not only is the tech like an MMO, but the creation tools are a more primitive version of many sandbox MMOs; yet with limits often removed so that 'theme' can be broken, and the monetization was first the role model for MMOs, and is now following newer trends in MMOs.

We even have a built in combat engine... it's not popular, but it's there. It's nascent of early 3D-MMOs.

 

The notion of streaming live 3D animation to a massive multiplayer audience though - that's textbook video game MMO...

 

BUT the point of this aside was not about whether some Boomer is insecure calling his game a game...

 

It was about taking it to mobile... and how that has faired for other MMOs.

 

It just that some boomer had a FREAK OUT when the analogy was made and side tracked us all into Boomer insecurity...

 

[LittleMe Jewell]

1 hour ago, Nalates Urriah said:

 

There is a nuance here that is confusing people. It is the difference between "having" a last name and "changing" a last name.

It has been awhile since I've heard them discuss the signup name choice. If I recall correctly the idea was a new signup could pick a last name or postpone a last name selection and have one free name change... The idea is everyone will have a last name, just as they do now (Resident being the current last name for years).

So while everyone will have a last name, only Premium members have the option to change them.

 

 

The original post by Grumpity stated that all new signups will default to the Resident name, but can choose to pay for Premium AND pay for a last name during signup, thus never really having a name of Resident.  They will choose a name from a list.  Additionally, any Premium member can choose to pay for a name change.  

 

 

The interesting part is that originally it was stated that ALL name changes would have to pick a new last name from the current list, so you could not just change your first name and keep your existing last name.  However, the latest blog post seems to contradict that:

 

[Adam Spark]

3 minutes ago, Pussycat Catnap said:

Basically yes.

A generation of people who were in their 30s as video games came out and were told "this is for children" so they live in denial that they play one.

There's a SEVERE amount of 'gamer insecurity' in the SL community.

But what we have here is basically a bunch of people driving a pickup and saying "this is NOT a car"... But... it is... it's just branded a little differently.

Not only is the tech like an MMO, but the creation tools are a more primitive version of many sandbox MMOs; yet with limits often removed so that 'theme' can be broken, and the monetization was first the role model for MMOs, and is now following newer trends in MMOs.

We even have a built in combat engine... it's not popular, but it's there. It's nascent of early 3D-MMOs.

 

The notion of streaming live 3D animation to a massive multiplayer audience though - that's textbook video game MMO...

 

BUT the point of this aside was not about whether some Boomer is insecure calling his game a game...

 

It was about taking it to mobile... and how that has faired for other MMOs.

 

It just that some boomer had a FREAK OUT when the analogy was made and side tracked us all into Boomer insecurity...

 

In my 30s, hardly a boomer.

Boomers play games with no insecurity whatsoever. Video games have always been enjoyed by adults without questioning.

SL has several elements used by games, yes. None of which make them games. What makes them games are quests, points, level advancement, strategy, ect. None of which apply to SL, except in part in certain gaming regions.

[H8]

LL coming with the big brain ideas again. So it's going to cost money(which is understandable) but also will have to pay Premium membership. Insane double dipping!!11one

Sure, I love dumping money into Sansar.

Going to lose more money because of that, not the other way around.

Edited November 23, 2019 by H8

[Chic Aeon]

37 minutes ago, H8 said:

LL coming with the big brain ideas again. So it's going to cost money(which is understandable) but also will have to pay Premium membership. Insane double dipping!!11one

Sure, I love dumping money into Sansar.

Going to lose more money because of that, not the other way around.

None of that was new news. It had been said officially in Town Hall meetings and discussed here on the forums. If you missed it BEFORE you know it NOW.

 

[Garnet Psaltery]

2 hours ago, Pussycat Catnap said:

A generation of people who were in their 30s as video games came out and were told "this is for children" so they live in denial that they play one.

There's a SEVERE amount of 'gamer insecurity' in the SL community.

But what we have here is basically a bunch of people driving a pickup and saying "this is NOT a car"... But... it is... it's just branded a little differently.

BUT the point of this aside was not about whether some Boomer is insecure calling his game a game...

It was about taking it to mobile... and how that has faired for other MMOs.

It just that some boomer had a FREAK OUT when the analogy was made and side tracked us all into Boomer insecurity...

 

Pussycat, stop this ageist talk immediately.  Would you like it if I commented disparagingly on your skin colour?  No, of course not, so cease the bigotry.  I do not accept your judgement anyway; how do you know what most SL residents think?  You don't; it's just your small circle.

Edited November 23, 2019 by Garnet Psaltery
Typo.

[Skylar Littlepaws]

After reading about the last names, I am excited to see the amount of progress that was made and ready to be release to the public.  Having the fee, while I understand it seems crazy to have it, I understand the reason behind it.  Maybe it's only temporary for the fee and who knows what the future will bring.  

The premium plus was brought up awhile ago when the price for premiums went up.  For those who missed the talk about it can be found on here.  

 

I think having different tiers is great because it brings more revenue to Second Life which can help product and better performance. 

[Alyona Su]

3 hours ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

 

The original post by Grumpity stated that all new signups will default to the Resident name, but can choose to pay for Premium AND pay for a last name during signup, thus never really having a name of Resident.  They will choose a name from a list.  Additionally, any Premium member can choose to pay for a name change.  The interesting part is that originally it was stated that ALL name changes would have to pick a new last name from the current list, so you could not just change your first name and keep your existing last name.  However, the latest blog post seems to contradict that:

 

It also depends on how you read it: If you change your name, you can keep your first name (because that is 100% elective) - but must choose a last name (as part of the name change process). In that case you are changing "one" name. Perhaps @Grumpity Linden can clarify this, I'd love to be told by an official that my perception is wrong, but until then, this is what I'm sticking with. So I'll either be vindicated or pleasantly wronged, because I'd love to be able to change only my first name, but I'm not going to lend to hope that will be an option.

This is the benefit of pessimism; I will get either exactly what I expect or I will be very pleasantly surprised. You optimists? LOL You either get what you expected or heartache.

Edited November 23, 2019 by Alyona Su

[Bree Giffen]

Is it possible to start a premium account with a last name and drop to basic right away? Not that I'm planning anything. I have my last names.