What Works Really Well in SL?

[Randall Ahren]

I see a lot of complaints about SL, like search being borked, lag, not enough avatars can fit into a region, Zindra not being finished, group chat having issues, and etc. For a change of pace, what works really well in SL? Specifically, what did the Lindens get absolutely right?

[Silent Mistwalker]

[Lucia Nightfire]

I honestly do not know.

I deleted a whole list of reasons I was going to post, but it would only piss off some and bring down others.

So maybe another time. 😕

Edited November 23, 2021 by Lucia Nightfire

[Arielle Popstar]

The ability to create objects inworld from a flower to a phallus. As far as I know, that is still totally unique within a virtual world environment and is what initially attracted me to Second Life. Every other facet can be had in multiple other worlds.

[Prokofy Neva]

1 hour ago, Randall Ahren said:

I see a lot of complaints about SL, like search being borked, lag, not enough avatars can fit into a region, Zindra not being finished, group chat having issues, and etc. For a change of pace, what works really well in SL? Specifically, what did the Lindens get absolutely right?

Are you on staff?

Why do you feel the need to come in with this now? 

The list of miseries especially for working group land rentals now feels deliberate to me. It feels conscious, directed, and malicious. There is so much pain that I think it has to be, and they would like people to go off the Mainland, and either just buy expensive islands and be funneled into Bellisseria. Who needs search in Bellisseria? Bellisseria is a place where girlfriends make groups and just TP each other. 

I'd like to say "Well, at least teleports work! That's fun!". But they don't numerous times a day I have to relog because it says "teleport blocked" -- it stalls when you try to go somewhere more than half a continent away; it doesn't work from a SLURL or off the World Map, so you interrupt what you are doing and relog.

Sure, by contrast with anything Mark Zuckerberg is doing with his legless wonders, LL's mature Metaverse is way ahead. But that's setting the bar low.

 

[Alwin Alcott]

2 hours ago, Randall Ahren said:

 what works really well in SL? Specifically, what did the Lindens get absolutely right?

billing ... they never forget to take the money ..
Is the financial system userfriendly? .. no
 

[QwiQ]

42 minutes ago, Prokofy Neva said:

Sure, by contrast with anything Mark Zuckerberg is doing with his legless wonders, LL's mature Metaverse is way ahead. But that's setting the bar low.

I admit that I'm not a great fan of Mr Zuckerberg and have definite concerns around the prospect of MAMAA (Meta, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet) having such disproportionate oversight of our lives, however what is this Forum's obsession with legs and the almost delusion idea that SL is "miles ahead"?

It's just not, and sad to say this, first mover advantage in any industry these days is easily eroded and definitely has been in this case. As for any much lauded COVID bump - old school RuneScape beat us by a factor of around 300% on that score.

As for the whole leg obsession, seriously we get it, the top of the legs is where the genitalia are attached and SL definitely is a leader in its community's obsession with the aesthetics and use of those particular artefacts.

If "Legs",  is all we can think of in support of SL, then we just sound sad and irrelevant as popular preconceptions paint us.

So in answer to the OP, what works "relatively" well for newcomers to SL:

• Legs
• genitalia
• Sexual simulations
• Making avatars look pretty so the community's narcissistic appetites are well catered for.

That's about it.

If you're a relative "oldie" then you may have a small group of friends; you may feel comfortable and know how everything works and hence are pretty protective and defensive, but seriously as a community let's come up with something better than the simple mantra of "legs" and "we hate the Zuck".

It's not 1983 any more guys and we ain't ZZ Top 🙂

[Coffee Pancake]

Don't let the gripes fool you, SL can be better and should be better and we're all deeply invested in wanting it to be better. We just don't all agree on the details.

Everything we do here is objectively done better someplace else, but there is nowhere else that does even half of what SL does at the same time.

 

SL isn't a perfect world or platform, but it's ours, and there is no where else like it. 

[Theresa Tennyson]

3 hours ago, Randall Ahren said:

I see a lot of complaints about SL, like search being borked, lag, not enough avatars can fit into a region, Zindra not being finished, group chat having issues, and etc. For a change of pace, what works really well in SL? Specifically, what did the Lindens get absolutely right?

It has existed continuously for over 18 years and incorporated new technologies while still being largely compatible with the original structure.

I came to Second Life from The Sims series. The Sims games are roughly the same age as Second Life, and as far as having a true 3D environment they're about a year younger. The series is now well into The Sims 4, the fourth iteration that's completely incompatible with the previous ones, and with every new series you need to buy everything again (and often wait for features that were part of the previous series to be added back into the new one.)

Also, Second Life has a comparatively high level of respect for user creations/additions and doesn't usually make actions that disable them. The Sims has an active modding community, but mods are frequently broken by changes made by the developers.

Edited November 23, 2021 by Theresa Tennyson

[cunomar]

I think everything works and the trouble is nothing is compatible .

A metaphorical comparison .

Real life schools and hospitals in Britain built to hold say 100 people now hold 300 . There is nowhere to build back bigger and better so they cram the 300 into a space suitable for 50 while they renovate extend and build on top of the existing as best they can , which of course takes far longer and costs far more than removing and replacing what was there . And they have to do it twice before its 100% complete .

SL has no such hindrance of acreage, so out with the old and in with the new and compatible doesn't have to obliterate a history built on experimentation of then evolving possibilities of technology . It simply has to be a new sim which will only cause problems for those who don't meet modern set parameters .

If you don't like the new town go back to the old town , there are no losers .

[Nick0678]

4 hours ago, Randall Ahren said:

I see a lot of complaints about SL, like search being borked, lag, not enough avatars can fit into a region, Zindra not being finished, group chat having issues, and etc. For a change of pace, what works really well in SL? Specifically, what did the Lindens get absolutely right?

Yeah but It really depends on what someone wants to do in SL

☑⠀search being borked: doesn't matter to those who use legacy search

☑⠀lag: most will tolerate it if they just log in to dress/undress their ken/barbie doll

☑⠀avatar limit: won't affect those who spend most of their time at their or some friends parcel

☑⠀Zindra: plenty of Adult places to f*ck around

☑⠀group chat: yeah well .. i don't think someone will leave SL because of that

SL can be annoying or even ridiculous if someone is looking for flawlessness and has excessively high performance standards but at the end of the day it's just some piece of software to play with 3D avatars while being at home so all these flaws are expected.

[Ajay McDowwll]

6 hours ago, Randall Ahren said:

I see a lot of complaints about SL, like search being borked, lag, not enough avatars can fit into a region, Zindra not being finished, group chat having issues, and etc. For a change of pace, what works really well in SL? Specifically, what did the Lindens get absolutely right?

The options for avatar customization are second to none.  I've been in many virtual worlds, and that's where they're all lacking.  Some I can't even get stupid grey hair, which is annoying because although not everyone has grey hair.... I mean, it's a natural color?  And some of us are older RL and really kind of LIKE our hair the color it's growing out of our heads?

Sigh.

Yes, things are broken here and there in SL.  Nothing you mention is off-base.  The learning curve for new users and some returning residents is HUGE... the bonus for returning residents being that they may still have people on their friends list from eons ago who can assist with updating their avatars.

The walkability of the continents is also a huge draw.  You can wander around the Linden roads endlessly... well, as long as you don't veer too much off course and run into someone's super-aggressive security orb.  But even with that, other virtual worlds that I've visited lack that ability to simply explore at random.  You have to find a region to go to, then TP there, and once you've arrived you can look around, but there's no way to just wander and happen upon something at random.

[Mr Amore]

SL works well for photography, the sheer volume of content will keep it ahead in this space through the 2020s.

Furnishing, landscaping and creating spaces gives a lot of people satisfaction which SL also excels at.

It's also an excellent platform for roleplaying, but the community themselves haven't taken advantage of the SL Experience and Animesh. Adoption has been slow with Experiences on RP sims used only for the attachment of HUDs and gateway teleporters, which is around 5% of their potential. It's neither an accusation at LL, nor the community, creating a complete gaming system is a monumental task requiring a team of creators. That dream team just hasn't formed yet.

I want to say user creativity, which SL was great for. Yet compared to other platforms SL's tools are antiquated now, at this stage it's a platform hacked together from different generations of technology. User creativity is still the defining currency of SL, without it the grid would never have thrived.

[SarahKB7 Koskinen]

Philip Rosedale's actual creation and tenure of Linden World/Second Life are unquestionably, unarguably it's best and highest points.

Edited November 23, 2021 by SarahKB7 Koskinen

[Lyssa Greymoon]

It's a very good platform for socializing.

[Lindal Kidd]

Things LL Got Right, In No Particular Order...

• Simulation of physical space (vs. IMVU's "rooms" and lack of physical avatar movement)
• Use of a "real estate" model as a major means of generating revenue, while providing residents who want it a canvas for creation. (Charging for land, rather than prims, was a BRILLIANT idea.)
• Educational/Nonprofit discounts
• Reliance on user creativity to make the world
• A monetary system that allows conversion both to and from real world currency
• Inclusion of flight and teleportation as means of locomotion, AND the ability to make them optional
• Simulation of environments (sky and water) AND the ability for both individual and collective editing of same. (Wish they'd managed simulation of precipitation, seasons, and an ecology too, though!)
• In world creation tools. I wish something could've been done to update these, rather than relying on external software for our nice Mesh things. Still, look at all we did BEFORE we had Mesh, or even sculpties!
• Scripting. I'm no programmer, and LSL may be a crap language, but the ability to program interactions in world has made a HUGE difference.
• Bellisseria. Say what you want about it, people have adopted it in droves. Just look at the world map compared to two years ago
• Support of realistic mocap animation created by users. (Dancing = clubs = social interaction = profit...well, that last one's mostly wishful thinking, but still...)
• The Marketplace. Personally, I hate it because it's caused the closing of so many cool stores in world, but creators can set up an online store at zero cost, and millions of us find it more convenient than shopping in world.
• The LindeX and the billing system USED to be something they got right, but they've kinda f'd it up by the elimination of third party exchanges and the whole Tilia confusion.
• Flexiprims. They were/are great for hair and sort of for skirts. Would've been perfect if there was collision detection/cloth simulation.
• Most realistic avatars, along with greatest range of possible avatars (although this is really down to both LL and resident creators). Although getting to that realistic avatar has become unnecessarily complicated!
• Laissez-faire approach to governance. Yeah, the occasional serial griefer/stalker gets away with it for a long time, but in general people are left alone to work things out.
• Anonymity. The place would be a lot less interesting if everyone was required to use their RL name and appearance.
• Ability to import many types of content at reasonable cost.
• Adult content is allowed, yet (somewhat) governed by a Maturity system.
• Gambling, until the RL authorities caught 'em at it. That was a major growth driver, while we had it.
• The annual Birthday Party

[Profaitchikenz Haiku]

7 hours ago, Lucia Nightfire said:

but it would only piss off some

Somedays I feel that's my reason for living

[Janet Voxel]

LL got the spatial sound quality right. Someone talking far away sounds far away. Someone behind you, feels like they're behind you. 

[ChinRey]

I can't think of a single thing in SL that works very well but there is a lot that works well enough. It's like the Swiss Army knife of virtual reality, not perfect for anything but adequate for so much.

[Silent Mistwalker]

23 minutes ago, ChinRey said:

I can't think of a single thing in SL that works very well but there is a lot that works well enough. It's like the Swiss Army knife of virtual reality, not perfect for anything but adequate for so much.

Kind of a Jack of All Trades thing.

[Luna Bliss]

11 hours ago, QwiQ said:

If "Legs",  is all we can think of in support of SL, then we just sound sad and irrelevant as popular preconceptions paint us.

 

[Marigold Devin]

14 hours ago, Randall Ahren said:

I see a lot of complaints about SL, like search being borked, lag, not enough avatars can fit into a region, Zindra not being finished, group chat having issues, and etc. For a change of pace, what works really well in SL? Specifically, what did the Lindens get absolutely right?

I actually think the new Linden homes from the Victorian-style to the fantasy ones that have recently been released have been the best thing Linden Lab have done so far. Where it seemed to be a challenge for them to get enough people to take up premium membership and occupy the original Linden homes, it seems Linden Lab just can't release enough supply of new homes to meet demands. Some would argue Second Life has become more of a rat race, but I still believe there is something to appeal to anyone who ventures in world for longer than the initial orientation process.

Talking of the initial orientation process, that has changed again, and I went through it with a new alt a few days ago. It seems much more user friendly and enjoyable to go through. 

I don't think they will ever get anything absolutely 100% right, but real life is an evolving work in progress too. 

[Paul Hexem]

12 hours ago, Coffee Pancake said:

Everything we do here is objectively done better someplace else, but there is nowhere else that does even half of what SL does at the same time.

This can't be stated enough. Literally everything in SL is being done better, elsewhere.

SL just happens to be the only one that can do it all.

For now.

[QwiQ]

On second thoughts...

Edited November 23, 2021 by QwiQ

[Jules Catlyn]

14 hours ago, Prokofy Neva said:

Are you on staff?

Why do you feel the need to come in with this now? 

The list of miseries especially for working group land rentals now feels deliberate to me. It feels conscious, directed, and malicious. There is so much pain that I think it has to be, and they would like people to go off the Mainland, and either just buy expensive islands and be funneled into Bellisseria. Who needs search in Bellisseria? Bellisseria is a place where girlfriends make groups and just TP each other. 

I'd like to say "Well, at least teleports work! That's fun!". But they don't numerous times a day I have to relog because it says "teleport blocked" -- it stalls when you try to go somewhere more than half a continent away; it doesn't work from a SLURL or off the World Map, so you interrupt what you are doing and relog.

Sure, by contrast with anything Mark Zuckerberg is doing with his legless wonders, LL's mature Metaverse is way ahead. But that's setting the bar low.

I always wonder why people stay in SL if they feel it is such a bad and borked place to be in. We are here by choice, not because we have to be.