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Philip Rosedale is back as "Strategic Advisor"


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1 hour ago, Chris Nova said:

You either flow with the times or get left behind. Prims are primitive and very unattractive. Second Life could benefit from mesh tools, replacing prims.

SL has been doing everything the devs can think of to “flow with the times” but lost what made SL grow — exclusively USER created content.   There were amazing prim artists but mostly just regular people who enjoyed making things because it was easy and fun. Those people are mostly gone now. SL is not a place that inspires users to create. And it’s no longer just users that create content. 

Meanwhile ugly Roblox has 43 million active daily users, because it really is their world, their imagination, and taps into the desire to create.

BTW I did go with the flow and learned to make mesh content. I just don’t want to see more “innovations” that further stymie SL. Focus on accessibility and easy creation tools, tap into the creative impulse. 

(We have been having this same discussion since SL was born, btw.)

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14 minutes ago, Whirly Fizzle said:

I wonder if we'll get Andrew Linden back.
He left LL to go to work with Philip at HiFi.

Andrew was the one who broke Starax' magic wand all those years ago. On the other hand, having to work on SL's spaghetti code again might just be the right punishment for that 😛

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4 hours ago, Dakota Linden said:

Greetings, All!

 

Thrilling news! Just what we need.

I don't care what outfit Philip is in or how he looks, as I don't with most people, and I hope people will get off that topic. He will express himself as he wishes like all the Lindens do, and they have a wide range, from elaborate furry foxes or pirates or dragons to stick figures and robots.

I wonder what this means in the CNET article:

"Two of those patents are moderation in a decentralized environment patents, which is really cool."

Somehow I don't think it means forums moderation or governance of content inworld. But if it does, I would say job one is to take the Moles off forums moderation and keep them deployed inworld creating, not destroying content. They can create some other brand/role/identity for forums moderation which can be ferret, magpie, whatever, just not their original brand of Mole.

I'm also glad that Philip really cut through the rhetoric and idiocy over "interoperability". We have an interoperability system (he wouldn't say this but I would): it's called Microsoft Windows (or that cascade thing on a Mac). You are in one world and you tab down the window and go to another world; you are in a boring Zoom meeting for work in yet another; you are in SL in yet another. Easy peasy. I don't need to ride my MegaPuss out of SL into Sinespace, let alone Fortnite. I can get the steeds those worlds have. The entire interoperability debate and workshop in emails in the past run by Lindens (which I followed) was really a covert action force for destroying copyright and imposing Creative Commonsism. It died a natural death because artists need to protect their IP and this can be done now well enough to create value, and the effort to destroy it will recede in time.

As far as Second Life embracing new-metaverse ideas like NFTs and some sort of interoperable content, Rosedale remains skeptical. "Do you want to take a Ferrari from Grand Theft Auto and drive it into Fortnite or Among Us?" he asks, referencing how randomly dropping content into other experiences break the fourth wall of immersive experiences in a bad way. "In the near term, amongst games, the idea of content interoperability is one of these things that only a brand could love." Second Life already has its own currency, which Rosedale considers stable, as well as its own economy.

"Content interoperability has to be there for the whole thing to take off at all. As a way of further connecting games to each other, it's a total fail. The near-term idea is dumb. The long-term idea is totally correct. And it's validated by things like Roblox and Second Life, where there's a bazillion pieces of content that people have moved around from place to place.

 

Edited by Prokofy Neva
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16 minutes ago, Candide LeMay said:

Andrew was the one who broke Starax' magic wand all those years ago. On the other hand, having to work on SL's spaghetti code again might just be the right punishment for that 😛

This urban legend that "the Lindens broke Starax's wand" needs some correction. Starax's wand was great -- I saw it in action but never possessed one -- but it had self-replicating prims that rezzed out of it that could be used to crash sims. There was an issue known as "grey goo" and the Lindens had to curb the ability of items to do that in SL because otherwise griefers would constantly crash sims -- and that is exactly what they did in the early days, paralyzing all of SL's grid at times.

Reed Linden explained yesterday that he must "engineer to the lowest common denominator". So lovers of self-replicating high-prim cows may feel abused by the "breaking" of the wand, but people running rentals trying to prevent griefers from harassing them and their tenants with self-replicating prims that force content back into inventory and lose it are happy that this feature is not so easy to use any more.

I personally disagree with that slogan or that purpose or that culture. I think half the time when the engineers have engineered to the lowest common denominator, they need to be sent on a door dash. In our context, they need to be sent to welcome areas and large shopping events. This will give them a course correction to realize that their theoretical "lowest common denominator" a) doesn't exist b) isn't fixed by engineering to it, as it is a social problem.

And in fact, after all this hullaboo, the Lindens had worked out a way for Starax's wand to continue. And he came back on an alt and worked for companies "building the Metaverse" in that era. So like many things, the history is more complicated than it seems.

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3 hours ago, Coffee Pancake said:

.... and we do need that rockstar swagger leading the charge, not just for our peace of mind, but for the wider evangelizing that needs to happen.

i think this is more a defensive move than a offensive move. With all the big deep pocket companies currently getting into this space, all playing offense, then playing defense is quite a sound strategy. Linden is very good at playing defense, always has been. Lots of enterprises have come and gone in this space over the years. Linden and Second Life still standing

Linden lost quite a lot when Ebbe Linden passed. Ebbe Linden was really good at (promoting) articulating The Point of Second Life. And while Philip Rosedale has a whole different other approach/persona to articulation than Ebbe, Mr Rosedale does bring both swag and swagger (rockstar/visionary as you say) while also bring the ability to articulate The Point in the fora that matter to the Linden company (from a promotion/articulation) pov. Swag meaning he brings actual resources also (highly experienced developers/patents/etc)

my question whenever I see products/services (new/revamped/enhanced/etc) is what is The Point of this product or service. The Point is not the same as The Purpose or The Meaning

The Meaning is what the users of a product/service think about it (which means there is more than one meaning). The Purpose is what the users do with it (again more than one purpose)

so what is The Point of Second Life ?  Is to have a creative platform on which people can engage, and thru creative engagement can realise A Purpose and A Meaning for themselves 

Philip Linden has always known this. So too did Ebbe Linden. Philip Linden coming home is a good thing

Philip Linden is not the same as Philip Rosedale. Philip Rosedale is this articulate and well-respected industry person.  Philip Linden is this person who sat on rock in Second Life having a conversation about the contrasts between various forms of western and eastern existentialism with a green and  pink giant spidery thing.  Philip Linden was so engaged in this he never even noticed that his feet were stuck in the rock the whole time

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It's certainly interesting. Rosedale is in a very strong position to influence the development of SL and juding by the article Arduenn linked to and the other one in another thread here, he now seems to have a very good understanding of what is needed - far better than what we've seen from LL (and High Fidelity) before.

One important factor he has mentioned, and it seems "everybody else" agree with, is that a virtual world can not and should not be ubiquitous. The future metaverse needs to be a bit like the internet with big and small independent but interconnected environments. How about an alliance between the two good old frenemies SL and opensim? That instantly add the internet style openness dimension.

Apparently there are no serious technical problems, SL and the hypergrid has already been connected once, but of course there are lots and lots of legal, commercial, personal, organisational, logistical and practical issues to sort out. Still, it's a intriguing thought because if it can be done, the combo would be all but unbeatable.

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So glad to hear that the founding Governor is back to scan the coastlines of "real" estate, embellished by millions of hours and powdered and dusted by ephemera of virtual physics. This voice for the vision, who will stand for rights of Residents (protected in our avatar armour, baked not branded), understands both the platform and the tech, and the struggle of world building. And who shall guard the entrances to our Garden? Angels of the four directions, who will manage and sort our traffic, our right, permissions, and uses.

But I don't want to think of wearing VR to immerse..thanks.

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23 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Is it time for a @Philip Linden call home thread?

So that we can fete his return properly, fangirl all over him, and then ask him probing questions that he can't possibly answer?

You mean like screaming banshee Beatles fans? No, thank you. I'd rather not make myself look any more ridiculous than I already do.

tumblr_p42ow6PYIF1rpduwho1_500.gifv

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19 minutes ago, emilia Avindar said:

So glad to hear that the founding Governor is back to scan the coastlines of "real" estate, embellished by millions of hours and powdered and dusted by ephemera of virtual physics. This voice for the vision, who will stand for rights of Residents (protected in our avatar armour, baked not branded), understands both the platform and the tech, and the struggle of world building. And who shall guard the entrances to our Garden? Angels of the four directions, who will manage and sort our traffic, our right, permissions, and uses.

But I don't want to think of wearing VR to immerse..thanks.

By the time I finished reading your post I was hearing it in V's voice. Stop that! 😆

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I have mixed feelings about the whole deal. High Fidelity seems to have an infestation of Silicon Valley Tech-Bro Blockchain types. Some of the company assets, such as their 3D voice system, could be a big benefit to SL. But are my problems tracking who is talking on voice due to the voice system, or to my not-so-young ears?

It's not simple, but blockchain and crypto currencies are dominated by con games and scams. And you can argue that Philip Rosedale has only managed one success.

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6 hours ago, Persephone Emerald said:

According to what he said on this video, he'd rather use his old avatar and he won't be using Linden as his last name.

 

this is pretty interesting, preferring to not use a Linden last name. I was reading last year some time about Mr Rosedale talking about his life experience and how since getting older has changed how he thinks about the world and his place in it. I hear this a lot from people as they get older - more experience, more wise, more everything. There is also a element of humility in this kind of reflection

a reflection/realisation/understanding that I am not god in my own eyes nor should I be in those of anyone else', I am just a man

there is a song by Faith No More which is kinda fitting I think

Man was born to love-
Though often he has sought
Like Icarus, to fly too high-
And far too lonely than he ought
To kiss the sun of east and west
And hold the world at his behest-
To hold the terrible power
To whom only gods are blessed-
But me, I am just a man

 

 

and maybe will be true, Mr Rosedale will just be a ordinary person in SL with no Linden god powers. He just  be in and see SL in the same way that we see

 

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31 minutes ago, arabellajones said:

I have mixed feelings about the whole deal. High Fidelity seems to have an infestation of Silicon Valley Tech-Bro Blockchain types. Some of the company assets, such as their 3D voice system, could be a big benefit to SL. But are my problems tracking who is talking on voice due to the voice system, or to my not-so-young ears?

My hearing is has been threatening to quit on me (again) for years. Spatial audio is nice to have .. but unless it can be tied to visual ques, it's  worthless.

31 minutes ago, arabellajones said:

It's not simple, but blockchain and crypto currencies are dominated by con games and scams. And you can argue that Philip Rosedale has only managed one success.

Philip isn't a crypto fan

 

 

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17 hours ago, Pamela Galli said:

SL has been doing everything the devs can think of to “flow with the times” but lost what made SL grow — exclusively USER created content.   There were amazing prim artists but mostly just regular people who enjoyed making things because it was easy and fun. Those people are mostly gone now. SL is not a place that inspires users to create. And it’s no longer just users that create content. 

Meanwhile ugly Roblox has 43 million active daily users, because it really is their world, their imagination, and taps into the desire to create.

BTW I did go with the flow and learned to make mesh content. I just don’t want to see more “innovations” that further stymie SL. Focus on accessibility and easy creation tools, tap into the creative impulse. 

(We have been having this same discussion since SL was born, btw.)

Yeah, I'm probably a prime example of that. I only know prim building in Second Life. I don't know Blender, but I made lots of simple prim builds in-world long ago and had, between 2006-2014, arguably one of the 2 or 3 most popular video game-themed island regions in Second Life during its time, Twilight Town Second Life (see Twilight Town attached photo, a European-style burg in perpetual sunset). And before the sim closed, I was working on concepts for many Mega Prim + sculpt environments to make highly detailed out-of-region environmental backgrounds (see attached Moonburg Concept photo; the white grid platform in the center of that blue building cluster was the 256m^2 sim, to scale. up to 2048m diameter architectural environment) but then, as you guys stated, things started dying off.

What we need is a COMPLETELY re-written interface from the ground up or brand new platform with no 10+ year old bandaid code (e.g. OpenGL dead). And no old-as-heck Windows 7 power user UI-looking menus at the top. And full native DirectX 12 and Apple Silicon/Metal support. (Even my M1 Macs still struggle with the Rosetta 2 emulation!) The new platform could have perhaps 2 modes: Explore Mode and Creation Mode:

  • Explore Mode could have a very simple UI that is tablet-like, with simple buttons and interfaces for moving around, voice chatting with others and an in-world browser for Worlds, Avatars and Marketplace items, without leaving the app/game.
  • Creation Mode could be more for the creative and power users, with UI similar to Blender 3.0's new look, with all the advanced creation, camera and creative tools that we are familiar with in Second Life and Blender/Unity/3D apps. Give the Normies some sort of easy way to get into Second Life without... being overwhelmed, you know?

 

My avatar since my joining Second Life in April 2005 has always been an ebony vulpine, as you can see in my final attachment. I never had a human avatar since The Sims Online during dial-up days (I'm a millennial for reference, hah)!

Nevertheless, I am hoping that something fruitful will come from this venture as VRChat, Neos VR and other platforms are eating up LL's current share of creative space. Something needs to change soon before they're eaten alive. That said, what else do you guys think should be added to this new platform or metaverse? Reply to me directly if you would be so kind. (Maybe Philip will read this! Wink, wink!)

Twilight Town Old Pic Nov 2013.png

Moonburg Concept Buildings_003.jpg

Undies Chonk_009.jpg

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