"Remember Second Life? It’s Now Taking On Big Tech’s Metaverse | WSJ"

[davidventer]

 

 

[Alwin Alcott]

very nice, but why all that old inworld material still used in to show SL.

[Bree Giffen]

I bet the WSJ had a lot of stock footage from when they were in SL years ago.

[Chris Corvinus]

5 hours ago, Alwin Alcott said:

very nice, but why all that old inworld material still used in to show SL.

Because that is what SL is to the rest of the world.

Old. Dated. Ancient. Bringing the creator back won't do any good when you have a reputation for having outdated content. From that video, Philip came back to bring SL into mobile which is severely laughable. Might wanna clean up the business reputation first before showing off even more outdated content on a modern smartphone and tablet. And honestly, I have negative zero trust that Linden Lab can produce a 3D app for SL.

[Silent Mistwalker]

Isn't really going to matter since Metaverse is now dead in the water.

[animats]

Rosedale finishes with his "Second Life is for losers" talk.     

"Most of us who have a comfortable existence in our real bodies, in the real world, are going to still tend to prefer that. Virtual worlds are a choice that you have to make. And it's a very substantial and considerate choice. And it's not necessarily something all of us are gonna want to do."

He's said that before.

Is that's what limits SL's growth, or is it just an excuse for underperforming on usability and fun?

Nobody says that about Minecraft or Roblox.

[Theresa Tennyson]

29 minutes ago, animats said:

 

Nobody says that about Minecraft or Roblox.

And do they say that they're "virtual worlds" and get all huffy about the semantics?

[bigmoe Whitfield]

3 hours ago, Chris Nova said:

Because that is what SL is to the rest of the world.

Old. Dated. Ancient. Bringing the creator back won't do any good when you have a reputation for having outdated content. From that video, Philip came back to bring SL into mobile which is severely laughable. Might wanna clean up the business reputation first before showing off even more outdated content on a modern smartphone and tablet. And honestly, I have negative zero trust that Linden Lab can produce a 3D app for SL.

Changing SL's visuals is impossible at this point.

[Chris Corvinus]

1 hour ago, bigmoe Whitfield said:

Changing SL's visuals is impossible at this point.

Its not so much the visuals, its the prim. Mesh has advanced significantly. I think its always good to show the best of Second Life to new people after they arrive in world for the first time. First impressions matter.

[Mar Scarmon]

The Lindens should be jumping all over this publicity and hyping Second Life.  What I can't understand is why Roblox and Minecraft are so popular when they appear so crude compared to SL. Maybe META or a similar company interested in the metaverse should buy Second Life.  I would love to see the Lindens at least TRY to bring SL forward and rejuvenate it.

 

[Lucia Nightfire]

9 minutes ago, Mar Scarmon said:

What I can't understand is why Roblox and Minecraft are so popular when they appear so crude compared to SL.

Maybe because there is more to do on those platforms than there is to see on this one?

Generally speaking, that is, heh.

YMMV

[Chris Corvinus]

7 minutes ago, Mar Scarmon said:

What I can't understand is why Roblox and Minecraft are so popular when they appear so crude compared to SL. Maybe META or a similar company interested in the metaverse should buy Second Life.  I would love to see the Lindens at least TRY to bring SL forward and rejuvenate it.

 

Because both Roblox and Minecraft are FUN. No overbloated UI's with a billion things to learn. New people come here and theres literally nothing to do except walk around aimlessly.

[Maryanne Solo]

They fit the 10 second attention span perfectly.

[Ayashe Ninetails]

I can't speak for Roblox, but I play Minecraft on occasion, and I honestly haven't seen anything in there that's even remotely like SL. The process of changing appearance and getting "dressed" happens on an external website (where you pick your entire skin as a single piece with the clothes & hair & face & eyes built-in) and via the launcher (where you put it on before logging in). That alone is a pain for me since I always want to mix and match. Plus, all the other stuff that makes Minecraft Minecraft. Not to mention that it runs on consoles and mobile and all that good stuff, too.

Minecraft strikes me more as a survival/building/crafting type game, even in multiplayer. Roblox might be more like a virtual word, though. I'm not sure.

 

[Scylla Rhiadra]

9 minutes ago, Mar Scarmon said:

The Lindens should be jumping all over this publicity and hyping Second Life.  What I can't understand is why Roblox and Minecraft are so popular when they appear so crude compared to SL. Maybe META or a similar company interested in the metaverse should buy Second Life.  I would love to see the Lindens at least TRY to bring SL forward and rejuvenate it.

 

In fairness, and speaking entirely from a marketing perspective, LL is leveraging Rosedale's new (re-)association with Second Life for all it's worth. He's everywhere right now, evangelizing for a version of the metaverse built upon the central premises of SL, and employing SL as a shining example of what works well.

The next step is for the platform itself to step up, and show it's still a force to contend with, and not merely treading water, as it has been.

[bigmoe Whitfield]

20 minutes ago, Chris Nova said:

Its not so much the visuals, its the prim. Mesh has advanced significantly. I think its always good to show the best of Second Life to new people after they arrive in world for the first time. First impressions matter.

very few people can build in mesh, the ones that are killing it right now and LL is not going to bring any one in to revamp the image, as that's our job. not their's.  

[Maryanne Solo]

Meta, Roblox, Minecraft....

[Chris Corvinus]

9 minutes ago, bigmoe Whitfield said:

very few people can build in mesh, the ones that are killing it right now and LL is not going to bring any one in to revamp the image, as that's our job. not their's.  

What they should do is replace building in prim to building in mesh. Get rid of prim altogether. Its simply too old and obsolete. 

[bigmoe Whitfield]

20 minutes ago, Chris Nova said:

What they should do is replace building in prim to building in mesh. Get rid of prim altogether. Its simply too old and obsolete. 

which would lock out many people whom build with prims?   we can skip that idea all together,  Mesh ability also is a 3rd party tool which is NOT easy to figure out for most if any of us and those that have mastered it as I said are the ones killing it right now.    Also the standard is hard to get into for mesh, which is something that would not be wise. 

[Sid Nagy]

5 hours ago, Silent Mistwalker said:

Isn't really going to matter since Metaverse is now dead in the water.

It was barely more than a buzz word this time, to rake money in from people have more than a few dimes to spare.

Edited February 4, 2022 by Sid Nagy

[Chris Corvinus]

31 minutes ago, bigmoe Whitfield said:

which would lock out many people whom build with prims? 

Yes. 

32 minutes ago, bigmoe Whitfield said:

Mesh ability also is a 3rd party tool which is NOT easy to figure out for most if any of us and those that have mastered it as I said are the ones killing it right now.

Who is "us"? This idea isn't for you. Its not for those who have been here a long time. The old needs to be thrown out and the whole thing revamped and upgraded....properly. If SL does not grow, it will die. Thats fact with any platform and you know it. Nobody likes change, even me. But I will compromise and say mesh ability should be added next to prim tools. 

[Coffee Pancake]

1 hour ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

In fairness, and speaking entirely from a marketing perspective, LL is leveraging Rosedale's new (re-)association with Second Life for all it's worth. He's everywhere right now, evangelizing for a version of the metaverse built upon the central premises of SL, and employing SL as a shining example of what works well.

The next step is for the platform itself to step up, and show it's still a force to contend with, and not merely treading water, as it has been.

Yes, Rosedale is everywhere.

But he's hopelessly out of touch with SL as it stands, doesn't participate recreationally (or anonymously), and has little to no idea why any of us do.

He's recycling the same tired old talking points from years past and we're about to enter a brave new world of SL for business meetings, where nothing will fundamentally change only we're going to get new starter outfits so people can sign up and be immediately serious and productive. The last thing we need is romanticized memories of roaming the gird when it was 16 regions and everyone knew who Philip was & almost 2 decades of literal neglect being spun as a deliberate governance choice.

Linden Lab are as fundamentally lost as they have ever been, if they weren't, they wouldn't have needed Philip glitter-pants-bad-avatar-cant-dress-himself Rosedale as a "strategic advisor".

 

 

[Istelathis]

If anything I believe these new virtual worlds will draw more people into Second Life.  I imagine the majority will log in, find it far to difficult, log off and post negatively regarding their experiences here.  For the people that do enjoy Second Life, and all of the freedom you have here vs other worlds, it will be great.  As far as competing with them, I just don't think SL has a chance.  Changing SL to be more like these other worlds, would require to strip away the creativity we currently enjoy and while it would certainly make the world more attractive, it then becomes an issue of what has SL to offer over the competition?   

I would hope to see SL embrace people's creativity, maintain a large open world for people to explore with as few rules as possible, let the ugly prims and textures stand tall and proud 🙃 But give us more tools, such as manipulating mesh in world, a better inventory management system, a better shopping experience and so on.  Perhaps just update the newbie starting areas, as well as heavily promote SL as the one free virtual world out there, where you are able to express yourself without fear of having your creations removed.

Edited February 4, 2022 by Istelathis

[Eggy UwU]

1 hour ago, Chris Nova said:

Because both Roblox and Minecraft are FUN. No overbloated UI's with a billion things to learn. New people come here and theres literally nothing to do except walk around aimlessly.

in all fairness, i do agree. but, there are still fun things to do on second life. you just have to discover them/make the entertainment for yourself.

[Coffee Pancake]

2 minutes ago, Istelathis said:

I imagine the majority will log in, find it far too difficult, log off and post negatively regarding their experiences here.  

SL isn't hard.

People don't stay in SL because they are stupid or don't get it.

They leave because they absolutely get that this is a disorganized tangled rats nest of systems and technologies that in the right hands with the right care can be made to do wonderful things. They leave because they recognize they don't have the time, patience or commitment required to make this work for them in an open ended find your own fun kind of way.

There are harder video games with concurrency to the moon.