Why isnt SL on a game launcher platform yet?

[Goblin Waifu]

I'd like to see Secondlife on Steam. There are game platforms like GeForce Now, allowing for people to use high end game computers to stream play games. So many people in SL struggle on potato computers that being able to access secondlife through these platforms via steam library would be a benefit. Also having SL on a launcher would bring in more people who come across SL in the platform and could boost the player numbers. SL sticks around 50k or less players a day it seems. It could use a fresh wave of players.

[Robberinthemuseum]

3 minutes ago, Aphea Nova said:

I'd like to see Secondlife on Steam. There are game platforms like GeForce Now, allowing for people to use high end game computers to stream play games. So many people in SL struggle on potato computers that being able to access secondlife through these platforms via steam library would be a benefit. Also having SL on a launcher would bring in more people who come across SL in the platform and could boost the player numbers. SL sticks around 50k or less players a day it seems. It could use a fresh wave of players.

@Cristiano Midnight your thoughts? All this stuff is way over my head.

[Polenth Yue]

Steam was always very slow to load and use on my old computer, so it's not an advantage on a slow computer. It just means more time to load and more things that have to run. The best thing for a slow computer is to be able to run as little as possible (so only the viewer and nothing else).

[Goblin Waifu]

16 minutes ago, Polenth Yue said:

Steam was always very slow to load and use on my old computer, so it's not an advantage on a slow computer. It just means more time to load and more things that have to run. The best thing for a slow computer is to be able to run as little as possible (so only the viewer and nothing else).

Not saying it'd be required but having it as an option would open it up to a lot of new people

[Polenth Yue]

2 hours ago, Aphea Nova said:

Not saying it'd be required but having it as an option would open it up to a lot of new people

You specifically said that it'd benefit people on slow computers, hence my comment. I only recently switched from a computer that was over ten years old, so this is one thing I know about.

 

2 hours ago, Aphea Nova said:

So many people in SL struggle on potato computers that being able to access secondlife through these platforms via steam library would be a benefit.

 

[animats]

NVidia GeForce Now could be a viable option. That runs the game on an NVidia server equipped with a good GPU. It's basically a remote gamer PC with video streaming out to the user. The local machine doesn't need to be that powerful. It does need a good enough network connection to view, say, Netflix.

Steam is out because Steam insists on games using their payment system, which is incompatible with SL's economy. NVidia doesn't do that. They just charge you for server usage. It's $10 a month, and you get 6 hours a day. There's a free tier, but you have to wait to get on and get kicked off after an hour.

[Cristiano Midnight]

On 3/25/2022 at 10:09 PM, Robberinthemuseum said:

@Cristiano Midnight your thoughts? All this stuff is way over my head.

I think having SL available on a streaming service like Nvidia's Geforce Now, Amazon's Luna and Microsoft's xCloud would be a benefit for those with older computers (and also allow you to access SL from any computer). The latency on a decent internet connection has improved dramatically with game streaming services (I use xCloud and Luna regularly to play games on my iPad). One downside would be that you would be stuck using the main SL client which would be a dealbreaker for me.

As far as Steam, as someone else said, I think the issue is Steam taking a cut of transactions. Sansar was on Steam, and doing a quick Google search, apparently SL was going to be on Steam back in 2012. I'm not sure what happened with that. SL's adult content might have something to do with it as well.

https://www.polygon.com/gaming/2012/8/17/3248748/second-life-is-coming-to-steam

[Kate Ayashi]

I'm not sure with some of the more "fringe" content available within SL that you can stumble across or easily find, that any platform would want to come within 10 feet of SL.

I'm not speaking about what most SLers seem to consider vanilla but hardcore BDSM stuff that goes on, I'm speaking about the much more taboo kinks that get explored in SL, and quite openly.

Not sure that anyone would want to have that association.

[animats]

19 hours ago, Kate Ayashi said:

I'm not sure with some of the more "fringe" content available within SL that you can stumble across or easily find, that any platform would want to come within 10 feet of SL.

I'm not speaking about what most SLers seem to consider vanilla but hardcore BDSM stuff that goes on, I'm speaking about the much more taboo kinks that get explored in SL, and quite openly.

Not sure that anyone would want to have that association.

I don't think that's a big problem for SL any more. Roblox has been in the news for having sex games. Their average user age is 14, they have heavy censorship, and they still have problems. There's someone who's been getting news coverage by claiming to have been raped in Facebook/Meta Horizon, where avatars have nothing below the waist. SL deals with this much more effectively - there's an adult area, you have to opt in, and that keeps visible sex out of the G and M regions. Mostly because SL residents consider it tacky to do that, not because there's an army of moderators or vigilantes.

SL could make this a selling point. "Yes, there is sex in Second Life. Just as in real life. We have areas for that. You have to opt in and go there by choice. Roblox and Meta are struggling with this, but we've had the problem solved for over a decade. Maybe someday they'll catch up."

[Wulfie Reanimator]

On 3/26/2022 at 9:24 AM, animats said:

Steam is out because Steam insists on games using their payment system, which is incompatible with SL's economy.

Steam doesn't require you to exclusively use their payment system, but I imagine that's a good enough deterrent for LL to not bother spending the time to get the official viewer there. They do take 30% of the money that goes through them.

More importantly I don't imagine many people accessing SL through Steam, or if they do, they'll complain about performance (which is important to gamers), bad UI, and many other things modern games should have, and drown it with negative reviews. It's just a different audience with different expectations. And the most popular advice new players will get is "use Firestorm."

As for adult content, that's no longer an issue. Steam has had straight-up porn games (with no other purpose) on it for a couple years now.

Edited March 31, 2022 by Wulfie Reanimator

[Love Zhaoying]

4 hours ago, Wulfie Reanimator said:

Steam doesn't require you to exclusively use their payment system, but I imagine that's a good enough deterrent for LL to not bother spending the time to get the official viewer there. They do take 30% of the money that goes through them.

Idea: Change 30% more on Steam!

 

4 hours ago, Wulfie Reanimator said:

As for adult content, that's no longer an issue. Steam has had straight-up porn games (with no other purpose) on it for a couple years now.

Are they any good?

[Love Zhaoying]

On 3/25/2022 at 10:05 PM, Aphea Nova said:

So many people in SL struggle on potato computers that being able to access secondlife through these platforms via steam library would be a benefit.

I think that I see the problem. Potatoes make terrible computers.

[LittleMe Jewell]

On 3/26/2022 at 1:24 AM, animats said:

NVidia GeForce Now could be a viable option. That runs the game on an NVidia server equipped with a good GPU. It's basically a remote gamer PC with video streaming out to the user. The local machine doesn't need to be that powerful. It does need a good enough network connection to view, say, Netflix.

Wow - I wonder how well SL will actually work with that.  It might be worth trying an hour of the free service, just to check it out.

Edited March 31, 2022 by LittleMe Jewell

[LittleMe Jewell]

On 3/29/2022 at 11:40 AM, Cristiano Midnight said:

One downside would be that you would be stuck using the main SL client which would be a dealbreaker for me.

Yuck - I hadn't thought of that.  Yeah, that would be the deal breaker for me also.

[Wulfie Reanimator]

2 hours ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Are they any good?

According to reviews, surprisingly so.

[Love Zhaoying]

4 minutes ago, Wulfie Reanimator said:

According to reviews, surprisingly so.

Probably better prizes for "winning" than just a chicken dinner.

[bigmoe Whitfield]

On 3/25/2022 at 10:05 PM, Aphea Nova said:

I'd like to see Secondlife on Steam. There are game platforms like GeForce Now, allowing for people to use high end game computers to stream play games. So many people in SL struggle on potato computers that being able to access secondlife through these platforms via steam library would be a benefit. Also having SL on a launcher would bring in more people who come across SL in the platform and could boost the player numbers. SL sticks around 50k or less players a day it seems. It could use a fresh wave of players.

Secondlife was going to be on steam at one point in time,  but valve wants a cut of the profits and other items.   not seeing it happen and also "virtual machines so people can play" are not cheap,  it requires an investment and the price for you to use such a service would be pricey per pocket of the user.