2022 - Second Life Year In Review

[SpiritSparrow Skydancer]

 

 

Also in the works for 2023:

 

 

• Avatar customization improvements to simplify creating your virtual identity, including inventory thumbnails to give a preview of what’s sitting in those boxes <------- THIS ONE
• New user experience upgrades to better fuel retention, engagement, and growth across key parts of the new user journey <-- MEH
• New centralized "hubs" to better connect residents to the communities that match their passions and interests <-- MEH
• First peek at a world and avatar centered mobile-first Second Life experience <- HM...
• New LSL functions that improve the quality of life for scripters <-  Wish it could be easier for non geeky types to script <-- well okay!!
• …and much more!

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 23, 2022 by LittleSparrow Skydancer
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[Glaznah Gassner]

I believe that the major works for LL (not 2023 but all years starting from 2014) are

1. Simplifying the process and customising avatars, especially for new residents
2. Making Second Life accessible from mobile
3. Natural involvement of new residents into games, communities and such

As a (mostly) B2B services provider I'm very interested in a flow of motivated new residents. New users means a development for my SL customers => which leads to overall SL business growth.

The lack of mobile SL experience makes us all suffer: existing residents, new users, LL, SL business... I would work like crazy to make SL accessible from EVERYWHERE: mobile, web, Oculus, Playstation/Switch/Xbox. Especially talking into account it is possible nowadays.

[Ceka Cianci]

I wonder who was wearing the body builder snowman way in the back? hehehe

[EliseAnne85]

9 hours ago, Ceka Cianci said:

I wonder who was wearing the body builder snowman way in the back? hehehe

Was it you, Ceka?

[Ceka Cianci]

16 minutes ago, EliseAnne85 said:

Was it you, Ceka?

I wouldn't even know where to look for something like that.. I just thought, that's pretty original.

[EliseAnne85]

2 hours ago, Ceka Cianci said:

I wouldn't even know where to look for something like that.. I just thought, that's pretty original.

I would probably think the category COMPLETE AVATARS.  Once you open the home page of MP, there is a category section to the left of the home page.  I'm sure you may know this but I will just say it anyways for anyone who does not know.  COMPLETE AVATARS has some free and even 1 linden avatars to find at all different times of the year.  Right now I saw a couple of 1 linden Santa avatars at first glance.  It's a fun category and many cost almost nothing or are free.  If anyone would use that category, I'd guess it would depend on one's time schedule and/or sense of humor, perhaps.  Complete Avatars is between Celebrations and Furry - see below (left column).  

Edited December 24, 2022 by EliseAnne85

[HeathcliffMontague]

12 hours ago, Glaznah Gassner said:

I believe that the major works for LL (not 2023 but all years starting from 2014) are

1. Simplifying the process and customising avatars, especially for new residents
2. Making Second Life accessible from mobile
3. Natural involvement of new residents into games, communities and such

As a (mostly) B2B services provider I'm very interested in a flow of motivated new residents. New users means a development for my SL customers => which leads to overall SL business growth.

The lack of mobile SL experience makes us all suffer: existing residents, new users, LL, SL business... I would work like crazy to make SL accessible from EVERYWHERE: mobile, web, Oculus, Playstation/Switch/Xbox. Especially talking into account it is possible nowadays.

I'm genuinely curious. 

How on Earth could SL be usable , other than maybe for messaging, some basic stuff like maybe inventory, on a mobile phone? Sure, I play pretty advanced games on my Samsung, but it's all preloaded stuff.  And SL is as far from a preloaded game as you can get, things in-world can change any time. These days you get pretty good gaming laptops, but a gaming desktop is pretty much the accepted go-to gold standard. Agree with your general post, though

[Rowan Amore]

2 hours ago, Ceka Cianci said:

I wouldn't even know where to look for something like that.. I just thought, that's pretty original.

That's @Atlas LindenI believe.

[Kimmi Zehetbauer]

7 hours ago, HeathcliffMontague said:

I'm genuinely curious. 

How on Earth could SL be usable , other than maybe for messaging, some basic stuff like maybe inventory, on a mobile phone? Sure, I play pretty advanced games on my Samsung, but it's all preloaded stuff.  And SL is as far from a preloaded game as you can get, things in-world can change any time. These days you get pretty good gaming laptops, but a gaming desktop is pretty much the accepted go-to gold standard. Agree with your general post, though

Sometimes I tell people about SL and some ask "Can I play it on my phone? I don't own a computer."

[belindacarson]

Glaznah is the brains behind speedlight viewer so yeah, he does know what he's talking about.

[EliseAnne85]

12 hours ago, HeathcliffMontague said:

How on Earth could SL be usable , other than maybe for messaging, some basic stuff like maybe inventory, on a mobile phone? Sure, I play pretty advanced games on my Samsung, but it's all preloaded stuff.

If only the internet could evolve to where the machines don't provide the graphic's chip and needs, the game does and our machine/fillinblank (whatever) device plugs into that when it starts the game or graphics.  

Edited December 24, 2022 by EliseAnne85

[animats]

3 hours ago, EliseAnne85 said:

If only the internet could evolve to where the machines don't provide the graphic's chip and needs, the game does and our machine/fillinblank (whatever) device plugs into that when it starts the game or graphics.  

You can do that, but the going rate is $10/$30 per month. It's called "cloud gaming". That's what GeForce Now and Shadow offer. You could set up Second Life on Shadow now if you wanted, and run SL from a tablet or a Chromebook. A phone screen would be too tiny.

[EliseAnne85]

4 hours ago, animats said:

You can do that, but the going rate is $10/$30 per month. It's called "cloud gaming". That's what GeForce Now and Shadow offer. You could set up Second Life on Shadow now if you wanted, and run SL from a tablet or a Chromebook. A phone screen would be too tiny.

Wow, I didn't even know that but was thinking it would have to be some kind of "cloud".  I was also thinking a phone would be too tiny but people who don't know about computers may have a tablet as well as a phone.  But, cool.  I was also wondering the other day if the metaverse will happen once all games run from a central something or other because if there isn't a central something or other, we are just a bunch of different metaverses.  We should be "one" metaverse.  All just my opinion.

Edited December 24, 2022 by EliseAnne85

[Glaznah Gassner]

On 12/24/2022 at 4:07 AM, HeathcliffMontague said:

How on Earth could SL be usable , other than maybe for messaging, some basic stuff like maybe inventory, on a mobile phone?

Well, it is tricky but it's possible - check our mobile viewer, SpeedLight (it is not ideal yet but we have inventory management, land sell/purchase and other complex things). Messaging is the easiest part but just because users got used to messengers.

Some things can be be done but in completely different way. We are working on 3D world editing possibilities on mobile... That's a nightmare compared to inventory management lol

23 hours ago, Kimmi Zehetbauer said:

Sometimes I tell people about SL and some ask "Can I play it on my phone? I don't own a computer."

You definitely can play SL on mobile phone nowadays. Both hardware and user interface allows that. It may be tricky for developer (especially the UI - see above) but modern games are much more heavy than Second Life. Remember that a lot of physics calculations is being done on SL servers.

We even made Second Life run in browser.

What I'm talking about is that LL should pay more attention to mobile devices. Residents _do_ want to access Second Life easily as like as they access Facebook.

[Glaznah Gassner]

10 hours ago, EliseAnne85 said:

I was also thinking a phone would be too tiny but people who don't know about computers may have a tablet as well as a phone.

A lot of people have no computers, at least at home. Most of people have phones, some have tablets. But tablet experience is much closer to a phone rather than PC.

In my experience 90-95% of regular entertainment website is the mobile device traffic. As for our viewer (we support both mobile and desktop) 75%(!) of residents access SL from some kind of handheld device (the chart below is a today's actual chart).

[Kimmi Zehetbauer]

20 hours ago, Glaznah Gassner said:

Well, it is tricky but it's possible - check our mobile viewer, SpeedLight (it is not ideal yet but we have inventory management, land sell/purchase and other complex things). Messaging is the easiest part but just because users got used to messengers.

Some things can be be done but in completely different way. We are working on 3D world editing possibilities on mobile... That's a nightmare compared to inventory management lol

You definitely can play SL on mobile phone nowadays. Both hardware and user interface allows that. It may be tricky for developer (especially the UI - see above) but modern games are much more heavy than Second Life. Remember that a lot of physics calculations is being done on SL servers.

We even made Second Life run in browser.

What I'm talking about is that LL should pay more attention to mobile devices. Residents _do_ want to access Second Life easily as like as they access Facebook.

Ewww Fakebook.  SL is still best on the desktop --- but the mobile might be fine for checking things or PMs/notices.