Should more game elements be added to Second Life?

[Bree Giffen]

I was watching a video on this crypto world thing. I forgot the name of it but it had virtual real estate bought with crypto, NFTs, etc. This isn't a topic about all of that but what I saw was the type of content they had inside their virtual world and it was terrible. Second Life is way better. It had me thinking about the resources available in SL, scripting, control inputs, etc. that allow content to be created, specifically gaming content, and I was wondering what everyone thinks about the need for more resources to service this type of content? I know we have content. We have racecars and tracks and we have sailing and fishing but do we have the ability to make things much more game-like? In the crypto world they didn't have much interactive content and though SL has interactivity I think we need more.

[Sid Nagy]

There are so many well made games out there. SL can never compete with those.
So as far as I'm concerned, every dollar the Lab would spend in that direction are pretty much wasted.

Edited April 14, 2023 by Sid Nagy
Almost Saturday.

[Rowan Amore]

10 minutes ago, Bree Giffen said:

specifically gaming content

Like what, exactly?

[ChinRey]

5 minutes ago, Bree Giffen said:

I forgot the name of it...

Sounds like Decentraland. But really, I think all the recent virtual world wannabes have worse content than Second Life. Yes, those UE and Unity based showcase environments look amazing and so do many of the professionally made and carefully controlled games made on those platforms. But once people try to make complex virtual worlds on one of these platforms, it falls through. Either they end up with scenes so heavy only the strongest game computers can manage them or visuals way below the quality we are used to in SL.

14 minutes ago, Bree Giffen said:

In the crypto world they didn't have much interactive content

If it's the one I think, they don't have much content at all. The only game in town is to buy some small nondescript overpriced piece of land at a price and then hope you can sell it off to somebody at an even higher price. 😉

But with that being said, anything that can improve interactivity and add to the things we can do in SL would be great. So, as Rowan already asked, what did you have in mind?

 

[Arduenn Schwartzman]

22 minutes ago, Bree Giffen said:

In the crypto world they didn't have much interactive content

In the crypto world they didn't have much content, period. It's all a scam.

23 minutes ago, Bree Giffen said:

though SL has interactivity I think we need more

LL's pretty much provided the framework for games with LSL features as touch/collide/ray-cast/sensor/rez/particles, sim features such as push/damage, temp objects, physics, vehicles, pathfinding, game progress data storage in Experiences. The rest is up to the residents. If you are thinking about games that are as pretty as the AAA ones, that's never going to happen, much like preparing a 3-Michelin star meal using a Swiss army knife.

[Psyche Starling]

Nah. I like that in SL, I can go into an imaginary world and just be there, without having to be fast or coordinated or strategic. There are RPG resources out there for people who want to do more of that within SL.

[Rat Luv]

I'd love to see SL bring back poker 🤩 I know it will probably never happen because of Californian law...but maybe if they relocate one day? 

By the way...a little off-topic for a second...does anyone know what this video is from? (I'm not a big gamer...) It has "Second Life" in the description but it's obviously not,  though it looks like it could be...I wouldn't mind wasting an evening here 🙂

 

[Bree Giffen]

1 hour ago, Rowan Amore said:

Like what, exactly?

 

1 hour ago, ChinRey said:

Sounds like Decentraland. But really, I think all the recent virtual world wannabes have worse content than Second Life. Yes, those UE and Unity based showcase environments look amazing and so do many of the professionally made and carefully controlled games made on those platforms. But once people try to make complex virtual worlds on one of these platforms, it falls through. Either they end up with scenes so heavy only the strongest game computers can manage them or visuals way below the quality we are used to in SL.

If it's the one I think, they don't have much content at all. The only game in town is to buy some small nondescript overpriced piece of land at a price and then hope you can sell it off to somebody at an even higher price. 😉

But with that being said, anything that can improve interactivity and add to the things we can do in SL would be great. So, as Rowan already asked, what did you have in mind?

 

Thanks, it was a video on Decentraland that I watched.

One thing I had in mind was in Decentraland, they had a arcade machine which was bad. But, what if Second Life could support something like building an arcade machine? I don't think that would eat up resources too much. Another thought was something like a racing game like Mario Kart.  Where SL would have  UI that shows player names, points and a camera view like Mario Kart. An overhead camera view would be nice where SL would automatically switch to the view when you started playing. 

It feels like we do have a lot of features for making SL look better but not more for better interaction.

I don't think Poker would work at all with LL being in 'frisco. 

[Love Zhaoying]

Yes.

[Love Zhaoying]

10 minutes ago, Rat Luv said:

I'd love to see SL bring back poker 🤩 I know it will probably never happen because of Californian law...but maybe if they relocate one day? 

By the way...a little off-topic for a second...does anyone know what this video is from? (I'm not a big gamer...) It has "Second Life" in the description but it's obviously not,  though it looks like it could be...I wouldn't mind wasting an evening here 🙂

 

Business model idea: A bar with "liquor in the front", and "poker in the rear".

[Istelathis]

With our mobile version utilizing Unity, and if it is successful I imagine the PC version will likewise migrate to Unity, there will be far more options available for others to make more sophisticated games and I for one would love to see it.  At that point, the possibilities would become almost limitless, as the games in general would mostly be self contained, and only use assets required by the third party developers.  

This would be a huge boon for creators of all types, and hobbyists in general.  

[Love Zhaoying]

3 minutes ago, Istelathis said:

With our mobile version utilizing Unity, and if it is successful I imagine the PC version will likewise migrate to Unity, there will be far more options available for others to make more sophisticated games and I for one would love to see it.  At that point, the possibilities would become almost limitless, as the games in general would mostly be self contained, and only use assets required by the third party developers.  

This would be a huge boon for creators of all types, and hobbyists in general.  

Sounds like there is potential for Unity to be..divisive. 

[Istelathis]

11 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Sounds like there is potential for Unity to be..divisive. 

Definitely more modular  Want to race, download the latest racing module created by whomever, teleport to it and have fun without the worry of region crossing while you cruise around in a customized world, with customized physics.  Once you are bored with that, head over to the latest zombie shooter, after downloading that module, etc, etc.  Meanwhile, the SL development team remains free to work on improving SL, where most of us let our creativity loose, perhaps they can focus on more creative tools we can use in world to build our dream homes, a better inventory UI, and whatever it is most people want.

Edited April 14, 2023 by Istelathis

[Love Zhaoying]

1 minute ago, Istelathis said:

Definitely more modular  Want to race, download the latest racing module created by whomever, teleport to it and have fun without the worry of region crossing on customized graphics, and physics.  Once you are bored with that, head over to the latest zombie shooter, after downloading that module, etc, etc.  Meanwhile, the SL development team remains free to work on improving SL, where most of us let our creativity loose, perhaps they can focus on more creative tools we can use in world to build our dream homes, a better inventory UI, and whatever it is most people want.

While obviously joking, the serious part of my comment is, if Unity enables more features on mobile than on traditional viewers, until the TPV's and official viewer catch up, of course.

[Ayashe Ninetails]

Nah. For things like driving & racing, I'm far too spoiled by actual games like Forza and Euro Truck Sim 2. Not just for the driving, but for the car/truck customization options, too.

 

[Qie Niangao]

17 minutes ago, Istelathis said:

Definitely more modular  Want to race, download the latest racing module created by whomever, teleport to it and have fun without the worry of region crossing while you cruise around in a customized world, with customized physics.  Once you are bored with that, head over to the latest zombie shooter, after downloading that module, etc, etc.  Meanwhile, the SL development team remains free to work on improving SL, where most of us let our creativity loose, perhaps they can focus on more creative tools we can use in world to build our dream homes, a better inventory UI, and whatever it is most people want.

In some dystopian future, SL evolves into a framework for launching third party AAA games.

Wait, that was Sansar for a hot minute

Wait, that's Meta (or Steam? Stadia-RIP?)

-------------------------

I do think we have way more resources to build games in SL than we have games in SL. There's MadPea. Whatever happened to… were there any others?

The Moles? I have a little parcel across from a two-region amusement park built by the Moles. I mean, it has interactive stuff. It would make a good date activity for a certain kind of geek. And that's cool, truly, but apparently there aren't that many romantic geeks. Or there are the Experience showcase games behind that portal, those are cool. I do wonder how well the Mole Builds show up on search. They're pretty varied, and they're more campy fun than they get credit for.

But overall this is hard, and I'm not sure why. The scripting part is kinda fun (once you learn the bug workarounds and limits), and all our homes, and accumulated mesh are stories we're trying to tell. And the costumes!

It's almost like the whole SL platform is one big game.

Oh.

Now I feel a little dirty. (Blackboard Bart writes "SL is not a game. SL is not a game. SL is not a game...")

Now I feel DIRTY: "SL Virtual Sex 2023" is our videogame

[Love Zhaoying]

40 minutes ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

Nah. For things like driving & racing, I'm far too spoiled by actual games like Forza and Euro Truck Sim 2. Not just for the driving, but for the car/truck customization options, too.

 

You can't use some of those tails to help steer, brake, and shift better?! Yow!!

[Love Zhaoying]

Hopefully the favorite SL game Slex will be better on Unity, even if you won't be able to play Slex on mobile.

[EliseAnne85]

5 hours ago, Bree Giffen said:

I was watching a video on this crypto world thing. I forgot the name of it but it had virtual real estate bought with crypto, NFTs, etc. This isn't a topic about all of that but what I saw was the type of content they had inside their virtual world and it was terrible. Second Life is way better. It had me thinking about the resources available in SL, scripting, control inputs, etc. that allow content to be created, specifically gaming content, and I was wondering what everyone thinks about the need for more resources to service this type of content? I know we have content. We have racecars and tracks and we have sailing and fishing but do we have the ability to make things much more game-like? In the crypto world they didn't have much interactive content and though SL has interactivity I think we need more.

I didn't know which part of your post to quote, so I quoted the whole thing.

Raglan Shire and the Tinies and Dinkies have lots of games.  We had a shot the Ebil Snowman Game that was a lot of fun, except I arrived late and didn't get to read how to work the gun before the Ebil Snowman cornered me and took me away!  But, I kept shooting or attempting too, anyways!

As far as ability, the ice skating is incredible and fun and so realistic, and interacting with the snow is just marvelous.  If we can do ice skating that well, eventually I think we will be able to do a lot more things realistically.  

I think that things in SL over the next few years will be created by individuals.  It depends on their idea, their scripting ability, and so on.  But, ultimately, they would front the money and time to make it rather than LL, imo.  If it needs LL's help, the idea maker would have to contact LL about what might need to be done on their part.  

As far as games, I think yes they will develop, but it depends on who is going to take the time and front the money.

I often wonder what the next big thing in SL will be aside from it's Adult side, that is.  Gacha will always be a fun memory for me.  But, I don't think we will ever have another Gacha.  Although some didn't see Gacha as a game per se, it was a great meeting place and I found so many great creators that way also.

But, the ice skating came to my mind and how good it is in SL.  It is amazingly realistic.  We need more of that.  It will happen, I'm sure.  

 

[Silent Mistwalker]

3 hours ago, Rat Luv said:

I'd love to see SL bring back poker 🤩 I know it will probably never happen because of Californian law...but maybe if they relocate one day? 

By the way...a little off-topic for a second...does anyone know what this video is from? (I'm not a big gamer...) It has "Second Life" in the description but it's obviously not,  though it looks like it could be...I wouldn't mind wasting an evening here 🙂

 

 

Four Kings Casino and Slots... definitely NOT Second Life. lol

 

https://store.steampowered.com/app/260430/The_Four_Kings_Casino_and_Slots/

 

 

[ChinRey]

2 hours ago, Bree Giffen said:

Another thought was something like a racing game like Mario Kart.

Damanios Thetan used to have a lovely high speed bumper car track for sale. I loved it and really, really miss it. But he gave up on SL and left. 😞

Then there was Pip's HUGE rollercoaster at one of those New York themed sims that went belly up. She's been talking about rebuilding it on opensim for a long time but haven't gotten around to it yet.

Oh, and am I the only one who still remember that motorcycle track on that blues themed sim?

3 hours ago, Rat Luv said:

By the way...a little off-topic for a second...does anyone know what this video is from?

I don't know. There used to be a few places like that but maybe not anymore.

The more I think about it, the more good games of the past I remember.

I think this shows the real problem here. There used to be, there used to be, there used to be...

We can't really have really high speed action games in SL but we can get fairly close. As for other more relaxed games, most of them can be done in SL and in fact most of them have been done. But somebody have to build those gadgets and scenes, somebody have to write those scripts and - above all - somebody have to host those places and pay that bloated tier. It's not the SL software that is the real problem, it's how much time and effort it takes to make and run those games and how little the ones who do it get in return. There are probably lots of good games of all kinds going on in SL even today, you just have to find them before the owners/creators give up.

[Silent Mistwalker]

3 minutes ago, ChinRey said:

Oh, and am I the only one who still remember that motorcycle track on that blues themed sim?

Are you thinking of Motor Loon's original region?

[Rat Luv]

34 minutes ago, Silent Mistwalker said:

 

Four Kings Casino and Slots... definitely NOT Second Life. lol

 

https://store.steampowered.com/app/260430/The_Four_Kings_Casino_and_Slots/

 

 

Thanks! I might check that out 😀 

[Rowan Amore]

35 minutes ago, ChinRey said:

Oh, and am I the only one who still remember that motorcycle track on that blues themed sim?

Crossroads.  I miss that porch.

[Qie Niangao]

Gosh. Suddenly I remember working on an avatar pinball game. Where the pinballs contained avatars. Wasn't my idea but I thought it was cool. Not sure what ever happened with that.

Also, back in 2012, the Lab was on a buying spree and picked up LittleTextPeople with its interactive fiction game, Versu. I always thought there should be some way to wed that story engine with a virtual world exploration game. Murder mystery, etc. How good is ChatGPT at spinning yarns, I wonder.