New Article: "SL's loyal users embrace its decaying software and no-fun imperfections"

[Rat Luv]

24 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

I hope you'll be happy to hear (as a professional), that of all the written vs. "movie versions" by Dick and Vonnegut (at least), I always preferred the written version.

I preferred Bladerunner to the Androids book, but only because I'd seen the film twice before and really liked it, and the book is so different, especially Roy Batty's character...but it is the first place I ever learned about kipple 

The Man In The High Castle is SO much better as a book than the series, though...👍 

[Codex Alpha]

17 hours ago, Arielle Popstar said:

Just amazing how you are getting so much mileage out of one article.

Imagine discussing the most boring article out there to read to death for several days.. but I guess some people need to get their post count up. Article isn't worth discussing this long, really.

Edited May 16 by Codex Alpha

[CaerolleClaudel]

OT but the irony of how different the connotations of a 'laugh' emoji can be in response to a post, depending on the perspective of the person applying it.

[Codex Alpha]

22 minutes ago, CaerolleClaudel said:

OT but the irony of how different the connotations of a 'laugh' emoji can be in response to a post, depending on the perspective of the person applying it.

Yes, and even emojis like thumbs up and hearting is now offensive apparently.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

4 minutes ago, Codex Alpha said:

Yes, and even emojis like thumbs up and hearting is now offensive apparently.

 

[Ingrid Ingersoll]

 

virtual world gamer furry 

[BadCoder]

1 hour ago, Codex Alpha said:

Yes, and even emojis like thumbs up and hearting is now offensive apparently.

sources: a random person posted a question on reddit, followed by a whole chain of writers who are paid to pump out sensationalistic articles to a certain demographic to get clicks.

 

[Love Zhaoying]

2 hours ago, Codex Alpha said:

2 hours ago, CaerolleClaudel said:

OT but the irony of how different the connotations of a 'laugh' emoji can be in response to a post, depending on the perspective of the person applying it.

Yes, and even emojis like thumbs up and hearting is now offensive apparently.

I'm sorry if someone hurt your feelings. I hope that you learn to continue regardless.

ETA: I checked the article. You certainly could have included "ending a sentence with a period" and other things. The thumbs-up "emoji" by itself is a pretty lame attack on poor Gen-Z and/or Gen-A.

Edited May 16 by Love Zhaoying

[Ceka Cianci]

Oh I don't know why , but I've always loved the idea of Second life.

 

[Arielle Popstar]

8 hours ago, Codex Alpha said:

Imagine discussing the most boring article out there to read to death for several days.. but I guess some people need to get their post count up. Article isn't worth discussing this long, really.

I read over it several times over the past few days and wouldn't say it wasn't worth the read but I do feel too many were missing the forest for the trees. Too quick to judge the author for what some considered inconsistencies but were more likely a somewhat nostalgically melancholic and philosophical view of a dystopian world partially abandoned by its creators while the code that displays it, is left to decay and not be utilized to its full potential. The undertone was to lay the responsibility at the gods of this world's feet but at the same time recognizing and seeing that as residents, we don't stray too far from what is familiar. Her hope seems to be that SL will evolve into something greater and more utopian though I myself don't feel it will work out that way. Had she written this of the Opensim platform I might be more hopeful in that it is my own thought that it is the designers and programmers of both this and the other platform, hold it back from realizing the potential these worlds enable to be created and built. This one is too dependent on the monies it generates to truly open it up and the other too quick to jump into the ditch along with it.

[diamond Marchant]

16 hours ago, Arielle Popstar said:

I read over it several times over the past few days and wouldn't say it wasn't worth the read but I do feel too many were missing the forest for the trees.

I agree that it was worth the read. I took it as a challenge. Here is my section-by-section synopsis...

Title is clickbait and perhaps a call to arms for SL apologists.

Illustrations add little to the piece.

First descriptions of SL are unrepresentative and negative (e.g glitchty landscapes and digital slumlords)

Some history is given (e.g. Second Life is not a game)

Comparisons are made to other competitors... some misinformation.

Insults are hurled (e.g. 3D graphics editor duct taped to social network)

Shift into theory (e.g. Bo Ruberg) and more misinformation.
Suspect conclusion offered... "a problematic platform that demands an extremely steep learning curve". Actually, I call it a "high barrier to entry" followed by a "gently sloping learning curve" that can go on for years.

Then we get to the only thing that appears valid, but we already knew it... “In cultivating an alternative world, we could invent virtually anything— but we don’t stray far from what we already know.”

Duh! Fantasy is fun but living a Second Life that is materially better than your first life is more fun.

More head scratching stuff (e.g. "the option for players to “feel” any in-world 3D asset to display its entire transaction history, a kind of distributed ledger that presaged blockchain technologies by many years.")

More queer theory and antecdotes. Fine.

More misinformation (e.g. "avatars remain obscenely glitchy, with airbrushed faces and spooky, unblinking eyes")

More theory (e.g. Kara Stone stuff)

Misinformation about real estate (e.g. "everyone is either a landlord or renting from one")

Misinformation about privacy options (e.g. "they can peek into off-limit “drone zones,” typically private homes or virtual brothels, with ease")

Some comparisons of skyboxes to RL real estate that seem bogus.

More SL travel log suggesting that SL is frozen in time (e.g. "A TIME CAPSULE, NOT A TOMBSTONE")

More perplexing theory (e.g. "Perhaps that generosity of opacity— and the generative affect of existing in a world that feels forever out of joint—could offer us the perfect place to respawn, reimagine, and reworld our own.”)

More travel log, perhaps biased by their interests. No boat rides here.

More theory with references (e.g. "THE QUEER GAMIFICATION OF VIRTUAL WORLDS")

Concludes with opinion/speculation... "Perhaps as the software of Second Life continues to age and degrade, more pockets of resistance will form. Perhaps the platform may, ironically, feel more utopian, more like our own to choose, as First Life slides into an increasingly ghoulish metaverse and we reach peak “NPC syndrome,” overwhelmed with the sensation of being trapped inside a game where we don’t know the rules."

They see SL on a downward trajectory and speculate about what our behavior might be. Knock yourself out!

The only phrase that makes sense to me is "the sensation of being trapped inside a game where we don’t know the rules".

Based on the hundreds of pages of discussion about the TOS changes... THAT seems to be true.

Edited May 17 by diamond Marchant