What Second Life is doing right that "Those other places" are not

[Love Zhaoying]

There's a proliferation of threads about "Second Life gets it wrong, check out XXXX."

Well, guess what? We're HERE.

So, Second Life must be getting something "right" those other places are getting "wrong".

What is Second Life getting "Right"? 
 

[Arielle Popstar]

6 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

There's a proliferation of threads about "Second Life gets it wrong, check out XXXX."

Well, guess what? We're HERE.

So, Second Life must be getting something "right" those other places are getting "wrong".

What is Second Life getting "Right"? 
 

So what is it you think SL is doing right? Your topic so lets hear it.

[Paul Hexem]

58 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

What is Second Life getting "Right"? 

Individually, almost nothing.

It's literally the jack of all trades and master of none. Other platforms have better avatar customization, better physics, better communication tools, better creation tools, better "maps", better photo tools, but none of those same platforms has more than a couple of them at a time.

[Love Zhaoying]

3 minutes ago, Paul Hexem said:

Individually, almost nothing.

It's literally the jack of all trades and master of none. Other platforms have better avatar customization, better physics, better communication tools, better creation tools, better "maps", better photo tools, but none of those same platforms has more than a couple of them at a time.

Well, doesn't that imply that SL is getting the "mix" of things "right", or possibly SL has "a better mix" of things?

 

[Sid Nagy]

Second Life kept me onboard since March 2007. More than 17 years. That is something no other game or platform can say about themselves.
Who knows, I still might be onboard March of next year.
Thank you Linden Lab, for keeping the place running that long already.

Edited September 24 by Sid Nagy

[Paul Hexem]

4 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Well, doesn't that imply that SL is getting the "mix" of things "right", or possibly SL has "a better mix" of things?

"Willing to try everything"? Except that's not really true, either.

"Has a lot of options", maybe.

[rasterscan]

1 hour ago, Love Zhaoying said:

What is Second Life getting "Right"? 

Immersion.

[Love Zhaoying]

1 hour ago, Arielle Popstar said:

So what is it you think SL is doing right? Your topic so lets hear it.

As I asked @Paul Hexem, I think it may be "the mix".

It's hard to think through, since (as @Paul Hexem explained) most people think SL isn't getting "individual" things "right".

So, you can get quite a list if you consider the "mix" and not focus on "getting individual things right".

- SL has many options for Avatar Customization, even if none of them are "the best". Some games have very few options, or "only 1" option.

- SL has "socialization", even if you can only have a limited number of avatars at a "venue", or it creates lag, etc.  Some games have little or no "socialization".

- SL has different options for "land":  Rentals, Mainland, Linden Homes, Private regions.. Some games have one or maybe 2 of these, but none have all those options.

- SL has ways to "create objects" (whether using internal or external tools). Not all games do.

- SL has ways to "sell things" (whether Marketplace or "in world").  Not all games have either, or or both options.

- SL has "sounds", "voice calls", "group chats", "live streaming".  Most games only have a few of these options.

- SL has "environmental editing" (EEP..).  Most games probably don't have this.

- SL allows importing custom animations (or even creating poses, etc. using TPV's).  Not all other games have this.

- SL has multiple viewers (official and "Third Party"). Not all other games have this.

- SL has viewers (whether official or TPV) in PC, Mac, Linux, Web/App (LightSpeed.io), Mobile app (official and others).. Obviously, most other games don't have more than a couple of these options.

How long a list did you want? 🙂

 

[Sid Nagy]

The freedom to do more than dressing up a doll and stand around or dance.

[rasterscan]

3 minutes ago, Sid Nagy said:

The freedom to do more than dressing up a doll and stand around or dance.

With the option to do so if desired !

[Arielle Popstar]

8 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

As I asked @Paul Hexem, I think it may be "the mix".

It's hard to think through, since (as @Paul Hexem explained) most people think SL isn't getting "individual" things "right".

So, you can get quite a list if you consider the "mix" and not focus on "getting individual things right".

- SL has many options for Avatar Customization, even if none of them are "the best". Some games have very few options, or "only 1" option.

- SL has "socialization", even if you can only have a limited number of avatars at a "venue", or it creates lag, etc.  Some games have little or no "socialization".

- SL has different options for "land":  Rentals, Mainland, Linden Homes, Private regions.. Some games have one or maybe 2 of these, but none have all those options.

- SL has ways to "create objects" (whether using internal or external tools). Not all games do.

- SL has ways to "sell things" (whether Marketplace or "in world").  Not all games have either, or or both options.

- SL has "sounds", "voice calls", "group chats", "live streaming".  Most games only have a few of these options.

- SL has "environmental editing" (EEP..).  Most games probably don't have this.

- SL allows importing custom animations (or even creating poses, etc. using TPV's).  Not all other games have this.

- SL has multiple viewers (official and "Third Party"). Not all other games have this.

- SL has viewers (whether official or TPV) in PC, Mac, Linux, Web/App (LightSpeed.io), Mobile app (official and others).. Obviously, most other games don't have more than a couple of these options.

How long a list did you want? 🙂

 

Remember though that Opensim has all of the things you mention and are likely to mention for a substantially cheaper cost. The only two things it is not great on is Slex places and a Marketplace the size of the one in SL.

[CaerolleClaudel]

28 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

possibly SL has "a better mix" of things?

Yeah, this tracks for me.

To me SL seems like the proverbial elephant (two cliches in two words!!) where various people describe what it is and what it should be and what it should do based on what they personally get from it and want from it. what this says to me is that while SL might not do any of those things that well, people have a LOT of choice, and at least some of those choices have highly engaged audiences who have deep emotional connections to that part of SL.

Unfortunately, when the parts of SL die that are deeply meaningful to someone, they are likely to leave. I hear that concurrency has stayed level for years, though perhaps nothing like the peak back when I joined, so people who lose treasured aspects must find other interests or if they leave get replaced by people who like the balance of options SL has at that point. Or, people who were minimally engaged perhaps become more engaged as things change in a direction they like.

I do find all the ‘what LL should do’ threads really interesting for a lot of reasons, but the only thing I really push is for LL to make general ‘quality of life’ improvements that affect a wide range of users.

FWLIW…

[AmeliaJ08]

SL is doing being the only real virtual world thing pretty well, no real competition though. Yes there's a little, none of them are even close to the scale of SL though.

On a less general level though SL is very good as far as giving users freedom to create, can be a blessing and a curse but you'll not find many platforms that just give the users the ability to upload near enough whatever they want.

It's very old internet in a way, not quite a wild west but Linden Lab are quite hands off, both a blessing and a curse again. It also leads to a lack of clear direction for the platform but then again I think that was probably an early ambition long since abandoned as unworkable and may well be one of the reasons the platform is still around.

 

[Love Zhaoying]

13 minutes ago, CaerolleClaudel said:

FWLIW

It took me some Googlin' to find this one! IJS, YKWIM, AIR?

 

[Love Zhaoying]

14 minutes ago, CaerolleClaudel said:

I do find all the ‘what LL should do’ threads really interesting for a lot of reasons

I got tired of there being no "matching" thread about what SL DOES have, since there are multiple - multiple - multiple threads about "what's wrong with SL"..

And in fact, some of those threads just seem to be "Hey, let's create a thread about XXX because why not". (<= Note intentional period instead of question mark)

 

[Scylla Rhiadra]

Well, unlike all those other platforms, SL has MEEEEEEEEEE . . .

*mic drop*

[SarahKB7 Koskinen]

Edited September 24 by SarahKB7 Koskinen

[Ingrid Ingersoll]

I'd say they've done a decent job of enabling creators to sell things in world and on the marketplace. People love their virtual stuff. 

Edited September 24 by Ingrid Ingersoll

[CaerolleClaudel]

44 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

It took me some Googlin' to find this one! IJS, YKWIM, AIR?

 

Curious as to what you found? I have never seen it before, just made it up lol.

I’ll tell you what mine stands for if you tell me what yours does. ETA: Nvm I think I got them lol!

Your response reminds me of a TikTok theme that passed through my For You feed a while back, something like ‘Acronyms only Black people will understand,’ many of which had a LOT of letters. They weren’t standard acronyms, just made up from phrases. Not too hard to figure out, though, white-ass me was able to guess most of them.

Edited September 24 by CaerolleClaudel
Added a statement

[CaerolleClaudel]

43 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

I got tired of there being no "matching" thread about what SL DOES have, since there are multiple - multiple - multiple threads about "what's wrong with SL"..

And in fact, some of those threads just seem to be "Hey, let's create a thread about XXX because why not". (<= Note intentional period instead of question mark)

 

I have tried a LOT of those places over the years, pretty much every one that someone mentioned. Also, tried Sansar. None of them interested me in the least, though I think one of them had really nice avis. Nothing came at all close to SL, no matter how disappointed I was in SL at that time.

[CaerolleClaudel]

18 minutes ago, Ingrid Ingersoll said:

I'd say they've done a decent job of enabling creators to sell thing in world and on the marketplace. People love their virtual stuff. 

Shoutout for Virtual Barbie! 

[James Starling]

One thing often overlooked is concurrency numbers. No point having the best virtual world if there's no one to share it with. Now platforms like Minecraft and Roblox might have high numbers, or even better numbers, but those platforms are almost universally seen as exclusively for kids (even though some adults do play them) whereas SL is almost only for adults (with some exceptions on General sims) and has very adult content. 

For me, SL does everything to a reasonable standard and lots of things to a very good standard. It's why places like McDonalds are so popular. It's not amazing food, but it's not terrible either and you're not going to get sick from it. Other platforms might have better avatar customisation, they might have better onboarding processes, almost all have better graphics, but none seem to do all the things SL does while maintaining or surpassing the bar SL has set. 

 

[Love Zhaoying]

4 minutes ago, CaerolleClaudel said:

I have tried a LOT of those places over the years, pretty much every one that someone mentioned. Also, tried Sansar. None of them interested me in the least, though I think one of them had really nice avis. Nothing came at all close to SL, no matter how disappointed I was in SL at that time.

Is there a "core reason" that "none of them interested you in the least"?

[Love Zhaoying]

3 minutes ago, brodiac90 said:

For me, SL does everything to a reasonable standard and lots of things to a very good standard. It's why places like McDonalds are so popular. It's not amazing food, but it's not terrible either and you're not going to get sick from it.

I'm reminded of the saying, "Nobody goes there anymore because it's too crowded."

 

[BJoyful]

1. Contiguous Mainland and its travel infrastructure
2. Bellisseria and its community
3. People from all over the world
4. Good stable economy
5. Freedom to sell things we make
6. Live music/Events
7. Machinima