CEO Rodvik Humble Shares What's New in Second Life

[WADE1 Jya]

Melita said: The Linden exchange rate is set by the Lindens.

Actually this is incorrect, the Lindex value moves in accordance with supply and demand.

However, I agree with your premise here... a little land rules would be good for all.

[Melita Magic]

Thank you for the reply and correction.

But the Lindens do govern the exchange?

[Jo Yardley]

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Melita Magic wrote:

Tier costs are so high hardly anyone can afford the sims  to put their bots, pets, NPCs on.

__

 

Two thoughts on this, although I'm sure some would howl in protest (but "some" always will.)

1. Roll back prices (WalMart does it!), or, stagger the tier jumps a bit more so people can own more land before another $100 jump.

2. Cap land prices, both high and low end. A few land flippers who are NOT community minded, and ONLY in SL for price gouging profits, have made owning land impossible for most other people. Land prices are so low in some places no one can sell. So high other places no one can buy.

I suggest no lower than .99 Linden a meter be allowed (otherwise no one can compete with abandoned land except the flippers), and no higher than 15 Lindens a meter be allowed. I am so sick of a few sitting on all the land in SL, because they can afford to buy in bulk.  Linden Lab, do you want SL to be played by only a few?

The Linden exchange rate is set by the Lindens. The tier rate is set by the Lindens. Land is just another form of currency, in fact, the biggest one in SL. They should set that rate as well.

 

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I agree.

Not just for my sim but for those sims that make SL more interesting and are not just build to make money or break even.

There is a long list of AMAZING sims that simply had to go because SL became too expensive.

These are the kind of sims that showcase how amazing SL can be, the sims I would show to my facebook friends and anyone remotely interested in SL.

"Look what AM Radio made here, isn't this great? Look at the Kubrick Rooms, fantastic isn't it? This is what SL can be, yes it really is more then just shopping, chatting and virtual hanky panky."

I've lured at least 12 people into SL last year who at first were not at all interested but after seeing a few of SL's best sims became curiour and half of them are now hooked.

Sadly half of the sims I usually show to lure people in are now gone

So yes, make owning land cheaper, or create some new option.

Get half a sim island for extra cheap, a new kind of homestead combination, whatever.

Or even better... the option to buy part of a full region where nobody can buy the other parts but you can't use them either.

Say you buy a quarter of a sim, the rest of that region will remain Linden domain.

If your sim works out, does well and you can afford it, you can ask LL to let them sell you another quarter, etc.

I have 49838737459065739 ideas for new sims (more or less) but can't try any of them till I've gathered the funds, buying one is expensive, tier is expensive.

I'd jump to the chance to, for instance to buy a quarter sim to see if my next idea is any good and if it is, I'd let it grow.

This is how Berlin started, I bought a parcel on mainland and when finances allowed it and neighbours left, I bought their land.

Either way, I think that owning and running 1 region should be cheaper and it should defenitely be cheaper for people to try running a sim, start a project.

LL could always choose to make owning more then 1 region more expensive to compensate for this.

That way they won't lose revenue but more people will be able to start their projects, give it a try and perhaps later grow into full regions.

Anyway, cheaper yes, at least for new projects, people willing to take a risk and try something new.

Make it affordable for students, artists, creative geniouses, architects, etc, to build a little something that then won't dissapear because tier gets too much.

I am sure we can all think of sims that perhaps never needed more then 1 region (or less) and that didn't need to make money, but that showed everyone how amazing SL can be and that really shouldn't have dissapeared just because of a few lousy linden dollars.

[WADE1 Jya]

They used to sell L$ but I am not sure if they even do that any more. It is the residents now that do at least majority of selling, and the residents do all the buying. No real governance that I know of, there is just automated circuit breakers in place for if things go way out of whack.

That is interesting since any moderate size trader or fund manager could seize control of the Lindex and reset the rate to whatever they like. Pump & dump it for their own profits, or whatever, & likely destroy the entire SL economy in the process.

The total world supply of money on the Lindex is small in real world investment terms.

Probably the risks outweigh the potential benefits, which is why you haven't seen this done yet.

[Melita Magic]

It's really a shame when fascinating sims leave SL, I agree.

And I've lost count how many shops are gone, or going. Tier always seems to be the reason. 

I really think a high and low cap on mainland prices would also go a long way. Most of the former Teen Grid was eaten up and is being sat on by greedy land hog flippers. There are many residents would could make that a vital place but at 150 $Lindens per meter, who can build? No one. This isn't 2007. And they won't give an inch. So most of the map is yellow/orange. 

That's just one example.

Definitely, no one's going to stay if most of the places they go are empty land, with that little buy me sign on it, and the only places that can survive are a few shops.  

I make many RL sacrifices myself to keep my land open, I know I'm not alone in that. But even so, many can't afford to buy or sell as things are.

The U.S. govt. almost collapsed recently, a deeper recession is predicted, and land flippers still want 40 to 150L a meter for mainland. It's infuriating.

(I know they would make an outcry, but so what? They pay high tier, but so would the total of residents owning land, and SL would be a happier place. Also, they as we, agreed to a TOS in which changes can come overnight. Including a land price cap.)

[Melita Magic]

I buy all my L$ here on the official website.  Others buy from residents?

[WADE1 Jya]

The supply of L$ from the official site here comes (at least partially) from other residents.

As example, say you sell some L$ on the Lindex today to cash out into USD, that might be the same L$ I buy on the Lindex today to pay for something inworld.

Most L$ will be endlessly recycled through the Lindex this way.

[Celestiall Nightfire]

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PeterCanessa Oh wrote:

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Celestiall Nightfire wrote:

(Plus, I start my online Princeton Intro to AI class on Oct 10th, so this news is serendipitous : )   

http://www.ai-class.com/



 

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Thanks for that - I started the Machine Learning class.  Doing the intro-week videos I've had to calculate some maths though (they're already online for that class) :-( I'm a software developer, the computer's meant to do the maths, not me!

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Very cool!  : ) 

I've been doing some prelim reading, and the AI actually starts on the 10th.   I'm excited, plus there are quite a few SL residents who have signed up for the Intro to AI course, and we even have an inworld study group already formed.  We'll meet inworld to discuss issues and hopefully share information with one another. 

 

[Randall Ahren]

I'm going to make a sexbot. It should be quite popular. The new path finding features will be used to cause it to walk around adult safe hubs, randomly inquiring of residents if they wish to "make teh sects". Should a resident accept, upon completion of the act, it will request a tip.

[Celestiall Nightfire]

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Jo Yardley wrote:

Oh Herr Linden himself replies to a topic I started!

How exciting!

I should get a promotion for that, or something.

Is there anything more you can tell us about how this will actually work?

Are these robots just like normal avatars, are they rezzed prims that will use lots of prims?

Will be be able to see if 'someone' is a bot or not?

Anyway, now we're going out with each other (BBC comedy show joke, never mind), drop by in Berlin some time for a schnaps and we'll chat about bot options in our city

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Jo, I haven't read all the way through this thread yet, so someone else may have answered your questions, but here's my take on it: 

The AI NCPs are not like regular avatars and will not be avatar "bots".  Currently scripted bots are avatar agents that are logged in with the same process that regular avatars go through, only they are managed with scripts and rarely have an actual person sitting at the keyboard manning them.  Which is why you can send an IM to the bot, and no one will reply.

The intelligent AI's will be prims, sculpties, and/or mesh, and will have to be created by SL content creators just like the animals and vehicles that are inworld now.   The difference being that these objects will have a superior ability to navigate, track, and interact with their environment.   Right now I can script an object (robot) to follow a travel path inworld.    But, what if it knew to cross the street, go around the corner, and avoid running into a female avatar (it could stop and tip it's hat to the lady), and then continue over to the pub?   Along the route the AI would alter it's path and actions based upon what it encounters.  (the lady in it's travel path)

 

@ Peter, yes this does sound a bit like AnneMarie's method. Her vehicles detect the land owned by LL, so when set upon the LL road they will travel that road, and maybe going offsides a bit.  (ok, they go off-sides a lot!  lol)   In theory, when her vehicles go off-sides, they attempt to find the LL owned land again, they also ascend to great heights to try and shake off people messing with them, etc.   Her vehicles "try" to avoid avatars, but often just end up shooting and pushing avatars, and getting stuck, etc.  So, I'm in accordance with your thinking, I do hope that LL has something a bit more sophisticated and manageable then those vehicles. 

 

[Jesica Dragovar]

personally I love the possibility of "... the creation of artificial life and artificial people much smoother."

 

I'm currentlly doing an SL pregnancy, and when Zooby's new updated babies (fully interactive much like their monkeys but from what I hear even more so) I plan on raising my baby as realisticly as possible, when she reaches toddler age, (2 years from now of course) I'd love to be able to continue her as an AI rather than have someone RP her (currently considering an alt avatar with an actorbot brain. I'd prefer a full Daden Ltd AI for her but that's beyond my price range, but with this announcement I'd love to see what people can come up with in 2 years time

[WADE1 Jya]

I think a few people in this thread might be misunderstanding the type of AI mentioned here.

There is AI as in a game character that can easily go from point A to B (and perhaps C, D, E, etc) avoiding obstacles. Currently moving an object from point to point can be done in SL, but the code is tough to execute... and if you want to also avoid obstacles along the way, it becomes laggy as ****, so you'll rarely see this implemented currently. In video game design this kind of movement is called character AI.

The second type is the stuff of movies mostly, strong AI (not invented yet) but something akin to Blade Runner, Replicants.

Rodvik is talking about the former. If you expect the latter, a population of all singing, all dancing entities with nearly human intelligence which you can even have sensible conversations with & much more, you will be highly disappointed.

This will allow great new things, but it will have limits. It is a solution to pathfinding problems.

[Jo Yardley]

I will not rest till I have my own Rutger Hauer bot! :matte-motes-bashful-cute:

[Celestiall Nightfire]

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WADE1 Jya wrote:

I think a few people in this thread might be misunderstanding the type of AI mentioned here.

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Jesica didn't misunderstand anything.  She has linked to two different solutions that are already currently being used in SL.  One is sold on the SL marketplace, and another is a solution provider's more costly services.  The both use the Neo-Eliza chat-bot ALICE (or similar system) have voice, outside servers, and are programmed, etc. 

Either of these systems could be combined with increased navigation and tracking (pathfinding, etc) to create greatly more realistic objects inworld that can function as humanoids.  I doubt anyone reading this thread had thought that the fictional AIs from Blade Runner were eminent. 

[Randall Ahren]

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Celestiall Nightfire wrote:

I doubt anyone reading this thread had thought that the fictional AIs from Blade Runner were eminent. 

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Fooled you all. I'm actually an AI from an alternate universe. I came here because the humans showed me no love.

[Venus Petrov]

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Randall Ahren wrote:

I'm going to make a sexbot. It should be quite popular. The new path finding features will be used to cause it to walk around adult safe hubs, randomly inquiring of residents if they wish to "make teh sects". Should a resident accept, upon completion of the act, it will request a tip.

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It would have to have some pretty sophisticated emoting capabilities, I would think.  To be able to initiate and respond to messages from the 'user' in IM.  I suppose if someone is looking for a hump and pump experience (bah) it might suffice.

[PeterCanessa Oh]

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time... like tears in rain... Time to die.

@ All

The best simple thing LL could give us for pathfinding would be script-functions that could 'see' the whole of an obstruction and/or the physics layers.  That is - Iinstead of knowing I've just hit a prim/object in front of me I want to know how big it is too, so I can work out how to go around it.  (llGetObjectDetails() will tell us position and rotation but not size - that's why pets, etc. 'bounce' along a wall instead of turning to follow the edge).

This seems like a good time to mention that I'd just started on a range of (intended-to-be) intelligent, learning, evolving, breedables.  The intention was mainly to annoy the people who thing pseudo-sexual selection of colour makes something collectible and/or valuable, lol.  I've done a lot of work on ALife over the decades and have used genetic algorithms. etc. in a lot of RL practical applications.  Project on-hold until we find out a bit more about these new possibilities.

[Void Singer]

:: watches unfortunate consequence of single person in power replying to the crowd as elements of the crowd all dredge up their own personal causes ::

popcorn anyone?

[Deej Kasshiki]

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Void Singer wrote:

:: watches unfortunate consequence of single person in power replying to the crowd as elements of the crowd all dredge up their own personal causes ::

popcorn anyone?

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I'd like the extra large with butter and no salt, please. Thanks Void. :matte-motes-evil-grin:

To those excited about this new AI: I hate to rain on the parade here but, over the last few days I've tried repeatedly to ride my motorcycle through the mainland Bay City sims. Can't be done without falling through to the center of the earth or getting thrown into an alternate universe at EVERY sim crossing. Since this "little issue" has been a major problem since at least 2007 with no solution in sight (not to mention the omnipresent rubber banding), how do you guys really expect this "pathfinder" system to work?

[Jo Yardley]

I don't cross any borders!

[Venus Petrov]

Deej, Perhaps you have been trying to cross the wrong mainland sims.  I am also on Sansara and I took a cycle ride around a couple of weeks ago several sims and only had a couple of instances where I rubber banded back several meters upon crossing sims.  Otherwise, it was smoooooth riding!  So much better than biking in 07-08!

[Melita Magic]

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Void Singer wrote:

:: watches unfortunate consequence of single person in power replying to the crowd as elements of the crowd all dredge up their own personal causes ::

popcorn anyone?

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Which "personal cause" did I dredge up, please?

[Void Singer]

I'm pretty sure I didn't say everyone =P

[Madelaine McMasters]

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Void Singer wrote:

:: watches unfortunate consequence of single person in power replying to the crowd as elements of the crowd all dredge up their own personal causes ::

popcorn anyone?

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This is the beauty of people with vision, they're looking elsewhere.

[Anaiya Arnold]

Well my yard is really small and has no region or sim crossings within. 

I'm going to code an AI that sits in my yard and ignores me.  It will look like a wooden box but everyone will know it is an AI object because I am going to type as much in its name-field in the edit window.

 

It's going to be awesome!