What has changed in Second Life?

[Ace Arizona]

July 2007, the month they banned poker and gambling from the grid, was the last month that I really enjoyed Second Life. I log in once in a blue moon to try and reignite my interest but it usually falls short.

I'm not bitter and defeated, I still think SL has what it takes to entertain me, but it's a bit sad that the most exciting thing to happen to me in this game since 2007 was when I was accused of $600 worth of credit card theft by my land owner/roommate (proved to be false, I should mention) - and that wasn't even part of gameplay!

What has been added since 2007 from a gaming stand point to enhance the game? Show me something new in SL that will make me want to play again.

 

 

[Canoro Philipp]

it seems that gambling is your main source of entertainment, i got bad news, gambling is still not allowed.

there have been other changes, for example, we got a Destination Guide that gives a choice of other forms of entertainment, if you are interested, it covers almost anything, for any kind of interest.

in the creation area, we got new ways to make things inworld, for example mesh, that brings more quality to things, and in the next few days objects will wake up and they will be aware of their surroundings with artificial intelligence.

we got a new viewer with a lot of visual space with customizable buttons so you have the interface the way you want it, and some new features, like media on a prim that allows you to have a website on one face of the prim, and the limit of size of a prim has been increased from 10m to 64m, we also have a new feature called Outfits, where you can save a look for your avatar and change between looks easy.

in the avatar customization area, we got new layers, alpha and physical, alpha makes part of your avatars invisible while physical makes some parts of your body move like real flesh, we got multiple attachment points, including new ones, like neck and center, also you can wear multiple layers of clothing.

for the scenery, we got customized windlight settings per sim, so you get the experience like the creator meant it.

for the social area, we got web profiles with a feed, just like twitter or facebook, with the option to follow what the persons of your interest post, and the number of groups have been increased so you can belong to more areas of your interest.

for shopping we got a marketplace, with the ability to buy things filtered by number of prims, price, or permissions, where you can save an interesting product to buy later.

theres a lot of new things and more are coming.

[Jewels Silverblade]

Thats an interesting point of view.  I have an original avatar dating back to 06 and have seen many things change in SL as it has grown and expanded throug the years.  Certainly there has been many sims to come and go.   Saddly some of the most beatufiul designs have long perished in the virtual worlds to the challenges they have faced.  While clubs still top my list becasue I love to dance and enjoy all sorts of music, I have found that getting involved with non profits through SL is fullfiling in many ways. 

Imagine that people around the world can still impact in small ways right from our homes to benefit someone in need.  This is one of the differences between SL and many other games.  While I am no phsycologist I can find the time in getting to know someone who could use support or perhaps through other means be in time, talent, or monetary, anyone can become part of something they would like to see advanced in our real world.  Breast Cancer awareness groups and educational universities are just a few you might look into.  You never know what might spark an interest.  Learning to be a buildrer and passing it on to others can also be quite rewarding.  

However, my true passion has come in the last two years when I discovered the advancements  that have been made in combat and aviation in the SL.  Banded together by the passion for adventure and honor SL aviation has won a spot in my heart.  The roaring of the jets across the skies, acrobatics of streaming smoke, or watching them dance amongst the stars.  I tell you there has been no greater romance for my SL hubby and me than to dance beneath the skies of SL with the graceful movements of these simulated crafts.  There are many places to experience this delight and many offer anything you can find anywhere in sl such as fishing, fashion or dancing.  However it is centered in the environment of the seas and skies.  Give it a try and see you might find something to boost your spirit and renew your taste for advenutre in SL.  Good Luck!

 

[Amethyst Jetaime]

SL is what you make it.  Its hard to make recommendations when the only interest you mentioned is gambling.  Since 2007 SL has become a whole different world.  If you have been in just occasionally to look but only stayed a short time,  you've missed a whole lot.  Edit your post and put in some things that interest you in RL, that you'd like to do but can't do in RL and I'm sure you'll get lots of suggestions.

[PeterCanessa Oh]

SL isn't a game.  If you're expecting a game with gaming options you'll always be disappointed.

AL is a construction set, like Lego.  Some people create all sorts of wonderful things from their Lego; things never even imagined by the company.  Other people complain if they don't have detailed instructions to build more than one or two things because that's "all" that set does.

Your world, your imagaination, your game if you want to create one.  What have you added to SL from a gaming standpoint?

[GariGlitter]

You can now win 28L$ for three or four hours hard labour on the first LL quest game. That MUST sound attractive!

[TriJin Bade]

<Old Man Yorkshire Accent>'o back when I were a lad, we 'ad to sit on us behinds for all ov an hour... jus' fer L$2. You tykes never know 'ow gud ya 'av it now.</Old Man Yorkshire Accent>

jk

 

[GariGlitter]

---

TriJin Bade wrote:

<Old Man Yorkshire Accent>

'o back when I were a lad, we 'ad to sit on us behinds for all ov an hour... jus' fer L$2. You tykes never know 'ow gud ya 'av it now.

</Old Man Yorkshire Accent>

jk

 

---

Yew wuss looky! Ay 'ad to be tied up to a cross and any old body cud 'ave their filthy dutty way with me - an fer only 1L$ an hour!

[ToxicDesigns]

I am with you.  I date back to 06.  Used to be VooDoo Bamboo of VooDoo DESIGNS.  Sold the business and left.  Took about a 2 year break and now I am back giving it another round with INTOXICATED.  MUCH has changed.  Took me a bit to catch up in fact but I am back in the swing of it now.  There does not seem to be near as many people as there once was however.  Places that usd to be just packed all the time are now ghost towns.  But I still love it and love creating.

[Ace Arizona]

---

Canoro Philipp wrote: we also have a new feature called Outfits, where you can save a look for your avatar and change between looks easy.

for shopping we got a

marketplace

, with the ability to buy things filtered by number of prims, price, or permissions, where you can save an interesting product to buy later.

---

Those sound promising! I can't even count how many times I stood in my house for 30 minutes trying to decide what to wear and shuffling through my inventory trying to put it all together, even taking "inventory organization" classes. Also wondering if I was overpaying for products when my only way of finding shops was the search feature. Nice.

[Marcus Hancroft]

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Ace Arizona wrote:

---

Canoro Philipp wrote: we also have a new feature called Outfits, where you can save a look for your avatar and change between looks easy.

for shopping we got a

marketplace

, with the ability to buy things filtered by number of prims, price, or permissions, where you can save an interesting product to buy later.

---

Those sound promising! I can't even count how many times I stood in my house for 30 minutes trying to decide what to wear and shuffling through my inventory trying to put it all together, even taking "inventory organization" classes. Also wondering if I was overpaying for products when my only way of finding shops was the search feature. Nice.

---

Don't let this by your ONLY way of shopping though, Ace.  Inworld shopping is dying a slow miserable death because of the Marketplace.  Inworld stores, malls and sims closing down all the time because owners/merchants can't afford to pay the tiers on them with no traffic (and no sales).  Use the Marketplace to FIND what you want, but go to the inworld store to purchase (if the merchant HAS one.  A lot don't now).

[Canoro Philipp]

i forgot to mention, we have new environment special effects, like shadows, depth of field, and proyections.

and another new layer, tattoos, that is an additinal one besides the one we use for skins.

i hope i covered all.

[Dresden Ceriano]

---

TriJin Bade wrote:

<Old Man Yorkshire Accent>

'o back when I were a lad, we 'ad to sit on us behinds for all ov an hour... jus' fer L$2. You tykes never know 'ow gud ya 'av it now.

</Old Man Yorkshire Accent>

jk

 

---

I have no idea what this post is about, since I haven't read the thread.  But I just wanted to say, I'm glad to see that you haven't given up completely on the SLF.  Your voice is a very welcomed one here.

...Dres

[Ace Arizona]

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Marcus Hancroft wrote:

---

Ace Arizona wrote:

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Canoro Philipp wrote: we also have a new feature called Outfits, where you can save a look for your avatar and change between looks easy.

for shopping we got a

marketplace

, with the ability to buy things filtered by number of prims, price, or permissions, where you can save an interesting product to buy later.

---

Those sound promising! I can't even count how many times I stood in my house for 30 minutes trying to decide what to wear and shuffling through my inventory trying to put it all together, even taking "inventory organization" classes. Also wondering if I was overpaying for products when my only way of finding shops was the search feature. Nice.

---

Don't let this by your ONLY way of shopping though, Ace.  Inworld shopping is dying a slow miserable death because of the Marketplace.  Inworld stores, malls and sims closing down all the time because owners/merchants can't afford to pay the tiers on them with no traffic (and no sales).  Use the Marketplace to FIND what you want, but go to the inworld store to purchase (if the merchant HAS one.  A lot don't now).

---

I can see how that would be a problem. Kinda surprised that the Lindens didn't anticipate such a thing.

[Maitimo]

If gambling's your only interest you need to go somewhere else. There's still no gambling in SL.

No camping now. This is a good thing, although it was useful to leave my av logged in overnight earning L$50 or so every night.

No Wednesday shutdown, followed by Thursday bugs, followed by Friday "emergency maintenance"

We got an extra clothing layer and now you can wear more than one item on each layer, and more than one item on each attachment point. Oh and body physics (jiggly boobs).

Third party viewers.

No more grey goo griefer attacks that could bring down the entire grid

Windlight, shadows and depth-of-field make pretty graphics (if your computer can handle it)

Sculpties, and now mesh.

Anyone can make megaprims now.

Teens from age 16 can join

Mainland is nearly worthless

theres probably more that I can;t think of this late in the evening after too much wine.

[Deltango Vale]

Well, due to massive oversupply and the high relative price of tier, 99% of mainland is now a worthless junk heap. Almost every entrepreneur I have know over five years has left SL in disgust. Even the griefers have left, bored out of their minds.

Linden Lab never understood Second Life. It lacked the vision and intelligence to convert a killer app into a prosperous, international virtual country. I can describe the experience as sitting in a car, watching a $100 bill stuck to a guy's shoe. He doesn't see it. He continues walking, flap, flap, flap as the bill slaps against the ground. I roll down my window and shout to him to look down and see it, but he only stares at me, baffled, then walks away, the $100 bill getting dirtier and more ragged with each step. That, sadly, seems to be the story of Second Life since 2007.

Can the new management at Linden Lab turn things around? I don't know. I have waited four long years for the company to get its act together. Yes, there have been some improvements:

• much greater stability
• SL Marketplace was a godsend, a rare act of brilliance
• the SL Fora have been completely redesigned, making them functional after years of neglect
• the V2 disaster seems to be nearly over
• the age-verification fiasco is over
• Windlight is very good
• there is an attempt to improve 3D graphics content ('mesh')

But these are mostly fixes to problems that should never have arrisen in the first place. The real issues of vision and strategy remain opaque. Second Life is adrift, rudderless, in a vast ocean of banality. The best guess at the moment is that management wants to convert SL into some kind of game. We rarely hear from the new CEO. No one knows where he plans to take SL. We are surrounded by fog, listening to the water lapping gently against the side, no map, no compass, no wind, no sun. It's depressing.

[Jewels Silverblade]

Well I can agree and disagree on one thing.  Sl market was both a blessing and curse.  Now able to be visible at any location it became flooded with worthless items being resold from individuals that are freebies elsewhere.  This overflood shadows out the true designers who continue to plug away and improving the sl world.  Second problem is the availablity of everything online can be a sim killer for small businesses.  It far more convenient to shop online than to hop around from sim to sim.  People rarely do, so unless someone has a place to store their magic box or actually invest prior to making money they reallly dont stand much of a chance to growth rather quickly.  It also makes for new designers to be lost in the massive amounts of search and go unnoticed before ever having the opportunity to make even one sale.  Its bad enough for those of us whom have been around for some time and have a name with clients that can be somewhat recognizable, but for new comers its nearly death before it was ever born. 

[Jewels Silverblade]

Now while there has been improvements lets not forget the things that make us want to pull our hair out....

 

Viewer crashes or incompatibilities with older PC's

Mesh physics clash with sim walls

Third party uploads drowning out the individual creators

Teens on grid now a greater risk to adults

With less griefers also been a good thing its a reflection of actual drop  in over all traffic as well and a downslide on the economy

My favorite is the replacement of the grief with the immature child whom now lurks behind an aonymous avatar causing more havoc than  a griefer

Sl market providing a far reaching service  is good but the fees imposed also create a huge gap in the same vendors shoes that seems hardly worth the pennies on the dollar

The arrival of sculpts was frightening and exciting at the same time.  For the already developed creator this was an instant opportunity to expand the market, however for the inexperienced 3d artist this was a nightmare and a race to keep up.  Death to many Sims and creators who just could not compete.  In the time since it continues to be an uphill battle for most while some clearly have the advantage.  However this seems to take some of the fun out of it.  The opportunity for someone to learn and create given to the experienced designer whom is just programming and not inspired to actual creations.   Its a touchy situation because I can image that the more developed creators in sl tend to have experience in both but I speak of the future creators.  The lost potential of someone who could have offered inspiratonal ideas but would need a PhD in graphics designs by the time we are done with them just to make a poke at the market.

 

I love SL, the creativity that we drive daily to change our world.  I truly hope that it is left to the minds of those who can think up the next dimension and not just a select few to drive the universe.  It would be a shame to limit our resources that way, since it has been SL true driving force.