PekeNL

What worked for Second Life back in the day doesn’t really hit the mark anymore, because the demographic has changed a lot. When SL first launched, the internet was this new frontier, and people loved the idea of virtual land ownership, creating businesses, and building an entire economy. It felt like pioneering something. But the new generation of gamers—Millennials and Gen Z—are more interested in social connection, creativity, and collaboration over profit-driven activities. Younger players aren’t as attracted to the "American Dream" style of success where you have to buy and sell land or run a virtual business to get ahead. They grew up in an age of social media, streaming, and free-to-play games, where success isn’t measured in dollars but in community, creativity, and shared experiences. Values have shifted. So, while the current SL model made sense in the early 2000s, it doesn’t mesh as well with today’s audience, which values openness and creativity over virtual capitalism. Basically, what was appealing back then—building your empire, owning land, and making virtual cash—feels outdated for newer generations. Today, people want games that foster social bonds and creativity, not something that mirrors real-world economic pressures. While you can argue that you don't need money in Second Life, you certainly do because the sense of vanity everybody has with their 20 USD bodies over people with a free (?) body is massive. Another issue nowadays is small cliques that dominate different parts of the game. These tight-knit groups can make the platform feel pretty unwelcoming to new or returning players. Instead of the open, vibrant world it once was, SL feels more fragmented, with each group operating in its own bubble. It’s hard to break into these circles because they’ve been around for so long, and they often have their own rules and cultures within the game. In the end, Second Life has become fragmented by small cliques, outdated capitalist structures, and an aging player base. What once was a creative escape is now bogged down by real-world values and systems that don’t resonate with today’s generation, leaving the platform feeling stuck in the past.

This thread was meant as a jab at the trend of 'What is doing -insert franchise- better than Second Life'. Truth of the matter is you cannot, or shouldn't compare SL to any other type of installable 3D virtual word because SL is simply too niche for it's own good. But to entertain you for a moment: SL is old, like, really old. The technical debt is finally showing and now they're finally making pushes to reverse that, people scream bloody murder because they couldn't do the same thing they did before, or their performance/look isn't the same. It's unfortunatly a burden you have to carry if you want SL to progress. While I admit the implementation of features over the years is worth writing a critical essay about, in general every. single. time. something new pops up, everybody on these forums (mostly forumites) have 234543647855 super specific issues that quite frankly has more to do with them and their setup then with SL. PBR causing issues? Never had any. Then again, I don't begrudgingly hold on to the thing that has worked for years. I know, change is scary.. Switched to Alchemy from Firestorm about a year ago. Never looked back. Did I have some issues getting used to the lack of Firestorm features and its more vanilla UI? Sure, I did! But overcame that and now it's smooth sailing. I think the intent of this thread has gone over your head, my fellow resident! At least it'd make people stop complaining about performance issues on their ancient hardware. Or it won't, because the level of IT literacy among SL people frightens me.

Actually... Good and valid point. That bring me to think about the way tools like XIVAlexander and Noclippy reduce the effects of lag for XIV users who choose to play on another continent. I wonder what those two plogons do and - more importantly - if similar lag reducing methods can be included within SL's codebase.

Discuss.

Eh... SL's economy is all about virtual goods that enhance our avatars and the in-world experience. Bringing in real-world products (like infoproducts) could take away from what makes SL special and unique. Not to mention, selling real-world stuff through SL could get messy, fast. It might open the door to more fraud, scams, and even legal headaches. It’s much harder to regulate and ensure security for real-world transactions than virtual goods. Part of SL’s charm is that it's an escape from the real world. If we start flooding the marketplace with real-world products, it could break that immersive experience and make SL feel less like a virtual haven. Besides, the marketplace is already packed with virtual goods. Adding real-world stuff might just make it more confusing and cluttered, with people struggling to find what they’re actually looking for. People 'trust' the internal marketplace, and bringing in links to external sites could create issues. Nobody wants to worry about getting scammed or sent to sketchy websites, which could harm SL’s reputation. Infoproducts are big in traditional e-commerce, but in SL, where people come for virtual goods, they might not be as appealing. There are plenty of other platforms better suited for selling them.

Pro tip: If you got a OEM key (as in, tied to your hardware) you can get Windows 10 IoT Enterprise and have it activated. Security updates until 2037

With everybody out with pitchforks regarding PBR, I ask the following: Windows 10 reaches EOL next year. Windows 11 requires TPM2.0 which isn't a feature on most older hardware, how were you thinking of dealing with this? In addition, have you tried any other TPV to see if your issues are actually PBR, or just firestorm?

And this people, is the difference between the IMVU and SL crowd.

Nah. You're trying to speak for everybody, but forgot the forums isn't representative of the playerbase. Until you can back up your claims with evidence, I'm just going to assume you're just acting out because you can't get the performance anymore that you used to.

Thankfully, since its a TPV, you can quite easily circumvent this by spoofing your viewer version, although that might be too technical for most. Where there's a will, there's a way.

I'm honestly baffled. I use: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-12600KF (3.69 GHz) NVIDIA Geforce RT X3060 12GB 16GB RAM Windows 10 IoT Enterprise (21H2) NVME's (No HDD's here!) And I run 60+ FPS across the board with PBR (Capped due to refreshrate). Granted I do notice a little decrease in performance in Firestorm compared to Alchemy with the Official viewer floating somewhere in the middle. I'm honestly really confused as to why there's people with so many issues.

Please post your specifications along with this if you're going to talk about terrible performance.

Except they aren't overengineering it. They're trying to come back from years of technical debt that is partially the fault of people running core 2 duo's expecting a smooth experience.

By this alone everything you say has become invalid. glTF, The PBR SL uses, got released in 2015, and the fact people cannot upgrade is not a valid factor for technical changes within the engine. PC is a hobby. If you can't pay for it, that's on you, nobody else should suffer because there's a group that refuse to accept their 10 year old PC/Laptop will one day be rendered insufficient for things. Either you upgrade, or you don't - but nobody is to blame you cannot play SL but yourself. (If you cannot upgrade, I'm sorry to hear that)

People with old PC's like yours are the reason SL has such technical debt in the first place.