[Mesh Import Open Beta Starts Today]

Jennifur, i won´t do slave work for their holy majesties profits, anyway.

And I really could not care less.

[Back to Basics Technology Improvements]

"MOAP is indeed a great idea."

No one goes for SL for reading webpages on a prim. And that´s the onyl benefit. Yeah, it´s a nice techie idea. But there are zillions of nice techie ideas whicha are...simply useless. Linden Lab has tons of them.

[Back to Basics Technology Improvements]

My argument is that LL should be willing to pay professionals for pro quality content for fundamentals such as starter avatars and tutorial environments.

 

I agree and disagree. IF Linden Lab does this, they MUST change SL into a professional content creation environment. There is nothing wrong with that, including legal contracts and everything related.  But it would cjhange VR completely.

I do not believe in two or three class content creation in virtual worlds, with pros and hobbyists and amateurs on the same parquette. Even if this MIGHT work if you keep the groups out of competiion. And to let them compete will be of no benefit for all groups. I could give you tons of reasons there.

Either you go user created or professional. Both is not possible. But if you go user created, you must make creation tools easily accessible and easy to handle and easy to learn - NOT go the most cheap way and simply tell people to learn Blender (which is all but easy to learn and handle) or pay thousands of dollars for a better tool. And charge for uploads. That´s simply hilarious and will finally benefit no one.

I totally agree with you that they should try to make SL a nicer place to be, at least for the newbies.

[Back to Basics Technology Improvements]

Ive been to places that  looked absolutely amazing (sadly most are gone now but that is another debate) in SL.

 

I totally agree with you. Nevertheless, Sl cannot be like all these GAMES you mention, but that´s a strength, not a weakness.

[Back to Basics Technology Improvements]

"But to say that something doesn't work just because you don't want to learn it it's childish."

Rubberduck, i made my first 3D rubberduck before YOU even noticed that there is something like SL. I consider you and most of your meshie fellows being the children, in fact. Luckily they will merge the Teen Grid, so you can play 3D authoring with the kids.

You really don´t get anything but your own little desktop. And to insult everyone who does not like the way Linden Lab handles Mesh for "resisting to learn" is plain idiotic.

Go home and learn building rigged rubberducks in your Blender freebie and don´t mess with grown up people.

[Back to Basics Technology Improvements]

"Raise the bar for player created content."

Why the hell should a real life professional work for something liek SL? Linden Lab does not PAY for such work, they actually CHARGE for it.

You cannot base content creation in a user created VR on RL professionalism, it´s a paradoxon. SL is a hobbyist place mainly, and nothing else. RL professionals work contracted, for some REAL money to pay their REAL bills, not for PAYING for trying to compete in a virtual, overflooded hobbyist market.

[Back to Basics Technology Improvements]

 

In fact, in many cases it's not the customer created content that is the problem, it's LL's own content.

 

I agree. You forgot to mention Linden Homes, which is more like a laggy showstopper than anything else.

My concern is just that they seem to entirely ignore these other important aspects of SL, and there has been no improvement on them since at least when I joined SL in 2005.

 

They promised a lot within the past 5 years and did not keep any of their promises. So i consider the new promises just being an add on to previous never kept promises. The only noticable changes at LL - so far - are shrinking employee numbers and the cut of all costs which do not make an immediate profit.

Mesh will be a great improvement, and will certainly help make SL look nicer too

 

I seriously doubt this for a lot of reasons. It will not really make SL look better or even reduce lag or improve functionality or usability. it´s nothing but anopther money sink for LL. It will add more problems than benefits for the average SL user - and increase LL profits in short term. That´s the plan, and that´s all what is behind Mesh import. Don´t ever think someone at LL cares about you or me or our second life.

[Back to Basics Technology Improvements]

"SL has a reputation for looking terrible"

Tell me, what do you expect from user created content in an environment where you even can earn money by selling a default textured prim cube? Where you get charged big time for contributing content without even owning it?

Sl will always lag behind any game which is made by skilled professionals using professional tools and knowledge and which is made for a customer base focussed on one certain kind of activity. By companies which really do care about customers.

Nothing will change this, and suggesting Mesh imports will is just naive.

[Mesh Import Open Beta Starts Today]

"Is it a bug or is it a transporting problem between c4d and collada?"

Same here. Don´t think the Mesh Gods at LL have any idea, for they obviously use Maya.

/me shrugs.

[Back to Basics Technology Improvements]

Just last night I discovered Google SketchUp... perhaps that'll work for me making meshes. It's a s simple as the prim tool in SL.

 

And forget about it. It cannot optimse objects for gaming qiuality. And a not optimised mesh may look nice, but is terribly expensive to upload and lags more than any known sculpt or twisted prim ever could lag.

Mesh import as it is now favors only those who own a professional suite as Maya, 3Ds and the like (about 4,000 dollars a license) or that akwardish Blender freebie and are able to use it in a reasonable way (which is pretty demanding). Or those who ripped such a suite. or those who rip existant models and use Blender only for optimising these (which is all but easy). Or those who just give a damn on any authoring tool and simply rip some direct x games by using 3D Ripper DX.

Fun! Revolutionary! Long live Linden Lab!

[Back to Basics Technology Improvements]

One thing that worries me is that whenever LL talks about getting "back to basics" it's always the technology

 

Agreed. LL "basics" = profits, and that´s it.

[Back to Basics Technology Improvements]

So, finally, after 5 years they come up with promising "breathtaking improvements", which basically are nothing more but coming a bit closer to what they promised for years by advertisement. While "revolutionsing" content creation in SL by moving backwards towards external technology which is more than 15 years old.

Worth lots of cheers by the fanboy crowd.

[Two Important Updates on 2011 Land Pricing]

"The boss  doing customer support and tech support himself should be a clue you are  probably dealing with someone who hooked up a server in his garage with  a beer friend, and they are messing around with trying to make an SL  clone."

Lol, what are you talking about? IBM invests big time into OpenSim development, they are not known for wasting resources on garbage. A few major corps do so as well.

The Hypergrid differs from LL by fundamental structure, of course, sub-grids can be run by independant unities, so there are solid and less solid contributers. But LL can go bankupt or sued to death or fail as likely as any other company on the planet can be. It really does not matter much if a company runs35,000 sims and hires 100 admins (while renting servers from 3rd party providers) or only 10 sims and one admin.

[Two Important Updates on 2011 Land Pricing]

"I saw that on another site, and find it remarkable that LL have not bothered to blog it yet."

Oh my.

Oh my.

Oh my.

They definately need a PR coordinator at LL, somone who does not enjoy playing rodeo with the customer base...

[Two Important Updates on 2011 Land Pricing]

Yes, very sad, indeed. But resistance is futile!

Same attitude they showed with their Mesh Import Propaganda, which is:

"Deal with it!"

/me wonders for how long they´ll get away with it.

[Making Strides to Improve our Customer Support Services]

This reads like:

"Folks, we won't spend any more money on our lousy support. But we´ll cut support for basic accounts and try to live up to our promises at least for premium account holders."

Ahem.

[Two Important Updates on 2011 Land Pricing]

"People who stand to lose sims would find their time in here better spent on a solution for their situation."

No one will lose a sim. It will only become much more expensive. And it´s a clear sign by LL that they do not care much about attracting, sponsoring or maintaining the educational and non-profit sector anymore.

Most people affected do not really need to debate on this, because this is obvious.

[Two Important Updates on 2011 Land Pricing]

"That's  another reason why everyone and their brother don't do this instead of  buying $1,000 sim and paying $295/mo for it, if it was so easy and so  good an alternative,  everyone would have done it."

Off track. Most people in SL are into SL for entertainment, and that´s it. Education and Non-Profit have completely different aims, background and completely different budget troubles than a more or less wealthy middle class person who prefers to spend about 4000 dollars a year on a Linden Island instead of on a holiday on the real bahamas.

And yes, you can rent high speed servers for no set up fee, and with a monthly fee ranging from 20 to 70 dollars a month, at least quadcore and flatrated. Hardware or setup is not the problem with the Hypergrid for Universities (they most probably have technical faculties which deal with more complicated tasks). if there is a problem, then it´s the OpenSim server software itself, which still lags one or two years behind LL. But the gap is closing, and the more the Hypergrid grows, the better and better funded OpenSim will become.

[Two Important Updates on 2011 Land Pricing]

"Great way to put it.  Remove education and you are left with porn.  Great comment."

Ah nooo, that´s really not fair. If you look at SL as a whole, maybe 10 percent (apart from Zindra) are kinda outspoken "porn". Sl has a lot more to offer apart from porn and edu - mainly entertainment - until now. The loss of education would be sad, but probably LL will survive this with a minor headache. They´ll move on with reducing cost to a bare minimum and focussing on entertainment - "fast and easy", as Phlip Rosedale mentioned.

I see more serious problems (for LL) upcoming with the teens on mainland and mesh import, which favors RL professionals over the hobbyists who keep the SL "economy" running. No idea how they will manage this.

It´s only just another of their breathtaking PR debacles for now, but history tells us that they have produced many breathtaking PR debacles and still managed to survive someow, tho Sl stopped growing meanwhile.

Instead of being negative, educators and non-profits should take a look around and watch out for different grids, maybe even create an edu-alliance for connecting an own, purely edu and non-profit driven sub-grid to the OpenSim Hypergrid, where IBM and a few more major companies and corporation help development for some time now. LL obviously is not very much interested in edu and non-profit anymore, so it´s not "treacherous" or wrong  to look for valid, self-defined and self-coordinated alternatives.

Think positive!

[Two Important Updates on 2011 Land Pricing]

" I really don't like that possibility."

[Two Important Updates on 2011 Land Pricing]

"IP  protection of virtual goods is a nice thing, but isn´t it a bit off  track to prohibit someone to resell, replicate or copy an object he or  she paid for? After all this was a PURCHASE, not a steal.

You're kidding right? Where are you from? Some third world communist country?"

Listen, fool. When Getty sells me a picture DVD, which i use for producing a flyer, my clients will reproduce these pictures 10,000 times.

Do you call Getty a communist?

[Two Important Updates on 2011 Land Pricing]

"This is frustrating for many at the moment, but, it is a Trigger Event, and it will actually lead to a lot of Opportunity."

I totally agree. LL#s move is a futher step into the shiny world of pure consumer orientation. The loss they risk with losing edu and non-profit is a well calculated one. And they obviously STILL think they are the only game in town, and that a good share of the edus will stay in SL because they fear change. Or - basically - accept the trap LL built for ALL of us by denying full backups and exports of inventories.

But LL isn´t the only player in town anymore. It only needs some skilled people in tech and content creation to ease the change for a reasonable price. It would not even really harm LL in their obvious plan of focussing on the pure consumer market. But it would open up a valuable alternative, a connected edu and non-profit network on the hypergrid where the ones who run it have FULL control and do not rely on Linden Lab anymore.

Imagine the teen merger will come, some 16 years old boy will watch pixel replication on the neighboring mature sim, and some lawyer will record this. Or Disney will sue LL for the 5000 mesh Donalds. Or whatever. Everyone would be hurt, edu, non-edu, profit, non-profit. LL in their universal claim are extremely vulnerable. Hypergrid will solve this problem. I#f one sim goes down cause of legal or technical or financial problems, the rest will stay untouched. Sure, it might be some work to run a kind of governement for a Hypergrid Section as an educator. But, honestly, does Linden Lab NOT already let sim owners do Linden Lab jobs?

[Two Important Updates on 2011 Land Pricing]

"Other grids are dead to merchants, no economy for the most part and opensim has zero protections for IP."

Not really sure. To me the Hypergrid conception offers different opprtunities for creators but simple object creation as in SL. This will be professionalised by LL anyway, mesh is only the first step into this direction. Sooner or later you´ll see licenses and a selected few doing all the work for LL. It´s only logical.

The basics of the recent SL "merchant" economy is tier. The tier is HIGH, and ou need some server space for display and creation, renting satellite vendor space is expensive, everything is. So, as a merchant or content creator you are forced to cover your rental expenses FIRST, before you can think of profitability.  Only a few out of the many, many content creators in SL make enough money to call it "RL income", most cover their tier and advertisement expenses and reinvest a good share of their revenue into some kind of SL lifestyle, by purchasing other creator´s products. This is a very expensive business.

The Hypergrid is much cheaper. You can get a full sim for 20 dollars, no set up fees. As a result you can sell for much lower prices than in SL to cover expenses. IP protection of virtual goods is a nice thing, but isn´t it a bit off track to prohibit someone to resell, replicate or copy an object he or she paid for? After all this was a PURCHASE, not a steal. So, i do not really mind about the non existing "economy" on the Hypergrid. It offers a very different, but not less attractive opportunity: World creation, communications design, creating complete interactive worlds, not simple objects. Set up a working environment, use your imagination for something nice and rent or sell it as custom work. The SL "economy" will still do well somehow, but in the long run Hypergrid will succeed as well, only on a different level.

I think that when edu and non-profit will move, and they WILL move now, anyone with enough guts and skills could do a great first step into a rewarding market for world building, at comparably minimal costs. Maybe we as content creators are just a bit lazy and used to some kind of "IP protection" which is not really "IP protection" but protectionism of a sales model which reduces the customer to a milk cow with minimal rights to use our creations. Sure, we are forced to act like this here in SL because of the tiers LL charges. But this does not make it a better or more fair method.

[Two Important Updates on 2011 Land Pricing]

"As if Phil and his team of Lindens didn't have a budget and hard decisions to make themselves to keep SL going"

By giving discounts to a cartel of landwoners? While charging edu and non-profit for such actions?

http://shoppingcartdisco.com/gossip/welcome-to-the-land-cartels/

"Nothing  is forever on planet earth and the universe, least of all a stable  economy and lifestyle, everything is in constant change."

True. that´s why i am eager to backup my inventory, before something changes constantly.

"...proof to me they do care about SL and the people that make it..."

I am absolutely convinced that they care more about the sheep...err...customers than about their own skin. They are true altruists, as everyone knows.

[Two Important Updates on 2011 Land Pricing]

"I think  you educational non-for-profits have to realize one thing you never ever  seem to do. There is no endless supply of money for anyone."

Exactly. especially with persons like Anshe Chung receiving big time discounts. Someone has to pay teh price. Right?