Akane Nacht

It's not an overtly bad impression of SL, and at least they used recent pictures. And I agree with this bit: "The entry of a slightly oversized and outsized player into the space seems to signal to people that they are not the owners of it, that someone else is going to be setting the rules and kind of running the show and they will just be the consumers." The comparison to Roblox is irksome, but, eh.. may draw a few more people who are genuinely interested to give SL a try. 3/5 stars for BBC

I guess Facebook won't be scanning people too closely to make avatars... Facebook to end use of facial recognition software - BBC News

that's a new one, I'd never heard of Decentraland before... I tried a randomised avatar on guest account and it gave me a unibrow 😒

i would never do that

Yep they got a lot. I had 2 gaming accounts under character names. My spouse has one for his car. 😄

Still getting the hang of his emotion chip?

Speaking as a casual long time user - visually, SL has improved enormously. I've seen more stunning builds in the last 2 years than I did in the previous 10. I tried Blue Mars back in the day and it had more of a game feel - everything matches and fits and is, frankly, boring. It had golf. Yay. Plus it crashed every few minutes. I had a similar experience with Sansar, though I admit I didnt give Sansar much of a chance as it crashed so frequently. New platforms seem to fall into the same thing - curated content either pre-built or done by a selection of professional designers who have their own interests and ideas of what is interesting or entertaining. I can get that from a host of games already. I'm at best a hobbyist/amateur creator, but it's an important pull factor for staying in SL. Where would my nonprofessional uploads and tinkerings fit in to a curated new world? I have fun with the process of making stuff, and I like to be able to share it, and to see what others are making. I didn't even realise how much I enjoy customising til I play on a platform where I can't. I feel pretty sure Facebook/Meta would prefer us as simple consumers rather than DIY-ers or small entrepreneurs, and will build their platform accordingly. If I am in a tiny minority of hobbyists who enjoy tinkering, then an exodus of big creators and simple consumers may be the end of SL. I really don't know, but I hope not.

not just us...

The issue I have with headsets is more to do with my habits - I'm never doing just one thing when I am using my computer, I also have to listen for the doorbell and phone, listen to what my family is up to, listen for washing machine and oven completing their jobs, and I need my peripheral vision in case a bee flies into the room (we got some massive ones). With a trend for more work-from-home arrangements, it's very hard to completely tune out our surroundings.

Not since 2008. I sometimes encounter other SL long-timers in other games, but they tend to be reluctant to talk about it.

happy halloween 👻

Sleeping in til noon, watching movies with my spouse, and then ordering in dinner. Best days ever

Depends on what schema is running in your head when you encounter one I suppose. As you mentioned about male avatars, you had some bad experiences so that colours how you may view them. For animal/creature avatars, I've generally found them to be either 1) just wearing a costume cos they won it in a gacha, or 2) are really having fun with being a creature and throwing themselves into the part so to speak. The latter are always interesting to interact with, though they can be a little nutty.

Yep I think that is apt. Does that make mesh silly putty? 🤔 Well...if i wanted to hang around the 'vast majority' of people, I wouldn't hang around SL. I think the SL I know and love would pretty much be destroyed if it were as popular as FB, and under as much public scrutiny.

They still have no SEA servers. Not gettin my money anytime soon 😒

SL is the best at being SL. Despite a handful of attempts over the years, it's pretty much unreplicated. It's an anomaly that works for some reason. FB can make what they call a virtual world, but FB's problems will linger. And.. just look at what they have come up with so far.. it's like low budget kids animation. This does not inspire confidence. If you're just referring to them buying out other products, sure, nothing stopping them (cept maybe antitrust laws? one can hope). But that wasn't what I was talking about. Getting bought out is a risk for any platform that takes the fancy of a big corporation. That's more possible. But there are so many ways of imagining a metaverse, I think the best they could come up with is a product that appeals to certain niches.

Actually, they have to be both. If FB by some means made something that does what SL does even better, and somehow also restores my trust in FB as a platform in terms of usefulness, reliability, privacy and security, I'd probably use it too. But those are big "ifs" and so far I see no evidence of them coming true. As for an exodus of content creators.. there's never been anything stopping designers in SL selling their creations elsewhere if they have the talent. I'm sure some have. Yet here we are..

I don't see FB's plans as any threat to SL. "The Metaverse" only exists in fiction. We'll always have offshoots and alternatives, regional interests and regulations shaping how we interact digitally. A competitor to SL would have to do what SL does best but even better, and so far I haven't seen that.

the 1963 version of The Haunting. They never actually see what's scaring them, apart from a creaking door and some chalk on a wall. I only watch that one in daylight 😅

uh oh, what have I started.. time for a snack break...

In SL, nope. Mostly because a fair number of people still use SL as a sort of dating platform, and I'm not looking for dates. I may be an old auntie but I'm still cute 😜 In other online games, no problem, we often share social messaging contacts so they see my profile pic which is the real me.

I've never smoked in my life. My avatar smokes all the time (pipe, cigarette, kiseru, you name it). If it troubles someone they have 2 options: 1. make their own rules on their own land to ban smoking 2. block & derender so they can't see my avatar smoking