Jahman Ochs

Qie Niangao wrote: (One that I haven't seen mentioned as I type this: The sharing of a common area for the building of the party sims was a huge part of the celebration -- for many of us, more than the party itself. It was about the journey, not the destination.) Qie, that was in fact the first thing I thought when I read the blog note, and immediately went in-world to seek clarification from anyone that might be on the group chat. I could not have said it better myself, and the loss of that journey is the greatest of all - but it's still only for a fraction of the resident population. I think the worst aspect of this is the two-faced "this is all about you" garbage they're trying to hoist. Actually, it's all about them copping out.

Funny you should bring that up, Wolf, because that's another aspect of this that I hadn't even gotten around to considering: SLB was an annual test of the grid, because it was pretty much unprecidented on an annual basis for judging how well Linden Labs was doing at improving high-load performance. The abandonment of such is yet another example of how the loss of the organized, consolidated celebration is a serious fail on the part of LL.

Sorry, Knowl - I know you mean well, although I take umbrage with your attempt to (as Linden Labs did) spin this somehow in a positive light. I'm glad your project can proceed without Linden Labs support, since it has been observed many places (including here) that Linden Labs is far more interested in pursuing other projects than keeping their commitment to Second Life residents. The fact that you can proceed without them for your activity is irrelevant to this thread. If you had read the content, you would see that.

@Polenth - As I tried to say in a convoluted way: they are having us celebrate on OUR dime. No expense on their part. How many performers are going to feel ok about doing birthday shows for free (as they've done in the past at the SLB venues) to drive these birthday events? Especially when the traffic will be diluted because of all the simulataneous activity? And we're doing it on land that WE pay for. No challenge to get this done - no time limits, no schedules, no prim limits, and hell, this time the Adult and gaming will have free rein to draw all the attention they can, eh? Or will there be rules that you can't have SL9B events on Adult sims? And so much for not being about advertising - are the SL9B staff (is there even such a thing?) going to be running around to the event sites enforcing some sort of standards? Or can a gaming sim full of ad boards (or a whoring sim, for that matter) set up an SL9B event and then simply point people at their money-generating stuff (NO DEVIL here! ESCORTS there! Have a happy birthday!)? Seriously, the more I think about it, the more enraged I become.

Snickers: the observation is accurate; the metaphor is unfortunately hysterical.

I am not surprised by this: http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Inworld/Help-Us-Celebrate-Second-Life-s-9th-Birthday/ba-p/1488731 I am, however, extremely disappointed that my worst expectations for how things were going to play out in Second Life, given Linden Labs' current leadership and the direction indicated by the "Linden SIMS" adventure escapades, have come to pass. There will be no SL Birthday regions. There will be no coordinated celebration. There will be a destination guide tab for events happening all over the grid - just like there is EVERY FREAKIN' DAY OF THE YEAR. In other words, there will be nothing special about this - because Linden Labs has lost the perspective that we should be celebrating 9 years of creativity TOGETHER, with something UNIQUE. Instead, we get to celebrate on OUR OWN LAND (wee!) with OUR OWN EVENTS (oh wait...), paid for by OUR OWN TIER (ugh, now I get it...) - that's right, just exactly what we do all the time, they're letting us do it to celebrate Second Life's start to the end of a decade. Well, it's more than that. It's the end of an era. And I mourn its passing.

Thanks, looks like it's on my end then. I appreciate the response.

I'm posting this here first, rather than filing a jira incident, because it's so prone to so many possible causes - but since around 10:45PM PST I have not been getting email from any of my scripted objects that are intended to notify me from my sim. These include both scripts I've written myself and third party objects. I usually get several an hour from the former, and I *always* get my nightly traffic monitor reports from four monitors placed around my mainland region. Has anyone else noticed the same breakdown in scirpted email?

The SIMS Online was a bomb; it closed years ago. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sims_Online) Just because someone is rich does not make them smart, and it definitely doesn't make them dedicated customer service providers. "I like to fire people" seems to be the rule around Linden Labs, anyway. I will *object* to the policies of a service provider whenever and wherever I feel appropriate; since they asked for feedback on this new offering, I have and will continue to do so. I do not whine. What they have done here is divert resources (and, in this case, it's clearly competitive resources for what could otherwise be repair and improvement of the grid software infrastructure) that *I*, among many others, pay for directly out of my pocket. And I am not cynical, I am pragmatic. If it comes to the point where I actually see a negative impact that impedes my ability to achieve my own goals with the platform they have provided, I will stop using it. "Linden Realms" does absolutely nothing for me; having sim crossings create ghosts, having inventory caches that continuously fail, having physics engine failures, etc. etc. etc. impact me very much. There is no contest, for me, to which I would rather see them apply their effort.

@Mal - Hah. Ok, if that's how you want to interpret what I've written, go for it. My intent has never been to egrandize my own accomplishments over anyone elses. I know my own the best, needless to say; I could speak for others, but would rather they do so for themselves. If you take offense at my asking you what your investment is, either in time or money, to demonstrate the depth of your commitment here, so be it. And I may be a ranter, but I'm certainly no whiner. I'm passionate about the subject, not selfish about its value to me alone. I make my opionions known to Linden Labs in as many ways as possible, both verbally and with my hard-earned dollars. I won't go into your comments about the nature of business and government and their relationship to those whom they service or serve - I could wax on that for more space than on the topic at hand, but this isn't the forum for a discussion of economics (at least on that level) or politics. If you don't like what I'm writing, and feel like you need to attack me for it, have at - and I'll respond in kind. That's what forums are for, after all. If Linden Labs objects to my opinions or the way I express them, they're welcome to ban me. You have no such power, and you certainly won't cow me by trying to rally the troops against me. I could just as easily ask "How many of you feel like I'm expressing your sentiments?" @Freecilla - my whole point precisely. If this is research and development, then where's the beta test? Why is this being promoted front and center in the login splash page? If this is for us to improve our own environments, where's the interaction with the existing userbase that creates those environments, ensuring that what they are building addresses what we think we need to make compelling content that will attract and hold new subscribers? Please read the links I posted earlier - this is not some benevolent process to improve the quality of life for those of us on the grid. This is the end result of a series of steps that recently included the head of a failed "SIMS Online" project taking over the helm of this ship, and I consider it hostile to the original intent of this platform - which has failed not because it was inherently flawed (I give Philip a lot more credit than that) but because of a failure to adhere to the fundamental commitment of the plan. If Linden Labs expects this new content to be of value to us, then they should be making us part of the process; as someone who specifically is involved in Second Life as a content developer dedicated to creating environments that engage the attention of residents, I certainly have an interest in such, but no solicitation for advice was made, as far as I know. If there are any of you on this thread who've been involved in the design stages of "Linden Realms", I'd be very, very interested to hear about it.

@LillyBeth - I would say EXACTLY the same things to Rodvick that I'm saying here. If they want to promote SL, there are a lot better ways to do it than produce an inferior "game" that will make the new user think "Oh, this is Wizards 101, and not as good". That will do nothing to promote what Second Life has (had) to offer over the past eight and a half years. You're right, it's not a rocket science business move at all - it's a move of desperation motivated by a lack of understanding about what the original intent of the platform was - and trying to patch previous mistakes with a direction which does not adhere to any logical market niche into which they can fit it. You want big picture? I can talk big picture all day. This is small potatoes, and they're doing it wrong. So, fine - call me the 1%, but I don't see myself as expressing anywhere close to the worst of humanity...

Quoth the real "god" here: "One of the key goals of Linden Realms was to learn more about what tools Residents could use to develop richer experiences in Second Life — and boy, did we learn a lot! In Q1 2012 , we will be releasing new tools used to develop Linden Realms, which will allow Residents to create even richer original experiences in Second Life. To prevent abuse of these tools, we will introduce a "creators" program in which verified members will be given access to these very powerful capabilities." (This from http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Featured-News/CEO-Rodvik-Humble-Shares-Highlights-From-2011-and-his-Outlook/ba-p/1298823. Another interesting article is here: http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2011/12/2012-linden-lab-pivots-from-second-life.html.) In summary, apparently we will be getting these new toys, but they'll be restricted to those who are "approved" (and probably pay a fee, no doubt, since the name of the game is generating more revenue since all of their previous efforts have been so disasterous to the SL economy) - can you say "Blue Mars"? - and, from what I've seen, that will be a good thing only if they can improve performance. Otherwise, just one more way to make your sim lagged to hell. And, as Rodvick and the NWN blog suggest, SL will ultimately take a back seat as Linden Labs trys to become Zynga. Oh well, it was a nice dream while it lasted. Too bad Philip left and we had to wake up from it.

@Malcom - How long have you been in SL? How much have you invested? I have an opinion alright, and it's of infinite value if you have any idea what I'm talking about. If you don't (and I suspect not, given the nature of your response) then please do not take my objections to task. Linden Labs is doing one of two things: they are either changing the mandate, direction and audience of Second Life, in which case they owe those of us who have spent time and money building it into what it was; or they are wasting resources on efforts that are either, at best, obtuse or, at worst, a complete white elephant. Either way, I object, and I defy anyone to argue that I don't have the right to do so, here or anywhere else. @Joni, Linden Realms in no way, shape or form has any prospect of competing with ANY of the products you suggest; anyone playing any of the games you mention (and just about any other MMORPG out there, for that matter) would laugh at the idea of spending even a moment on what Linden Labs has produced here. As mentioned elsewhere, this is more akin to a lag-ridden, simplified version of a 3D platformer - a bad attempt at Mario-style gaming. To paraphrase a political classic: I've played World of Warcraft (and Star Wars: The Old Republic, for that matter), and this is no World of Warcraft. What it REALLY is: a waste of MY (and everyone else's) subscription and tier fees writing garbage that is being foisted on the community for reasons that have yet to be clearly divulged by a company that has become increaingly opaque over the past three years.

The whole premise of this is contrary to what Second Life is supposed to be. If you're looking for a gaming platform, the Second Life viewer is mediocre at best; you would even do better with Adobe Flash or Shockwave. But Second Life was NOT supposed to be a game, in any event. While it is possible to create games with the platform, I DO NOT AGREE IN ANY WAY, SHAPE OR FORM that it is Linden Labs' mandate to take MY MONEY and spend time working on creating such tripe. To those of you who enjoy it, is that really what you're paying your premium subscription and tier for? And if you're not paying subscription and tier, then frankly I don't think you have any opinion of value to express in this matter.

@Toni Deir: Exactly, precisely correct - Linden Labs has built something that is, in and of itself, a complete waste of time. If they were producing new functionality to be shared with the residents and showing it off here, that's great, except we've seen no indication of such. Even if they were preparing to transition Second Life to target the 10- to 14-year-olds in a new version of Free Realms or Wizard 101, so be it - I'd be pissed, but that's their choice. But no, what they've done is apparently wasted resources (which I have partly paid for, through the thousands of U$ I give them every year) on crap that is dead-end for those of us who are using Second Life as it was originally sold and intended: a platform for creative development BY THE USERS.

And @Mal Avro - I have no idea where you're coming from, but your experience with Second Life and Linden Labs is clearly completely different from mine, and from just about every other veteran with whom I've interacted. @Ergo Brandeis: ALSO well said. Q: "What's this game about?" A: "It's not a game, it's a platform for the imagination - YOUR imagination, if you are ambitious enough." I'm really sick and tired of people defending behavior on the part of Linden Labs that would get very bad attitude from both them and others, were it being conducted by the people who PAY THEIR SALARIES. In as much as, yes, Mal, we could just leave rather than complaining, like some of the others who have expressed their discontent here, I have invested over 5 hard-fought years to make Second Life something to be proud of - and when Linden Labs, whom I have given tens of thousands of U$, continues to welch on the implicit deal they struck with me at the beginning, I do indeed get pissed off. That said, ultimately, if it gets stupid enough here, I *will* walk away rather than throwing good money after bad. Eventually, someone else will do this project right, be it Microsoft or Sony or whoever, and Linden Labs will end up as an asterisk in the virtual reality platform saga, if they continue to flounder as they have in the past three years.

@Maelstrom Janus: Here here, well said.

For background, see: https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/SVC-7459 and http://community.secondlife.com/t5/General-Discussion/Traffic-calculation-change/td-p/1235259 Yesterday, we had 132 visitors and 9423 minutes, and the # was 14565. Day before, we had 176 visitors, 9841 minutes, # was 15584. Today we have 169 visitors, 9996 minutes, and the number is 11846. (Note that the # of minutes is as reported by the traffic monitors, which do not overlap the entire sim, so the correlation is not direct to actually minutes for calculation, but rather a ratio. The implication is that the visitors would've had to be within the traffic monitor's range the entire time they visit, which is never the case, hence the higher traffic numbers for the previous two days than the minutes would suggest. I have been tracking these numbers daily for nearly two years.) I believe the correlation of this change in traffic number to the Wednesday update is too much of a coincidence, given the prior track record of the jira incident related to the original problem, to ignore.

Is there *anyone* here who thinks the subject of this blog thread is a good idea? Even in Linden Labs? I have to wonder...

Yeah, I'm in late on this thread - and I agree that this is yet another white elephant. Will anybody at Linden Labs care about my opinion? No. Is what they've created no different from the kind of "campers for traffic get paid to spend time on a sim" that they claim to abhor? No. I spent over U$6000 in Second Life last year. I've reduced my commitment to about U$2500 this year specifically in response to changes in their business model. If they continue to change for the worse, and my own needs are not met, I will indeed leave and not look back.

And the bottom line is this: everybody knows the "All" search yields funky results that are inscrutable. The only way to judge performance of a parcel based on their keywords is through relative traffic #s. Now, if the baseline is going to change, that's fine - but to have it change without any warning is hubris of the highest level. "Let's see what *else* we can do to make the foundation of this system unusable by the core participants" seems to be the driving question at Linden Labs for the past two years.

This has nothing to do with 'bots - and I have the numbers to prove it. They've totally changed the algorythm by which traffic is calculated, and I can show that change graphically based on statistics I've been collecting for the Pando region for over a year and a half.

Yesterday, my numbers were around 225 unique visitors and around 11000 cumulative visitor minutes; my traffic number for the parcel was reported at 17569. This is consistent with my records going back over a year for this parcel. Today, my numbers were around 220 unique visitors and around 11000 cumulative visitor minutes. By my calculations, my traffic number should be somewhere between 16500 and 17000; it is, instead, 11997, a discrepancy of about 30%. A little investigating reveals that it looks like a similar drop in calculated traffic has occured across the grid. Consistent mainstay Franks Place, usually in the 70k range, is listed as ~50k today. All of the listings in the search categories that I usually monitor are similarly down. By my analysis, this is not a change in actual visitor/time numbers, but in a change in the way traffic is calculated. Can anyone corroborate, and can Linden Labs explain? (Update - a jira has been entered: https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/SVC-7459?focusedCommentId=295350#comment-295350)

Yesterday, my numbers were around 225 unique visitors and around 11000 cumulative visitor minutes; my traffic number for the parcel was reported at 17569. This is consistent with my records going back over a year for this parcel. Today, my numbers were around 220 unique visitors and around 11000 cumulative visitor minutes. By my calculations, my traffic number should be somewhere between 16500 and 17000; it is, instead, 11997, a discrepancy of about 30%. A little investigating reveals that it looks like a similar drop in calculated traffic has occured across the grid. Consistent mainstay Franks Place, usually in the 70k range, is listed as ~50k today. All of the listings in the search categories that I usually monitor are similarly down. By my analysis, this is not a change in actual visitor/time numbers, but in a change in the way traffic is calculated. Can anyone corroborate, and can Linden Labs explain?

As the owner of the G&H Cinema in Pando, I can assure you we have a true media video stream (a custom quicktime stream, not youtube shared media) running 24/7, with a new playbill each week - usually two feature films and some cartoon shorts. Come by and check it out! (We do also have an arcade, as well as the mentioned bowling alley and paintball/tankwars arena - as well as a carnival amusement park with over 26 rides and attractions - we're one of the best full-sim mainland places to have fun on the grid!)