[Embark on a Quest in Linden Realms: Collect Crystals, Earn Linden Dollars and Have a Blast!]

@Setekh, I can not be more specific, I do not work for SL or LL. I have to admit I am assuming one can not make a game in SL like the realms by only using prims with no scripts. Since they have worked on prims, (size and mesh) it is likely they would be working on scripting for the game.

[Embark on a Quest in Linden Realms: Collect Crystals, Earn Linden Dollars and Have a Blast!]

@Jahman - The "beta test" so to speak is to put the game in place and present it to the public to get feed back right away, using the login page to show the games gets the most people to see and use it and provide feed back in the shortest time possible. SL can see the results and edit things as they go for improvements. SL is working on their existing scripting that they created in the first place to make it more effective... they realized while there are some games in SL created by users, (mainly hunts these days) there are not a great variety of interesting games or just things do to in SL and that is limited by the scripting as it is and what we can and can not do with it.

I agree with your thoughts that SL has had no real plans in the past however I do fault Philip for that. He reached his dream and failed to realize where it could lead from there, so he left, he was done, hence it has lead to a plateau where the main stream public still has no idea what SL even is. It finally seems the new direction SL is taking to improve things is a step in the right direction, improving scripts for highly interactive features, (like games) is just not where those improvements will end since those scripts can them be added to non-game related interactions as well. The new direction seems to be breaking away from the limited idea that SL is a product and they are finally seeing it as the "World" it is that dwarfs the idea of a mere product by a light year. I still don't think they know what SL is capable of yet though, there are many important elements still missing and not adddressed in any way so far but making improvements one by one is a good thing and nice to see.

SL does read these pages and it does keep in mind the input from it's users. This is seen in the new viewer with it's drag and drop interface, (now just to get rid of the side bars, this added programming is unnecessary and all unnecessary programming must be deleted to improve over all performance). We see it in the deletion of the Basic viewer as well. We have to remember SL is dealing with a complete "World" which has many many various departments with limited staff from the past limited idea of what they attempting to accomplish.

[Embark on a Quest in Linden Realms: Collect Crystals, Earn Linden Dollars and Have a Blast!]

The realm games were for SL to try using their scripts to create and game for the purpose of improving upon their scripts so we could then have more options to make our own games... it's called research and development. Although I have not played the game yet I am looking forward to see what they come up with in the way of cleaner, faster scripts so we can offer more things to do for our visitors.

One thing I would suggest would be to have the Home destination upon dieing NOT set to an avatar's Home but instead allowing us the option of an alternative landing point in our own Sims, (aside from the main landing point). Many people do not want to use health since it takes an avatar out of their sim if they die, possibly not to return. I think this makes the health system useless since it only drives people away.

[New Premium Membership Features]

LL you need help, seriously, call me.

[The Second Life Economy in Q2 2011]

The new user registration must be the cause of there increase since it is very well done. Several key components could be added to make it more effective however it is still far better than in the past.

The basic viewer could easily be seen as the number one reason new users don't stay around or stay on as long but it has nothing to do with new users signing up since they have no idea there is such a thing as a basic viewer before the sign up.

The increase in logged in users being the same as it was last year at this time makes perfect sense, it's summer, no school.

So far the economic stats look good compared to the real world and considering nothing has been done to calm the effect of our current recession. Then again, some say the recession is still on the way, others says it is here  just getting worse, (depends on if you are in office or not) if so hopefully there are measures ready to be implemented to keep the virtual world open.