Michaelatv Destiny

I joined this, to make a difference, even though my time in SL is gradually coming to an end because of age related health issues. Not only am I supporter of this, As a an old ATC officer, I would also like to see LL turning up the heat on technology to make seamless oceans with no lag to, not 99.7 I measured the other day, especially in the Cove areas of Blake's Seas. If companies can make AI sex dolls in real life and LL allows AFK sex dolls in second life, (which I don't actually think they should be allowed to use female avatars which demeans woman even more) then LL should be working on improving the way we travel around areas of aviation and marine environments. With the continuing development of GTFO and Passenger timetables and pre - planned flights, LL must turn away from the smut which is over saturated, and dying out, as the days of making several hundred L$ a week from dancing on poles like I used to do pre land price hike days has long gone. On the flip side, there a few good parcels and half sims in Blakes that become more affordable, mainly due to the landlord group allowing renting of large land plots instead of trying to impossibly sell a 2 million L$ sim. I was very lucky indeed to find an open ocean sim not far from Acknefar, 16,500 size for just 8,500 L$ a week, (courtesy of "Destiny Estates") for my last project, an interactive rp, living, staffed, Drilling rig "The Deep Water Horizon" already loved by the SLCG for training purposes. it goes online soon after 5 months construction, and staff will be needed. medics, security officer, all paid by the new Smartbot banking module. so while I enjoy this last project I am likely to do, I would support anything that improves our experiences in this field. MY GTFO Rig Tender ship aptly named as the Damon Bankster will be put into service soon, so I need staff to use it in group perms and helicopter pilots to deliver staff to the DWHP from the Bristows D-139 executive helicopter pads in "Storms Calm", 12 sims away. (Staff openings can be seen soon on many aviation and related groups and also at the office in SLNO.) Good luck with your endeavour (Im an oldie bought up on Analogue, the digital age and its complications are far harder for the likes of our age group to understand.So I would like to thank three vendors who have kindly helped to make mesh models of realistic Rig Lifeboats for me, (not available on market place), a modifiable small crane, and lastly the owner of "Basic Elements"who is modding me a Mud 35 meter high blow out fountain. Have a lovely weekend

Sorry I dont come back here now, I just made a point. In the GoT sim I had, I stated categorically on an entry sim notecard that I dont claim to impersonate any RL person from Game of Thrones only a fictitious character. Further more I made it clear some of the items used were credited to HBO. What you would be more bothered about, would be how did creators get past LL mesh import rules on licenced objects. The iron Throne you can buy from several market place stores, "That's actually financial gain from selling a licensed HBO item, which HBO could challenge. It should not be confused with a place that is just for meant for presentation purposes. I wonder how many creators of Aircraft paint approached Flybe, Quantas, British Airways, Lufthansa and American Airlines if they could sell their brand livery in SL? As for Klytyna I wont reply to her comments, because they are so inaccurate in all aspects, I would be wasting my and her time trying to correct her totally Incorrect assumptions. ~This is now closed~. Thank you for the input, have a lovely Christmas and a prosperous new year.

I tried Sinespace, but found it clunky and movements were not as precise as SL and don't seem to be anything like our the Market place for decent clothes shoes, or watches and scripted items yet, and found it devoid of anyone!! Flying Aircraft looks a long way off yet there yet. I Just want LL to remove grids from long stretches of LL oceans. Did you know even though oceans are devoid of prims, the lag in them according to my ATC testier device for reporting ATC traffic conditions return 85% lag, when a sim adjacent to it has only 56% lag, but has vehicles , homes and boats in it. It cant be that difficult to make the long stretches of Blakes Seas Ocean Airline Routes seamless, as they are belong LL maintenance or protected waters, it will never have residents prims in them, so one of the biggest hindrances to air travel and large yacht crossings would be to make more than two ocean grids seamless. Thus attracting more people in the area, and maybe like me, our airports can actually break even with increased traffic. My Concorde never makes a journey to the North of Blakes Seas regions, It fails after just a few grids, and thats very annoying when you think to actually start up a Concorde ready for taxi, its quite a long process of 5-6 minuets or more. On the RP issue, as I said, I had already changed my name to an early princess of the first Valyrian's which first settled at Dragonstone after being pushed out of Dorne and parts of the Dothraki lands. If the woman had acted properly and Asked me to remove certain items i would have complied. But her action was contrary to the TOS that state residents will not be harassed by landlords, and they have to pick a time with you to meet at your home, not break in. A home is private and is nothing to do with the land owner unless there huge borders or items or offensive items that might break the TOS content, but then the sim was (A) rated, so, shes just a Hitler, and glad my other two friends didnt join. Its no wonder almost all of her homes are empty with 40 still going. What she should have done, is Put peoples homes way up 1500 meters above the sim, which means it is out of the range of RP meters. Most of us in Combat sims had a home, but it had to be at a certain level, so you couldn't camp and get XP just for sitting at home. In other words it was your OOC home. Not related to the rules of the rp sim in any way. Thank you all, wont be about till next week now, catch up on some replies next week.

Mitsuko Foxtrot Thank you for the url to this game of Thrones Community, But I have already had a bad experience with one GoT sim, where I joined the Targaryen guild, It had 50 or so apartments. I took a large one at 349L a week, But only 3 days into it, I found the land officer had broken into my home, and was sending back all my items, because although its my personal room and legally rented per LL TOS she took it upon herself to harrass me and send items back that didnt belong to her, and was not in any violation of TOS. her pathetic excuse is that pictures of Tyrion , Missandei and Ser Jorah dont fit in with her sim. She even send back my expensive throne. I dont know why these owners and, unfortunately yourselves keep making rp sims that are not current to the series, meaning, Just because Daenerys was not about 200 years ago, Im harrased by my name I made months ago which is ~Khaleesi~. I had already started to abide by this German woman's wishes by finding a name out of my new book of Ice and Fire on the beginnings of Essos. I took the name of the first Andal princess before the TV series was ever heard of. but she sent me a message saying my" rp is out of My sims history, we have to talk", But she didnt give me the courtesy of speaking to her, she illegally broke into my home on a contract binding and paid for, "I can put whatever I like in my own home", I was so annoyed, I just used my "Dracarys" gesture with magma Dragon Blast and bounced her around her own sim, which of course got me banned. There's to many Hitlers out there who think they are god, and forget they may own the sim, but they have to abide by LL tos by not harrassing paying residents on a sim, especially entering my home without permission and sending back wholesale all my items she had no legal right to do, as they were not adult rated, so didnt break any TOS. These sort of people just make me want to give it all up. NOR was the biggest RP and urban combat going for many years 12 sims, with 200 people every day. I made all my friends in their, but all have gone, even my best mate who got me into NOR in 2008, who is still here, only logs twice a week, theres nothing for her to do, although shes in Gor Valkerie Forest I joined with her back in 2011, Gor sims are now mostly empty. I cant really play in GOR as a GoT character as obviously not by the same author and I recognize this, but I want to join a GOT group which is up to date to the series, not 200 years before hand.? I believe the problem is I feel happier in RP sims and and Im a career player, which is why I have worked very hard, to be awarded titles such as Admin / Moderator, an OOC Ambassador Title was given to me on my skills in diplomacy, which I used under truce to form or complain about incursions or problem players to enemys. I think MMORGS on PCs and this new PS4 which I cant afford, have taken the Role players away from SL which is more the poorer. I would love to play Star wars battlefront II but i need a new computer to play that, or a PS4 as I have a PS3 not supported. Oh well, thanks for all your comments, I wish i could go back into aviation, in Blakes Seas where I trained and got my certificate as an Air traffic Controller, but there is no job like that for me any longer, auto landing and take off technology has put me out of a job I loved so much as an airport owner, and flying any one of my 50 aircraft from a humble Cessna to a Fully operational Boeing 737 which i actually fly in a home made cockpit using flight sim x on a XP computer at home with multiple screens. But because of grids flying airliners to other destinations fails 60% of the time. SL wasnt really made to transport 6 passengers in an Airliner, its almost impossible just to get the pilot and co pilot to cross three sims without being ejected to the ocean floor. Anyway enough now, I will hopefully find my niche in time, but dont think it will even be in sl any more, because the comradeship of urban combat has all but disapeared, and that was my main activity in SL to be part of the urban combat community and work my way up to the top, being respected, drawing up raid plans with my fellow players. :((((

Thank you Zeta. I notice that you put in 90k of L$ in three weeks. That, for me as a pensioner is what I may spend in 18 months!!!. I just cant afford 4k tier and 2K advertizing each week out of my limited set government income, without renting out the Atonement walk hill mall rental stalls. If SL wasn't so expensive, if you create themed sims, I would stay, but I already emptied the half homestead and took my items. Its just boring sitting , looking at my CCTV and seeing one person come and then go every day. i have two personal bots with addons to give people help. that's 900L a week plus I have 5 ad boards at adult places and recruitment agencies which is another 500L a week. I did good with my sims with my rl friend way back, and we had all our beach front houses rented at out at Ko ping 007 sim. But that was before greedy LL pushed up the prices of land, and many many places just like ours were losing more than covering the full sim tier. if you cant make enough to cover your tier, then its not a viable business. Even attractions have to at least break even, or your digging into your household funds. I really dont see any future for sl while it remains one of the highest pay to create platform, and still uses outdated grids, when every thing I seen in last two years is seamless. The failure to provide the much hyped Second life 2 never happened, and also left residents in limbo , not knowing if the two was going to be operating side by side, which also had the effect of not attracting new people unsure of wether sl as we know it would go. People are also sick at having two restarts On a Tuesday instead of one, which is very inconvenient while texturing or moving multiple items with a bloody gong going off only 2 hours earlier.!! Lately when I return, items and pavements scripted things like sand storm emmiters and sim borders have gone missing or their gone out of alignment, why should we pay all this money out when LL cant even do a restart without sim owners having to go round clearing up LL's mess afterwards!!

One a Upon A time I had a Rez day In October 2007 that now makes me 10 years old here. Been back in here about two years after numerous health issues. But I am finding SL to be very depressing to what it was from 2009. The technology has improved somewhat, except from Grids in oceans making flying or sailing large vehicles still a nightmare. I used to have 56 friends, most of which were from urban Combat sims, Like NOR (Remembrance 12 sims). Since LL joined the teen grid, Most urban combat groups closed down very quickly because teens would not take orders on Role Play rules or be respectful to admins, which was none negotiable. Most of my Friends have long gone, Im lucky out of 12 I have left to see 4 Online during an 8 hour period. United Kingdom Time. In those days I was a manager of a German Shemale Club, that boasted full houses 4 out of 7 days every evening till 11pm (CET) Although German was spoken most new some English, I met many lovely people of all genders, and the dancers looked up to me as , not only their friend & confidant , but their manager to help them become better dancers and use Emotes carefully. I don't see that same close community over the last 2 years? All I seem to see is clubs, where everyone is scared to speak, or interact with each other, I also see insane rules, made by High Born owners, that If your not using an expensive avatar, or two many scripts they kick you from the sim!?? How is that supposed to help new residents learn , who don't know what a classic, mesh, Slink, Catwa body is yet ?, Im at a loss to understand their mind set, that would turn away a resident just because they may still be in noob clothing. They seem to forget everyone was a noob at one stage, and that must hurt the amount of new traffic that comes into SL. Who do not have Mentors to help them anymore, they will leave & find something else, that has empathy with them. I just finished a L$16,000 Game Of Thrones rp and adult attraction, using only the very best textures,and modified ballroom The most expensive drapes, carpets, Dragon Wine Goblet Trays, medieval Top end interactive adult Furniture you wont find in your average sex Hole dirty establishment, Lots Of Banners, so members can talk or banter about the houses they support. Additionally there is 5 Fiery topped dance poles, a VEA hi grade Widescreen where I screen great video from my own content I stream from StreamHoster, which I also pay a monthly fee. It has 4 themed sky rooms in corners of the sim, It has its own "Castle Hill", with the walk of Atonement audio built into the cobbles. In days gone by, I used to have to go on a waiting list to be considered to be a dancer, now I find myself having to pay out 1000L a week on recruitment boards in world to take on 5 dancers, which I still haven't filled, so I cant really open until I have at least three dancers. 2000L$ a week goes into the classified ad for it, but, me and Missandei don't see a soul all day long. Its really heartbreaking to to think you took all those hours / weeks on building, researching on Google history making textures and audio sounds to .wav. Paying the image uploads, paying the land Tier & make a unique attraction, inspired by "Littlefingers" premises, from GoT, yet residents seem apathetic to exploring new interesting places & groups. (uninterested, indifferent, unconcerned, unmoved, unresponsive, impassive, passive, detached, uninvolved, disinterested, unfeeling, unemotional, emotionless, dispassionate, lukewarm, cool, uncaring, half-hearted, lackadaisical, non-committal) What has happened to the community spirit that was once strong in SL? No one I speak to now ever send a friends request, that's of course If I actually find people in the daytime to talk to. has everybody forgotten how to have an intelligent conversation? Even market place vendors only come down to sort out a problem with an item, and leave in the middle of me talking to them, that's just plain rude, and can you imagine that in a real store. Why are residents so detached from each other,? emotionless, disinterested? We in the UK love The game of Thrones and will do anything to keep it alive with topics and being able to enter the World as an avatar, being in a place built by fans for fans? Is the use of none Human bots to blame? is it society as a whole?, who just expects them to pamper their needs, without so much as A good word. I remember back when I was a Minister, (and still am), I was asked to marry 5 couples over a period within the communities of the urban combat community. Its an honour to be asked tomarry couples in pretty surroundings, and work with the people involved and getting together and writing down settings and doing rehearsals. I don't think the average resident actually knows how much work and real money goes into creating things just for them. I still find day times extremely Lonely As a retired person, I dont get out much because of disabilities, In the days of 2009, I could rely on a good day of convos and interaction with laughter and sometimes attachments. Today, to me SL has become the Tower of "faceless men of Bravos". I do know its more expensive for UK residents to pay for items and especially land, because our country is locked in a battle with Europe, and the once High rate of GBP to the US$ remains stubbornly low, with land costing a third more than before Brexit. I really dont Know What to do now? I got over the abuse years ago of being Transgendered, that doesnt bother me now, But the lack of connection between people socially is alarming. This is a social platform, but it seems more and more residents are unmoved, indifferent, and for the most part I would call most of them walking Dead. I wonder even more, if this platform is only being used by well off Americans who can afford mainland prices and not even cough. For us Europeans, are hands on finances have been curtailed by sky high petrol, energy bills, huge traveling costs and out of control real life rents and Council taxes, leave a lot of us with little real disposable income. I like to visit malls and shopping in world, but, contrary to 2009, I dont see a single other soul while Im there. Does anybody else think SL has become detached from its prime directive? That was to make a diverse unique living world, but with a social media platform that was state of the art. These days , I find 30 groups dedicated to GoT on Facebook which everyone is full or interactive people I enjoy talking about plots and the Seven Kingdoms. Here There is no such desire, if anything, SL seems so dead, the Playstore's walking Dead no mans land game I play has more social interaction within my guild, than I have in 7 days being still in Second Life. I really don't know what people want here anymore, most of them look like zombies, wandering aimlessly around, looking like lost sheep. Once, residents went about together or in groups to stores and Jazz clubs, How can one ever get an attraction going, with the Apathetic attitudes of residents, who seem to have the IQ of a "Wildling!" ..At least "White Walkers" have a purpose and a goal, but many here seem to be almost afraid to be seen? Send Your crows with a scroll if you want to reply, But I doubt I will get any apart from the usual Trolls who only have one line of text in their vocabulary

I Just noticed this, and like to add, that Like Facebook who dont take seriously anything to do with online abuse. The LL TOS may not apply, But many countries including the UK I live in would prosecute a forced rape even on a pixel avatar. Since Political correctness has crept into the Internet, thousands of Police forces around the globe are watching you online instead of being on the beat. Also it is illegal here to watch or take part in ***** pixel sex or even doggy parts for sale or Psuedo Images of it especially if its a screenshot downloaded to your H/D, thats used for evidence if your computer is seized .....Also we have to keep away from market place adverts advertising schools outfits, BDSM photos in black and white, that say school on them,,young avatars, although you may want to be a kid, the law is very grey on what constituents an offence within the new laws. Anime & Manga is targeted regularly By cops now, even in America when once you could happily be an Anime fan like I was, and have nothing to fear, but that all changed after the BBC cover up of young teens abuse scandals. Buying adult Anime dolls models from japan with plastic panties half way down in provocative poses is illegal to from Ebay uk, because they are built to look like school girls with big Breasts. UK laws that depict an underage person whether pixel or a model & Being in possession of one of these is an offense. So although some USA laws and LL TOS Rules seem to be benign, legally in a lot of countries pixel rape and what I have outlined above is a criminal offence. This is one reason I avoid any AFK brothel sims, because the real law takes a dim view of these. It wont be long before we have another Sky news scandal breaking, like we did years ago, when Linden labs was accused of keeping secret kiddie playgrounds for perverts to play with, That didn't go away for months and led to a clamp down by LL or they would face some governments, (which the UK was one), to block Second life from British servers and residents. Until LL take the nasty stuff out of SL, many people are unaware what they doing or creating is borderline or an offense in the country they / you live in.

Dancers needed for new venue *Littlefingers* Adult premises, inspired by Game Of Thrones, made by fans for fans. Newcomers or experienced welcome. Friendly help from a previous German Shemale Dance Manager, dress code for dancers is Satins & Silks,plus undergarments. You keep 100% of tips. Arrive at Kings Landings, walk the hill of atonement, Give the "Girl who has no name some coins If your so inclined", enter the middle walkway, there is ad boards there if you want to offer services. There is also 4 themed medieval sky rooms accessed by pay TPs. To use the flaming dance poles and log in once accepted you must join the Staff group to be able to continue. Newcomers have to be a certain second Life age or payment on file before entering (A) Adult sims & attractions. Find us in search under "Littlefingers". This is not a run of the Mill sex hall, we expect House banners to be upheld , friendly banter between people who support different Houses, and Khaleesi & Missandei, will overlook proceedings from her throne. All genders welcome as they are in Dorne, (except for Furry, Animals, Sci Fi charactors, or Amine or under age looking avatars. Look us up at "Love Temptation Isle". Drop me a line, My Dragons wont hurt you...yet! ~Khaleesi~ Queen of Meereen, breaker of Chains , Mother Of Dragons & protector Of the realm

This may be an old thread, But I still use A low profile dell XP professional, which I upgraded myself with new low profile ATI graphics with HDMI and VGA and Creative labs 2.1 card which thankfully is still available to install on windows XP. The RAM is 4gig, but the lower DDR2, but I use Flight Sim X on it on an Airbus A320 mock cockpit, and with 4 usb instrument physical Instrument panels. connected to a USB2 hub..... I hardly get any problems using it, even though i have in my few Folders British Airways 2015 Downloaded A320's which Are more sophisticated, my monitor resolution is limited to about 20Inch screen, But I can use the HDMI socket to the monitor that gives better visuals. I intend to use it soon, to install the 32 bit Firestorm on it, because I have multiple characters, that I use in a special sim, and my win7 gaming machine, can not handle more than two multiple viewers at the same time. So my third character who's in a special group, apart from my smartbots, I will hopefully be able to use separately, and get all characters to walk without to much lag, using a second smaller TV screen we bought earlier in year, which supports PC inputs... I am lucky to have a very high Fibre optic Virgin connection which has never been short on bandwidth to power the 5G wi fi on my NOW TV, as well as feeding the router cable into the Ethernet plug on back, of my win 7 64bit gaming machine. As long you simply put settings at minimum, it should work, Im not looking for a fairy land look, just basic settings so I can move 3 characters around as a group simultaneously . NHS and Councils plus the Navy still use XP nationwide in the UK. Microsoft doesn't think of large providers of countries critical services, and the cost of fitting the whole countries many thousands of OP systems, servers and updated computers to the huge NHS GPs surgerys and council offices is not financially viable to local Government funding which is very limited (Tory Austerity you can thank for that), and really Microsoft with it billion dollar incomes since 1995, should still patch XP users with the odd security patches, especially like the latest Encrypted Bitcoin Hijack a month or two ago. Because my computer was built primarily as a Flight management computer, it has no software like emailing or Imaging, music,Amazon or anything else, so the H/D is literally empty, which gives a good boost to performance. It rarely connects to the net, because I don't need it, so security risks for an hour online a day maybe, I dont think will be a problem, I have other small malaware software installed, that If I so wish I can upgrade & protect the XP once every two to three months. As yet, I have to set it all up again as haven't been in use for 13 months, maybe I let you know how it goes. Some Low profile Graphic cards are more powerful than they actually are, and plenty still to choose from Ebay or Amazon uk. Just my two penny worth.

Well, since I started this thread, at least one good thing happened. The stung UK users are getting 1.30$ for our 1 GBP, thanks to Trumps mishandling of his countries finance. With that in mind I have found A Homestead with all estate perks for a competitive 6999L$....Thats £22 a week at the current rate, and that's affordable, especially with the extra prims. LL doesn't understand their own policy of floating the L$ works both ways. Lindens have made millions, from NOT their platform, but from the community's creations at large. By today's gaming platforms standards, Second Life remains a bit of a dinosaur, with grids which are 6 years past their sell by date. A lot of improvements still to be made at little cost to LL. namely, stopping the punitive charge for uploading a photo. More affective way of dealing with griefers and abuse. re working the 10 second ridiculous audio upload into 2 minutes playing time at least, would help many, like me, who make, buy or sell Audio sounds, which is almost impossible in 10 seconds. Some people say there is still good places. Well , I used to have many friends in urban combat sims, and (Avatar-Pandora) where I was well known as admin, moderator and once a mentor. But LL has let the biggest Community completely fall, which WAS NOR Remembrance, which consisted of 12 sims. The last remaining sim, which in its heyday you had to wait up to 10 minutes to get into, shockingly closed, after problems with owners AND LL refusing to budge on some legal matter. Games should NOT involve politics or anything to do with legalities. In total LL acquiring an income of 4,800US$ from the buyers of those sims, together with maintenance charges, these 12 sims provided a huge income. Now all that is left is empty space!! While LL artificially keeps the cost of sim owner ship and rental prices up, instead of down to previous levels, in keeping with normal game playing subscriptions and costs, and not taking into account that Finance In the EU is nothing like The Californian Bubble they work in visitor numbers will continue to decline. France for instance, has a 10% unemployment rate. How do you drag hard up Parisians into renting or buying land or even buy the best Slink or Katwa head, when most can't afford even a phone line, let alone a fast Broadband connection. In closing, I remember the days me and My Friend Susan spent, on an empty homestead or full sim, HOPING we would win the right to get it. because hunting for an empty sim back before LL savagely upped the land rates, You had competition from three other interested parties, standing on the same land hoping to buy it. Now, the place is awash with hundreds if not thousands of sims for rent or sale, and never in the last 7 years have I had to sway an owner to let us have it over someone else. The other thing that still worry's me, is Linden labs allowance of extreme content. In my country of the UK, Zoophilia or doggy sex, is illegal to see, download or take part in, either real or simulated. The new Digital age Act introduced last year, makes it illegal to interact even with pixel simulated Zoophilia, But Lindens reject any complaints, that some countries citizens are at risk from being found prosecuted by the new abuse technology centres, that can flag up what you are doing online. In the end, like face Book, LL will have to toe the line, or face government actions and huge fines for allowing or actively encouraging an illegal act. i'm Hopeful, with the UK Pound up again, but not as high as 1.49$ - 1£ will encourage more of my old UK friends to return.

Well not to worry Guys I already had 12 weeks of a taste of the Second Life that is not the Second Life I knew and loved. I already pulled out and left. Sorry you dont like my comments, but Im just an old codger missing the Sixties , where I would happily transport back to any time. farewell and have a great Second Life, what ever is left of it. :))

Well, all I can say to posters who disagree, is that Second Life as far back as when I joined in 2007, the slogan was "Come to SL and make a real life income"!! 10 years later and 37,000 items later and a conservative amount of £2,600 spent, I would say LL owes me something for my investment. In 2008 when I first got taken on to be a dancer I had nothing to my name, no payment on file, a Noob, but after a while, I learned some basics of interacting with customers, and I still remember the American guy who popped in most evenings, and always paid me 500L tips....this allowed me to buy my first dance hud, and together with more attractive clothes, I was raking in a nice 1000L a week. In further years, I became A dance manager for a very busy German Shemale club, I got paid for my work, and worked with the girls training them in the etiquette of pole dancing. My weekly income then was around 2000L$ a week. Then all that went pear shaped when LL upped the land rates, and literally overnight all the best clubs, the best Jazz themed sims just collapsed into empty sims, and SL after that was never the same again. Most girls tip jars I see now are empty, me and my manager made sure our dancers were given a start, the owner gave me 1,500L$ each day, and when I was on duty, I had to fill the girls tip jars we employed, (10% of there takings) with 100L$ each to start them off. Also the free money ball I had to put 500L in to last the night. We are supposed to be better off, since 2007, but In today's Second life making a SL living from dancing or club ownership now, seems to be impossible because people are so tight, for one reason or another. yes Phil, thank you for your input in the thread, I found in 2007-11 we had loyal customers you saw and talked to every night,and weekends were packed, that we had lag with 25 people in "jellys" club. and when I danced with the girls as well, which I enjoyed, I never went home empty handed. it depends on the definition of a hobby in Second life. I was in it at first to make money as the slogan said, but later went on building courses, and how to form groups and how to set up a hippo box. Think Im just grouchy that people want, but dont want to give in appreciation, that seems to be the world over now, "something for nothing"? I mean i give people the latest interactive massage tables, a secondary screen, so they can still watch while under a sun bed, but I just dont get SL now, people seem to be forever flitting to one place and another like a fly on heat, not staying even to take a proper look round to see what the owner is offering. I see it as just lack of traffic. IE lack of resident numbers against a lot of places trying to get the most punters. I remember the Pandora Sims, I still own many animals and an Ikran, plus all the beautiful flowers and shimmering carpets of grass, that you saw in Avatar. but at 7000L$ a week for a homestead rent, to make another Pandora I and a friend used to run, I know we would be losing money left and right, because there is no way to recover 7000L$ to cover a weeks tier from a themed sim like that, but the cost to make it, including 500 hours, and between us around £200 in items, we leant the hard way that Second Life doesn't pay, or live up to its famous slogan, "Come to SL and make a real life Income", whatever happened to that?

Haha! Quite funny your Ex didnt try and get you to be your cabin crew. Actually I do have a bevy of lady followers in some James Bond groups on face book, that liked my screen shots of my Airbus 320 and my virtual cockpit, and it being fuelled and the passenger coach embarking passengers. I started up doing holiday flights for us, and was going to make a video of a flight containing some of my friends, it was to "Nice" in fact, and I had My Texan friend as chief hostess, as she was the mature lady, and you couldn't say no to our bossy boots Friend!! My South African friend wanted to be second hostess and I called her Moneypenny, which has stuck with her for a couple of years now LOL., the others wanted to serve drinks and especially a "Vesper", Daniel Craigs yummy cocktail he named a Vesper in Casino Royale. Unfortunately FSX has its own problems. it was made to run on Windows XP, Microsoft dumped it rather than make a windows 7 version of it, so its not supported or an updates for a long time now, and that leads to constant crashing of the program, which your 40 minutes into a flight over the Swiss Alps at 30,000 feet, would just disappear and you had to restart all over again. it wasnt worth the investment in further Saitek controls, as they are £100 an Instrument panel. There are lots of sites showing how to make FSX more stable, but its beyond me, as you have to use special programs and change parts of the Bios and registry, which is only for technical savvy computer users. I used to screens, One large widescreen for main view, and a secondary one on right, to drag the Throttle quadrants, the braking system and ATC window. That in itself was quite hard, so hard in fact, I went bought a refurbished XP computer just to be able to use FSX as it was meant to be. Im a certified Air traffic controller here in Second Life, I passed the exams and finished with a practical ATC test of directing my mentor into a landing at new Horizons Airport. There are only about 4-6 people in SL with the title now, but again, things have changed, its not realistic any more, airport owners use automated landing and take off ATC programs, so I am redundant, and anyway, fliers dont take the procedures for starting up, taxiing or waiting for clearance any more, they fly sophisticated Airliners, But cant be bothered to use real life procedures on approach , cruising or landing, the grid system also adds hopeless lag to try and land on runways correctly, and its daft, that creators make high quality Aircraft, but LL wont go the extra mile and make it easier to pass onto another Sim at 50 knots more easier. really this old fashioned grid system is holding back the development of pay to fly programs, because although theres a group called SL passengers, until there is a 99% chance the flight with 5 avatars will actually make it to another destination, there is no way passengers are going to pay up front for flights, if they going to end up on sea bed. Also did you know, oceans that are empty, still show 80% lag on my French made lag tester meter, there should be NIL, because there is nothing in an ocean, its something that LL has failed to tackle since 2010. Where did your ex fly from and to?

yes Marigold Bots are giving a false visitor numbers, I own two of my own, they not there to push real visitors up, there there to provide entertainment for visitors, to be served by Daniel Craig or pay Stephanie 1L to peel off her pole dancing clothes. As second life as a Hobby, well, I got involved with Aviation in SL many years ago. I fly Virtual Airbuses IN Flight Sim x in real time, with actual real time procedures, and Air traffic control interaction. My Hub is Manchester Airport. I have an addon, that looks jut like the real Airport. I fly to many European cities with Nice and Monte Carlo being my favourite destinations, I used to have a mock up cabin of an A320 in a box room, with panels which was physical, meaning to raise the landing gear, you have to pull the lever on the panel to do so. I Love flying in SL, apart from ocean sims not being seamless. LL refuses to make oceans seamless, And I have argued for the case many years. I used to own two 65k lands . For my British Airways complex over two sims, based on BAA land (British Airways Authority). But before LL upped the land fees the two combine lands only cost me £40. a week. But offset by £20 of that being income from fliers renting hangers and tie downs. We had more income then, and still ran a car as petrol was still relatively cheap. However since becoming disabled with crippling Arthritis, and now I have a suspicious tumour plus other ailments you get when you approach 66, I don't really have a life any more, except on the computer, and Second Life as it says, allows you to do things that are impossible in real life. The problem for us, is the Government changed lots of rules on changes to benefits we used to get. We have to pay council tax now, which pensioners were exempt from up to now. Also because of my needs we moved into a warden controlled large sheltered 34 apartment building 40 miles away which is safer for us both, in case I take a fall. Although some charges we dont have to pay here, we have to find £36 a week towards the rent here,because of housing benefit has been capped.... so both combined our two weekly pensions have been robbed by nearly £60 a week . So for me, making themed sims is part of my life, I manage to use photo shop Elements 11 to make textures and posters. SL is a Hobby I used to enjoy. An admin, a moderator, a diplomatic officer in GOR and Urban combat leader. So I really felt in those days I was contributing a lot to the Second life community. However residents just dont seem to realise how much work and cash goes into an entertainment centre just for them. My streaming Hoster to deliver HD720 cinema quality videos on the HD VEA setup, cost me another £15 a month. But when only 5 people visit for 10 minutes, leave without putting some Lindens in my donation jar, It says to me, residents have no idea how much it costs to give them what they want.. They except everything to be free, thats not possible to sustain, Im not a charity after all. I am a creator (typical Gemini), but creators are not getting the financial reward for their efforts. only the Mega Sim renters make an actual living from SL. maybe quite a few clever people who understand How to build a mesh item from one those external software programs, make good money from clothes and sophisticated yachts and Airliners. Unfortunately I only know about Analogue equipment, bought up without internet and DAB radios and electronics. I ran my own garage business for 23 years before my back started to go, but Now I have no idea how modern cars work, because all the vehicles i worked on up to 1987 were simple to repair. Like escorts, Mini Clubmans, Hilman Avengers and Cortina's plus all the vans, like Transits, HA Vauxhall vans, and Commer vans the post office used. If i was maybe 20+ odd years younger, I may have got training into the digital Era, and making my own mesh models to make and texture, sadly that is beyond my capabilities, I am a mechanic, A VHS recorder Engineer for some years, so for me, SL has become even more technical , and these new avatar types, I really have no idea how to use them. I used to have 60-70 friends in SL. now I have but 10, with all my other residents long gone, which is sad.

Marigold Devon mentions that roughly 36,000 residents log in each day. That's a drop in the ocean according to the wiki of Second Life, the average number of residents logged in at any one time in 2010 was 54,000. That's a drop of 18,000 residents average rate logging regularly in 7 years. So I repeat, Where has these 18,000 previous users gone and why?

To be honest Linden Labs policy of the L$ Not being real Currency, more like Play money is open to dispute, because in every game I have played, be it WOW, SWTOR, Dark Orbit, Battlefield 3-4, Penny Dreadful and most Android for Phones or used on Blue stacks through the Google Play store are set prices every month. Linden Labs float the L$ against real time Market rates, hence in my opinion that makes it a bona fide Virtual currency. Why its linked to The finance markets I have never known, because Lindens have always maintained this a GAME, not a Financial Business Model or has any sort of official standing in World markets. Lindens do themselves no favours by still not setting land or parcel Tiers at a frozen rate. That would help struggling people, who live in areas with economic uncertainty's. Perhaps If Lindens froze Their L$ rate without floating it against real currencies or a couple of years, More Euro residents like from UK and Greece, and other countries struggling to cope, maybe could at least have a chance of their virtual little stores to survive. LL fail to recognise that CA is a state which probably has the highest Real Estate prices, High tourism, Actors and Rich Sporting heroes living there make CA One of the Richest Areas of the world, but They seem to forget, 90% of the worlds population live in tiny apartments, small terrace houses, and Not the huge Mansions that exist in CA and surrounding states, that benefit form CA's massive income. Don't forget CA also makes nearly 1Billion$ income PER year from legalised Cannabis Taxes and sales tax rather like Colorado that returned figures much the same for 2015................Nearly all European Cities are stubborn to legalise it and benefit from Millions of Euro's or GBP from its sales. So, really CA lives in its own rich Bubble, many Sims are turning the SL Map ever more yellow or abandoned land, left empty because Their previous owners haven't the disposable income any more that we enjoyed pre 2011. Lets not forget, that terror attacks, like life , still goes one, But does have an impact on peoples security & that does have a negative impact on the worlds markets. Financial markets hate uncertainty, and if Russia and the US get into the so called Proxy war over Syria, Wall Street and London to name a few, could see a financial collapse of the like not seen since the 1900's. Already today China and Japan, ( I note Toshiba) is to be sold off and broken up, leaving thousands with uncertainty if there going to go back to work in the morning. All these factors have NEVER been taken into consideration by fat cat Executives of Linden labs living in sprawling Mansions with swimming pools, that most us could only dream off. In the end LL will pay a heavy price for being complacent and not changing its pricing policy to most of the mainline gaming Companies, that don't use their game coins or jewels currency as a means to make even more Money. L$ is outdated, unfair game money, that should not be floated to make easy money, its like LL is playing the stock market, To me thats not a GAME as LL says, it is not a game, it a business financial Structure made to maximise LL profits, the insane 10L charge to upload one image should be abolished, as that's just A punitive exploitation of residents who. like me, have to upload a lot's of images for store photo Sets, slide shows, media presentations and lots more. As an example last June 2016 My 65k Blakes Sea Airport Land cost me £49 a week. After Brexit, the next weeks Tier had shot up to £55. I , on a state pension along with the wife, had to let my Friend take it over, as it just wasn't possible to cope with a £6 rise a week, even after that, my friend had to give it up last month, as we are both Brits and lots of renters were Brits, hangers started to go empty, flights became none existent, and even though I helped out with some tier for her, by renting a parcel for my HM Coastguard station and vessels, She sold the Sim, she had taken a year to buy, because she was losing money, by the tiers not covering the outgoings..... LL maintenance policy which I always think is illegal. You buy a car its yours. You buy 65K land for £900 it still not yours, LL creams money from a maintenance charge. They dont need that, they have enough income coming in already. Its little wonder old 2005 bugs still remain, still no seamless oceans to sail or fly in, Abandoned land is never put up for sale like it should be, leaving huge swathes of Governer Linden land devoid of residents. Thats some Governor, who cant be bothered to put the abandoned land up for sale as soon its been vacated?? SL needs to downgrade to a normal game platform, most newcomers I have met recently are leaving after a couple of weeks because, now the mentors are no longer, (which I was one and A mentor in the old urban combat sims,) because, most go about Second Life, trying to work out what a ban line is or an orb,( cant understand why they being chucked out of sims) and group and land and media is far over complicated, for gamers used to just putting a disc in the PS4 tray or playing a hi graphic Online game like "Revelation", which I have just started playing, and spent no money on it so far. "Crowfall", a new game that I was a fund raiser for, as some Second Life residents Like the "Chung" family were in the staff of making it, has failed to to open on time, because of various issues, pushing back the release date and that's also losing funding backers unless its team open it soon, and millions of $ or GBP already pledged by myself and others, may have to call for refunds if it fails to launch. oh well. time to shut up!!, and pull down my new cinema complex, as 5 people a week only visit, no tips no visitors, waste of weekly tier money and classified advert cash if I have to fund the whole parcel & advertising. The time is ripe for Lindens to introduce a monthly sub to access SL, like Star wars the Old Republic. In my opinion this needs doing to verify age, because there is some Vile places around, which in the UK that are actually illegal to look at or interact with, like Zoophlia doggy stuff. Thats illegal in the UK wether its virtual or not. Lindens should be concerned about making a family orientated SL instead of bizzare sickening adult places which gives SL a bad name like in the Sky News reports os some years ago. Thank you for the comments, but seems the answer lies in Lindens hands to make this a better, less complicated and affordable place to enjoy.. Micha After Note: (One poster mentioned new Avatar and clothing. I still have a classic Avatar as born in 2007, I dont understand mesh and all these new heads and layers, but one club actually ejected me for not wearing an appropriate Avatar and mesh clothes, talk about giving newcomers a chance? owners of clubs must be on drugs to eject avatars just because there not using a Maitreya shape and skin...) at my age I do not understand layers and alphas, but to remove a visitor for using his original clasic avatar just pushes even more people away.....as Spock would say. "Its Illogical"...??

It seems to me, that the decline of European users is in Free-Fall? I been away a long time, but recently hit the Second Life Trail again. I Just finished building a really nice Sexy HD 720 Cinema complex, expensive interactive solarium , cannabis Friendly & and information from Leafly "Clear", and "NORML", which strives to legalise MJ use in Britain and other EU countries... and lots more besides and pay a server to stream my own collection of paid adult movies as well as Chosen Adverts or trailers as you would see in a real cinema, I should be doing well, as my landlord's Club is right next door,I have a dancing Bot pole dancer, and Daniel Craig Bot being the bartender. but Its still empty today, unlike pre 2011, I was manager of a German She-male club, which was fairly busy, and frantic at weekends. Every store of 30-40 were rented, and other Clubs, which I enjoyed the company of other European Girls and guys seems to totally gone off the radar. But Even though I have A classified Ad going, a large Slide show in F- Halls huge adult sim, my United Kingdom Friends are disappointed the day time seems almost empty. Airports in Blakes Seas are like Ghost Towns. The Huge famous NOR Urban combat land of 12 sims has gone completely, when pre 2011 There was 70 avatars in those Sims, every day mostly French, UK, German, Austrian, and later swelled by Numbers from parts of the world waking up to 100 plus fraternity residents.. so it was Normal on Saturday & Sunday, the main Sim had a waiting list to enter, because it was full. But, actually not many Americans were into Urban Combat, But this didn't matter, as there was plenty of people from my Time zone especially Dutch, that were veterans from 2007 like me. What I am finding now, is even Gorean Sims, that me and my best friend used to be part of, in panther tribes, she hardly logs on now, because in The GMT zone, Gorean is pretty much empty as well. The other annoying matter is the lack of any daytime support for stores, tickets,& admin calls go unanswered. leaving many Europeans with No land tag after renting land until the next day, or any sort of support or answers about land problems.. I find almost all Online Indicator boards are all mostly RED in the European zone daytime. There was always a balanced mix of people from different time Zones, but Its frustrating to spend money and patience building a themed Sim, but boring and money wasting If No one seems to be visiting any of the adult clubs during GMT or CET. Time. I know My UK resident friends like me, are suffering bad GBP to US$ rate because of Brexit, but this is offset somewhat by the increase of prims available, which keeps the prices of smaller parcels attractive. Still Homestead and Full Sims to rent, are still to high for struggling Brits, with diesel pollution surcharges, council and housing benefit capped to a ridiculous degree, Life Insurances policies are everywhere NHS almost broken, and Funeral plan sites eat up our mediocre income... Petrol prices remain stubbornly high and again, Rail travel is a Joke,you need a mortgage Just to travel 150 miles on old packed trains, so that most haven't even got enough at end of week to pay a couple of weeks weeks tiers. But other EU countries are not affected at this time by Brexit, and I wonder what is driving the European users away, Which used to fill the Second Life daytime EU time Zones. Has there been a Shift away to more Android gaming Devices & interactive Consoles like the PS4 and smart Tvs? I myself use BlueStacks on my wide screen monitor, to play Penny Dreadful (Demimonde) game and also a keen user of "The Walking Dead No man's land" game. maybe some of us have lost faith in Lindens U turn on building a new second life,? hopefully we had hoped for new areas such as oceans made seamlessly, to be able to sail or fly without crashing at every sim, which by today's standards of seamless gaming is Archaic to say the least. I would welcome any comments , because I am a returner from around 2014, but find it depressing that EU time zone daytimes are almost empty of residents, only people like me retired, seem to be on-line during daytime, but finding people to talk to in pre 2011 or form a relationship was easy, not so now, the only firm thing I know is, griefers are still active!!!

Obviously You havent been an Admin or a mentor or a faction leader, because I was in a position where i already had 3 years experience of Combat sims, at the time of the teen grid merging, two couples paid out huge amounts of cash to run two new combat sims, I joined, but was at the time still a leader of a faction in another land, But I was getting lots of group chat from one of the new sims, I went to have a look, and it was chaos, The owners had to stop the meter system 4-5 times a day because of problem teens. A few days later, I spoke direrectly to the owners, who tearfully said they just couldnt cope any more, despite it being open only 4 weeks, just around the same time teen grid was merged. sadly it was impossible for them to keep order and it fair for decent players and they had to abandan the whole project which cost them about 60,000L$. it only takes 500 kids to ruin, grief many many popular sims, and I think your like a Tory, completely out of touch with the real world, "in world"! I dont see why the universal VLC player cant be used instead of outdated 32 bit Quicktime. There isnt even a 64bit version for windows 7 , even though 7 has been out a long time, without 64 bit quicktime, 64 bit computers like mine can not play video or parcel music in a lot of locations. Instead of making stupid remarks, perhaps you should put foreward your ideal media player and how to deal with unruly teens because they pose a real threat to people who want to run decent sims for decent people, but they no longer feel its worth the hassle. In the old days of busy combat sims, i would do a 6 hour stint as an Admin and having to sort out rule breakers & cheats and give out appropiate fair docks or 7 day bans. I dont mind critisism, but not when its not backed up by likes of you who think I have a beef with youngsters , I dont, I used to teach REAL youngsters In a special school teaching them how to write and spell simple words, after they left school illiterate. My understanding of the Tech is fine, otherwise I wouldnt be producing my own video scenes using Loili game recording software, plus, I have my own production team, who look after set design and more, the only way for us to use any sort of media on 64 bit singularity was to buy into Demios Tv, which works quite differently from normal media, and allows one to upload your own videos or musuc videos via the demios Website, but this cost us dear, around 7000L$ to buy all the pieces necessary to produce HD quality uploads we made to 007 facebook groups. I dont agree that "Thousands of people join Second life each day", its the other way round "Thousands leave every day leaving vast swathes of areas like Blakes seas empty with countless yellow for sale places. You Just dont want to admit its "sell by date has long gone my friend."

But the majority of the Adult areas are so full, you have to queue for a long time, because sims are full. Adult mainstream areas are where you likely find most avatars at any given time. In the days of the 12 sim NOR combat zones between 2007-2010, The place used to have up to 100 people fighting spread over all those sims. Whats keft of it now ,? go look up NOR and see if you can count 12 sims there now. LL also made a huge error letting the teen grid merge with the adult, meaning, adults who obey the rules put in to keep fair play, by using admins like myself, were not respected by teens, they caused almost all the urban combat sims to close, when once, there used to be 10 combat areas of up to 6 sims each to fight on. The only ones that remain, because of there strict rules, is Gorean Sims, but even those have changed with only a few people logging into them. Im UK, I hardly see anybody in Second life on in the daytime, its hardly worth logging in, renting anything, it takes anything up to 24 hours to be added to group, because no ones online in the daytime to add me. if you visit many sims and places to buy or rent, In European time. 80% of the time No one is available to talk to you, discuss terms or even get added to the land group, so you lose a day of your weeks rent straight away.

No Honey your wrong, read the TOS, Linden labs names this as a game only. The L$ has no financial worth at all, It may be a virtual world to us, But for get out clauses, LL only recognises this platform as a Game only, nothing less nothing more, There is no contract with said purchaser of land bought with real money, if the land was to disapear overnight, you have no legal recourse to any compensation what so ever. despite its so called real life economy its still based on you buying play money which is L$, it has no standing as real currency and never will do.

Why is it so empty? Thats so easy to answer, because people like me who want a 65k Play square to place another British Airways Airport in Blakes Seas, is being asked 800,000L$ . My real Flight FSX simulator, Mock up of an A320 with addons ground handling dedicated computer, and software can take me anywhere in the world seamlessly, for which the whole cockpit and the Saitek controls, Two brand new 24 inch Widescreen monitors came to just over £600. Its mine to keep for ever, its not connected to any DRM its owned by me alone. With no one knowing just how long this archaic platform with its old fashioned grids, the same bugs it had in 2007 will actually keep going, It seems Ilogical for anyone to risk putting that much money into something that LL call a game and you have no rights whatsover if it closed tomorow along with your 36,000 inventory Like I have. I now see more and more mega creators and Sim owners left on here since a quick return from 2 years break from it. For the normal general public who just want a 65k mainland to play around on, thats being increasingly impossible for many , because Real Life pressures on wallets have never been as hard as I know, since I joined here in 2007. In 2009-11, I rented Two adjacent full Sims in blakes Seas for BAA land from a private landlord, which I managed to keep going, until the problem of planes that couldnt make it to my Airport because of the failure of LL to address the crossings of these more and more complex Aircraft meant, most days I never saw one plane, let alone a Queue of traffic waiting to land, hence it was impossible to keep the land without an income. In the end the landlord also couldnt make ends meet, his long term partner who shared the 12 or so Sims he owned, upped and left leaving the one owner with all the maintainence fees to pick up. LInden Labs being the greedy lords they are, refused to cut him a deal, so instead of LL making any money at all, he had to abandan them all, leaving land still like it was in 2012,now in 2015 still abandoned and LL cant even be bothered to put them up for rent or buy again, 3 years have passed, and they all still empty doing nothing, When I could rent them, if LL put "For rent" at such a such L$ per week. To leave land empty for 3 years and not make them for sale or rent seems to be a brilliant way of losing customers and income. Lag and problems rezzing items without crashing is not what you expect of software in 2015, even more so if your investing vast amounts of money into expecting the latest mesh Airliner, will do excaclty as you want it to do, and thats to fly from A to B 99% of the time, because thats what is expected of todays technology. 2006 has been and gone, but still inherent bugs and problems with Quicktime player, which is so out of date as a media player, it should be consigned to the Museum. Why not make VLC player the default, and also let us upload at least a minute or two of Sound. capping sound uploads at 10seconds, is proof that this platform is beyond its sell by date, and anyone daft enough to pay 800$ into such a dinosour now needs there head examined.

Ok, installed firestorm latest 64 bit version, the video plug in works ok, but every avatar is missing many if not all its clothes, legs or heads, My avatar is fully rendered, but the others i see have completely missing bodies or holes you can see through. next step? haha

yes well thanks for that, but was still using windows xp at the time with a massive 1 gig old type of video card, At that time, the singularity site made no comment on not being able to work in windows 7, but as I say the singularity 64 bit was installed before I bought my first windows 7 computer, around 5 years ago so I wasnt aware of any issues with it until now. All I did was to install the exe program version that was on windows xp h/d on to the windows 7 h/d directory files x86. havent tried Firestorm, only phoenix which wont keep running, and never has for some unknown reason. I will try this Firestorm viewer and see if its any better, thanks for that

I am returning user, used to doing a lot of media work, I am about to give up this old SL and wait until the new one, hopefully with VLC as its standard media player. Since returning and nearly shelling out ££ for two sims for a project l last started in 2009, on windows XP, my Singularity 64 bit viewer which i always use, wont play any tv media,on my new windows 7 home edition... it just pops up a message saying media- plugin failed quicktime? I notice a few new screens are using flash player now, thats very new content for me, and dont know how to convert flash player video from quicktime wmv or vlc format? Singularity 32bit does play quicktime., but windows 7 hates it, it crashes, it shows invisible people and body parts, sounds crash and perpetuate instead of stopping making me restart the newbuilt computer several times. i have now NO viewer haha... so my return is not going to happen until the dinosour been fixed, as its a waste of money, if your residents complain they cant get video, and how do i tell them, there doesnt seem to be a 64bit Quicktime player out there, in one way its Lindens fault for not changing the media to VLC at least, and to a greater degree Apple for not making an obvious 64 bit player for 64 bit machines, as usual the consumer gets the worse deal... Not impressed:((

A very long time ago, I had this problem, not just with Avatars with spikes, but even whole areas of clouds or sims, covered at some pint with blocks of insane colours, I believe it is a graphic card fault, Since going over to ATI cards in the last few years, I havent had a recourence of this problem. I did use Nvidea cards for a long time back in 2007 -2009 which always seemed to be plagued by the sort of spikes out of avatars you describe, hope you get around it soon, its sure frustrating:P