Michaelatv Destiny

I have been a member since 2007, and up to 2010 was regular in combat sims, Airports, Blakes Seas and Gorean Life. However had bad health through 2010-2013 with little expendable income either. Now things have changed somewhat, I wanted to link my face book page in two new sims to do with My earlier full sim of james Bond Exhibtion, from 2009. I have seen some absolutely beautiful new stuff, in jewelry and Shoes, fit for a queen to. market place purchases seem much less a hassle free transaction. However, even before buying these two sims, to work on up to the release of Bond 24 Spectre, The rather ancient interface of Viewers is already giving me doubts as to the viabilty of the current SL as it stands. My problem in a few sentences is easy really, but actually it shouldnt be because I had my old computer completely rebuilt, at xmas 2014 so its hardly old hardware. Im a media fanatic, I make, edit, video and sounds, used to use "Streamhoster", very efficiantly to stream my audio clips, voices and vidow clips using Quicktime standard format. How ever, I started to notice where ever I went that had a cinema, or a vist to a friends house , I can no longer see of hear Video from any media source. Now as Im renting out house boats, and a few skyboxes, its very important that media works. I have a lot of televisions dating back to 2008, the latest one purchased round about 2010. On visiting 3 places which had cinema screens working, only one I could actually see a picture, and that seems to be "Flash player", not quicktime, I dont know how long Flash player was used on SL TVs, but havent got a clue how to stream or make a flash video? The other Cinema screens, remained blank until I pressed the play button, which resulted, surprisingly with a pop error saying "Media-plugin-quicktime has failed", "please reload or contact vendor. Not having ever seen this error before, I was perplexed to say the least, However to my very great horror, I found today, the Viewer that is the only one I ever use,from 2010, Singularity 64bit, for some reason has a completely missing codec to load this media plugin? I went back to the Quicktime site, to download the 64bit version of the player, only to be told there isnt one!!?? use the 32bit version. I have no idea why Apple Quicktime hasnt made a 64 bit version for windows 7, it isnt as if windows 7 is that new or that old. I did try installing the 32 bit Singularity, but it was really bad, although video now worked, Avartars were missing body parts all over the place, sound became garbled and sound froze into a contineuos buzz, which meant I had to restart the computer to get rid of the crashed sound? I really dont know what to do now, My computer has never like phoenix, that always crashes as soon as Im rezzed, so gave that up some years ago, used to use Dolphin, but believe thats defunct now. used Catnipz a few times, but that seem to be out of date too. because my sims rely heavily on streaming video sounds and music, I have no idea wether to wait until the new second life gets released, or try another viewer, I have tried tonight "Alchemy", but the graphics were painfull to look at and again mesh clothes were missing allowing invisible people to be seen, I altered the LOD volume from the usual 1.1 up to about 5.00 but made no differance. So has anybody got any ideas on this media 64bit problem, before I start spending hundreds of £££ on two new sims. Im very interested in the Flash player Tvs, they actually do work on my 64bit Singularity, its the streaming of flash videos I need advice on , as dont want disgruntled tenants saying to me , cant see any video. Any links on how to stream flash player video, or how to convert an mp4 Quicktime format into Flash format would be very welcome . .wav files I have no problem making, and uploading, and they work fine as before. is there any way to go fully dedicated flash player video playback and streaming from Stream hoster and by pass the ancient Quicktime player altogether? Thanks for any helpful replies

Dont like the idea of an email I got today, saying theres an extended annual maintenance schedule each day at 7am. This will be almost certain to end in chaos by half way through the week.:matte-motes-sour: I have never known an annual week long restarts & inspections, unless I missed them over the last 6 years? Have my suspicions that this more like a "Stock Check", like how many grids are empty, how many people frequent them, should they remove a few hundred grids, is it worth still keeping SL1 going, if its starting to lose $, as people start to cut back on spending until 2015 and what is going to be on the table for us in the new Beta SL2 version? Creators are still building new Aircraft, when , really they have no idea, or at least an educated guess, that there builds, will be able to be transfered over? Why would any resident buy a new aircraft that may only be available to use for another 6-9 months, then probably lose it if the inventory cant been migrated?? Dont make business sense to me ?

I never used to get bored, but I hardly go on now, because the activities I used to do, has dropped, either by facilties, or by factors that had a damaging effect caused by LL Used to own or manage, or worked in dance clubs, mainly alternative lifestyle venues, always packed , especially Thursday-Sunday. was never short of work up to the hiking of land rates, then many famous jazz & dance clubs just couldnt afford to have money balls or give out free Lindens from a ball, because There was no way of covering your new tiers. I attended with a partner many, of the last days of certain dance Clubs. The amount that closed in that time was alarming. Combat sims. I used to spend 8 hours a day (retired) with a choice of urban combat sims to play on, being an officer, a leader, land owner of faction and so on. There was NOR with 12 sims at one time, totally full. KOL. Forbidden. Mega. Mandinka, loads of pandora Sims. Then LL did the worst possible thing, merging the teen grid. I joined a brand new urban combat sim, it cost owners huge amount of $ to build. Just after, the teen grid was merged, letting in kids, who had no knowledge or respect on how to be an adult and use the rules the same as we had to. These new owners, tried for roughtly 6 months, but time and again, it was impossible to control and ask juniors to abide by the rules in place that are in every combat sim to protect players from unfair tactics or other antisocial behaviour. I found after the owners had said they were closing after 6 months, i was very sad for them, I talked to them about the problems, as being an Admin myself at one time. They said "the teen grid merge has just about ruined combat in SL now, heaven knows we tried," but we spent 6 hours a day just trying to deal with unruly Children, who would actually talk back to an admin. Thats an instant ban in any combat sim. but the number of ill mannered kids, was so many, the owners were, like, almost being harrased for putting fair rules in place. hence now, out of 20 urban combat sims that were in operation prior to 2009-10, theres maybe 4-5, but they are almost deserted in EU time, only after midnight do some others arrive, but then thats the time I go to bed. Finally, When Blake's seas was busy and not full of empty sims like it is now, I was involved in building and maintaining Airports based on rl operations. However, mesh came along a little to late for me, most of the 30k$ of aircraft i have were bought, based on being built with prims, hence an airliner with attachment could be as much as 300 prims. these would cross no more than two or three sim crossings, before finding yourself on the sea bed. I also lost 20K$ of none copy Aviation items on a mainland crash, 20k of L$ is a lot of money, no one knew where they had gone, LL said they wouldnt reimburse me the 20k lost. I was not the only one, others lost huge chunck of no copy items and LL just stood back on there TOS and in other words Tough! ~hence thats why i dont go on SL much now, many of my 70 friends from 2007-2013 have now dwindled to 10, most have left, most went because of the club failures, and a lot left from the urban combat groups, as they closed one after another. I have a whale of a time in Star wars Old republic now, many friends, my own home inworld, buy , create decorations, place thm, invite friends over. Dont have to spend anything at all. just £8..99 a month, gets you all aspects of the game including more friends now than I had in SL. It very much depends what you hope to get or achieve out of SL, but the one reason I joined in 2007, was because They advertized it, as "Come to SL and make real Money", and for about 12 months I did. from 2008 on, my income began to fall and fall, until by 2010 i was spending 500% more than the income i was recieving from reciepts from jewelry sales and donations to sim keep up dwindled to a few hundred a month, meaning my shortfall for a months full sim payment was over £150, when it should have been almost covered by revenue. So thats my story on how boring it is in EU time zones, maybe Americans with more disposable income play this more than us now in EU, because we pay vastly higher fuel and heating costs and most like UK do not have oil resources or enough gas, hence it costs to import it, so we dont have the income to spend in SL like we used to. Also car repair prices are staggering now, and as disabled i rely on my automatic car to get me eveywhere, hence, a vist to the garage, usually sets me back arund 300$ every six months or so for servicing and new tryes plus all that goes with it... so , for me, I dont have the connection any more to certain ativities i joined SL to enjoy, hence , i can tell you its very boring being in an empty combat sim hopefully waiting for a few people to actually enter it for more than an hour! Standing on street corners earning XP points, and doing nothing is the most boring part of SL i have come across. Any comments?

Ok Dresden, then lets look at licensing, as Im an avid supporter in many groups in UK and Germany apposing DRM in stand alone games. If I go and buy a game of Amazon or where ever, or indeed a game for a PS3-4, You cant do what you want with the physical copy or CD, because as you rightly say, your using the TOS licence to use said software , you dont own it in reality. However, having said that, I can take 20 games PC or PS3 games to my local cash converter store and get around 40$ for them or in my case pounds. So in effect, although you dont own the software on the disc, you can still reclaim some of your investment back at any time by selling them to a third party for cash or to a friend, so if thats the case, we should be able to claim or sell back to LL our expensive objects at a reduced rate, being licensed to use said objects. Objects in Second life are rather like software in boxes, you dont own them, but because they were paid for in genuine currency, then I dont see any difference of the licencing of objects I bought in second life to the PC games I bought from the high street? The differance is, although, the software company only gives you a licence to use said software, and no more, I can still sell it on to a third party. LL effectively has made second Life a closed shop really, and closed loop holes to any recourse, which I think is depolarable.

Interesting post, But in the UK, money made in a virtual world is taxable by the UK HM and customs. Many UK sellers, on the market Place and for that matter Ebay, have to tread very lightly, as its very easy for HM tax and revenue to find out through a variety of means if your recieving income, from an online business model. Any moneys made has to be declared in a tax return form, and if you make money from Ebay or Second life while recieving benefits, in this country if you dont declare that fact, you can be in trouble with the DWP lawyers, who see this as fraud, by unlawfully claiming benefits while recieving an income. Big brother is much bigger than 20 years ago, we see many people each week in our local paper, being charged with not telling the DWP of a change of circumstances, such as, change of income. Even if you do charity work for no reward, it has to be put in your tax return form, such is the way it is here now.:matte-motes-frown:

yes but on this occasion your being forced to leave town, because you have no option. LL will close down the town, but in RL, you can take your stock with you and set up in another town, But in SL2 Town, SL1 Town will keep all your poccessions, because it reckons you dont own them, even though you paid RL cash from paypal for them.

yes, I made a mistake saying "Stock markets", I really just meant the rates of currency change every day, and thats reflected by my increased buying power, Im seeing here and now of course, nothing to do with stock markets, my bad!:matte-motes-mad:

Sorry Drake I dont buy that, I have been receiving almost a third more L$ for my GBP for almost 12 months since the US$ started to free fall against other currency's, 18 months ago a homestead estate would have cost me £25 a week at the exchange rate at the time, that same homestead at same sim vendor is still priced the same IN L$, but to pay the tier in GBP now only costs me £17.99, thats an exchange rate fall in US$ - GBP by £6. So maybe you could explain that?? LL and yourself also forgets earlier this year, Russia and China froze out the US$ in energy deals, if this coming winter is as bad for my friends In Lafayette as it was last year with the polar Vortex destabilizing again, The US economy will further decline, to keep the lights on using more of its own resources, the US$ will fall even further causing a real problem for any country relying on the US$ still. I dont know where you live, but when I buy L$, each week, I get less or more one week than the other, due to exchange rate fluctuations. some years ago, the US$ was very high, against the GBP, thats when it cost over £25 to rent an estate homestead, instead of now, which is almost a third cheaper. The US$ dollar value has moved steadily downwards for the last year, you say it hasnt moved? How can you say that, when i have pointed out above, that the weak dollar is realising another 2000 MORE L$ using GBP than 18-24 months ago. Also you are wrong that LL doesnt say it is a game, because in 2009, when I was premium and made a complaint about some transaction, that didnt fulfil a cash transaction, a vendor problem, LL washed there hands off it, saying this is a "GAME", nothing more, nothing less,no refunds, because its not a business, and thats from an email from support Drake.

well actually I have always maintained, that L$ is real money, based upon the fact that its linked to the Financial stock market rates around the world, face book credits or my sub for Star Wars doesnt fluctuate with the Wolrds Financial Currency Market rates, but L$ does, making it , in all but law legal tender, whatever the terms of sevice says. I think if people lose many thousands of real $ or GBP because of the loss of a huge inventory, I can see a few cases being bought up for consideration, despite the TOS, courts can over rule and side with customers who have used an economy currency that connected to RL currency market rates, hence, thats not Play money, what ever way you look at it. Hence LL is wrong when They call it just a game, if their Currency, has a flucuating value based on RL exhange rates, then its A game based on Real life values, both asset wise and currency wise. I can see many people, esecially mega sim owners making possible claims for loss of income, if there's no compensation offer. As I see it, courts will say there should be a safety net to protect the amount of cah put into SL......lest not forget, this place is one of, if not the most expensive places to invest money into a virtual world, for a very long time. At 1000$ a sim, thats a lot of real currency not play money. In my home Town, that amount in GBP would pay for one months REAL rent for a one bed flat. LL has to be realistic, and know people wont pay these sort of prices again, when there is already a very bad shortage of real housing in UK, plus with no one getting wage rises for 3 years or more, just as in US, LL will price themselves out of the whole virtual world market if they try an maintain really insane land prices / tiers again. LL next time round really has to decide legally, because The world is watching financial transactions closely the next few years, If the L$ is still being floated within second life with buying or selling them based on RL exchange rates, then I believe its nonsence to suggest LL can call it play money any longer. They will have set L$ at a set price, and not play it on the exchange market, before I ever enter a new SL. Whats your take on legallity of LL of using the Worlds Currency market rates to set the L$ of each day.??

Like many, I arrived in 2007 with the promise of making Real money, and I did for a while, dancing at an erotic sky box club, earning my first 100L$, before earning enough to affird a dance hud, thus tips started to increase, and with it my wardrobe increased, and earning 1000L$ a night was quite normal most weeks. However I moved on to aviation, and castles, tried my hand at setting up my furst hippo rent box, that in 2008 was impossible for me as a newbie to understand. Eventually, got into urban combat, where i learned about how land ownership renting was about. Worked hard right up to 2011, making themed sims. but costs kept going up, clubs i used to manage, folded in there 10's each week , because they couldnt cover there tier costs any longer, Thats when SL died, when LL hiked up land prices, the place was never the same again, believe me, I used to be in several combat urban sims, one as landowner , played in some, they were busy, no time to hang around, then LL made another daft mistake, they merged the teen grid with the adult grid....result, urban combat sims admins and moderators, were faced with teens ruining sims with grief anti social behavior , and most did not keep to the rules in place. hence out of 20 or so urban combat sims, there is about 3-4 now, and even the huge NOR that used to boast up to 10 sims, is now a 5 sim ghost town devoid of EU people in those time zones. So, really LL has there self to blame, making ill judged changes, i for one have 4000$ of content, that was when I was working back in 2007-11. Now Im retired, and wife is, our income is fixed, and disposable income, is very limited. I would never be able to build or buy again the 30,000 items I own in my inventory, most are irreplaceable, some cost a lot of money, hundreds of top end textures and sound files i have made over the years may all be lost. With the economy of the West under a lof of strain, with wars, fuel prices, food, and energy costs, its makes it more likely that A new second life, will be very underused, because the people of 50-65 of my age group usually has the most disposable income to use here, but once one retires, especially on a fixed state pension, Im more likely to furnish my new home (stronghold ) in Star Wars TOR, as they now offer players there own homes within the world you play in. Ok its not created by you, but for £8.99 a month sub, and maybe £5-10 to buy a 10 room large skyhouse, with no rent, no land fees, these other MMORGS are already going to be in a position in 2 years to almost make the SL2 obsolete even before its released.

yes, Guess Im saying it is inconvenient, as we all different age groups, some of us, like me, have now retired on State pension. As Im on DLA Im not allowed by law to have any other earnings, unless I declare them, so in this country we called that a fixed income, that only goes up and down a little each tax year that comes round. But unfortunately that income is being whittled away by increasing living costs. So, yes, to have to try start again, with most of my objects bought in 2007-2010, being the height of my buying power, it wont be viable to just walk into a new land and build my complicated 007 exhibits that I used to do, My casino I modelled from the 2006 casino Royale, took weeks to build, a texas hold em poker table, exquisite wall textures, statues and palm trees plus, the cars outside being the Astom Martin DB9 and a black Alfa Romeo 159, from Quantum of Solace, will be lost forever, unless, by some mircacle LL allows some of your more expensive vehicles into the new SL. I mean I still have a Mc Donald Douglas DC10 airliner, I bought 3 years ago, never used, at a cost of 10,000L$ because the grid mechanism just wont let it cross each sim, I left in my inventory waiting for LL to fix vehicle crossing, even asking LL in my premium account ticket that seamless LL oceans would have helped, but LL told me then they had no plans to make Blakes Seas seamless. When you fly or sail In GTA5, its completely seamless, with real swell of waves. Thats the sort of Second life experience in 2014 we should have already. Gurla and Guyachung neaby regions in blakes seas, had three sims with one RAF base, and my two sims for British Airways under BAA land group. Now it remains abandoned for almost a year now, with just grass, in a once thriving aviation community. Fot the love of mike, why LL doesnt put up for sale abandoned land up for sale straight away, at a much lower price to attract not only new sim owners but bring people back into SL is beyond me...? What sort of landlord, leaves 65k of lands empty for a year, with no option to buy it??

Hi Guys, these are all great replys, as I have rented up to 20 sims both homestead and full on mainland or island, since my time here 8 years now, I may have been a customer of one of you during that time.. basicly , SL is and has been the most expensive game played, by those wanting to fullfil in its entirety & get the most out of it. Yes things move on, tech moves on, but unfortuently age and disposable income changes the ball game to a high degree. back in 2007-2010 I enjoyed building many themed sims with an old RL friend Susan, mainly james bond islands, and also had the income to own parcels in the likes of KOL, & Judgement. I invested heavily in many types of castles, also leading a Lord of the rings Rohhirm group, with us on AKK expensive horses. In between I also rented full mainland sims to operate British Aiways Airports, and had a lot of airliners repainted at a huge cost to current BA livery. But the days when I could afford to replace and buy new items, came to an end, in 2011 when my wife retired, and my ill health meant I had to retire early , albiet officially not until 2016, but our disposable income, especially in UK has been degraded vastly by high fuel costs , energy, food and water rates, plus Insurances for this and that. The fact is, at ,now 63, I will not have the income I enjoyed back in days of 2005-11... I would have no hope of rebuying 1000's of hi grade textures, or the aircraft and water craft I own, let alone buy more castles and dump all my urban & Gorean combat wear and weapons into the bin, as LL is suggesting. I have never been in a postion to own a full sim, but in days gone past, I could have bought a homestead, but stubbonly LL refused me one of those, despite challenging there rule that I had to buy a full sim first, its like saying, if you cant afford 1000$ for a sim here, we dont want you. My car is an auto BMW 528i, it looks like it rolled of the assembly line a couple of years ago, in fact is was manufactured in 1996, at a staggering cost at launch of £28,000. The technololgy in this car was unheard then, but is now common on most cars these days. If LL had not kept trying to repair an oudated, power hungry grid based system , and rolled out an up to dated version by 2010, then , most of us who were still working then, might have been just able to restart again. but I wont be able to for reasons outlined above, for me, My love affair with SL will end when the new one is rolled out, because I no longer have the income to commit the same level of investment I used to have here. Im surprised that many of you think its ok to let LL make no back to back allowances, meaning, even estate owners who rent out sims, will also not have to buy all new sims at probably the same price of 1000$ each, but all the merchandise objects, buildings, textures and trees and foliage you use now to show of sims.

I nearly rented an estate sim from our old friends The Chung mega sim renters, then found out, just by chance, that a new second life is being rolled out by 2015-2016, with no way of taking most your inventory with you, and as I have been an investor in combat sims, Pandora sims and renting 65k ones for an Airport. I will lose over 4,500$ of items, if hardly any of them can be transfered over. I dont hardly see anyone on weekdays in my time zone of London time, the whole place seems deserted, only around midnight, does it get a little busier, by 9am following morning, combat sims that were full up at midnight, are now virtually empty for 9 hours or more. I just leave the ghost sims and play Star wars online lol I dont see the point of anybody offering land for sale or rent, knowing the current situation, most people wont want to pay out real money for a sinking ship, that will not offer any compensation, if it was to close tomorrow. LL does not owe us anything, just like when they closed casinos, letting people lose hundreds of real cash overnight. I dont trust LL one atom to keep this version going for more than another year.

WOW my 4000$ invested in SL since 2007 is REAL not virtual, Im retired now, I would never have the sort of money again to restart a new second life, once I lose my 30,000 items, thats the end of SL for me.:matte-motes-dont-cry:

There seems to be much confusion over when this new SL2 is b eing released, thats why Im generalising. The official word its being rolled out in 2016. Unofficially, others have said, it wont happen for 6 years or more, so I dont have a time frame from anyone thats actually accurate. :smileyindifferent:

I find your comment quite funny:) 100$ to replace an inventory, you sure you havent left out a "0". To replace my 30,000 items would be more like 4000$ or in my currency I wouldnt personally, even if I had the disposable income I had in 2007 up to 2010 start all over again, my wardrobe for clubbing, combat sims, expensive skins and weapons for Gorean , urban and Pandora use, would cost many £ just to replace them, let alone the 60 aircraft with repaints that cost me up to 2000L$ a time. SL is so empty in my daytime anyway, I find most sims just ghost towns, with no one in them and vast mainland regions, in places such as the flagship "Blakes Seas" abanded and empty, while next door, some idiot trys to ask 750,000L$ for a 65k sim, that may be gone by 2016, if the time frame for the new SL2 is to be beleived, I certainly stopped spending now, I just rent a tiny house and a berth for my yacht for 220L a week, thats all Im prepared to put into sl any longer. 2,466.89 GBP

The problem is, you wont get any such compensation, the wording of the TOS for many years, is "this is a game", L$ has no value in real monetary terms what so ever. I have over 30,000 objects in my inventory, a lot from airports, a lot from the clubs I used to own or manage, castles and stuff from urban combat, weapons and a huge amount of irreplaceable items. Im told by some inworld that SL2 wont even ready, by the time im Seventy, thats 7 years from now?? Errmm, Out of interest did you know even Star wars the old republic, which isnt client based, has now entered into offering players there own Homes called "Stongholds". These consists of ready made sky homes or on some planets, tatooine type buildings, with about 8-10 room, you get two free initially. Then you can decorate by putting (Phantom maybe) objects onto puropse built "hooks" on floors or walls to place stuff. Although its not that interactive, but you can invite other friends over, it is liked a lot by some loathed, by others lol. So if MMORGS are starting to already offer living quarters in their games now, what hope of this new SL2 already being outdated by as much as 4 years, if its correct that SL2 wont be viable yet for up to another 6 years, and people would already be packing up, thinking there wasting there £ by buying anything, for some platform that may be gone sooner than later. i await further developments, but in my opinion LL has left if far to late to start making a a whole new SL, while up and coming new games and virtual worlds, rather like "red light centre" virtual World, already start to get a foot into the virtual world market.

Hello Peter, thanks so much for your polite and topical Answer. First off, GTA5 is not without its bad points, one, being, every time you try and enter the las Santos Airport, to have a wander, or look at the planes, a SWAT team and Copter arrive and murder you for no reason what so ever, which has lead me to write a Ticket to Rockstar on the over use of Police control with sensible outcomes. Dont bide well, if you eventualy save enough money to splash out 240K on a twin turbo prop Aircraft, if your going to be attacked every time you want to take it out to fly it? Issues to do with vehicles: In SL , Linden Labs knows only to well, judging by cost ,(I believe) in uploading Mesh 3D objects, that Aircraft in particular, and flying, is at an all time high, Ok in 2007, Second Life wasnt able , or creators werent able to make and build, import, sell Boeing 373 Airliners, to fly from one place to another, but, LL has not embraced the new technology and made any major effort to make vehicle crossings seamless or manage to accomodate 3-4 passengers, which is 99% certain to fail. Its up to LL to move with the times and technology, or be the dinosuar it is and die off. As far as expectations of realistic waves and wet clothes after comimg out of the water, Then I stand by what I say, I mean, how can one go for a swim in your home pool and get out Bone dry, it may be a little thing, But GTA5 has implemented many small real instances, that make SL, still look like a board game. Look at one ocean in Blakes Seas in close up, Its just a board with textures, Your ship, yacht doesnt yaw, roll, slap down, on the inbuilt none waves, just as they dont on off world market place waves. Sailing the GTA5 pacific ocean in a schooner type boat, with the rain coming down and waves, that threaten to turn you over, is still my favourite pastime in it so far. Had two Sharks follow me closely, there fins, not only breaking the surface, but leaving small trails of ripples behind, as they moved around my craft. Scary!! I realize, that a whole rewrite of the way Second life works would be absolutely needed. But does LL really care enough to invest that sort of money Rockstar invested? LL should do, The amount of profit they make alone from land fees and sales on each year should be ploughed into making a SL akin to the open source seamless world of GTA5, (people are calling it, like an open source world,) and when it goes online, Im told its going to be like a massive MMMORG, of the likes not seen before. On the matter of builds, Im a vehicle mechanic, (retired) not bought up on electronic and complicated Modelling 3D which, I absolutely no idea, how to even start. Sculpties, I never had understood, i keep well away from them. I can make buildings, and have good texturing skills, i can make a Pandora Forest sim, or A snowy "Vice Enabled "Where Eagles Dare RP sim". But at 63, trying to understand modern 3D progams, which I never even heard of until about 2009, I knows my limitations, and for me, buiding Airliners, fitting scripts and adding complicated Liveries, is now for the generation of younger people who have already learnt some of this at college, or University, even before entering SL. Blender, I have looked at, but way to complicated for me to understand, ACD3 I also looked at, again, without some tution, which none of my builder friends in SL will help me with, Im looking at a Jigsaw, that I dont have an atom of understanding how or where to put together. One or two friends even have CAD type programs, One lady builder I asked, how much was that program? £500 was the answer. Jaw dropping prices, way out of my pocket an technical understanding. In closing, the fundamental issues of SL, which stops me opening another nice Club or Building another Airport is land fees, and the loss of items for no reason, greifing which by now should have been sorted years ago with special inbuilt software to stop it. The ban lines, which LL are still relunctant to ban, over much better ORB privacy, plus the unstable grid system that crashes about 5 times a day. If my PS3 GTA5 dont crash, nor should "FireStorm", because players expect software and hardware provided by Companies to actually work. If Second Life was costed, like it should , as a game, and not for the well off only to buy and own land, then, maybe I would return, But I can't afford , or want to risk even more money on just breaking even, or paying my land fees, when realisticly , There is very little chance of that happening. You may remember the slogan that got me into SL in 2007 "Come to The world of Second life, and make real Money for a second Income", or even your main income, work for yourself, or get a job from one of the many job agencys that abound". Only a fraction of proffecional people already skilled in this art, really make any money from SL, along with rich jap or chinese Super Land owners, renting out 150 sims or more. Lastly, you said, SL was never designed to do the sort of activities I have tried to maintain since 2009, but its my freedom of choice to Fly and sail, if LL felt flying and sailing wasnt an activity that was compatable with the hardware/ software, then why do they still allow it as a normal part of activity on the Grid?

@ kenbro Hi, As I understand it, in later releases or patches, you will be allowed user made content to be uploaded to a data base, either for free use, as in Trainz Downloadd station, of which there is more than a thousand made items, that other rail modellers can use for there own layouts, or something simular on those lines. Its to early to say yet, This game has only been out a few days really. i just think the avenues it could explore if it went PC eventually would be worth keeping an eye on

Oh! I do know what you are trying to get through, But as a veteran since 2007, because My Main career or choice of what I do in Second life, changed in 2009 to Try to make Airports viable, flying many types of Aircaft from Civil Airliners to Hovercrafts, plus sensible crossings with a Cigar (expensive Cruiser) which fails 80% of the time, I believe the £2600 I have paid out for 40,000 items and land fees, premium memberships,since 2007 have been wasted to a good degree, after the land fee hike killed most of the clubs, of which I was Owner of one (and land), and Manager of a German Shemale Club, which way back in 2009, was still actually, not only breaking even, but making a profit. As a pensioner now, I dont, and never had the training, or the funds to buy and make 3D Civil airliners, or indeed, any 3D models, the complicated legal stuff to use mesh models, and how to learn what extension to use to upload it is beyond me. My friends who do upload mesh models, are relunctant to discuss or help me at all with how to do this, which is rather sad really, as Im sure they think Im going to be a threat to there own builds If i did. This is what I really want to do in SL, since 2010 But its no longer viable for me. All my 4 years in combat groups , With NORsim, Kingdom of legends, Judgement, and Kingdom of sands, All had sims with 80% lag, or even more which in 2013, should not be an issue in almost any game or World. Urban combat sims, of which there were many, have declined at an alarming rate, when the teen grid was merged, the owners of new sims, found, that it was almost impossible to keep order and players respect the rules in place, hence many threw in the towel after only a few weeks after. I came into SL a bit to late for me, as you get older, you tend to get weary quickly of software or games that dont do what they supposed to do. But Im not abandoning SL, Just want to give GTA5 a chance, especially Online, where I see, that Girls/ ladies will be able to make charactors, and everybody will be able to do a limited amount of facial Creation. GTA5 is a world, where you can live a reasonbley quite life, and avoid the crime if you wish and make money from legit bussines ventures, when you do earn enough income, then you can aquire ships, Planes & nice cars and scuba gear, just like second life, But in a seamless environement, which is the closest anyones come so far, into making so much material available, just from a disc. ATMs in world is a welcome sight, and just like Kingdom of sands in SL, people will have to deposit there main assets into one of the many banks , because pickpockets will be around in Online GTA5, just like there are in Kingdom of Sands. Content creation is coming to GTA5, its very early days, But I rather at the momment Ride real ocean waves, and go into Real estate, and make a name for myself in that field, without the insane fees LL charges for a small grid, which you are contained in. Players want freedom, and I believe this Virtual world, could be the beginning of the start of new seamless worlds, without contraints of loading scripts from grid to grid, just to sail a ship through 10 sims. Really, all LL has to do, is take away the grids altogether, abolish outdated, none affordable land purchases, and land fees, and Just let people buy/ build properties, and make there own life, And put every grid together on one huge seamless world. Thats a sweeping statement has is fraught with a lot of issues that have to be addressed, but if Second Life really doesnt think GTA5 is going to have a big impact on what players will now expect from MR Linden, then they are living in in a Closet. No ban lines, Just security orbs aloud with the 20 second warning , as set down By LL as being none harrasment. Your going to say, wheres the profit in that for LL?? Simple, make Second Life members Subbed, which will pay LL way, but do away with premuim membership, as that is and has been, totally a cash cow, that in the real sense, doesnt give value for its use.This will also get rid of many harrasers, and greifers, Only mostly genuine people will pay a monthly sub, and with a bank or paypal account needed to subscibe to the game, they are much more easly traceable and can be banned with much less paperwork than now. I do realize, that Second Life is a user creator world, LL provides the expensive outdated grid land system, at a cost of real life rents to players already stuggling to make ends meet, and expects there residents to all the work for them. Sorry, But those times are over Peter, people power and what Rockstar will provide to build tools or import user content in the months to come will be critical to everybody, who loves Second Life, but is exsaperated by its daily failings to provide any sort of stabilty to allow players, to land/ fly planes, sail or drive cars, at a success rate of which is acceptable. When you say pretty, thats a bit of an understatement and obviously you havent taken a sloop out into the pacific ocean yet, and navigated real waves trying to find the sunken box near a crashed plane with a booty of 12,000$ in it. In talking about it being pretty, I dont think you read my comment above, The technology and common sense by its developers has lead to realistic, Normal real life happenings, which LL dont think is important, Little things, like soaked clothes after swimming, or coming out of a pool, A rottweiler dog, that learns from its owner, it also comes when you whistle to it, and will jump in the car/ van with you if you so wish, rain that makes spots on the surface, Fog, that makes you feel chilly, expecially near the sea and docks all add to the feel of a Virtual world that has been lovingly put together over a number of years. Im a complete newcomer to GTA, so, If I didnt like it, then I wouldnt play it. Im there at the start, and I much rather put some capital , if I have to, into a developer who has, taken the gaming world by the scruff of its neck, and, says, we can give players an awesome world to live in, at a reasonable cost, and with no Minimum specs and problems with older computers, graphic cards and outdated use of 10 second sound files and a just as ancient use of MP4 Quick time, instead of DIVX , which is an industry standard, on many media platforms. If GTA5 does come to PC, which 450,000 people have signed up to ask the company to consider releasing it soon, then minimum specs will apply, and it will be interesting to see, if it ever comes to fruitation, the perfomance of its established rivals , like EA games, Second Life, and the other many good PC online games, of which I play 3 of already. No need to Sigh Peter, dont forget i was here, 2 years before you ever born into found Second Life, I do have a good knowledge of how second life works, i know inventory servers go down, they have many thousands of objetcs being used, deleted , or new ones used, modified, at any one time, I know the huge pressure on SL, but, LL is not just running the program on the bottom of the ocean, much as it has done for the last 7 years.

Now This should be a wake up call for LL to seriously take the threat of this amazing depth of a game, and be very worried, cos I would, If I was The Lindens Shoes. First of all, lets forget the crime part, and look at the technology here, whch I must admit, not having scratched a tenth of whats on offer. What I have experienced having used it, is I will, especially after multiplayer mode gets realeased on the 1st October I believe, use GTA5 for my second life. Ok I can here you all saying, BUT, BUT, Heres Why: I happened to chance on my running a race to the Pacific side of the beach, with said Missus I think, Im playing Michael, no suprise really , given my name. I spotted a gorgeous , about 60foot long Sloop, Large sailing yacht in the water, but no sails. I swam the short distance, and got on, and started steering the craft, and adding some throttle, As I ventured Further into the pacific, I was confronted, with, For me, Was The most incredible sight and motion of Real waves, with a Swell of about , maybe 12-15 feet. If I sailed directly into the oncoming waves, The craft lifts up with the swell, and slaps down again, with spray, before it gets tossed from side to side, Having turned to port, I was riding the waves, so I didnt need to use any power, But still the waves swell was incredible. I sailed for 1 hour straight, having to go through a couple of channels with rock, nad these boats, dont turn on a sixpence, you have to allow for the stern, to turn, so you have to be very careful to sail slowly while you turn. On leaving the Craft, it got dark, and it started to rain, Once I came out of the water, my clothes werent dry, like in SL, they were soaking wet. I ran up the beach, thinking, i wil run across this freeway that runs alongside the beach, that was stupid, A woman in a sort of Cougar, Sent me flying, I had some life left, thankfully I managed to get to other side, I found a Deserted farm, where a Volvo Type estate car was parked. I borrowed that to get back into town, but town was a long way away. I drove through the gorges, mountain Freeways of America, for over 1 hour 45 minutes, stopping at a gunsmith, to get a new Jacket. To be able to drive that amount of time, with passing freght trains, passing over on huge tressle bridges, was simply unbievable. I had to brake haard several times to avoid mowing down Deer and other wildlife, Im not that type . Eventually using the small GPS, I found my home twenty, and listened to one of the many radio stations, available in car. I was in heavan as they Played " Think we got ourselves a Convoy, Rubber duck", as I used to own a store selling CB radio equipment in real life bck in the Eighties. I havent even been to the Airport yet, so I have no idea how aircraft are going to fly as yet. What I do Know, Is that people say its not a Creator type world. Buts all about to change when it goes online, because, There is going to be limited amount of user items, that you can build your own challenge map, or play other peoples creations. lastly, the Mobile phone allows you to access its own Internet Site, with news of the day, and adverts, from Boat yards selling boats, showrooms selling cars, fashion houses, it has a Bleep page, renamed after Twitter, and another site, which is a take of off facebook. The point is, All this, and hundreds of miles of roads, traffic, marine life, the Army, jets, real sea that swells, Lights from cities that shimmer on the water, Real weather, clouds, teeming rain, with no lag at all, is all contained ON ONE little Disc on a Console, that costs peanuts, to the so called Server mainframes of Linden labs. The power contained in this ONE disc, is just incredible, and as yet, havent even booked a flight from the cities Main Airport yet. At the moment you cant Buy land, but You can buy your own property from the real estate market place via the phone or even on the physical map that comes with the game. There is, a certain amount of trading on stock markets, which I have yet to look into. This is early days for GTA5, and much more content is promised, in the near future. You dont have to earn money from crime, which is of course the whole point of GTA, but GTA5 allows you to take up normal employment too, Buy a store in the future, and get $ from sales. Your store or home you may buy, doesnt cost you anything, only the actual building. Yes, There is a lack of decent females, But thats only temporary, as When Multiplayer comes online, then there will probably be many more to chat and interact with, and they will be real people, just as in here. Well I just Bumped my car, and tried to sound my horn, somewhere along the traffic jam, I accidently pressed, the arm Wheel and, of course 3-4 shots got fired, the cop cars, I could here coming, didnt get a chance to escape, as blocked in by traffic. I got wasted by the cops, woke up a few mins later, walking out of the local hospital patched up, and 350$ taken out of my account for medical treatment:D Im not saying, GTA5 is Second Life, Im saying, This is what Second life SHOULD AND CAN be like, seamless, glorious scenes and attention to details, even the pot holes in every road makes the car shake and rumble, and when you come out of the water, you are soaked and dripping, I also played a 3 set match for an hour with Michaels wife, that was great fun too. I havent even found the Underground Tube Stations yet, Theres is so much to explore, but either with your partners in crime or on your own, doing your own thing, There is no constraints to what you cant do, at any time of day. My main comment about About the real Swell, and 15 feet waves, is why I write this, Second life has No motion at all in its oceans, Here, you are navigating real ocean swells and if you fall off, you can drown, you can be caught by sharks too. But I love Marine environments in SL, But havent had time to visit the coral reefs of GTA5 yet. I do Hope LL takes a huge notice of this incedible step forward by Rockstar, (actually part made in Scotland), because If This company can put an almost Virtual World ,Just on a Disc, then, The old fashioned Server side Grid system we still use for many years now here with little success, especially with vehicles will soon be obsolete. LL Take a good look at GTA5 and return, you will have to admit your land, the tiny pitifull Roads, owned BY LL engineering, your linear Oceans look pretty awful, What can you do to compete with this,? before droves of us join the multiplayer jet set, and enjoy driving Through miles of Vinewood Mountain scenery, making content soon, or buying from the new store soon to open. Yes this is adult orientated world, but not as graphic as the adult content with poseball pixel sex we have here. Please feel free, anybody to pass any comments, good or critical. Mike

Blakes Seas actually is the worst place to fly, as a certified ATC I used to go to differant locations to do A METAR report, many of the oceans, although empty, return an 80% lag reading on a hi end wearable lag meter. The problem is that Aircraft creators are importing mesh 3D models, and filling them with countless scripts for a simulator Aircraft. SL was never made to cross grids when it was first made with this kind of techonolgy, because basically , Its not SWTOR or battlefield 3 where you have seamless maps. flying and tanks and 20 soldiers doing battle. There is really only two things you can do, thats to pack up trying to fly here, and get a proper Flight simulator like FSX, or badger Lindens to ,at least double the size of oceans, or make them seamless, so they can become Air ways routes. Last night was the worse nightmare for any body sailing ot flying, In the miami SLMI region, bugged access impending connections made getting into the airport imposible, plus two sims out, the oceans were so bugged, seven planes including my 737 and my co pilot, just littered the sky , that prevented any one else trying to land on the incoming runway. But as an access ban connection (asset problem) didnt let you into SLMI, it was pointless to try, and promptly went back to playing SWTOR. In 6 years I have been in SL, spent thousands of Lindens on my own Airports, land fees,tiers and upload charges, LL labs has done absolutley Zilch, to keep up with other platforms and with the technical advances of advanced passenger jets use. A normal Airbus 320, cruises at 250knots at around more than 3000 feet. There is no way, you can fly these new mesh 3D super detailed Aircaft at that service speed and altitude, that is the normal, for that Plane. The whole grid system is a dinosaur, I know of no other (game) that plays SO bad, But costs so much to use. Americans have it made, they dont have the ressession we still have in the UK with cut backs eating into our income, American friends pay just 4$ a gallon for petrol, where as we, have to try and find 11.60$ A gallon. My friend in texas was stunned, it would cost around 45$ to do around 120 miles on a 2.0 litre Ford Mondeo. Until LL recognises EU users finance difficulties, and lowers it stupid land rates, Second life will very soon take a dive on the stock market it will never pull out of. Ban lines Should be banned totally in SL, and only orbs allowed. oceans must have there own servers, so they remain at 0% lag. It really is a mess, and I havent rented land or bought any for over 18 months now , because its just not worth fighting the inherent faults within the program, that have never been tackled since 2003. Only teleporting has improved, But flying 20 grid crossings with a full commercial airliner with 6 passengers, to another airport is still a dream that will never come true, until LL completely changes the whole infrastructure of how second life works.

ban lines are the worst nightmare in second life, and ban lines should be BANNED totally. sailing large ships, or even a small warship is sometimes impossible because of restraints residents put in with NO thought to how much room some craft need to move from one sim to another. Orbs Are quite reasonable way to protect privacy. I have used them many times. The problem is, not many , know the Guidelines, that is 20 second notice before your kicked. I always gave 30 seconds at least, to give time for slow vehicles to move out of my privacy zone. But idiots still put 10 seconds, which is not enough time to leave the area. You can submit an harrassment ticket for Orbs giving less than LL benchmark of 20 seconds. But with so many of them, you would be doing it all day.

Hi, thanks for replies. I should add, that before getting into Aviation, in 2008-2010 I owned a few clubs, when they were king, I started of as member of a german dancing shemale type club. Moving on to being assistant manager, before clubs and the suplliers of disco stuff, almost collpased overnight, when greedy LL hiked up the tier charges so much, many called it a day, and many , many first class jazz venues, went out of business. So did my first club I made with my best mate at the time. The only clubs with all the money balls, lights, dance poses and poles plus shoutcast reciever, that i ever got busy, was within a combat sim, that had out of hours, none combat zones, mostly on saturdays, that was pretty full. But that didnt make any money. Problem was, I was lured into second life To make money, in 2007, the slogan , when I first discovered SL, was "come to second life & make real Money". For the first year, dancing for a living, I did make some good tip money, 1000L an evening from tips was the normal, until I got into land and rentals, and that all went pear shaped, when the tier hike kicked in. On matter of Airports, I have owned three, one was on a prime waterfront sim, so you could just fly in from the ocean, but even with that huge advantage, Some weekends were so bad, That ocean sims right in front of your flight path would be offline for no reason whatsoever. Airport owners, By defination, Have to rake in £ from rentals from Virtual airlines, or from private individuals who want there own hanger, but on a 65k sim, with two runways, There is very little room, for space to make enough places. Airport owners also depend to some degree, of offering lower rates to vendors of creators of Aircraft. This all attracts traffic. But, having just returned to SL a few days ago, I notice most airports are devoid of people. You can make money from running a virtual airline, IF Second life was able to work like a seamless program. Imagine selling 6 seats on a Boeing 737 Flybe flight from one airport to another, Most would pay a small sum of , say 10L for the experiance of air travel. But many people, who have tried to take passengers on planes end up on the sea bed, with dead passengers, and they blame you!!!, Not the fact that each grid just cant take an aircaft packed with instrumentation , and 6 avatars with any success over 15 sims at 250knots at 3000 feet. many of my old friends in Aviation have gone back to real Flight simulators like I have, where can Fly a real time journey from manchester Airport uk To Alicante or barcelona or Ibiza, which is a popular destination. You cant really have an airport open to the public by restricting it to members only. You have to allow access to the duty free stores or people who already own an airline and want to maybe take a check in desk. The only thing that I sometimes did, was to restrict rezzing aircaft to a Special Area, by splitting a section of sim off. Unfortunatley , since the teen grid was merged, at huge disgust in sailing and Avaition circles, greifing, and kids with MIGS trying to shoot down commercial Airliners, compound an already hard task to make your airport pay its way. I dont think its fair, to qoute, thats its the wrong buinesss to get into. because it can be viable, can be profitable, together with cutting edge new 3D aircraft mesh models being introduced. The problem is LL still stuck in the 19century, unable or unwilling to keep up with creators new vehicles, which is ever expanding into A simulator type of experiance. LL grid is not capable of running Air routes and moving around 4 planes at differant levels, while circling, waiting for permission to land. Its even more frustrating, if you have ever gone traning to be in the Second life coastguard, or trained to be an ATC, Which I did, and after some weeks, I was approved at a certified Air traffic controller, the hard practical work and paperwork to pass such tests, is pointless, if, in the end LL doesnt care about putting what you learnt into practice. What ever happened to the learning experience, that was banded about years ago, where are the Job agencys, that were in most street corners of sims, where jobs were offered. In my time, I have been an Admin, A Mentor, officer, diplomatic officer, and held posts Im still proud off, but in reality, the amount of money I invested in SL , has not realized any profit since 2009. Unless your a mega Sim/homestead renter, then your raking in the £££. creators are getting a very bad deal to me. FREEBIES need totally banning from second life, and new comers given 500L to start them off, to get some better clothes. I see more and more freebie stuff more than ever. In the end, the sl economy will go into meltdown, I know this, becuase some of my friends have pulled out of the market place altogether, some have just rented a space in a hi traffic sim, or a vendor board for 100L a week. I make jewelry, I learnt myself from tutorials, I made some money selling birthstone necklaces, until, a couple of years later, the same type of necklaces, were freebies in stores world wide, the result end of business, I just give one of my creations to friends now and then, but when they sold, I recieved 200L for them, more than enough to cover my rent for a small store. Now, I have to give them away. So much for LL vision of 2005- 2007 "Join Second life and make real income"!!

I been an active member of SL since 2007, But 7000US$ £4000 later, I have nothing to show for the hard work i put in over nearly 3 years, trying To make A Full sim British Airport financially viable. The basic faults withing SL have never been dealt with. Creators are making more script heavy and beautiful 3D jet liners, but Without some seamless Linden oceans, these planes never make it to there destination, thus, Airports cant get income from hangers, or letting out office space, or Tie downs, if Aircraft cant even make a 15 sim journey, with only 30% success rate. If mainalnd full sim tier wasnt costing me £50 a week i would still be here. I heard something about LL merging with Steam. cant for one moment think gamers will give SL 1 minute of there time, They play seamless game play like SWTOR & Company of heroes, not to mention many others, on steam like rail simulators. Its the grids that are outdated and the lack of forethought by the greedy americans who still think europe is out of recession, our petrol is going up another 5p im told very soon, back up to £1.40 a Litre. Do americans have any idea, what the cost of living is like in the uk and other euro countries battling with fiscal collapse. If Linden labs took a step back and saw there land pricing is not affordable for the majority of low paid workers, and dropped every tier price and cost of land by 30% at least, then, maybe people would take a chance. For me, I had my fingers burnt too many times, vehicle travel remains one of second lifes most appealing draws, sadly it fails big time, to deliver to get any sort of craft movement across 10 sims without crashing, and thats without the 6 would be paying passengers these jets are capable of carrying. I wont be back building any more airports until, some work is done on making oceans LAG free, NOT 80% lag, with Nothing in them!!!! To many, some people just like to chill out and go roaming, but for serious sim owners, who spend hundreds of hours creating sims, and pouring good money after bad, for no visible reward, its gets so boring, most, pull it all out and leave, and go somewhere else.