Chaniyth Mixmaster

@Ryuu.Radek and any other person who may not realize. You don't have to waste your $$$ on a new computer to run SL on Ultra. If your PC is a desktop system just upgrade the GPU, and possibly add in a bit more system RAM and you'll be able to run Ultra on even older PC's (provided that are PCI Express compatible as ALL major cards these days are PCI Express only). Laptop users are SOL as that does require the purchase of an entirely new computer, which is why I prefer Desktop PC's over laptops due to upgradability. My PC is an Athlon 64 X2 4200+ dual-core CPU with 3 gigs of RAM and my GPU is an Nvidia GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB and I can run the game on Ultra just fine. My girlfriends PC is from 2006, and has Windows XP. It contains a single core Athlon 64 @ 2Ghz, 4 gigs of RAM it had an onboard Nvidia GPU 6150(LE?) and it would run smooth only on low, however for Christmas she purchased an Nvidia GeForce 210 1GB, I installed it, and she can run on Ultra perfectly with buttery smooth performance with only a $60 GPU purchase! Simple PC upgrades are not rocket science; a new GPU and more RAM can make all the difference in the world when it comes to performance. There is a threshold though where the CPU speed can become a bottleneck for the GPU and hinder performance if the CPU is too slow, but thats not a major issue for a casual SL user, only for hardcore gamers. Keep in mind also if your PC is is so old it doesn't have modern compatbility (ie: PCI Express / PCI Express 2.x, etc) then you may want to upgrade to a more modern system, but it definately doesn't require a $4000+ hardcore gamer machine!

@Nicknack Lacourte I, have been using Second Life since 2007, and the pay to have your avatar reactivated thing is nothing new, you had to pay to have an account reactivated back then too. Inventory is stored in a database, if you willingly cancel your account or it was canceled by LL due to theft it makes sense for you to not get that inventory back; inactive account + inventory purge of inactive account = more optimized database. That's just how databases work, you NEED the tables to be as optimized as possible or you're gonna have major issues. This also cuts back on missing or destroyed inventory on active user accounts, yes it does happen, but it would be even worse if useless inactive accounts retained their inventory. The new Marketplace has completely modernized how we shop for our SL avatars. Also it is almost exactly like SLExchange a.k.a XstreetSL, it's just a more modern design and more intuitive with features such as a multi-item shopping cart. The search on it is just as "dumb" though as it was on Xstreet, sometimes pulling irrelevant items. Our favorites we had stored on Xstreet has now been restored on Marketplace as well. It's a work in progress and a change, however, change can be good.

@Dancing Lemon & anyone else. Second Life Viewer 2 *IS* the future of SL, and i'm gonna estimate that within the next 6-12 months, LL will have "banned" any SL Viewer 1.xx series viewer, including their own. Also, you seem to be forgetting that SL is a game, LL is a company i.e. a business, and that the Viewer software belongs to them, period. Updates, upgrades etc is always a good thing. Your problem just like so many others is "change", humans by nature don't like change. Viewer 2 is a complete overhaul of the viewer, and very different than what we are used too, however it's a good change, if you'd actually sit and take time, say 5 minutes, and tinker with the new UI on Viewer 2 you'd realize it's not that difficult. Bottom line, Viewer 2 is the future of SL so get over the Viewer 1 vs Viewer 2 complex.