Due to computer issues I managed to completely miss this latest news from Linden Lab about more improvements!
It seems like they have been doing a lot of good work fixing some of the issues people have been experiencing for a long time.
These improvements promise a much faster and more pleasant experience in SL.
And without wanting to sound grateful; About time!
Technically this does not improve the SL experience much but because the things you see close to you rez faster, it will feel like things have improved a lot.
After all, you won’t notice that a tree on the other side of the region is not rezzing till you actually get there and by that time, it has of course rezzed.
A huge improvement is also that regions you visit a lot can be stored in your cache and kept there, on your computer at home.
This means that those sims rez even faster.
Extra handy for people like me who spend 99% of their time in the same place.
But there is also bad news, apparently this was the final phase of the series of improvements planned by Linden Lab.
I think that most of us in SL would like to see this recent wave of advancements continue!
There is still so much to do.
For starters I’d like to be able to actually wear mesh clothes, 2 years after mesh was introduced in SL they still don’t work if your avatar isn’t shaped like Barbie.
Anyway, progress is good and I can’t wait to see these improvements.
Unfortunately the new viewer doesn’t work for macbooks with old operating systems like mine.
Here is the LL video introducing the improvements, in case you’ve missed it;
Although most people by now seem to realise the huge potential the new VR technology (in the shape of the Oculus Rift) could have for virtual worlds like Second Life, some still think that it will be a niche thing.
That only a few people will actually end up owning this gadget and that eventually it will end up in the cupboard, dusty and forgotten or only used by a few nerds.
I think that the Oculus Rift (or any other kind of virtual headset) will actually end up in almost every household.
People don’t always see that virtual reality can and will be used for much more than just playing games and having fun in virtual worlds.
I think that this technology will be used to watch movies/tv, to go shopping, for education, as social media, for exercise, to work, etc, etc.
I will try and explain why I think this.
Virtual reality & film/tv;
This video shows people enjoying short clips shot with a 360 degree camera, the camera is stationary, it does not move, the person watching moves his head to look around “inside” the film.
Walking around in something that was filmed in this way is at this moment not yet possible but I don’t doubt that this will be possible soon.
And yes, many of us would probably prefer to enjoy our movies in the old fashioned way but imagine watching the last episode of ‘Breaking Bad’ while actually being inside it, watching an exciting scene… and then suddenly realising someone is standing behind you…
It may not be your cup of tea, you may prefer to watch a movie the traditional way, but it is obvious that many people will enjoy this new possibility as well.
That makes this video so interesting, it is a big step in that direction.
Another option is to watch a movie together with friends in a virtual cinema;
I think that this is another interesting and fun way to watch a movie, it brings the magic of the cinema to your home without the noisy people, mobile phones or sticky floors.
And you can perhaps also pick a certain type of cinema, such as a lovely 1930s art deco one for that vintage movie, complete with an audience of 1930s people, smoking all trough the movie.
And of course you will be able to share the cinema with friends and family even if they live on the other side of the world.
Virtual Reality & Shopping;
I personally hate shopping and would love to avoid it completely but other people love it.
Either way, many of us already use the internet to shop and VR will make this experience more fun or less of a hassle.
For instance, imagine you need a new tv, you visit a few websites but the most they can offer you is a picture that perhaps, if you’re lucky, you can turn around a bit.
Whoohoo, I can see the backside of a tv.
In a virtual shop you can see 3d models of each television set but you will eventually also be able to get a free virtual copy that you can ‘rez’ in a virtual facsimile of your living room, make sure it fits in that corner, if you need a new table to go with it, etc, etc.
The tv will of course work!
And as always, this can be a shared experience.
You can invite your mother to come see you fit a wedding dress even though she lives far away.
It will probably never replace normal shopping, but I bet it will be the end of the regular online shopping experience.
Because those online shops are dull as dishwater.
Virtual Reality & education;
Now here is a big one, especially for me personally.
I am not a teacher but I work a lot with schools, museums and educational tv shows and as someone with a huge passion for history, sharing that interest and making people understand how amazing and interesting history is, education is hugely important to me.
But in the world of Virtual Reality this is also a big one to use as a way to promote this technology and it is quite simple to convince people about how well this technique could be used for this purpose.
For instance, sorry about using history again and blatantly promoting my own sim in the following bit, imagine a class room discussing 1920s Berlin as part of their curriculum.
Learning about the chaos of post WW1 Germany, the rise of Nazism, etc.
As the class begins, everyone puts on their VR set and soon find themselves wandering the streets of 1920s Berlin.
Perhaps they will use something like my crude creation in Second Life or a much smoother and more realistic version made especially for schools.
Teacher shows them some of the spots, their avatars in 1920s clothing makes them realise what they might have looked like had they actually lived back then, the place is filled with NPCs (non–playable characters) and feels alive, real. But after after the lesson, after school, children will go home and do their homework also by using the VR set to go back to 1920s Berlin, take their time to visit more places, to investigate or perhaps just to have some fun as well.
One day perhaps the whole school will take place in a virtual reality, a scary idea perhaps but a huge solution to those children living far away from school.
Anyway, I think it is quite obvious that Virtual Reality can be an amazing tool for education, both in school and at home.
I couldn’t find a nice video about the future of virtual education, so I’ll share this old one of me giving a tour in 1920s Berlin;
Virtual reality & Social Media;
Many of us spend a lot of time on facebook, keeping in touch with friends, family and work colleagues.
How this will develop in the near virtual future is very hard to predict.
Will it become a quick sort of virtual world where everyone has their own “page” that they can design?
Will checking how someone is doing be like visiting their tropical island, villa or castle in the sky?
Will it be something like Second Life… will it be Second Life?
Or will it be a bunch of pictures and notifications that just float in the air while you’re busy working or playing in your virtual office?
In the novel “Ready Player One” our hero has a virtual basement where he hangs out with his friends, will social media evolve into something like that?
Will facebook of the future look and feel like a virtual neighbourhood where all your friends have a home they designed themselves, with sign floating above it when something important has happened, where their latest snapshot is projected onto the lawn and where above the roof their current status is shown?
Where you can enter their home, look at their stuff and hear their music?
Exercise is big business but generally it is a rather boring activity, unless you’re able to spend a fortune to buy cool toys or travel to exciting places.
But virtual reality will make exercise a lot more fun for many people, regardless of budget.
Thanks to omnidirectional treadmills you will be able to walk and run in a virtual reality, you can choose to get your exercise just walking around some virtual world, running for your life in a computer game but you can also burn calories in surroundings specially created for this purpose.
After all, where would you rather do your morning jogging?
In the street outside your home that you see every single day already or some exotic beach, stunning dessert, the rainforest, across the moon or perhaps in a world you created yourself?
Virtual reality will make this possible and this will be interesting for people who might usually not be interested in gaming, virtual reality or even computers.
For instance, I can see my mum use VR for this purpose.
This is a big market.
The Wii Fit for instance, a computer “game” that allows people to do real exercise, has sold nearly 23 million copies.
This video shows some of the options, but here of course all they do is watch a screen.
Imagine doing these sports in a virtual reality.
Virtual Reality & work;
It is obvious that working from home (AKA teleworking) is going to be big in the future.
Renting expensive offices, travel costs (both in money, time and pollution), etc.
Virtual reality will make this a lot easier, you will actually be able to feel part of a team, be present at a meeting, do a presentation and even feel like you’re chatting at the watercooler, while never leaving your chair at home, or perhaps even without getting dressed…
Either way, I reckon it will beat this alternative…
Conclusion;
I am trying to explain that Virtual Reality will not just be a niche gadget for extreme gamers with more money than wisdom.
I hope to have shown that in the very recent future Virtual Reality will be something you’ll find in almost every home, the VR set will be as common as tv sets are today.
And when everyone has access to Virtual Reality and when Linden Lab manages to keep up and make it work very very well in Second Life… our virtual world may become bigger than it has ever been.
The minute people get their hands on a VR set for the first time they will want more than the demos and games.
And then they may remember Second Life, see that advertisement, hear that story, see that youtube video and realise that it still is the biggest online virtual world there is.
And that it can be more fun to explore something you have build yourself than some place build by some game designer, some place everyone has seen a million times before.
And maybe you will realise that some of the VR experiences you’re about to pay for… can already be found in SL, for free.
In short, we’re at the dawn of a Virtual Reality renaissance and I think that this could also be Second Life’s renaissance.
There WILL be a Second Life for Second Life… as long as Linden Lab plays its cards right… and fixes its Terms Of Service!
It looks like Linden Labs latest PR video is causing a little bit of a buzz.
And most of that seems to be because at the very end they mention the Oculus Rift.
A lot of people appear to be interested in the Rift and the combination with Second Life is interesting to many of them, even the skeptical ones and those who don’t seem to like SL much.
It is (becoming) a hot topic of discussion, sadly this also reminds us of the bad reputation SL has.
Everywhere you hear the old comments of “Does that still exist?!” to “Oh where the pervy furries do the naughty things” and “Oh where they have graphics from 2007?”.
However, I think the video LL just made gets is a step in the right direction to change peoples opinions of SL and I hope that their next PR step will be showing how pretty SL can be.
I am a gamer and have played some very recent games and although of course, SL’s graphics can’t quite reach the level of many of those games, I’ve also been in some sims where at least visually things get pretty close.
I think that it would be a great idea if LL started some sort of photo contest, picked the most stunning pictures made in SL and shared those with the world.
Or perhaps invite some of the best Machinima makers and ask them to shoot some stunning footage for a PR video purely made to let people know SL moved on.
I can see it now… Second Life… has such bad graphics… and then a amazing montage of some of SL’s most amazing places with superb windlight settings, shadows, the works…
Fade to black; This is how Second Life can look, we moved on, come along with us.
Come to think of it, one video per cliche might be fun.
One video about how Second Life is all virtual hanky panky (by showing all the other things also happening in SL), one about that it is only for people who like to dress up and pretend to be barbie (by showing the enormous diversity in avatars), one about that it is only for losers (by showing smart, educated, funny SL users as they are in RL), that it is laggy (by showing what SL looks like on a up to date computer), one about that it is only a virtual chatroom (by showing roleplaying, education, art), etc.
Sure, SL can be bad, but do you think that Rockstar games shows the lowest quality GTA 5 footage in its advertisements?
We need to let people know that Second Life is still here, is not what many people seem to think it is, that it has improved and that it will improve even more.
So more videos, more up to date pictures (contact those journalists that keep using 2007 screenshots!!) and keep the buzz going.
Anyway, I am getting distracted, back to the subject.
If you search the internet for Second Life and Oculus Rift, you’re getting quite a few hits, many of them quite recent.
And no, I promise, I’m not responsible for all of them… although you probably will bump into me at some of those sites 😉
Anyway, all of this makes it clear that no matter how it ends up, a lot of people are now watching this and are keeping an eye on how Second Life and the Oculus Rift will work together… or not.
Just as I predicted and expected.
So I am glad that LL seems to take this very serious as well.
I may be a bit too optimistic, but I still think that the Virtual reality renaissance that is about to happen could also mean a renaissance for Second Life.
Today Linden Lab released a new video showing how Second Life has improved recently and how it will become even better in the near future.
I think that this is a pretty good and smart video, because one of the thing we often hear from outsiders is that SL is outdated, slow, ugly, etc.
And I think that showing people who tried SL in the past but left how it is today can be enough to bring them back.
The question that of course remains is if those people who see this video come (back) to SL will be excited or disappointed.
Have a look at it and once you’ve seen it, join me below to analyse it and read my opinion about it.
Nice intro, good to see some ancient footage!
The infographic flashes by way too fast, a shame because there are some interesting things on there.
Love seeing the avatar change, that will impress people I reckon and of course the lovely shadows.
Many people think that SL is way behind when it comes to graphics, even though that of course also depend a lot on where you go and who build the sim you’re visiting.
But I’ve seen plenty of avatars and places that don’t look that much different from some up to date games.
The disco footage doesn’t impress me much, I don’t see amazing lighting there, superb windlight settings or a stunning location.
The Grand Canyon (if thats what it is) on the other hand does look very nice.
Good job on showing the faster avatar loading, although on my computer they still sometimes remain grey for a while, but I reckon that is because some clothes designers still use 1024 pixel textures.
I can’t judge new and improved welcoming experience, I’ll have to try it out some time.
Not sure about the chat and communication either as I use firestorm.
Well done on mentioning the very new Facebook options.
Not sure if outsiders are impressed by a new improved shopping experience, must confess I’m not that happy with Marketplace and doubt new users will be.
A really smart move is showing the Oculus Rift, that is big and even though there are still some people out there who have their doubts about if it will make an impact on the gaming world and our Second Life world, it is a fact that it is a subject a lot of people are interested in.
And well done on asking people to rediscover Second Life, because that is something we should work on.
Many people try SL and leave, I was one of those myself.
I think that there will be a few people who will return to SL after seeing this and other outsiders will see this and realise SL has improved.
I’d like to make a suggestion for another video; one concentrating on the graphics.
So often people moan about SL having outdated graphics and being ugly and even today there are still many journalists who write about SL but then stick a screenshot from 2007 underneath it!
I know that much of SL is not that attractive and that you need a pretty amazing computer to see SL at its ultra settings.
But there are quite a few gems in Second Life that would blow a lot of people’s minds.
It would be great to make a simple video montage of some of the most stunning views in our virtual world, there are lots of them online, such as in this great Flickr Group.
And excuse me for being immodest, but I can’t help but close with this screenshot I recently took in the 1920s Berlin project region of Tiergarten;
I keep coming back to the experience of new Second Life.
Beginning is not easy, the learning curve is steep and it can take quite a while before you actually ‘get’ what SL is all about and realise its huge potential.
I think that LL still has not figured out a good way to introduce “Le Noob” to their virtual online world, Rod Humble says something like that himself now and then;
…about 20 percent are going to be around a month afterward. That’s a massive drop-off, but it’s still not too bad compared to other services.
However I do see 20% retention as a big problem, because I know some of the people who come to Second Life to try it (often because of what I tell them) and they then get stuck and give up.
Most of the people who give up on Second Life after a few hours or days of trying it first, probably don’t get what it is about, find the learning curve too steep or don’t see SL’s huge potential.
And I think that we can solve these problems.
I have written about this before and my suggestions and ideas haven’t changed much but recently I found a video on youtube that shows some people trying Second Life for the very first time.
A very educational video that shows us a lot of what is wrong with that very important first phase of Second Life.
After all, for those of us who have spend countless hours in SL over the last couple of years it is difficult to imagine what it is like for those who’ve only just joined.
So, let’s watch this video and then I’ll try and explain how I think we can solve some of the problems these kids are having.
They start out good, they are excited, love The Sims and are keen.
But the second they arrive, they don’t know what to do.
It is clear that their settings are not good for their computer, they should be able to handle SL pretty well but either there is a lot of lag or something is not quite right.
To me that means that perhaps the basic settings for new people entering SL should be set as low as possible at first, so that at least everything loads fast.
Our user realises this and tries to change his graphical options, but these are not easy to find if you don’t know where to look.
Still they experience a lot of lag and everything is grey.
They both have this and they are not on the same computer.
But to be fair, I’ve not experienced lag this bad in a long time.
But for some reason Linden Lab choose to have cartoonish trees at the landing spot, new users may think that this is what SL looks like and won’t be very impressed.
They discover destinations, it is good that they find that so quickly but only because the girl already knows about that.
Besides, I think that finding ‘Search’ is better, because then you can try and find something you are really interested in.
They also seem to think that Destinations is the only way to find a new place to go to.
How many new users will get bored with SL because they think only the few destination guide suggestions are the only places they can visit?
Either way, in this case (and I think in MANY cases), the starting place does not work.
They don’t get the portals, don’t even look at those, all they do is notice the silly looking trees.
It is very interesting that voice chat on SL actually works better then skype!
Eventhough they soon give up on using it because it causes even more lag.
It is really painful to see these new users wander around and generally just seeing things that won’t rez, things they don’t understand and basically a world that looks rather bad.
Within 15 minutes they start to think that SL is extremely uninteresting and wonder why they are even playing it.
The first thing they actually like is getting a free drink from an object and listening to some modern music.
But then these items end up in their inventory and they have no idea how to ‘drink’ these.
After a while they accidentally discover how to change their avatar and their outfit.
Then they meet someone and don’t realise that chatting with them only works via adding them as a friend.
Their viewer does not show the very handy chat bar!
At one time lag is so bad the young man says; “It is at times like these that I love Minecraft.”
He has a point.
By accident he then manages to sit down, he is surprised, excited and impressed.
Isn’t it sad that one of the easiest and most important actions is one they need to learn by accident.
And of course then he gets stuck, doesn’t know how to get up.
Then their teleports take for ever, some teleports fail and finally they end the video after less than half an hour with “I’m never playing Second Life again.”
That makes me sad, because I feel they have not experienced SL enough to make a judgement but I fear that their experience might be very similar to that of the many who only try SL for a little bit and then never return.
So, how can we fix this?
I think that it is important that we make new users their first experience as easy and enjoyable as possible.
For starters the basic settings on viewers for noobs should be very low, set to such a level that lag will be minimal.
If they have good computers they can always turn the settings up later.
I also feel that it is important that we send them to a nice easy place to begin with.
I know I have written about this before but I feel strongly about it and I would really like some feedback to see if any of the ideas make any sense.
When people join SL first they should get an avatar creation screen on the SL website, one that is similar to that of the Sims so that they can personalise and change their avatar as much as they want before even starting up the viewer.
This will be a fun thing to do and it makes them bond with the avatar right away, making it harder for them to give up on their Second Life, being more attached to the pile of pixels that they created.
Then, still before they even enter Second Life, they should go trough a tutorial, even the most basic action games usually have this option that allows you to run around, try out a few things, before actually starting.
Having such a steep learning curve as SL has, I think it is important that we teach the new people at least the very basics.
As we can see in the video, not understanding how some things work is very frustrating.
My idea would be to let them play a little basic game on the SL website with the avatar they just created.
No lag, no grey stuff, just a place where they can learn the important basics of SL: how to walk, look around, touch stuff, wear or use stuff, etc.
Perhaps they can earn things by doing things, for instance, a free hat if you manage to open a box, a bicycle if you open a door, etc.
But most importantly, new people have to learn how to use the destination guide AND search before the even fire up the viewer.
Because we can see the new users in this video get lost and give up after visiting just a couple of places in the destination guide, not very impressive ones either.
I myself nearly gave up on Second Life when I assumed that there just were no nice places for someone like me.
And learning how to use ‘Search’ is the only reason I didn’t leave SL.
So, by the time our new user starts up the viewer and actually teleports into SL, they have an avatar they build and dressed themselves, they know the basics and they have handpicked their first destination!
Another option might be a very basic help guide to finding a place you like.
For instance, by answering a few questions, SL could suggest a place for you to go to.
With my ideas you start your Second Life with an avatar you care about, knowing the important basics and in a sim you are interested in.
I think all that will make life easier for newbies and increate the change of them sticking around.
It will also make things easier for Linden Lab because they no longer have to build and host the regions now used to welcome noobs.
Thanks to the hype surrounding the Oculus Rift, a lot of people are experimenting with new options, inventing new gadgets and are looking into new ways of using Virtual Reality.
It seems that I am not the only one who believes that the VR Renaissance is around the corner.
The ultimate goal is of course to be able to completely control an avatar in a virtual surroundings, walk, run, use your hands, look around, etc.
And it has to feel natural and be practical.
For instance, we now have the Virtuix Omni that allows you to make your avatar walk while walking on an omnidirectional treadmill in real life.
But for the moving of hands so far all we’ve depended on the Razer Hydra, two handheld controllers that track the user’s hands in RL and translate that into movement in the virtual world.
More recently the Sixense Stem system got quite a bit of attention with its system, but that still involves having to use controllers.
To me having to hold something that steers your hands isn’t a very good solution.
I’ve been wondering why nobody brought back the VR gloves or why someone didn’t combine the Oculus Rift with the ‘Leap motion‘.
Well now somebody has done something similar and I think that this is a leap (get it?) forward.
Only yesterday this kickstarter began (and it already reached its goal of course);
Have a look and if you can, help fund it even more then it has already been funded.
Originally designed by a company called Occipital to be the world’s first 3D sensor for mobile devices, it also seems to work rather well for virtual worlds.
Imagine no longer needing a mouse or even a keyboard for your SL adventures!
You simply use your hands like you would in RL to interact with everything.
Perhaps this even solves our communication problem, in stead of taking off your VR headset to see your keyboard, you simply make a gesture and a virtual keyboard will appear on your screen that you can use just like a RL keyboard.
Imagine building that way, actually holding a prim, rotating it with your hands!
Anyway, have a look at this video, it is of course just a bit of experimenting and there is still a long way to go, but it is enough to get excited about.
I think that this is much more interesting than any handheld device.
Many people keep their activities in Second Life a secret from their surroundings, their RL friends and family often have no idea they are even involved in Second Life.
They do this because they don’t want everyone to know what they get up to in this virtual world, because they feel embarrassed to spend so much time with something others may not understand or because of the bad reputation Second Life has.
Of course, if you want to keep your Second Life secret, that is your business.
But I think that at least in some cases we should perhaps consider coming out of the virtual closet.
One of SL’s (many) problems is its reputation.
The world knows SL as that weird old place that they thought vanished years ago and that was full of weirdos doing kinky hanky panky stuff with their avatars, flying unmentionables and people spending real money so their avatars can look like barbie while in RL they are fat old men.
And of course, part of Second Life is exactly that and we will probably never get rid of those stories.
But everyone who has been in SL for longer than a few hours knows that there is so much more to SL than just that.
Or SL is that virtual world with 1997 graphics and so much lag you can’t move, all you hear is people screaming obscenities in their microphone while in the background their dogs bark and children cry.
Not to mention the griefers who are hiding behind every corner harassing you or trying to talk you into doing something dirty with a poseball.
If we want SL’s reputation to change, to become even a little more balanced, we have to do our bit.
Linden Lab is not always good at defending Second Life or improving its image.
The press uses 1997 screenshots with their articles and the second you enter Second Life you will very likely be confronted with naughty people, dirty pictures and language that will make you want to wash people’s mouths out with carbolic soap.
So if you, like me, care about Second Life’s reputation and want to see it improved or if you just want to share your adventures and enthousiasm with friends and family without them all thinking you’re spending too much time in loony pervy world, it is time to do something.
There are a few small steps, for instance, if you read somewhere about Second Life on the internet and think that the article is unfair, unbalanced or outdated, respond.
Even if it is just to confront the journalist about using 5 year old screenshots!
But perhaps the best thing you can do is ‘coming out of the virtual closet’.
When friends and family think that Second Life is a horrible place where only very weird things happen, educate them.
When I re-discovered Second Life, I pretty soon got so enthousiastic that I wanted my friends and family to understand it, to see the fun I was having.
I didn’t want to hide something that gave me so much joy from the people I care about the most.
But I also felt that quite a few people would actually love SL as much as I do, if only they gave it a try.
So I started posting screenshots of some of the most amazing things I had seen in SL.
I posted them on facebook and yes of course, the second I mentioned SL I got the old “does that still excist”, “ewwww its a pervy places for weirdos”. etc.
So I proved them wrong, I showed them the other side.
I posted pictures of stunning sims, talked about educational places, watching vintage movies with friends from all over the world, etc, etc.
As I am a history nut, sp I started sharing a lot of stuff about historical sims on facebook, especially when I started to build one myself.
Most of my friends are mad about history as well and seeing that SL would allow them to explore 1920s Berlin, the First World War Trenches or a Roman villa made them curious.
Some tried SL and a few of those are now lost for ever in the virtual streets and alleyways.
But all of my contacts now at least know that SL is not what they thought it was.
Of course many of us have things we don’t want to share with the world, visiting the Latex whipped cream sailor dungeon may be your cup of tea but our aunty might not quite understand seeing that pop up on your facebook account.
Most of us however also spend at least some time in sims that look stunning or at places where something happens that does not fit in with the negative reputation SL has.
So do your bit for SL’s reputation; come out of the virtual closet!
Post a stunning snapshot of a wonderful sim on your RL facebook account, write about a class you’ve been to or something arty, intellectual or fun that you’ve experienced thanks to SL.
Share one of those excellent Drax files videos;
Tell them how you’ve walked inside a Vincent van Gogh Painting, how you’ve visited a building that was demolished centuries ago, talk about poetry, movies or how you just had a great time listening to some live Irish music in a pub when you couldn’t go out in RL because your car was broken.
Be prepared for negative comments and set those people straight.
YES, SL is a weird place where weir people do weird things.
But there is more to it.
I know that there are people who don’t want to try SL because of that bad reputation, some don’t want to return to SL because they experienced that side of SL.
We will not change everyone’s mind, but we can at least make some people realise that SL is more than its reputation.
Recently the biggest user created online virtual world Second Life celebrated its 10th anniversary!
This is quite a big deal, how many online games or worlds stay around for a decade and still do so well?
Yes Second Life is doing well, and to illustrate that it is far from dead Linden Lab, the company behind ‘SL’, published a press release with a so called ‘infographic’ full of facts and figures.
It is shocking and rather sad that there are a lot of people out there, even in the tech community, who don’t even know Second Life is still around.
A huge online virtual world where everything you see is build by its users, that supports a massive economy and lots of communities, is the biggest in its kind and still at the forefront of this kind of technology, should be something every writer in the game and computer business should keep an eye on.
Just because the hype has passed (years ago) does not mean it is no longer important.
With the Oculus Rift about to change the world of gaming and immersion, virtual reality will get a huge boost and Second Life will be part of that.
But I will let the infographic talk for itself.And to the SL users and inhabitants I say; spread this picture as much as you can, share it trough social media, paste it on forums, glue it to walls, leave prints on the train.Lets tell the world we’re still here, remind them how special Second Life is.
Because not everything made it into the video, Draxtor was kind enough to let me listen to the interview so I could write it all down and share it with you here.
Rod Humble interview:
On the current status of Second Life;
I think it’s an amazing thing that after 10 years we have a million people active every month, we have 400.000-odd people sign up every month.
And I think, at least from my background, I come from the world of computer games, that never happens.
Usually it’s a sequel at that point, that you’re making a franchise.
I think the reason why is pretty clear, which is, it’s this wonderful creative platform and I think that being able to see this avenue where people can make whatever they want and they can share it and they can sell it and they can socialise, I just think it is a tremendous thing and I am very pleased with it.
Second Life is ahead of its generation, but very traditional in the fact that it enables creativity and I believe that that is the most powerful form of interactivity and entertainment.
I think that children immediately are drawn to things that they can make and play with.
And they are not drawn to fixed experiences that are linear.
And my kids are the same, my son loves Minecraft, he loves Second Life, he loves being able to make things.
And my daughter is the same, she is five, she can’t quite understand Second Life yet but she plays with paint programs and Creatorverse, a program that we just did.
And I think that is more traditional, I think that people are naturally drawn to being able to play rather than follow somebody else’s fixed path.
We may look back on the video-game business from the 80s up to 2000 as something of a historical anomaly.
Adding that spacial dimension and also your sense of identity is a large factor.
I don’t have all of the answers, I don’t know why it’s magic, but it is.
A visit to Bay city.
On being in-world;
When I am in-world, I feel the same way.
Wow this is different, I am not sure why it’s different.
I think that some of it has to do with that I know I have this self expression which is my avatar and I know that I am in a space that I can move around and I know that it’s been made by somebody.
And it is more engaging and the conversations become different in-world
I am a great believer that the tools and rules of any interactive experience govern the kinds of things that come out of it.
I think it is no accident that for example on twitter, which is part of the reason I kind of stopped using it, is that limit on characters really does force a trivial and snarky kind of conversation.
For example, I’ve dealt with a lot of communities.
i think that the Second Life community is clearly about creativity and when I’m on first person shooter game communities, the communities there are very different because there is one activity that it is focused around.
Again I don’t think there is anything new here.
The tone of the conversations at a chess club are going to be different then the conversations at a sewing circle.
Because of the kinds of things that you’re doing, the activity is the central conversation and all the other conversations emerge around it, kind of like a coral.
I think that the ability for you to have a certain kind of identity in certain situations within Second Life is much more traditional then today.
I am very uncomfortable with the lack of privacy and ability to choose the persona I put forward, more and more.
With social media, everyone knows who you are.
That doesn’t feel comfortable to me, sometimes I want to choose.
The you that goes to church is different then the you that goes to the pub or the tavern which is different then the you that goes to work or is at home or is in a club.
And I think increasingly today those lines are getting eroded.
And I think they are important.
It is tremendously empowering for people to go into Second Life and say; “Here is my persona.”
And I love flying around with my alts, sometimes I’m a spaceship, sometimes I’m dressed as a greek philosopher, sometimes I’m dressed as an animal, I mean, it’s great!
And each one of those personas, you can fully engage in a community in a way you that you can’t when everybody knows it’s Rod Humble who’s chatting to you.
When I go in-world, I answer some messages, I give out bears.
Some of the most enjoyable things I’ve done, flying planes, riding railroads, I like to go sailing.
I love building on my island, which is secret so you won’t get to see that but I enjoy it a lot.
What did I make?
I made some little virtual pet thing, I like programming in LSL.
There was a bunch of art galleries I just thought they were fabulous.
There’s a lot of activities that I really enjoy within Second Life.
I would say that, if you browse in-world or you browse the marketplace or you just look at images from Second Life.
There will be a point when you see something and you will say; “Ah I would like to be that in-world.”
And that is the best I can give, I think there is something for everybody and it is magical when it happens.
I remember when I saw a spaceship fighter and I was like “Hey that would be a cool avatar!” and it really clicked.
So I think you just have to look around and I think some people are just not comfortable with it at all and they certainly shouldn’t do it.
But I have this hunch that there is an avatar for everybody.
A visit to 1920s Berlin for some lukewarm beer in Jo Yardley’s Keller Tanzlokal.
New users;
It is very hard for us to figure out what you will find appealing within Second Life, within this universe of creativity.
And so I think a lot of people come to it and are like ‘Well it is not for me, I’ve seen what it is like and it is not for me.”
And then if if you take them by the hand and you say; “Well by the way are you into quilting? Because I can show you a place in Second Life where there are these wonderful communities who are making carpets and fabrics and all of these wonderful things.
Or are you into aircraft?”.
I remember, I was showing a CEO of another company, he was just looking at Second Life and we were chatting about business.
And I was like; “Oh this is one of my favorite places” and he was genuinely unimpressed.
Right up to I said “Oh and this is one of my favorite areas” and I took him to this airport where there were all these aircraft recreated within Second Life and he just flipped his lid.
He was like; “This is amazing! And I can fly these?”
“Yeah absolutely!”
It is discoverability and I wish I had the answer to that but I don’t.
On Second Life and the tech world;
There is a mindset within the tech business which is ‘rinse and repeat’.
And it’s if something is older then a year it is clearly on its way down and I just don’t believe that at all.
Creative platforms should be tremendously long lived and I, nobody is really talking about changing canvasses for painting.
And I think that you can make things better and better but fundamentally I think that creative platforms, the longer they are around the better.
There is definitely short term thinking in the Bay area.
And I think it is a mistake because I think that there are businesses that you build over time.
I am astonished, before I worked here, I worked on a game called “The Sims”, where you control little people and Second Life is similar.
And I am astonished that there has no been no significant competition to Second Life and by significant I am not trying to be disrespectful to our other competitors right now, but no large company has come in and said; “We’re going to spend 50 million dollars building a Second Life competitor.”
And that is astonishing.
And nobody did it with the Sims either and I think a lot of it is they don’t get it.
How do you compete with something you don’t understand, how do you build it?
On Second Life performance;
We are about, I would say 30 to 40% trough, I am not even sure that the 30 to 40% is live yet.
But late last year I mentioned it in passing that we were investing in performance and it has been a huge effort.
And it has been a problem that the company as a whole, we didn’t really address for years and years and we spend over a year now on it and the rest of the performance improvements should be out this summer, I think a big one should be out for SL10B.
And my hope is that people just notice, as you have.
But you ain’t seen nothing yet, there’s going to be some really significant ones that are coming and it is just going to be great for everybody.
And that is an investment that isn’t immediately apparent to people and its not very sexy but it is very much appreciated.
When Danger Linden, Don a friend of mine, he joined Second Life and he is now heading a production on it.
He just came into my office after the first week and said; “Rod there is this elephant in the room. You do know how just slow everything works? And it just ruins the immersion.”
And so we put a real focus on it.
So thank you, I’m glad you noticed, it is gonna get better.
Trying to explain something technical to Jo Yardley.
On improvements;
For the pas year or so, we’ve been working under the hood to improve performance.
A lot of those performance improvements are rolling out this quarter and next quarter and I think people will be delighted by them.
We’ve added mesh, we’ve added pathfinding, we recently added CHUI which is a flexible user interface.
All of these things have made Second Life look more and more nextgen and some of the works are just beautiful and we continue to add new features.
I think with mesh there is a dramatic transformation between older creations and ones that you can make with current generation tools and upload within Second Life.
And if you just look side by side with the same creator of what they could make two years ago and what they can make today with mesh, it is absolutely stunning.
And I am so pleased to see the results.
I do think that Second Life enables people with isolation issues, disabilities or they just have different ways of wanting to interact with other people.
And it is extremely empowering and I found that myself.
And I find that a key feature for Second Life.
One of the businesses and the areas of enjoyment within Second Life is breedables, so pathfinding has helped there.
And there are so many different kinds of pets and animals that you can purchase and raise within Second Life, from horses to these wonderful fantasy creatures.
It’s amazingly enjoyable and having a pet is very addictive as well.
Yeah everything that you see in Second Life is created by the users for the users.
And what emerges are these wonderful communities and lines of business and they rise and fall and rise and it’s wonderful.
And I do think that is a misconception; Linden Lab, we don’t make the things you see in Second Life, it is all community driven.
On Second Life’s reputation; I think that we try every day, I think that with SL, with the 10 year anniversary, there is another opportunity to position Second Life correctly.
I was actually on stage last weekend and I got asked about the biggest misconception about Second Life and my answer is; We have the same amount of interest in adult content as Google does but you don’t think of Google as the Adult search engine, which it is!
We’re very broad and that’s when you have people able to create whatever they want, they will create whatever they want and that will be interests of all kinds.
And I embrace that, I think it takes a lot for people to understand that because they believe one company is making all the content and therefor is making all the content.
I also think it is rather childish, you know, from particularly, myself in England, living in the States.
There is this rather childish cultural obsession with sex, it’s like, really?!
I mean, it is interesting, but you know it’s normal as well, it’s kind of a healthy thing, why are you guys so obsessed by this?
I think it is because video games, at least in the UK and United States, it’s always been very taboo.
It’s okay to have genocide, blowing people’s heads off, but heaven forbid you show an act of love.
Checking facebook while inworld.
On the Second Life economy;
Yeah it is actually amazing.
It is round about half a billion US dollars a year transactions within Second Life.
And so far it has been 2.3 billion USD and actually it is increasing.
So the amount of land right now is going down, slightly, but the economy is increasing, which is astonishing.
Yeah and it goes in cycles.
It is always amazing to me as a businessman seeing the way that the Second Life business evolves and it is so driven by the users, it changes in ways you wouldn’t expect.
I am still absolutely amazed at just how robust it is.
A million Monthly Active Users for an online experience that’s ten years old is unheard off within the video game business and this isn’t a video game and I think it is because of that, it’s a creative platform.
On Oculus Rift;
We’re working internally on integrating Oculus Rift and VR headsets, which I’m really exciting about.
I can’t wait, it’s already great.
It is actually trivial to get it up and working so you can look around, what isn’t trivial is you absolutely need to now convert all of your user interface because when you’re looking around you can’t track around with your mouse, it doesn’t feel right anymore.
So you have to make that UI helped with where you’re looking.
Which is astonishing, we wouldn’t have predicted that but it’s really really necessary.
We have the Oculus Rift working within Second Life and we are working to make it a triple A experience particularly round the user interface.
On the future; We are working on not only large features for Second Life but also we have a very very large virtual world investment that we haven’t announced yet and that is still a few years out but I think that’s going to really excite people.
I think that Virtual Reality, things like the Oculus Rift are very important.
And I also think that one of the biggest multipliers that will happen within virtual worlds is creation tools getting easier and easier.
And that’s going to be a huge bonus.
We’ve been having a lot of fun and as I said, our largest product it is virtual world related and for Second Life Users, I think people are going to be excited.
But that is a few years out.
We do some programs where we support the arts by donating land and we do that trough a committee of residents.
It combines architecture with drawing with programming, it’s an amazing thing.
On Linden Lab;
At Linden Lab we have about 176 employees, we’ve got offices in Sweden, England, Virginia, Boston, San Francisco is the main office, we’ve got one in Seattle as well, so we diversify.
I will say that productivity more and more is increasing because of tools and I also think that there are modern methods of engineering which help.
Over the past two years we have gone from becoming a minority engineering organisation to a majority.
So the majority of our employees now are programmers who actually make things, which I think is healthy.
I think that we remain very much under the radar for most people, I will say that recruiting is remarkably easy.
And I think that that’s changed particularly over the past 18 months, it’s got a lot easier.
And I think people are seeing what we are doing and that we have interesting engineering problems.
But in general I think that most people in Silicon Valley have no idea that Second Life still exists.
Which is interesting in and of itself.
On the Second Life community;
But I think when it comes to the community, you mentioned the community, I love the Second Life community.
And I think the Second Life community gives itself a bad rep.
If you ask the Second Life community they will tell you ‘Oh you know, we’re so negative and we’re so drama obsessed’.
And it’s just not true.
I come from gaming communities, where I was running a gaming community, I received three death threats in a day!
I’ve never received three death threats in a day from Second Life users, I’ve only received only one death threat here.
And that was from a guy who got banned, you know, he was angry.
I actually regard the Second Life community as far more polite and less vitriolic then many video game communities I’ve managed, maybe it’s just my experience but for me it’s a step up.
