Op/Ed: A First Look at Second Life?
by Pixeleen Mistral on 26/02/07 at 8:02 pm
Software written by kittens in a feather factory
by Inigo Chamerberlin
I’ve been engaged in testing the ‘First Look’ Second Life viewer since it first became publicly available and I think its development process tells us a great deal about why Second Life is so flaky.
My system is fairly high spec and is capable of handling any software you care to throw at it, it’s stable, fast and reliable.
The initial releases of the First Look viewer amazed me. By simply allowing the graphics card GPU to do its job and not loading the main CPU excessively, a huge increase in raw performance – as measured by personal fps – was achieved.
There were a few bugs and the client wasn’t totally stable, but I, and others, were completely blown away by the ability to exceed 100fps in areas where ‘only’ 40-50 were previously possible (and yes, I do know about the ability of the human eye to assimilate images over time thank you – I’m using, as we all do, fps as a measure of combined software/hardware performance).
This looked like a brilliant update. Massive performance increase, far superior rendering, resolution of the infamous alpha order issues, with a few minor glitches!
However, as time, and versions, passed, it became evident that bugs were being introduced at an ever increasing rate, rather than being reduced, and that the First Look Viewer’s performance advantage was also being steadily eroded.
Various comments from testers made it clear that people were attempting to use it with hardware which is NOT within the Second Life PC Minimum Requirements specification. Indeed, using hardware about which there is a specific warning that Second Life is not compatible with.
From happy responses in the blog it also appears that efforts were being made to render the First Look Viewer compatible with these types of hardware.
Now I could be wrong here, but this strikes me as a really stupid way of pursuing development of new software. Surely one starts out with a target hardware profile – and STICKS to it?
What precisely is the point of making alterations to the software which introduce thoroughly bizarre bugs, such as disabling the Escape key functionality of all things, simply to accommodate the requirements of people who want to use Second Life with hardware which, if they bothered reading http://secondlife.com/corporate/sysreqs.php they would realise was not actually supported or compatible?
Especially when the First Look viewer ISN’T just about giving us full use of our expensive graphics cards – that’s something Linden Lab could have done literally years ago, had they found the motivation. No, First Look Viewer is about Microsoft Vista compatibility!
At which point making the First Look viewer compatible with such low end oddities as the Intel Graphics Chipset, commonly fitted to entry level PCs, laptops especially, becomes even more ridiculous, as Vista is well known to have very high graphics requirements…
A train wreck in the making
The only reason I can see for the developers having got into such a mess with First Look – which, by the way, besides ‘featuring’ a disabled Escape key, also now suffers transaction issues making shopping tricky, to say the least, AND has the ‘Account History’ feature disabled, (yes, I KNOW you can go to the website and look at your transactions history – currently at least 24 hours out of date, which is no use whatsoever in dealing with customer complaints about failed transactions!) – is the ‘kudos’ of managing to get it to work with some unsupported and obscure hardware…
Yup, getting the latest software to stagger along on inadequate hardware is ‘cool’, and your peers will probably applaud you.
But it’s NOT what you are being paid to do, especially not at the expense of functionality for those who take the trouble to ensure their hardware falls within the ‘supported’ spec!
And this software, for those of you who may not know, was being pushed for release LAST WEEK! The only good thing about that was that someone, I suspect Steve Linden, had the good sense to realise that it was a train wreck in the making, and stuck out for a postponement.
For a long time I’ve been puzzled by LL’s ability to churn out updates which function more like down-dates. I’ve generally chalked it up to poor management practices (the Tao of Linden and so forth).
Actually watching the First Look project and seeing how it ‘develops’ has served to confirm my opinion and crystallise the issue for me.
The Tao’s ridiculous exhortation to ‘Make Weekly Progress – we believe that every person should make specific, visible individual contributions that moves the company forward every week’ is absolute bollocks.
It’s a concept that locks developers into the ‘never retreat, never surrender’ mode. You CAN’T rewrite because you HAVE to deliver something this week. Which is a dogma that leads to such outstanding success stories as the German defense of Stalingrad for example…
It’s a great shame that Philip Rosedale once heard about Scrum Management – and completely failed to ‘get it’.
St. Philip of Linden has heard of scrum management
What he’s come up with is a bastard form of Scrum Management which absolves him from a great deal of responsibility, this hybrid actually works quite well in early stage development, but is virtually useless at this stage of SL’s development.
It’s also clear that the First Look project has suffered, and continues to suffer, inadequate management. If there ever was a clearly defined target hardware specification it’s been forgotten and the development team are chasing around like kittens in a feather factory, instead of focusing on clearly defined requirements.
The result is that we now have a product that is slower and buggier than when it was introduced, has several essential standard client features crippled, but runs on a few non-target graphics chips which won’t run Vista, which is the true purpose of the First Look project in the first place. Not an optimum result by any means.
And THAT ladies, gentlemen and others, demonstrates why Linden Lab is floundering helplessly on the software development side. Management. Or more accurately, the inadequacy of it.
The Tao of Linden seems to have served Linden Lab well during the early days of development, the real beta stages of SL.
It has had the unfortunate side effect of saddling LL with a nasty legacy of poorly commented, unstructured and difficult to work with software, nothing that couldn’t be fixed with a clean sheet of paper and a dedicated team of well managed developers with a well defined goal though.
However, at this point in SL’s development (and ‘this point’, as I have said before, actually started back around 1.5) it’s hopelessly inadequate and is in fact restraining development of SL to an unacceptable extent, as well as poisoning SL’s reputation with the steadily increasing number of un-retained signups.
The number of signups is no longer anything to crow about. The number of un-retained signups is, or should be, to the board of directors, if not Philip Rosedale, positively frightening.
‘A satisfied customer will tell two or three others, a dissatisfied customer will tell seven or eight’ – look at signups versus retained and do the math for yourself…
This wasn’t written to knock St. Philip of Linden, and definitely not those who have the misfortune to be so poorly led by him. Far from it.
I’m trying to catch the attention of one or more of the responsible adults on the Board of Directors in the faint hope that they can bring some mature management practices to Linden Lab. Something we all should be pressing for if we want to see SL continue.
Meanwhile things will continue much as before, and shortly the First Look viewer will be released as the default viewer – be afraid, be very afraid if someone doesn’t get a grip on this one…
Sterling Whitcroft
Feb 26th, 2007
I, too, have used the First Look Viewer since it was first announced…
I have a Low End Mac…a ‘Mac Mini’. Granted, it has a dual Intel CPU, but the graphics are Intel GMA 950.
First Look Viewer was a WONDERFUL THING! …AT FIRST. FPS was nearly doubled for me, too.
And that is meaningful when you normally get 5-8 FPS.
But unfortunately, about half way along the First Look Viewer’s development cycle, things started downhill…the last 2 versions are all but unusable. …not counting the borked Escape key and the dangerous $linden transactions.
The wonderful graphics have slowed to the point where the production system ‘feels’ faster, and is certainly safer!
John Hardy
Feb 26th, 2007
And Mr. Chamerberlin inferred all of that from a piece of beta code. What a genius.
Lukas
Feb 26th, 2007
My god you guys whine a lot on this blog. You’d think Second Life is the worst game ever from reading these posts. Yes, they should make it run fast on your computer and let everyone else just upgrade their hardware. It sounds like if you were running things it would be a lot better though. Hopefully your back-seat management strategy advice will help.
Fiend Ludwig
Feb 26th, 2007
“My system is fairly high spec and is capable of handling any software you care to throw at it, it’s stable, fast and reliable.” Lucky you. Not everyone can afford the latest and greatest hardware, so making the client more compatible with a greater number of computers will enable more people around the world to experience SL. I say make it work ‘pretty well’ with everything, then LL will have a truly global product. Perfection is overrated.
Prokofy Neva
Feb 26th, 2007
Thanks for that very interesting article. I tend to think you have a point. The only reservation I’d have is the established goal of making low-end graphics cards work with SL. Why couldn’t that be a goal? It might be LL’s hippie utopian goal to have Africans and Asians without a lot of bandwidth and without high-end graphics cards to be able to enter. They’d be only too happy if they could really demonstrate that they were doing something For the Children of the third world.
The children of the first and second worlds have other games they can play like WoW.
I wonder why you couldn’t fork off the viewer that helps lower-end graphic cards as a separate download, and then upgrade the main viewer for those with the better graphic cards. I mean, a viewer views — doesn’t the world stay put, and the viewer working around it? They aren’t welded together as an entity are they? So can’t one viewer be the lower end one and one be higher?
I too, finally reluctantly re-tested the viewer when none other than Philip Linden himself happened to tell me it would speed up my ride. My first response in loading it was that the graphics were now all chiaruscuro. I kept asking him if they had messed with the shadows and lighting. All he could talk about was the faster flying. Well, ok, fly, sure. So it was good that it flew faster, although the world looked “different”.
Then they began to monkey with it and it began to go downhill fast. I found that not only did I crash with it even when they said they fixed the Nvidia crashes, I couldn’t return prims off land that was my group’s with me as officer even with my tag on; I couldn’t get stuff to return or delete full stop, soooooo frustrating.
Worst of all, they took out the accounts history inworld at the same time they delayed updating of transactions by 24 hours. This makes me fly blind, I can’t bear this. I can’t find out what customers I have, I can’t help them, I can’t see who needs a group or a house or advice, I can’t do a damn thing. I have no information, feedback, nothing. I log on, there’s $50,000 in the till from…some people out there…and I have to hope that they’ll think to call me before they refund in frustration because they couldn’t figure out autoreturn. So I literally fly around seeing if I can spot frustrated tenants here and there. It’s insane.
These basic tools of primitive inworld business and feedback are being removed merely because it saves on database calls. And because *they can*. The big corporations don’t need inworld transactions, as I keep saying, because *they have no micropayments, they don’t care*.
It’s the biggest slap in the face I’ve ever felt coming from LL since I’ve been here. It was so casually done, so callously, so indifferently *because they can* and because they had only one thought, gee, how can we both save on database calls and get rid of more clutter out of the confusing interface? Of course, they just said cavalierly, oh, go and read it in account history you chump. But account history doesn’t update. And even if it did, it doesn’t have all the records that the old inworld account history had.
like_ummm
Feb 26th, 2007
I really enjoy hearing criticism of Linden Labs – they are just so deserving of it. I am constantly amazed by the mediocrity of Linden Labs in dealing with the growth of Second Life. What I really hate are the whiners – the whiners who whine about whiners.
When is there going to be some kind of organised user-uprising? Is there already such a thing? I want to participate in something like that.
‘Perfection is over-rated’ – thats an oxymoron – moron.
Fiend Ludwig
Feb 26th, 2007
@ like ummm: An oxymoron is is a figure of speech that combines two normally contradictory terms. A useful example might be “LL creates a perfectly flawed client.” And I wrote ‘overrated’, not ‘over-rated’. Using the hyphen is incorrect.
Angel
Feb 26th, 2007
Interesting twist on First Look’s purpose there Inigo:
> First Look Viewer is about Microsoft Vista compatibility!
and
> …but runs on a few non-target graphics chips which won’t run Vista, which is the true purpose of the First Look project in the first place.
Strange that LL have not said First Look main purpose was to give the blingtards who chose a 0.0 release OS the ability to play a game but to improve graphics speeds for all, XP, OS X and Linux.
From the blog, very first post: “…Render Pipeline Improvements. This version of the viewer has no new features, but represents a significant redesign of the graphics and texture pipelines.”
Wayfinder Wishbringer
Feb 26th, 2007
A well-written article. I didn’t agree with all of it, but that’s beside the point. At least you put some thought into it and voiced your earnest opinions without spazzing in the process. Good job.
>The number of signups is no longer anything to crow about. The number of un-retained signups is, or should be, to the board of directors, if not Philip Rosedale, positively frightening. ‘A satisfied customer will tell two or three others, a dissatisfied customer will tell seven or eight’ – look at signups versus retained and do the math for yourself…< Well said. For anyone who wants to hear more about the specifics of this concept, visit http://elflcan.net (article: Is Second Life Successful?). On that same board you’ll find a similar-themed article from none other than PC Magazine.
However, regarding the First Life viewer and “required specs” list… I have long felt that Second Life was unnecessarily gluttinous in system resources. I play some pretty heavy-duty games and use some really heavy-duty business applications with no problems. Not a one of them puts as much a strain on my system as Second Life. Like the author, I have a fairly high-spec system with dual core, plenty of ram and one of the most killer graphics cards available. SL challenges it to its limits.
There’s no need for that. Most gaming companies realize they can achieve a wide variety of compatibility factors by creating the game to be intelligent. As a prime example, I used to love playing UNREAL. I’d turn off the monsters, turn off the blood and gore, turn off the bots, and just go walking around through the VR area (still do in fact). Sometimes I’ll even turn on the spiders and skeeters and take some pot shots for the fun of it. But I noticed something:
Unreal ran just fine under an Nvidia 5500 64 meg graphics card (a relatively low-spec card). It ran just fine under an Intel graphics card (which is REALLY low spec… blah. Why do companies even use ‘em?). But when I slammed an Nvidia 7900 256meg card into my system (high-spec to say the least), suddenly I could see things I’d never seen before. Puddles shimmered and flowed whereas before they’d been static. Raid dropped from the sky. Steam rose from the ground. Why? Because the game was written to recognize the level of graphics card. The stouter the card, the more the game added to the experience.
There is absolutely no reason SL couldn’t have been written in the same manner. There is no reason why the system can’t auto-detect the environment in which it’s running, perform a few tests, then auto-adjust all graphics settings proportionately. There is NO REASON a person with a gig of ram, 2000bps front-side board, dual-core processor and a slamming graphics card should have to put up with low FPS. There is also no reason a person with an Intel graphics card should have their system crash or be unable to log on. *Second Life should auto-detect their system and work regardless*. If Unreal can do so, if Quake can do so… so could SL.
So folks, bottom line, it’s just poor programming. I’m sorry. There’s a lot that is impressive in SL. There is a lot more that is very unimpressive. Every time I hear someone say that SL is “leading edge technology” I almost spew coffee. It is so NOT leading edge it’s ridiculous. Other companies have done more, better, for years. The only thing leading edge about SL is their vision (ie, their incredibly unique concepts), and I will be the first to give them credit there. But unfortunately that vision is marred by being a pimp-board, system instability, apparent total lack of company ethics or concern for user wellfare, and bugs out the gills. Top that off with lack of common sense when it comes to setting up things like wide-range graphics compatibility and persistent bugs that should have been fixed ages ago– and we discover why it is that 90-95% of the people who sign of for SL never return. They’re too busy playing stable, viable, versatile platforms like Unreal, Quake and WoW.
Said it before and say it again: “The emperor has no clothes.” And people are still waiting for him to wake up and get dressed.
Economic Mip
Feb 27th, 2007
Sigh Prok, I have heard rumors about what awaits when Second Life and the Third World combine. When (and if) it happens you will likely be one of the first to wish it had not. Some of the third world ideas so far:
-Virtual Medicine training (I sincerely hope this is a jest)
-OLPC camping fun (using the interlink abilities of these soon to be released $100 computers to rack up Lindens to supplement teacher’s salaries, when students not using them during breaks requires a very dumbed down version of the interface and viewer, but somewhat possible.
-Teachers purchasing high end (for the third world) computers to rake in Lindens from rich clients when kids not in school using the OLPC internet connection.
-Made in Nigeria scams of various types and degrees (future home to 1 million OLPC systems).
Also, forgive me for stating the obvious, but does the third world (home of real life child exploitation of alarming numbers) really want its kids on Linden Lab’s Sex Life?
like_ummm
Feb 27th, 2007
i started playing SL on a low-end system – it didnt look particularly good and there was a lot of lag caused by graphics – but i thought that this was to be expected on a low-end system. Then I upgraded to a high-end system thinking that things are going to improve. There is no more graphics lag – but things still look pretty bad. e.g. Whats with those terrible av feet? The av ass that has a permenant crater for an a-hole? Usually for a game – if it has high graphics requirements – you can assume it has high quality graphics – not so with SL.
What really annoys me about this issue is that things started off so well but LL are so incredibly stupid as to ruin it. They seem to constantly be trying to improve things only to feck it up instead.
@ fiend – u know what i mean.
Napalm Vernon
Feb 27th, 2007
…… more the reason why I stopped giving these guys my money.
Just a Thought
Feb 27th, 2007
Hmm, here’s some advice to those botching about the first Look client: Stop bitching and go somewhere else.
Christ – if it isn’t one ‘problem’ it’s another with you bloody idiots …. I attempted to use the first Look Viewer once and switched back to the standard viewer – which does have a “Use VBO” option which :GASP!: actually DOES work! Imagine that!
“Use VBO” isn’t something new in this First Look viewer – it’s just a new way to use it. Christ I’m seeing comparable fps in the Standard viewer that many users of the First Look Viewer have been getting and guess what? Account History is in it too! Imagine that!
The purpose of the First Look Client is to allow as many people as possible into the grid, no matter the Hardware. That’s all it is! That’s something nearly everyone has been bitching about for some time, not “OMGZ!!!111 My TotallyRadVideoCard 9,000,000 allows me to have 1,000,000,000 fps on (insert game name here) but second life only gives me 0.125 fps! Fix it!” Besides, to answer that sort of issue would mean everyone would have to have a TotallyRadVideoCard 9,000,000.
You have bleeding edge graphics capability? good for you! go play another game and let Linden Lab get their system working for as many people as possible – you’re not in the majority.
John Doe
Feb 27th, 2007
Inigo,
I agree with you when you write “Now I could be wrong here”.
It looks like you do not know enough about software development.
So, why waste your time trying to write about it?
Tork Voskhod
Feb 27th, 2007
Yeah, what Fiend Ludwig said: FORK THAT BABY!
Optimizing for both highest end and lowest end hardware are both noble goals that will enhance (for the former) and broaden (for the latter) the user experience in SL.
But you’re right–these goals are, for the most part, mutually exclusive. And accommodating antiquated hardware does seem contrary to the stated reason for First Look, namely Vista compatibility. I’d love to get a viewer that works on the widespread ATI Rage chipset, but such a project should be spun off from First Look, not included within it…
Cocoanut Koala
Feb 27th, 2007
JAT, you’re gonna die young from a stroke or something someday, if you keep on this way.
coco
Wayfinder Wishbringer
Feb 27th, 2007
>….. more the reason why I stopped giving these guys my money. Posted by: Napalm Vernon | February 27, 2007 at 05:19 AM < There ya go Napalm. THE solution. Made the same decision myself.
>Hmm, here’s some advice to those botching about the first Look client: Stop bitching and go somewhere else… You have bleeding edge graphics capability? good for you! go play another game and let Linden Lab get their system working for as many people as possible – you’re not in the majority.– Posted by: Just a Thought | February 27, 2007 at 07:38 AM < Just for the record JAT-- I did go somewhere else. And NO, we're not in the minority. From what I can see, more than 3 million "residents" have made that same decision. If you doubt it, visit http://elfclan.net and read the article “Is Second Life Successful?” Or, you can go to PCMag.com and read their article there regarding artificial bloating of SL “residency” figures.
Bottom line, the facts show that 90 to 95% of the people who sign up for Second Life don’t return. So I’d have to say that those who choose to go elsewhere and who don’t like SL are actually the vast, vast majority of its residents.
And I agree with Coco– ya need to calm down and enjoy life more. SL has some serious problems– and people are entitled to their opinions and the right to point out those problems– especially when they’re paying the bills.
JD Carter
Feb 28th, 2007
I tend not to commment on blogs or things I read in general but….
I have to agree with a previous poster in that all you people do here is whine about Linden Labs and Second Life. No matter the topic (or blog related to SL), it’s always the same people that do nothing but complain, complain, complain.
I’m not a tech guy…just an average guy, RL business owner/entrepreneur, father of two children who stumbled upon Second Life one day and I find it a great site and one with serious potential business usage and applicability.
Sure it’s very unstable and LL has some growing pains to deal with but so did many other breakthrough visionary businesses and platforms in their early stages. So what if it’s starting to change and it’s not the creative utopia it once was. Creativity without valued added business revenue streams does not pay the bills (or server farm costs).
Still all you ‘arm chair quarterbacks’ out there that do nothing but bitch, moan and complain about it should either provide more constructive advice on how to REALLY make things better or shut up once and for all or just quit SL and move onto something else. Sure you have spent time, effort and energy to build fantastc sims and helped to create the SL world we now have but let’s also truly put it into real perspective…
1. it isn’t your millions of dollars tied up in the venture;
2. its not your countless hours working to fix software glitches and bug reports;
3. its not your faith and peservenace to press forward with it years before the infrastructure was in place to make ti happen on a mass market scale;
4. its not your challenge to move ahead with decision on new services to bring in a much needed high profit business market while trying to continously appease your valued original residents.
In fact, you’re benefitting from the vision that Linden Labs had for what could be created in a virtual world. You take full advtange of that vision and yet you do nothing but throw stones at the founder and team. That is hypocracy in its truest form!
85% of people that register don’t come back. Well this is real business problem that SL must fix. They took some risks and made some decisions that in retrospect may not have been fully thought out. That is the growing pains of any emerging comopany and leadership team. I have launched two companies as a founder and anyone who has sat in the leadership chair knows of these types of pressures as well.
However, I have yet to read one concisely stated reponse on key actions that Linden Lab should take in order to increase customer satisfaction, increase rention rates, convert more free accounts into premium, resolve lag and server response issues as well as other critical success factors. Those are real business issues folks – not the crap that’s being debated here.
I give the team at Linden Lab along with the dedicated residents and builders high praise for what they have done so far. It’s far from perfect but its a breakthrough. To be able to chat and interface with people from around the world in artisically stunning environments in a way and manner which was not possible before is the future and true possibility of the internet.
As for those of you have nothing better to do but blog about problems, complain about the war in Irag or global warming or more socically relevant issues then problems with First Viewer and how Second Life is the worst game ever and Linden Lab seems to be the root of all evil.
It’s just supposed to be a fun/creative diversion from life…it’s not meant as a recplacement for it.
from
//JD Carter//
(an average blog reader who stronly recommends that you change this site to cover and comment about more value-added topics and information related to Second Life that truly benefits both new and long term residents instead of these inner-circle, no-value added bitch sessions you seem to want to run here!)
Wayfinder Wishbringer
Feb 28th, 2007
JD, I appreciate your earnest statement of your feelings in these matters. And in most instances, you would be at least partially correct. However…
>till all you ‘arm chair quarterbacks’ out there that do nothing but bitch, moan and complain about it should either provide more constructive advice on how to REALLY make things better< I would have to say JD, that you are totally unaware of the countless hours that many of us put in trying to make Second Life better-- including constructive suggestions and advice. You're unaware of Linden Lab totally ignoring such-- and making the same blunders time and time and time again, repetitiously, to the point of frustration to their clients. You're also totally unaware of the lack of customer support, "misinformation" (translated: blatant lies) and other problems to come out of Linden Lab. All you'd have to do is check the SL forum archives to see extensive examples of such information. While you will find a lot of complaints, gripes and outright trolling there-- you will also find a lot of people who tried to assist Linden Lab time after time-- to no avail.
>Sure you have spent time, effort and energy to build fantastc sims and helped to create the SL world< You forgot to mention money. Excessive amounts of money. LOTS of money.
>but let’s also truly put it into real perspective…
1. it isn’t your millions of dollars tied up in the venture; < Sure it is JD. Who do you think is paying the bills? Or do you bellieve that $5,200+ for first-year sim fees comes from Linden Lab?
This is a primary complaint of their customers: they're paying prime fees for an extremely unstable board-- to a company that consistently goes against customer wishes in the way that board is managed and programmed.
Now yes, I will agree with you that people should just close up shop and do something else. I'm one of the more than 3 million who chose to do so. That doesn't alleviate the fact that people who are heavily vested in Second Life don't want to lose that investment-- and are frustrated that they have to put up with the constant problems-- problems that could have and should have been foreseen, addressed, alleviated by now.
This isn't a matter of "growing pains". This is a matter of a company flat failing to exercise common sense in the operation of a system that thousands of people have invested in. Which is why some 3 million+ people have left the board.
>2. its not your countless hours working to fix software glitches and bug reports;< Yes JD, it is. Do you have any idea how much time SL residents put into reporting bugs, tracing down causes of bugs, helping LL to identify and correct those bugs? As someone who spent nearly 2 years doing so, I can tell you, customers are as much involved in the debugging process as the programmers themselves.
>3. its not your faith and peservenace to press forward with it years before the infrastructure was in place to make ti happen on a mass market scale;<
No. We’re the ones who put our faith and perseverence and $$$ into making that infrastructure continue to operate.
JD, you seem to feel that as paying customers, SL users have no right to complain when the board continually, regularly, and repeatedly fails to perform. I would have to say that is incorrect. These custoemrs have to deal with the same bugs, over and over, that LL has continued to fail to correct. They have to deal with the same unfriendly, self-serving company attitudes they’ve dealt with for years. They have to deal with the same “knee jerk” policies that constantly come out of SL.
Now yeah, I agree, if people are that upset, they should cut their losses and run. I did. So have many, many others. (BTW, the figure isnt’ 85%— it’s closer to 95%). But for those who have remained– they sure have reason to complain.
Now, here’s something to realize: all kinds of companies have done the same thing LL has done– ie, created something new, something different, invested, etc etc– and they don’t have the degree of customer dissatisfaction experienced by Linden Lab. Generally, people don’t massively complain unless something is massively wrong. Had Linden Lab and Second Life just been experiencing “growing pains”, if they had fixed bugs when such appeared, if they had paid attention to customer needs and set up the board in a sensible, business-like manner, I’d have been the first one on the Linden Lab bandwagon. So would most other people. But that’s not the case.
Bottom line: most peole who play SL do so because they love the basic concept and experience. But the way it’s managed and operated frustrates them to no end– which is why you have all the complaints. If LL was doing things even halfway right– that wouldn’t be the case. There are always *some* complainers. But when you see complaints on this level, not only here but in the SL blog itself, on forums and on private websites– that is indication that something is seriously wrong. And when LL offers FREE memberships and still have 90 to 95% of their “residency” leave the system– that’s a strong indicator something is wrong. And when all that happens and Linden Lab continues to experience the same problems year after year– not only failing to improve but actually getting worse– that’s not only sad– it’s suicidal.
People complain because they see the platform threatened on a daily basis. They complain because they perceive they are not getting value for the money they are spending. They complain– because there is reason to complain.
And yes– they have tried to help– and it’s obviously done no good. So when that fails, many come to feel that all that’s left to do is complain. If you can’t reason with someone, the next step is to pick up a a stick and whop some sense into them. Customer outrage and public complaint is a whopping stick. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to have a lot of effect on the company– because they’re still following the same, tired path.
Just a Thought
Feb 28th, 2007
Wayfinder …. when it comes to possession of high end graphics hardware you are in the minority. You shelled out hundreds of dollars to get the TotallyRadVideoCard 9,000,000, saw that Second Life didn’t properly support it … and bitched about it.
Guess what? Not everyone can, will, or even wants to have to shell out hundreds of dollars to buy a TotallyRadVideoCard 9,000,000 so their computer will be compatible with a program … especially one that had a far lower minimum system spec.
LL made the right choice in making certain their software is compatible with as many systems as possible.
The people complaining about the poor implementation for their TotallyRadVideoCard 9,000,000 can go elsewhere.
That is as simple as it gets and as far as I am concerned is the end of the discussion – unless you’d care to tell me that you misread what I had stated as “People that leave are in the minority”.
Wayfinder Wishbringer
Feb 28th, 2007
JAT, I agree that discussing further with you is pointless– since as with your first post, you completely missed the point I made about graphics cards. You’re senselessly arguing with someone who agrees that SL software should be as compatible with as many systems as possible.
As for me ‘spending hundreds for a rad graphics card and griping because SL doesn’t support it’… are you sure you’re replying to the right person? I know on the Herald blog, posts can easily be attributed to the wrong person. I’ve had no compatibility problems at all with my video card and SL.
And yeah, I did misunderstand your statement about being in the minority. But I don’t think there’s any misunderstanding the attitude:
“Hmm, here’s some advice to those botching about the first Look client: Stop bitching and go somewhere else.” — JAT
Along the same line, if you don’t like people complaining about SL– maybe you should stop griping and spend your time somewhere other than this blog. Hey… nasty 2-edge attitude, isn’t that? Can be turned right back on ya. Bottom line JAT– you’ve got no right to try to censor what people write– nor do you have the right to tell them to “go somewhere else” because they don’t cater to your philosophies regarding SL. That’s what freedom of speech is all about– the right to gripe at oppressive “government” (in this case, Linden Lab).
Like Coco said– you need to de-stress and chill out a bit. As pro-LL as you may be, there are about 3 million+ people who disagree with ya.
Just a Thought
Feb 28th, 2007
Wayfinder – do yourself a favor the next time you respond to me and stop to think beforehand hmm?
My first post was directed at no single person, thus:
“JAT, I agree that discussing further with you is pointless– since as with your first post, you completely missed the point I made about graphics cards.”
shows that you did not understand my post. ask for clarification next time.
As for this:
“Along the same line, if you don’t like people complaining about SL– maybe you should stop griping and spend your time somewhere other than this blog. Hey… nasty 2-edge attitude, isn’t that? Can be turned right back on ya. Bottom line JAT– you’ve got no right to try to censor what people write– nor do you have the right to tell them to “go somewhere else” because they don’t cater to your philosophies regarding SL. That’s what freedom of speech is all about– the right to gripe at oppressive “government” (in this case, Linden Lab).
Like Coco said– you need to de-stress and chill out a bit. As pro-LL as you may be, there are about 3 million+ people who disagree with ya.”
I’ve got every right to tell the little fuckwits that complain about their high end cards not being properly supported to sod off – especially when making full implementation would mean everyone else would have to shell out the money.
I don’t support anyone wayfinder – I simply despise twits that seek to make a program compatible only with select systems.
If I die of a heart attack …. well gee, guess the twits will have one less person telling them off won’t they?
Oh …. and in regard to this?
“As for me ‘spending hundreds for a rad graphics card and griping because SL doesn’t support it’… are you sure you’re replying to the right person? I know on the Herald blog, posts can easily be attributed to the wrong person. I’ve had no compatibility problems at all with my video card and SL.”
Let’s look at your prior post shall we, then you can see where that accusation came from.
“Just for the record JAT– I did go somewhere else. And NO, we’re not in the minority.”
Hmm, and that in response to a post stating that the fuckwits that spent hundreds of dollars on a TotallyRadVideoCard 9,000,000 are the ones in the minority. Imagine that.
are you done misreading my posts now? frankly, I like ya Wayfinder …. but Christ …..
Wayfinder Wishbringer
Feb 28th, 2007
>I don’t support anyone wayfinder – I simply despise twits that seek to make a program compatible only with select systems. If I die of a heart attack …. well gee, guess the twits will have one less person telling them off won’t they? — JAT<
Yup, but chee.. is it worth it– for something like Second Life? If you’re gonna have a heart attack, at least make it for something worthwhile. ;D
For the record, I agree with you– and disagreed with those who felt that SL should be geared toward higher-end cards (in fact, I left a post stating that there is no reason SL shouldn’t work with Intel graphics cards– as poor as those cards are. So somewhere yeah, there was a miscommunication. You, me, or gremlins, who knows?
I’ve long been on LL’s back for making their system so needlessly graphic-intensive and non-card discerning that it literally knocks long-time users and investors offline until they upgrade their computer system. No excuse for that. If I can use a lousy Intel card or Nvidia 5200 and play Unreal with no glitches whatsoever, there should be nothing in Second Life graphics that would bog down even the most intense graphic system.
So bottom line, I agree with you on the graphics issue– SL is too demanding– and to non-versatile to meet the needs of the clients. I even agree that if people don’t like SL, they should leave. Not because they don’t have a right to be there– but because why fill LL’s pockets for hosting a rickety platform?
Just a Thought
Feb 28th, 2007
Heh – you’d be surprised at what else I rail against Wayfinder.
Nacon
Mar 1st, 2007
Of course you can, JAT, Wayfinder is fresh veal meat.
Just a Thought
Mar 1st, 2007
Not what I meant Nacon – That was supposed to read “Heh – you’d be surprised at what else I rail against, Wayfinder.”
Rock Ramona
Mar 2nd, 2007
and the answer is….www.turbine.com come join me in The Lord of the Rings Online ,no lag,no 4 yr old decrepit platform,just fun fun fun,sign up for your pre order!!!!!
Wayfinder Wishbringer
Mar 2nd, 2007
Rock, do they have a “test version” of LOTR so people can check it out before spending $50 on the project?
EricT
May 22nd, 2007
I’m 100% behind a First Look fork for Vista machines with low-spec Intel graphics chipsets. Vista comes with DirectX 10 and basic OpenGL support and with a CPU running at 3GHz — providing the software is intelligent enough to detect the graphics capabilities and respond accordingly — a whole stack of folk should be able to be able to access Second Life usefully.
Heck, I could run plenty of 3D games on my old 233MHz Windows 95/98 steam engine, even on my Win98 laptop.
Those with high-spec graphics could have their own fork — the two needn’t be mutually exclusive.