Op/Ed: wtf?
by Pixeleen Mistral on 13/02/07 at 1:18 am
by Pixeleen Mistral
I am a generally patient soul. calm. not easily excitable. But I do view with a certain amount of alarm a few problems in the metaverse — such as those that resulted in a non-functional world for my small petty pursuits over the last few days. Indulge me if you will – as I explain.
My dissatisfaction became acute Saturday night when – as has been my custom over the last 18 months – I was trying to race sailboats. I’m not given to virtual sea sickness, but the intermittent jerking motion of the Kanker Greenacre’s normally smooth-as-silk flying tako sailboats could best be described as squirting toothpaste – intermittent squirts forward for random distances punctuated by stochastic pauses. Delightful – if you enjoy brownian motion.
I surmise this new development may have something to do with the game gods – certainly the comments that Mr. Cubey Terra and Ms. Ordinal Malaprop made recently suggest that something is amiss in our fictional universe — “things have gone seriously wrong”. Are the Lindens getting excessively concerned with monetizing the platform?
3.5 million *cough* registered users can’t be wrong, but we used to be able to concentrate on sailing strategy rather than trying to make it around the course without getting stuck or un-seated. It has been pointed out to me on a few occasions that vehicles don’t work well in Second Life. Strange thing is – they used to — a year ago.
But there is far more to Second Life than a few avatar’s silly little pretend sailboat races. There is society – commerce – human interaction – virtual self! Still, I cannot buy anything when my L$ balance is missing. On the other hand – this is Second Life Spirituality Week at the Herald. Did the Lab decide I should take a vow of poverty? I thought joining the spiritual realm was by choice. Tonight I learned this is not so.
I logged in twice this evening and both times found myself represented by prim hair, two necklaces, a bracelet, and a pair of boots – so I am ghost now. But this was not the avatar I designed – and this is not how I prefer to present myself to the world. Fearing that I might have somehow angered the Linden game gods, I sent IMs to friends – but they were having the same experience. Is this part of the metaverse rapture?
I now understand Catherine Linden’s post exhorting the press to cover the spiritual side of SL – she knew that we were going to become invisible. She also knew that even simple gestures like hugs would stop working – so we will sin no more. This is getting quite close to what is available from Yahoo Instant Messager – disembodied virtual selves with text chat. When inventory, L$ balances, and teleports are broken, how do I tell SL apart from a very expensive version of Yahoo IM?
Maybe if I just have a nice glass of kool-aide I’ll feel better. Philip? What is your favorite flavor? We have red, orange, grape, and blue Kool-aide. Want some? Or have you had enough already? Please leave some for the fanboys. They are going to need it.
Which flavor kool-aide would you like?
harlequin salome
Feb 13th, 2007
Ah, yes. The AN has been noticing a great deal of issues of late… as time has gone on, first Air, then Marines, then Fleet… the now familiar question. “Why is everything so laggy?” People who used to be able to streak across the grid in a fighter now can barely turn. Marines, myself included, who had beautiful FPS, now are lagged toa crawl, and that all assumes we even rez.
I’ve been playing EVE online recently. Eve has, at non-peak, 17k online at a time. 26-27k seems the be the norm.
Meanwhile, over 17k log onto SL, and SL chokes. Do the lindens do anything to stem the tide? Naw. I remember a few weeks ago, when the average login was like, what, 19-20k, because they’d apparently run some big event in germany. They’re doing things to increase membership without even glancing at the already overloaded servers. I think this is stupid indifference on behalf of the lindens. Someone, Philip I’d assume, and others, are so worried about more people, more logins, more members, that they’re not worrying about how the world actually works.
I can’t count the number of people, myself included, who would jump ship if given a competitor. If another thing like SL came along, even if it was less capable or primitave, but have the same capability, I’d leave my cash, my business, and my army behind, and go to it. The lindens have a complete inability to manage their own grid, and its getting worse.
*shrugs* I know, I sound like that overblown windbag prok, but this *is* a serious issue. Unlike the false emergencies that ole prokie-poo goes off about, this is something that is affecting SL negatively, and doing so in a meaningful manner *now*. My lag has skyrocketed and ym FPS sucks *now*. My Air Division is constantly asking why their SL lags so much compared to before *now*. I’m logging in and not even being able to see my attatchments *now*. I’m tired of messages from lindens going “We’re having asset server issues, please stand by while we sacrifice Torley to Yog-Sothoth, He Who Walks Between Worlds and Governs Internet Connections, in hopes of appeasing Him and getting our asset server online.”
Jesus. This level of incompetance and sheer indifference is a result only of non-competition. I only hope a competitor pops up, and punches Linden Labs squarely in its unused balls, so all these toothless, mindless, idiotic, uncaring Lindens actually realize there *is* an issue here.
Oh, and we all know that there’s not 3.5 million users.
There’s only about 12 of us, and the rest are alts.
- Admiral Harlequin Salome, A-2 of the Alliance Navy. “Death and Glory”
Macphisto Angelus
Feb 13th, 2007
The spiritual side of SL is quite easy to pinpoint. It is all about the faith we demonstrate every time we push the connect button and think for a moment that SL will work as it should.
Prokofy Neva
Feb 13th, 2007
Harlequin, Second Life isn’t a wargame. Why are you here? It’s terribly sucky as a wargame. Maybe try WoW?
Nathan Storaro
Feb 13th, 2007
Yes, I am also pretty disappointed with LL – and I just have a job in SL. I can imagine how people who have business in the grid, which have invested much of their economies on it, are thinking about these sucessive grid problems.
It is an interesting comparison that Google, in the beggining of Orkut and Gmail, has created a simple form to limit the quantity of new members: only if you were invited by a member, you could sign to be a member too.
Much probably it would not be the better way to limit the new coming accounts to SL. But it functions like a very good example: if Google, with all their billion-dollars-power, was concerned about a controled growth of their not-so-high-tech community, why LL does not should be too, considering that a 3D-live world needs several times more care than a text-based community?
Hey, Lindens, are you listening us? People are beggining to realise how important and meaningfull is what you created, and are putting their trust on you – but you need to proof you deserve this trust, and show us that you are very serious about managing the grid.
Don’t play with us, or the consequence is clear: you will lose our confidence.
Marilyn Murphy
Feb 13th, 2007
pix:
i was supposed to do a shoot yesterday, the model couldnt log on, i cant work my inventory, and cant see myself to arrange poses.
hopefully the lindens are….trails off..has blank look.
Spankubux
Feb 13th, 2007
zOMG 12,000 Concurrency, Nothing workss111!!!!1
LL will never be able to deal with more than 12,000 concurrent users.
SL Herald: Shitty writers, shitty publication.
Tenshi Vielle
Feb 13th, 2007
That whole business had me pissed off, especially with no warning and after there had been over 31,000 users logged on.
Shit.
I’m sick of my hair ended up in my crotch and looking like an overgrown weed. Either they need to start disabling prim attachments when the grid starts overheating, or they need to start *warning* us, please… if at all possible.
Tsukasa Keiko
Feb 13th, 2007
Even though it wasn’t addressed to me, please allow me to answer your question, Prokofy.
Many “wargame” players that invest in a game more than a passing glance have a high level of imagination and cognitive thought (or are just a greifer, but they (mostly) don’t form successful SL armies). No other single online game, whether it be WoW or Call of Duty, allows you the freedom in creating your own game as SL does. Even better, SL allows you to see how your vision matches up against other people’s visions.
Despite how much SL’s poorly coded physics and rendering engine restrict the game, SL still has the most freedom of any game.
Prokofy Neva
Feb 13th, 2007
Tuskasa, freedom to create armour, vehicles, and weapons and then…be all dressed up with nowhere to go. I don’t get it. It’s like a 3-d prototyper for another game, that you can’t make on this platform.
Myrrh Massiel
Feb 13th, 2007
/me is sad.
Talthybius Brevity
Feb 13th, 2007
“Please leave some for the fanboys. They are going to need it.”
QFT
Harlequin Salome
Feb 14th, 2007
*Nods* Nathan hit it on the head there. Confidence is an important commodity in this new marketplace, and LL is losing it.
h, and Prok, I don’t get logging on just to piss, moan, and generally whine like a stuck pig about SL. So I guess your not getting what we do, is the same as us not getting what you do. So just stop, you rancid pile of trollmeat.
Rock Ramona
Feb 15th, 2007
I feel your pain my friend.There was a time when I purchased 3/4 of a sim to fly my planes and sail my boats.When it became impossible to do this because of lag and other problems I sold out and made a nice profit.The next thing I did was to bring some of my old friends from a hacker group I belong to to help me build some security scripts for a new idea of building my own new mainland for people to live there and sail and fly their aircraft.In the process of doing this,we discovered some things,and have decided that we are going to put our efforts into making our own virtual world.A place where there will be zones and rules verified accounts.This is going to be a long haul but a worthy one,and after watching the Star Wars Galaxies Clone that is being built as we speak,it gives me hope that maybe it can be done here as well
Proteus Hand
Feb 28th, 2007
Prok, this is the first… and probably only time I’m going to agree with Harlequin….
Secondlife was made for anything. If people want military, it’s because they are unwilling to experience it in real life, and do not want to deal with the static, repetitive structure of WoW.
In a secondlife military, it functions entirely off of people. REAL people. No NPC’s involved… no pointless errands to kill bandits as a green recruit because a level 60 guard, armed to the teeth, refuses to do it himself.
SL military, you pull your own weight, and you solve problems that NEED to be solved. You don’t gain exp points… you gain actual experience, you will learn how to function in laggy environments, deal with hardships, and foolish, close-minded people.
Exactly how much respect do you think you deserve, Prok?
I doubt it’s enough to waltz into secondlife and tell a group of people that they shouldn’t be a military and expect a pleasant response. In some ancient time, during the migration from TSO, I’m sure you were a great pioneer…. but to us, you’re opinion is garbage, and unless you begin showing the respect that you want in return, that is how it will remain.
Wayfinder Wishbringer
Feb 28th, 2007
Not to take anyone’s side but…
Harlequin, Proteus, if you’re pro-SL, that’s fine. Glad you’re having fun. That doesn’t negate the very real fact that Second Life has some very real problems. Glad you formed your military. But tell me… what good does it do if you can’t get 30 avs on a sim without lagging to oblivion? Not much of an army for maneuvers, is it?
Guys, just because someone disagrees with your opinion doesn’t justify throwing a tantrum. Frankly, I found Prok’s responses much more level-headed, insightful and mature than your responses to her. Now, if I missed somewhere that she was rude, called you names or showed you disrespect, please enlighten me. All I perceived was that Prok asked a valid question and you called her rancid troll-meat and stated Prok’s opinion was garbage. Frankly, you lost the debate right there. A valid alternative would have been to respectfully answer her question and tell her why you prefer Second Life as a wargame environment.
If you expect people to consider your opinions as valid, stick to the issues.
Wayfinder Wishbringer
Feb 28th, 2007
The above said Harlequin, I just read a previous post of yours that sumaraized SL pretty well. Yeah, it’s got troubles. Everyone knows that. We’ve known it for a long time. And when you say that LL has this attitude because they don’t have any competition, I think you hit the nail right on the head. Obviously most folks don’t consider THERE or ACTIVE WORLDS to be real competition. Oddly enough, I *do* consider WoW and other system to be competition, but for some reason LL doesn’t see it that way. Go figure.
But, that’s not always going to be the case. We all know that. Eventually, there is going to be some real competition– and when that happens, all the garbage that Linden Lab has pulled up until now will be remembered– and if the competition is any good at all, SL will start becoming one big, barren landscape. And if the competition is smart enough do things right, they can flat put LL out of business practically overnight.
I’ve known for a long time how to make SL functional and how to make it profitable. You can bet your buns I’m not going to tell LL. I’m one of the ones they ticked off… and one of the millions that gave SL the heave-ho already. Something tells me those millions are just the beginning of LL’s problems.