Op/Ed: Facebook, IslandLife, Second Life, Lively, Metaplace – Why Worlds Fail
by Jessica Holyoke on 23/01/10 at 12:56 pm
by Jessica Holyoke
As previously reported, IslandLife, which looks a lot like Metaplace, has opened on Facebook. Metaplace is a virtual world that closed at the end of 2009. Metaplace looked a lot like Google's Lively, which also closed. What does IslandLife in Facebook and the failure of Lively and Metaplace mean? Consider one world that hasn't closed, despite its flaws: Second Life has adapted in order to make money, and continues to adapt.
When a Gaming Open Market – a real money trade currency exchange appeared and showed how the Lindens could coin more money, the Lab appropriated it. With Google Search being bandied about as a possible option for Second Life search for the last 18 months or so, rest assured it is all about AdWords dollars. Residents might have noticed AdWord-like advertisements already alongside Group Search — just beware of click fraud entering the griefer's vocabulary.
The Lindens are all about making money.
Metaplace, and to a lesser extent Lively, were not focused onimmediately getting money rolling into the company. An illustrationof that cultural and point of view is to compare IslandLife to such gamesas Mobsters 2, Bloodlines, Sorority Life, and Castle Age among otherPlaydom games.
All of these games share some common aspects. Players can buy coins and encourage viral growth by suggesting you invite your friends. However, the Playdom games have a larger number of payment options, and present offers and surveys for people to earn in-game currency – something like Second Life's Hippie Pay, while constantly reminding everyone to tell their friends.
In other words, this is social marketing with enough pull for people wanting to win that maybe someone will use the advertising offers link or buy in game currency to level up.
And this is why I believe, at least in an economic sense, most virtual worlds will fail unless they emulate Second Life – at the least on the economic level. IslandLife, as an extension of Metaplace, might survive longer because it actually is a game, and there is an option to buy coins with real money, but without monetizing more, it will not thrive.
Senban Babii
Jan 23rd, 2010
“IslandLife, as an extension of Metaplace, might survive longer because it actually is a game, and there is an option to buy coins with real money”
I’ve got to be honest, I’ve spent some time poking around Island Life but it’s already as boring as all hell, even though I can now grow eggplants…. Waiting for crops to grow is mindless and pointless. I honestly think it won’t last long purely from the viewpoint of the fact there is nothing to do and so no reason to keep returning regularly; even Smallworlds is superior in that regard. It’s certainly something I’d never consider putting actual money into because there is no return on my investment. It suffers from the same problem that Metaplace did – any avatar upgrades such as clothes and so on are meaningless because the avatar is a blob on the screen, making any upgrades virtually pointless. Compare it in that regard to EVE Online. I pay a monthly fee and I can *see* my upgrades and my skill development and so on. That relates directly back to Tizzers’ recent Op/Ed I think. But these are games. While I do believe that SL can borrow *some* aspects of gamethink, it needs to be careful that it doesn’t tip the balance and turn into a game world as opposed to the sandbox world it is supposed to be (IMO).
“The Lindens are all about making money.”
Unfortunately, this is true but that doesn’t mean that the residents have to follow this same doctrine. There are too many people who come to SL with that attitude of how can I make some money out of this. Business is fine if it subsequently puts something back into the community so to speak. But too often SL business just takes and gives nothing back. Personally I wish more people would arrive and say “Okay, I’m here, what can I contribute to this place to make it more fun and interesting for everyone?” but the Lab doesn’t think that way any more – it’s all about the money. Thankfully the grid has people like Ozzie Maggs who are working hard to create something that people will come and enjoy, just so we can have a big party. Her club is always packed to the rafters and everyone has a good time. The grid needs more people like her – business yes but business aimed at putting something positive into SL. And yes, that was a shameless plug for Ozzie and her club, Grid Rock, but I think she deserves a plug after all the work she’s put into it
I can understand your analysis and agree to a point, definitely. But just because SL is successful compared to most other models, doesn’t necessarily make it right or good. It’s lost something of its spirit along the way in my opinion and Linden Lab needs to create policies and practices that encourage the reintroduction of that spirit. But much of it starts with the residents themselves.
Orion
Jan 23rd, 2010
Sorry, but Second Life is already a failure. There’s nothing to do over there! You log in and all you see are mindless morons standing around staring at each other or randomly playing mindless gestures. Sure, there may be places that offer things to do but *gasp* – you port over and oops – they’re so lagged you can’t even move. What’s the point of playing a game when the platform its based on is so bogged down with crap that it doesn’t even work?
The reason why Lively, Metaplace,etc failed is due to their horribly shitty UI. I mean honestly, a fixed viewpoint filled with graphics that look like they came out of an old DOS CGA game = LAME! SL at least has decent graphics but the world itself is so damned limited in what it can do that its honestly become pathetic.
JustMe
Jan 23rd, 2010
@ Orion … quote: SL at least has decent graphics but the world itself is so damned limited in what it can do that its honestly become pathetic. unquote
Are you serious? Have you ever:
- taken a hot air ballon ride?
- tried skydiving?
- explored some of the beautiful sims?
- investigated the fantastic builds?
- enjoyed the live performers (and DJs) in clubs?
- taken a class at one of the in-world schools to learn to build ?
- attended poetry readings?
- tried modifying a script to make it do something different than it was designed to do?
- participated in one of the “hunts” for the fun of finding items?
- played any of the in-world games that are available?
- sat down with a friend, watched a sunset, and talked ?
- admired the creativity of the designers who make clothes, accessories, etc ?
- danced with a friend ?
- raced a race car or motorcycle on a track?
I can go on .. but if a person can’t find interesting things to do in SL, I wonder if they are in the wrong place .. maybe they are really looking for a shoot’em’up game and not an alternate life experience to enjoy with like-minded friends.
Alyx Stoklitsky
Jan 23rd, 2010
@Justme: I hope you were joking, because that post was nothing but comedy.
I’ve said this before, but there are only three things to in SL:
1. Create things.
2. Cybersex
3. Grief/Troll
Those three things sum up literally everything that 99% of residents will do. The remaining 1% are the land barons who only log in to deal with their customers.
Mary Elizabeth
Jan 23rd, 2010
Orion should probably upgrade his or her computer.
Orion
Jan 23rd, 2010
@JustMe
I’m quite serious, and to answer your questions:
- taken a hot air ballon ride?
Yes, I have. And after moving a few meters, rubber-banding back, wash-rinse-repeat until I hit a sim border and crash I gave up on it.
- tried skydiving?
Again, I have. Wow, gee. I’m falling. *lag – start falling backwards* Falling some more… *lag again – fall through the ground*
- explored some of the beautiful sims?
Again, yes. Wow, pretty trees! Wow, a nondescript pile of prims that loosely resembles a house! Wow, a glob of gray spheres that will eventually pop into something if I stand here and wait 10 minutes for it to load!
- investigated the fantastic builds?
I used to build on SL, I’ve since moved to OpenSim. And heaven forbid I stand outside of someone’s build for too long or even worse click to see how it was made! I’d be ar-ed by the JLU or some other asshat as a copybotter.
- enjoyed the live performers (and DJs) in clubs?
Once, but after standing there for an hour lagging through some badly made dance animation while having my speakers blown out by some idiot repeatedly playing a “WHOOO!” gesture I left.
- taken a class at one of the in-world schools to learn to build ?
Never had to. It merely takes common sense to figure out how rez a bunch of prims and assemble them into a basic architectural shape. A little reading and I was able to learn how to make the textures and sculpts to finish it.
- attended poetry readings?
Again, can’t say that I have. I personally prefer to read poetry from a book so that I may better appreciate it without the distraction of a video game flickering in the background.
- tried modifying a script to make it do something different than it was designed to do?
Silly question. I’m a programmer, and if you must know I’ve not only written my own scripts from scratch but I’ve as well added my own functions to OpenSim’s variation of lsl – a few of particular interest: string osGetNotecard(string name), int osGetNotecardNumberOfLines(string name), and string osGetNotecardLine(string name, int line).
- participated in one of the “hunts” for the fun of finding items?
Sure, I’ve had to track down an occasional stray prim from time to time. But no, I’ve not participated in one of those childish grid-wide hunts that are nothing more then a ploy designed to get you to visit someone’s shop.
- played any of the in-world games that are available?
During my time on SL I built, scripted, and ran two role play sims. I’ve since closed them down and I’m working to rebuild them on OpenSim due to issues with SL’s performance and management.
- sat down with a friend, watched a sunset, and talked ?
Yes, I have. And I continue to do this with my boyfriend OpenSim.
- admired the creativity of the designers who make clothes, accessories, etc ?
I have and quite often think to myself “Shit! It must have taken them what, a few nights worth of spare time to make that. And they’re charging how much?!?!? Fuck that!” – sign off SL, log into OpenSim and create my own version to give away for free.
- danced with a friend ?
Nope, I have no tolerance for the screaming gesture tards commonly found in the clubs.
- raced a race car or motorcycle on a track?
Sort of. I used to drive all around the mainland but gave that up due the same issues I had with the balloon.
“I can go on .. but if a person can’t find interesting things to do in SL, I wonder if they are in the wrong place .. maybe they are really looking for a shoot’em’up game and not an alternate life experience to enjoy with like-minded friends.”
Ignoring your elitist attitude – SL used to be the right place for me. Until all of the free thinkers, creative, and cool people left due to the bad management, bad / limiting performance, and outright fascist censorship only to be replaced by a group of brain dead idiots who have taken what you call an “alternate life” experience and turned it into a glorified 3D extension of MySpace with chat.
And by the way, yes – even the shoot-em-up games on SL suck. Aside from my opinion that the person who decided to use “mouselook” as a mechanism for firing should himself be fired (out of a cannon) – the lag makes the whole game pointless from the start.
@Mary – I’m on a quad core box with 8 gigs / ram and a 1 gig nvidia card. 6 megabit dsl line. The lag ain’t on my end!
corona anatine
Jan 23rd, 2010
how pathetically sad, unimaginative and limited Alyx’s life must be to believe that those 3 things are all that SL can offer
Loser
corona anatine
Jan 23rd, 2010
Ps
Alyx’s message appears to be lacking the word ‘do’
Imnotgoing Sideways
Jan 24th, 2010
There are only three things to in RL:
1. Go to work
2. Eat
3. Sleep
Those three things sum up literally everything that 99% of residents will do. The remaining 1% are the millionaires we work for. (>_<)
… So, SL doesn’t look so bad after all. (^_^)y
Errin
Jan 24th, 2010
@Orion you fucking loser go get some fresh air in real life you nerd…
Alyx Stoklitsky
Jan 24th, 2010
@Corona:
They’re the only things SL is a functional platform for – everything else ‘Just me’ listed is either utterly fucking stupid, hampered into misery by lag, or done a thousand times better by another game/service/virtual world.
I shall elaborate:
- taken a hot air ballon ride?
- tried skydiving?
I can do both of these IRL less than 20 miles from my home. Why the fuck would I do them in a laggy virtual world where there is no physical sensation, and more to the point, where I can FUCKING FLY ANYWAY.
- explored some of the beautiful sims?
- investigated the fantastic builds?
Yes. Most of them were full of people cybering, as it happened. I then trolled them by standing next to them and playing screenshot sounds.
- enjoyed the live performers (and DJs) in clubs?
No, because they’re all fucking terrible.
- taken a class at one of the in-world schools to learn to build ?
Yes, back in 2007 I attended Aryn Lassard’s scripting class at NCI to learn how to make weapons for the PN.
- attended poetry readings?
No, because I’m not a fucking faggot.
- tried modifying a script to make it do something different than it was designed to do?
Yes, I’ve modified several linden library scripts into sim crashers and griefer tools.
- participated in one of the “hunts” for the fun of finding items?
Yes, I cheated by scripting a sensor to find the objects for me.
- played any of the in-world games that are available?
Yes, and hilariously, the best one is a fucking chess board.
- sat down with a friend, watched a sunset, and talked ?
Yes, No, Yes. Why the fuck would I watch a piss poor rendering of a sunset? World of Warcraft has a better fucking sunset, and so does my IRL lounge window. And what the fuck is the point in watching the sunset when you can trigger it to occur at any time you want it?
- admired the creativity of the designers who make clothes, accessories, etc ?
No, because they either make the same generic shit like like latex or lingerie, or they rip off some japanese anime or videogame – like me.
- danced with a friend ?
OH BOY LETS WATCH OUR AVATARS PLAY SOME BAD ANIMATIONS AND WATCH ALL THE PRIM PARTS OF OUR AVATARS BREAK THROUGH OUR SPINES OR FLAP AROUND LIKE TENTACLES.
- raced a race car or motorcycle on a track?
There is absolutely no point in racing in a game where it is impossible to script anything that accurately measures time through the shitstorm of lag. If I wanted the serious business and drama of SL in my racing games, I’d go to iRacing.com. I am not affiliated with iRacing.com, where you can race online alongside real-world drivers like Dale Earnhardt Junior!
Obvious Schism
Jan 24th, 2010
@ corona
It’s OK – I’ve found the “do” that was missing from Alyx’s post. It’s right here:
do
Carmen
Jan 24th, 2010
SL like RL is limited only by the person behind the avatar.
Jumpman Lane
Jan 24th, 2010
jess when a staff writes that its an editorial?
An op-ed, abbreviated from opposite the editorial page (though often believed to be abbreviated from opinion-editorial), is a newspaper article that expresses the opinions of a named writer who is usually unaffiliated with the newspaper’s editorial board. These are different from editorials, which are usually unsigned and written by editorial board members.
-wikipedia
JustMe
Jan 24th, 2010
I’m really pitying these poor poor folks who
- can’t find a club without people screaming and gesturing … there’s lots of them out there, honest.
- can’t find decent live performers. They don’t “all suck”, there are plenty of great singers, guitar players, etc performing in SL
- can’t appreciate the things you can do in SL. You know … everyone doesn’t have a place to ride a hot air balloon nearby in SL. Lots of people live in cities and can’t easily see a nice sunset in RL. Some of us are in SL because we aren’t physically able … and SL serves as a social outlet.
What I’m seeing from many of these responses is selfcentered, immature people who want perfection and instant gratification. Grow up and enjoy what you already have instead of whining about how things could be better
corona anatine
Jan 24th, 2010
Alyx states- attended poetry readings?
No, because I’m not a fucking faggot.
so in Alyx’s mind all poets are gay
?
I rest my case of how limited his mentality is
if you dislike sL so much why do you log in?
corona anatine
Jan 24th, 2010
so
bible – written as verse eg it is poetry therefore according to Alyx all christians and jews are faggots
Quran – written as verse eg it is poetry therefore according to Alyx Muhammed and all muslims are faggots
all song lyrics are in verse therefore according to Alyx all songwriters and musicians are faggots
all rap ‘music’ is verse therefore according to Alyx all rap artists are faggots
Snorri Stuluson – faggot
Shakespeare – faggot
author of beowulf – faggot
etc
corona anatine
Jan 24th, 2010
while SL does present serious limitations in relation to use of transport modes
and natural atmospheric phenomena
if you treat it as a sort of WOw like game then yes it will fail
but that is not what SL is about
All music types are catered for somewhere in SL
and music in SL is as authentic as any other transmission of sound
there is poetry [whatever you think of its content]
there are classes in a variety of subjects including philosiphy
there are presentations and talks on numerous academic subjects
there are reconsturctions of historical buildings and sites [ which not everyone has access to or the means to visit ] which while not as good as the real thing are a step up from a picture or photo
there are representatives from all major and minor religions whether good, evil or indifferent
there are roleplaying games of almost every description or genre
and im sure lots more besides
and Alyx can find anything to do except
three things to in SL:
1. Create things.
2. Cybersex
3. Grief/Troll
the second perhaps reveals his age
the third shows that he prefers to join the pathetic nobodies and feebly attempt to disrupt others enjoyment of sL rather than try to use his computer skills to try and enhance the game for himself and others
so like i said before
loser
corona anatine
Jan 24th, 2010
There are only three things to in RL:
1. Go to work
2. Eat
3. Sleep
???
only the above in your RL?
what about
1. Create things.
2. sex
3. vandalism/terrorism
Gaara Sandalwood
Jan 24th, 2010
Goddamn you all are too fucking serious about what Alyx is saying(and the others here for that matter).
On topic: I have never spent a single USD on SL. I may in the future, but only something like ten bucks or so because I’m frickin’ cheap with F2P games run by those who try and make as much money as possible while spending as little as they can to keep shit running.
As for what to do in SL? I’m actually in none of Alyx’s categories. I don’t grief and troll, I’ve only RP’d in two anime sims and they both sucked. One required you to log into the online website they had and use XP to get abilities in the game. The other was run by a friend of mine who griefed it by spamming wishmaster from a plane in the air and having buddies grief it with the same thing from building rooftops, then abandoned it, the sim, and the whole group.
The hot air ballons and skydiving? Actually, I like the skydiving part, but generally I do it when I want to get on a webpage while my guy’s falling where I want to go. And there are far better vehicles in SL besides a damn balloon.
Poetry? I’d rather read H.P. Lovecraft in game, and that’s if I don’t do anything
Take script/build classes. I’m a decent builder, but since I began playing never bothered with sculpts and scripts, so I’m still a novice, and I don’t generally bother with it anyway.
Pretty much 40% of my SL time is working at a club that almost never gets griefed as security, and getting paid in tips at that, and the other 60% is spent doing absolutely nothing but idling and hanging out in random places.
Alyx Stoklitsky
Jan 24th, 2010
@Corona:
- according to Alyx all christians and jews are faggots
- according to Alyx Muhammed and all muslims are faggots
Absolutely, 100%. I find anyone over the age of ten who needs an imaginary friend to be, put simply, utterly fucking stupid. Religion is an absolute cancer on humanity that does nothing but homogenize the human experience, enslaving billions to balls and chains that serve only one purpose: Making clergymen rich. Theists are weakminded faggots.
- according to Alyx all songwriters and musicians are faggots
- according to Alyx all rap artists are faggots
Muscians are well known for engaging in drugs and rampant alcoholism, and of course, dressing, posing, and posturing like faggots. So yes, musicians are faggots.
As for rap ‘artists’, I believe such a form of audio terrorism should be punishable by death.
Imnotgoing Sideways
Jan 24th, 2010
@corona
I pay other people to do that stuff for me so I can get more time in SL. (^_^)y
Anonymous
Jan 25th, 2010
Alyx you’re scoring points in my book! That has to be the most intuitive thing I’ve yet to hear from a comment on the herald. I’d invite you for a drink, but I’m a faggot in the traditional sense in that I’m a guy who likes dick. So yeah, that probly wouldn’t work out. But rock on! XD
Alyx Stoklitsky
Jan 25th, 2010
@Anonymous:
>I’m a faggot in the traditional sense in that I’m a guy who likes dick.
That just makes you gay, not a faggot.
The emoticon on the end of your post, however? Yeah. A lot of faggotry there, bro.
Ric Mollor
Jan 25th, 2010
Can’t go without throwing a reply to JustMe’s questions also. So here’s my list.
Are you serious? Have you ever:
- taken a hot air ballon ride?
Sure. I’ve ridden in many. Even if you can get over the pathetic region hand-offs every few seconds you are stuck watching things on the ground rez slower than the progress of the balloon. Add to that the fact that the further one goes the more likely a sim crossing will fail or the client will crash from memory leaks related to the loading and unloading of textures.
- tried skydiving?
A few times and it can be tolerable if you restrict your skydiving to a tiny 256×256 meter box. Any more than that and whoops, there’s an hugely obvious sim crossing and the experience is broken.
- explored some of the beautiful sims?
Looked at most everything featured in NPIRL and other building centric blogs in the past few years. Interesting to see what people can do within the limitations of SL but very little that hasn’t been done before by the modding communities for other games over 10 years ago.
- investigated the fantastic builds?
See comment above concerning ‘beautiful sims’. Honestly, I’ve seen better stuff in Quake II mods 10+ years ago than 99% of SL offers.
- enjoyed the live performers (and DJs) in clubs?
If they are popular in any degree one is stuck in a lagfest of blinged out avies on an overloaded sim. I won’t make any judgement on talent but can’t help to wonder why they aren’t playing for real, paying audiences instead of for a small group of people in SL
- taken a class at one of the in-world schools to learn to build ?
Learn to build? It’s simple geometry and textures. Once again not much different (except simplified) from what’s been possible in 3D CAD programs for a lifetime.
- attended poetry readings?
No. If I was interested in that I’d just do it IRL.
- tried modifying a script to make it do something different than it was designed to do?
Lets see. SL scripting offers about 100 khz of processing power and an address space measured in kilobytes. Might be interesting to see how far one can go with such huge limitations but seeing how no one has created a ‘killer app’ in SL so far it’s probably a lost cause.
- participated in one of the “hunts” for the fun of finding items?
TP from store to store to help shop owners boost their traffic? Though hugely popular it’s mostly frustrating as the client caching is so broken that you are stuck waiting for the spot to rez before doing any hunting.
- played any of the in-world games that are available?
See comment about scripting. Other than appreciating what can be done with the huge limitations of SL scripting the games are hugely lame when compared to *any* other online experience.
- sat down with a friend, watched a sunset, and talked ?
Yes, I do that IRL all the time. Not much better than lunch at a sidewalk cafe on a sunny relaxing day.
- admired the creativity of the designers who make clothes, accessories, etc ?
The boundless imagination of SL designers is an endless source of amusement. Just they other day I saw a ‘talking tampon’ and wondered ‘what will they think of next’?
- danced with a friend ?
Not a bad way to animate the avies while chatting with someone. Of course the animations need to be frequently resynced or server lag will make the dancing comical rather then nice.
- raced a race car or motorcycle on a track?
To this I have to say ROTFL, LOL, and WTF! You can’t possibly be serious!!! The behavior of vehicles in SL is beyond a joke and probably the WORST in ANY game that I’ve ever seen. The only way someone could think that SL driving is a feature is if they stepped out of some time machine from the past and had never played ANY driving simulator on ANY sort of system. Even an 8-bit Gameboy has more accurate vehicle physics than SL. Here’s a simple challenge. Show me a commercial game that has vehicles that are more of a fail then the ones in SL. Any platform, any era. I certainly can’t think of any.
SL seems more and more like some ‘entitlement school’ where the students are repeatedly told that all their efforts are ‘wonderful’ until they actually believe it themselves. There may be some potential present but it’s nearly completely drowned by the masses of mediocrity.
icallbullshit
Jan 25th, 2010
“SL seems more and more like some ‘entitlement school’ where the students are repeatedly told that all their efforts are ‘wonderful’ until they actually believe it themselves. There may be some potential present but it’s nearly completely drowned by the masses of mediocrity.”
Well put!
and true…
Anonymous
Jan 25th, 2010
@Alyx – Old habits dye hard. Been using those since 1992.
corona anatine
Jan 25th, 2010
while in total agreement with Alyx’s comments re theists and rap ‘musicians’
I am puzzled by
a guy who likes dick.
just makes you gay, not a faggot.
so what then is Phelps complaining of exactly?
Your Ashton
Jan 29th, 2010
Will I be right as usually?
When Linden Lab decided to charge us extra for xStreet, I said in-world, even where Linden’s were, that this was not going to take long before people started to stop using Second Life and it’s services because of the greed LL has. It started with getting M Linden for the job and it end by destroying SL just because of his greed polacy. Don’t get me wrong, he is a nice and good guy to hang around, I spoken to him several times. But As I also tried to tell him, this is just going too far. I told a lot of people, with this greed SL will stop excist with 5 years maximum. Probably even with 2 years!
Don’t get me wrong, but I do know what I’m talking about. I have a IQ of 146 so I should know what I’m talking about.
And Philip? Well he is still working hard on his own little project and ignores my warnings as friend. Hope he wakes up just in time…