I’m back – well, sorta…

Bartholomew Gallacher 27. Januar 2008 0 Kommentare

Since I’ve been away for a while from my time, now the time has come to write some new stuff. I just haven’t been much in a writing mood, that’s all, but still many times in Second Life.

Well, what’s the matter, then?

• Teleports are still as unreliable as ever.
• The usual avatar still has only the possibility to be member in 25 groups maximum. Way too low… there’s been some effort around to persuade Lindenlab to raise this number, but if it is going to be succesful? We’re going to see.
• Virtual banks are no longer allowed in Second Life. A good move, especially after the bad example of Ginko Financial.
• I still don’t see the open sourcing of the official server code, since this is the biggest source for revenue they have. It’s that simple.
• I still wonder what’s the next big thing is going to be. Now that Havok4 is being tested and WindLight is still in the Beta viewers only, SL leaves much room for improvements.
• There’s been no really important open source viewer or fork of it, now one year after the opening of the source code. Why not? Because the server is still closed source.

Cory Linden takes his hat

Bartholomew Gallacher 13. Dezember 2007 0 Kommentare

The pilot is leaving.

Cory Ondrejka aka Cory Linden, one of the longest running employees of Lindenlab and its chief technician (CTO) is leaving. Why? The reasons remain mysterious. Some speculate that he had different visions for the future of SL than Philip Rosedale has. What does this mean for LL? Well, many think that the company is in for a tough ride now and it’s going to be very hard to fill the gap Cory Ondrejka leaves, since he’s one of the few people who can still understand the big picture as it seems. So – we’re going to see.

Sing: land prices are going down, down, down…

Bartholomew Gallacher 29. November 2007 0 Kommentare

The land prices have been going down, down, down over the last few months. Anyone who’s got a free parcel, either it is free for rent or sale, has quite some problems to find a new owner for it.

Also big players like Dreamland have lowered their prices to get new tenants or sell it. In addition the in world sales of virtual goods are not as quite good at the moment as they used to be, many people in this field are complaining about the lack of sales.

So how does it come? Well, the big hype over SL is over in most countries at the moment, it’s not so unusual anymore, now SL needs to show its value as a tool for whichever need. But end of the hype means also that the stream of newbies flowing into SL has ebbed down great scale.

So what’s next? I guess many landlords are forced to either sell their land now under value and/or just give up many islands. That’s what I expect at least. Not everyone has enough bucks in the background to overcome this time now.

I don’t expect Lindenlab to lower their own prices, though.

Prokofy Neva banned at Metaversed.com

Bartholomew Gallacher 24. Oktober 2007 0 Kommentare

Second Life’s very own Cassandra and most professional ranter, Prokofy Neva, has been banned at 57 Miles weblog Metaversed.com

This is quite interesting and amusing. Why interesting? Because PN and 57 Miles were on real friendly terms, they made together 12 lengthy podcasts named "Second Rant". And now they split apart – and it’s the usual picture, PN got banned on the whole website (if possible, that is).

Of course, another lengthy article by PN about this event on his own blog, nothing so far on Metaversed.com yet. The reasons why? Because PN called one on the group channel of Metaversed to "fuck off", the last podcast was way too critical or so, mostly because PN is not good for his business.

Well – whatever. This is not the last thing we’re going to hear from skipjack Prokofy Neva – just another finished act in the whole drama around this avatar. That’s all.

Renovation gone bad at the new Phat Cat’s

Bartholomew Gallacher 18. Oktober 2007 0 Kommentare

Phat Cat’s has been closed for public last weekend for around two days. The reason why? Because the wanted to rebuild it from scratch. Not a bad idea at all if you’re unhappy with your sim or want to improve it. Given the fact, that there’s always traffic at any time there also the only way to do it if you want to be able to work quickly and undisturbed at all.

So, now since it’s open again for around one week, what to say about the rebuild Phat Cat’s? The good part is: it is for sure a visual improvement compared to the old spot, all the good things are still there, meaning dance floor, classy ambiente, also the big mall.

The bad thing about it? Well, Phat Cat’s is now way too heavy graphics wise. Meaning: there’s way too much on heavy graphics in it, it was always laggy of course, since it’s almost always full, but the new arrangement of prims and stuff adds way much to an even more worse lag now, too.

Also gone is now the sea view; at the old place you had one, now you’re looking at arcades and their columns. And somehow I now find white marble rather boring… Traffic is still high, so don’t let that fool you, but visual wise there are better themed jazz clubs around like Carribean Breezes.

Well, take a look at the main dance floor. It’s a big, wide, open space, for me the dance floor got smaller compared to the one before, there aren’t many chairs around anymore, also less dance balls at the moment it seems.

For me as a long time standing visitor (ha, what a wording!) Phat Cat’s has lost much of its appeal to me, it has somewhat lost its trademark feeling. Oh, and take a look at this picture of the main dance area, taken today around 02:00 am SLT, to get the picture on your own:

What’s next on Lindenlabs‘ agenda? Ban prostitution, of course!

Bartholomew Gallacher 15. Oktober 2007 0 Kommentare

If you take a look at the recent ban of gambling, you may wonder what’s coming up next to be banned or limited. If Lindenlab would be consistent with their intentions, one things really pops up mighty in my mind: prostitution.

Sex and, yes, prostitution, though most people prefer to call themself in an euphemistic kind of way escort and not prostitute, is one of the big driving motions behind Second Life at all. And, yes, like gambling it’s prohibited in many countries Second Life is available.

So if Lindenlab is really consistent about establishing a somewhat "cleaner" Second Life this must be next on their agenda: the containment or even shutting down of most prostitution happening in Second Life.

Either that, or as another consequence building up a new strictly, clean, separate corporation grid without this kind of business at all, like the Teen Grid is today. But then again, this would hurt their land sales, since it would depend on how many residents of course would like to visit this clean grid and you got more possible visitors on the main grid than on an own corporation grid. But for strict in house usage such a grid would be a heavy, good asset for Lindenlab to have.

This would of course hurt the in world economy great lengths since most of it is built upon sex, sex, sex, and many people come into Second Life to get laid and many females are working as escorts or dancers at least.

But it’s the next logical step in the development of Second Life at all. In my opinion the question is not if it is going to happen at all, but how and when it is going to happen. This is bound to happen sooner or later if Second Life should still appeal to big real world companies. A cleaner grid could mean better land sales to such companies and in the end it’s all that counts for Lindenlab. Sales, more sales, more and better income and profit to be alive.

Slowing down on the economy

Bartholomew Gallacher 15. Oktober 2007 0 Kommentare

When you take a look at the recent development of Second Life, then there are some things different compared to earlier developments:

• There are still no key metrics available for August 2007. Those tend to get published later and later over the months.
• The exchange of Linden dollars has reached a peak in the 1st quarter of 2007; since then it has been slowly decreasing, so Q1 is its peak (take a look at the last graph here).
• Premium residents have reached their peak in June, there have already been less again in July.
• The number of new residents entering the game has slowed down.
• Business people are complaining in world about a lack of sales, meaning those are going down at the moment. There is for example being rumored that 70% of the Plush sims are unused right now.
• Many Europeans are pissed off that they now have to pay VAT in most cases. This is not LL’s fault at all, but could lead to more in world payments again and/or higher prices on their products.
• Many markets tend to be sated after a while, so it goes with many in world markets when the rush of newbies tends to be over.

So what does that mean? Well, for now the hype is over in most countries. If Second Life should prove its worth as a tool, it now needs to improve to appeal more for business usage and to be more stable to sustain the established in world economy and returning residents.

Premium residents are not enough in numbers to sustain SL at all, so most of the money Lindenlab makes has its origin in land sales and main land tier fees. The borders of growth have been reached for now, as it seems, so now it’s time for a consolidation of Second Life at all.

Since all are dependent on Lindenlab, this means of course more stable sims and clients, which is on the way according to them, a better scalable grid, too, better customer service – face it, most think it’s as bad as it can be and slow, slow, slow – and getting more in touch again with the community.

For many residents the relationship with Lindenlab is kind of love/hate. Love, that they made Second Life possible and hate, because of the high land prices, not stabilizing the client/server enough, being dependent on Lindenlab, slow customer service and many more of such things. Oh, and since you can’t see the Lindens in world often anymore, they became something like the spooky people running all of the stuff in the background.

Also the main focus of Lindenlab shifted from promoting Second Life to promoting the technic behind it, the grid. This is perhaps a good move for them, but of course also means that they’re now focusing more on the technic behind it than on the well established community in Second Life.

Stuff and all

Bartholomew Gallacher 10. Oktober 2007 0 Kommentare

• There is now a blog from Charity Colville in which she tells her side of the story about "The rise and fall of Phat Cat’s". The events around Phat Cat’s have been going on for quite some time now, I still wonder that they haven’t come to an end, yet. In the end it’s a story you cannot find out on your own, if it’s right or wrong, so it’s about whom you believe more.
• Metaversed has been running an article about a LL-function that has been disabled by the Lindens without notice and has broken many seats and other sitting furnitures. Ouch. It has been undocumented, but widely used all the time, the Lindens considered it a hack instead. And, oh well, one of the residents even got wind before it happened weeks ago and told them that it’s a bad idea at all. No reaction. Bummer.
• Want to ger rid of the "missing from database" error? Vote for the according error over at JIRA!

Braggs‘ lawsuit settled

Bartholomew Gallacher 4. Oktober 2007 0 Kommentare

You can read this on the blog of Second Life now:

Linden Research, Inc., Philip Rosedale, and Marc Bragg have agreed to settle the “Bragg v. Linden and Rosedale” lawsuit currently pending in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The parties agree that there were unfortunate disagreements and miscommunications regarding the conduct and behavior by both sides and are pleased to report that Mr. Bragg’s “Marc Woebegone” account, privileges and responsibilities to the Second Life community have been restored. For the benefit of the Second Life community, the Parties have mutually agreed that the terms of their resolution shall remain confidential. The Parties ask that this confidentiality be respected.

So this is lawyer speak. What does that mean in real speak? Something like this from Lindenlabs point of view: we would have lost the case! So better agree to restore Braggs‘ account and properties in world and see if this is enough for him to drop the case before our roof really starts to burn and we’re losing big money!

It’s that easy.

What if…

Bartholomew Gallacher 22. September 2007 0 Kommentare

…too many residents would try to cashout all of there L$ at the same time? Would Lindenlab still be able to pay them? Or would the value of the L$ go down so quickly it wouldn’t hurt LL at all?

Just a funny thought that popped up into my mind after reading an article about a similar problem – bonus mile programs of airlines.