Recent Comments:
Annoying Comments in 'Home' Article
Second Life Insider
Mar 31st 2007 1:01PM Corporate users/sponsors of content within a virtual world are usually going to be concerned about "inappropriate" (however they define that) activities and content that share their "space". This means that control is not a dirty word to them, in fact it is more or less critical to their presence within virtual spaces.
The first thought about this problem might be to compare virtual worlds to web sites. Corporate websites co-exist on the internet with the most far-flung pornography, hate literature, and insane rantings. Why is it any different in a virtual world? I think the difference comes from the fact that each visitor within a virtual world carries along with them elements of the world they inhabit. On a website, no one knows you are nude, erect, and wearing a swastika tatooed on your forehead: the visitor has no actual presence. In a virtual world, quite the opposite is true.
In truth, Second Life is full of people being what they want to be, whatever that might happen to be. Corporate sponsors and certain other groups don't want that kind of freedom of expression or individuality: they want to control what is permitted to be expressed so that their "message" doesn't become sullied.
So for those people, Second Life's freedoms will be problematic. However, saying "Second Life has too many freedoms: people should go where everything is controlled" doesn't have the right spin to it. Instead, they say "Second Life is full of perverts: people should go where they are protected from such disgusting material".
Get Your Avs to Mars
Second Life Insider
Mar 8th 2007 7:26PM I'm not sure what the real intent of Avatar Reality is. However, a themed environment (E.G.: set on a terraformed version of Mars) suggests a background story, which implies something that is more of a game.
I can't really have a negative or positive view of the product without more information. If it's a game, the things Akela calls out sarcastically could actually be positive features. And saying it will be a failure in advance based on that initially flawed comparison would be somewhat short-sighted.
More interesting to me, however, is seeing marketers/PR folks for computer entertainment products using terms like "avatar" and "virtual worlds". A couple of years ago, they would have been talking about characters or combat/levelling features first and foremost.
Just Askin': Will you be using voice?
Second Life Insider
Feb 28th 2007 4:15PM I can't see any point to using voice chat in SL outside of rather specialized circumstances. And in those circumstances (E.G.: a client meeting), I can easily use some external tool.
As Tateru says, some folks desperately want voice, others hate the idea, and some don't care. If Linden were implementing this somewhat like Instant Messaging, where its an "opt in" person to person(s) process, I wouldn't care. But their choice to make it a universal "opt out" crowd babble system pushes me distinctly into the "I hate the idea" crowd.
A copy too far
Second Life Insider
Feb 27th 2007 3:59PM Wow...I'm appalled. Especially in light of the "We Respect Copyright..." sub-title on the blog.
I make a living based on the product of my intellect. It makes me angry in ways I can not begin to describe when someone steals my work and pretends, either directly or through omission, to be the originator.
Shame on Prof. Dr. Marc Fetscherin.
Censorship and freedom
Second Life Insider
Jan 8th 2007 10:43AM Any blog or forum administrator is entirely within their rights to ban someone for any reason they see fit. But doing so simply because you disagree with someone changes your service from a public venue into an exclusive "club". The question is: is that happening here?
Reasonable criticism or open debate is fantastic. Endless echo-chamber rants, however, serve primarily to silence everyone except for the poster with the greatest volume.
Some folks use their posts as a weapon: to belittle or demean others, to bury dissenting perspectives in sheer word count and post frequency. Stating an opinion is one thing: attacking others who have differing opinions is something else entirely. Prokofy does not debate: he attacks anyone who disagrees with what he has to say, categorizing them, belittling them, and demeaning them. Others practice the same methods, but Prokofy buries them in overwhelming wordcount and post frequency.
I think my perspective is somewhat akin to what Mabb has expressed above. I'd prefer to support Prok's "right" to post, but only so far as it doesn't inhibit others through the toxic effect his posts tend to have on discussions.
Under The Grid - Prims
Second Life Insider
Jan 4th 2007 10:23AM This is a fanatastic explanation, Tateru! Really well done.
Thank you for this series. I consider myself somewhat "expert", with over 20 years as an IT specialist, but some aspects of the technology behind Second Life become much clearer under your deft hands.
Just Askin': What bug bugs you most?
Second Life Insider
Dec 29th 2006 2:43PM The one bug that bothers me the most probably doesn't effect enough people to ever show up on Linden Lab's radar.
The problem: Windows XP x64, dual core AMD Athlon, ATI X1950 w/512 MB of video RAM, and > 2 GB of system RAM (4 GB in my case) = failure to correctly rez textures. What happens is this: about 50% of visible textures fail to complete loading- they are blurry. If I click on on a particular texture it will finish loading.
This problem is directly related to memory > 2 GB in the noted configuration. If I edit my boot.ini, and set /MAXMEM=2048 and reboot (thereby limiting RAM to 2 GB), everything works fine. The problem may also exist with other hardware configs (E.G.: Intel processors, NVidia video cards), but I can't confirm that with certainty. I've posted about this several times in the Linden Forums and submitted several bug reports: thus far, no satisfaction.
It drives me nuts, having to disable RAM to play Second Life...but it seems that it never hits the LL radar in terms of corrective actions.
A Second Life Christmas Epiphany
Second Life Insider
Dec 23rd 2006 11:23PM Lovely story, Aimee. That moment of "ah ha!" about virtual worlds and their potential is one that would be nice to figure out how to formalize. But I suspect, like a lot of things, that it is personal and unique to each individual.
Merry Christmas!
Listening to loud voices - A social media mistake?
Second Life Insider
Dec 15th 2006 8:38PM My perception is that a) people are far more sheep-like than they admit (how many people form opinions based on what *others* think, rather than what they themselves think)?; and b) most forums/blogs rapidly become echo chambers where the loudest voices bounce back and forth, arguing with themselves endlessly. Couple these things together, and I think it can be a mistake at times to assume what you are hearing in any way bears a relationship to actual opinions of real consumers.
I'm not sure what the right method to gather feedback for a product is. I'd propose that it likely involves careful sampling using many different venues, coupled with intelligent and perceptive analysis by people gifted with the ability to 'read' opinions behind the noise.
As for Snakes on a Plane...well, I thought it was a pretty dumb concept from the start. But then, I hate "reality" TV programs too, and those are hugely successful, so obviously I'm not a good person to refer to ;)
Who will hear you? Who will hear me?
Second Life Insider
Dec 9th 2006 12:33PM I don't see any particular value to having wide-spread voice chat in a MMOG, particularly not in Second Life.
If you really need voice chat with a few friends, fire up TeamSpeak or something. But walking through a virtual world with totally out of character voices babbling/shouting/swearing at me does not appeal to me in the slightest. I find hearing a real person's voice totally jars me out of any use of my imagination: it disrupts rather than enhances.
Tateru, you bring up even more good reasons why voice chat can be disruptive. Very good points indeed.
