Recent Comments:
Second Life Windlight headed for release
Massively
Feb 28th 2008 12:28PM Nice! Now it'll look like a game from 2002!
Peering Inside: Second Life's driving principle
Massively
Feb 25th 2008 2:22PM Good article. A couple things, though...
a) I would say the driving principle behind SL is "keeping up appearences". At the user level, corporate level (real corporations that is) and at the LLevel.
The unverified account deal was all about APPEARING to have millions of users so that corporations could go in and APPEAR to be on the cutting edge of technology and society and some users could APPEAR to be running big time businesses and get press which leads back to SL APPEARING to have millions of users and being important.
The bad performance of SL means that it's all more about looking good than actually DOING anything anyway. Sure Windlight's pretty but it makes the FPS go down to 3!
This all ties into...
b) People aren't actually leaving. How else could there be 60,000 people online this weekend? Many of you complain and say "as soon as there's a good alternative then I'm leaving SL!" much in the same way alcoholics say "I'm never drinking again!" after waking up with a bad hangover in the bed of a nasty looking stranger. You're addicted and the bartender/LL knows it.
Anyone paying attention knows that the way to hit LL is in their pocketbook. What many don't know is what part of things in SL affect LL's pocketbook. The answer: logging in.
As long as you log in you're essentially voting for LL to keep up what they're doing. Spending L$ doesn't really matter as much as just showing up.
Project Open Letter was a joke because there were no consequences to not following it. If there would have been a "...or else we will all stop logging in" condition put in there it wouldn't have mattered anyway because everyone would still have logged in. They'd just find a way to justify it to themselves. As grumpy and dissatisfied as they are they're addicted.
Basically, LL does what they do because they know you'll all come back. As you stated in the article they don't exactly care all that much about what individuals SAY. That's because what they DO is come back and still pay for (or at least participate in) SL which is all that LL is ultimately concerned with.
Phil wants to APPEAR to be the guy that thought up and successfully implemented the internet in 3d. So far we're all helping him attain that appearance!
Marvel Universe Online: how would it have worked?
Massively
Feb 22nd 2008 12:02PM The WoW formula is being completely overdone. It shouldn't all be based on quests because that's lame as hell. That's what keeps me from getting too deep into any of the popular MMOs right now. At some point I say "this is just like the last game I played only in a different package" and stop.
I'd prefer something where you could choose to be a normal person, a mutant or someone that happened upon thier powers through an accident (spiderman/hulk style). From there you'd choose your powers and have to develop them through different situations and practice and from time to time have to deal with NPCs from the actual comic books.
If you choose to be normal you can just make money and build armor or get guns and learn to be really good at it or something.
Instead of quests there should be crime-ridden and cop infested areas where you could get into massive brawls and win points that help your noteriety or infamy. If you want to be a badguy you'd go to the nice part of town and rob a bank or go after J Jonah Jameson. If you want to be a goodguy then go into Hell's Kitchen and save ladies being mugged or something. Then just make it based in New York. There are assloads of heroes and villains there!
There would be different levels of difficulty in different areas and eventually you'd be able to take on some of the heavy hitters like Dr. Doom or some X-Men. Sometimes you'd even be so lucky as to be fighting alongside an NPC who is also enemies with who you're going after!
This seems a bit too deep and involved for most MMOs so it probably won't happen. It'll probably end up being a copy of City of Heroes anyway.
When the MMO love affair wanes
Massively
Feb 13th 2008 5:29PM Yeah way back in the day when SWG didn't let just everyone be a jedi I got into it because of the prospect of being able to PLAY A ROLE instead of just run around and kill whomp rats so I can get a new helmet.
Unfortunately my computer wasn't up to snuff (I was much more of a console guy at the time) so I wasn't really able to play. Once I got upgraded and a better internet connection I went in to find that it was all going to change in the next week to the system that ultimately killed the game.
What's turned me off to just about every MMORPG is the fact that there's not much RPG in them. That and the fact that I've always found most elf/fairy/magic-based games to be corny which limits my prospects.
Once the MMO industry gets out of the cookie-cutter D&D theme and shooting for the monthly fees and starts trying to be innovative and original then I'd be more into it.
I still need to see the RPG part happen, though!
Are MMOs killing the single-player game?
Massively
Feb 5th 2008 2:07PM I think single player games are safe for now simply because most MMORPGs are actually quite boring to many people. Like Mike said there is a certain feeling of immersion when playing single player that many don't get out of MMORPGs.
Plus the fact that to get to any of the fun stuff you have to go kill rats and stuff in a field for 5 hours before you can get to any of the fun stuff!
Some of the best games I've played had one of 3 things: an epic movie feel, an interesting multiplayer option or customizeability (if that's a word) through different mods that others have made (see Homeworld).
Also, not everyone's into magic and wizards and stuff...which seems to be the theme through most MMOs. There are plenty of subjects that the single player industry has down that MMOs can't even touch yet.
That is, until there's an MMO of Grand Theft Auto!
Second Life content creators face genuine dilemmas
Massively
Feb 4th 2008 4:20PM You don't want LL to come in and regulate copying in any form. This would be a HUGE mess with farther reaching consequences than you think.
First off, as far as I know it's about impossible to determine if someone has "copied" your work or simply made their own version of it unless one can see prims and/or scripts created by you in it.
Second, most of SL's content is essentially a rip off anyway. Other than sex junk the biggest sellers I have seen in SL are things like Star Wars and Naruto stuff. It's obviously not made or approved by the companies that own rights to these properties and yet it keeps on keepin on.
If LL got involved in monitoring the originality of content in SL then we would have little left to do. They've proven themselves to be heavy-handed with their decisions without fully understanding what the whole situation even is. There's also the fact that they are hard to work with or get responses from as mentioned above.
LL realizes this which is why they try to keep as uninvolved in the commercial aspect of SL as possible.
I think it should stay that way.
The risk of copying is inherent to all commerce and creativity. The best thing to do is adopt a business model that would minimize the impact of copied material getting out and/or keeping a creative edge that would make it hard for others to copy successfully.
Second Life: BBC documentary about virtual adultery
Massively
Jan 31st 2008 12:39PM Yeah that first comment was awesome.
SL is only about sex for those who have trouble scoring IRL and/or think it's more than a game platform.
I met my RL girlfriend (whom I live with IRL) in SL but we took it straight to RL as soon as we felt like we could be more than friends. However we both feel like our relationship started once she moved into my area and count it from that day instead of when we first met and hit it off.
I maintain that relationships based in a video game aren't healthy in the least. You can't underestimate the importance of the physical aspect of relationships or even socialising!
Avatar rights: A person chooses, a tool obeys
Massively
Jan 28th 2008 6:59PM The concept of an "avatar's bill of rights" is laughable and from what I've seen only people with "separation of RL and SL" issues even seriously entertain such a notion.
The issue isn't a matter of an avatar and what it can be defined as. It's a matter of the space it inhabits and the terms of service that the user has agreed to follow while in that area.
It's just like a mall. You're allowed to ride a bike or skate, but not in the mall. You're allowed to sit on the ground all day without doing anything, but not at the mall. You're allowed to take your clothes off or have sex...but not in a mall.
Why? The mall isn't public property. It's private property that is open to the public IF the public follows a certain set of rules.
You're on another company's time and dime when you're in SL or any other "virtual world". It's not oppression when you're not allowed to build or upload textures like in WoW. It's not oppression when you have to get to a certain point in order to be allowed to get new gear. It's all part of the layout of the virtual world you chose to enter and that is usually spelled out for you in the terms of service which you have to agree to in order to continue playing.
The argument given in this article is one of those restrictive traps set so that the author can be right whenever you veer outside of the narrow confines of it. It bases the whole argument on the premise that the avatar is a tool and separate from the user which is irrelevant.
WORD
Electric Sheep's OnRez viewer - first impressions
Second Life Insider
Oct 24th 2007 11:50AM Yeah yeah but does it work any smoother than the official client? How's the client-side lag and all that?
I'm not going to waste time on learning to use new buttons in different places if it still gives me the same performance.
The web browser and tp history sound awesome, though.
Akela's Wishlist: Make Second Life More Web 2.0
Second Life Insider
Oct 23rd 2007 12:29PM anyway, back to the subject.
I want SL to work much more smoothly before I want to know what your favorite color is. Plus I have been convinced that most people in SL have horrible taste in music. ;)
If I wanted to find out things about you I'd find out the old fashioned way...ASK!
