Second Life and Tools.

The start of the New Year, along with a new CEO, Mr. Humble, has seen an increase in the blog discussion about the future of SL.

Phaylen instigated a very interesting discussion along with Chantal and Toxic on exactly these lines. If you have the time it is an interesting and amusing discussion and the sort of thing many of us would like to hear more of. Full podcast ...here.


I have to say that I am 100% behind the idea that Machinima is one of the (many) missed opportunities which the Boys could have used to promote and instruct non-users on the joys of SL. It is both the easiest way to see what is going on in SL and, due to the difficulties in learning to find your noob way around, probably superior to the real thing, at least in the initial stages.

I am not unaware of the fact that it is like a video of a stage play or football game in that it lacks atmosphere, but, in spite of this, it is a formidable art form, and one that is gaining world-wide credibility (ArtPulse By Cristina García-Lasuén). No mean feat.

However, I have to agree entirely with Dusan Writer’s analysis concerning the manic attempts to cram more users onto this platform we call Second Life.....

“....the wishful thinking goes like this:

- Second Life would succeed if it had more users. More users are good because they can benefit the virtual economy, they can increase the use of ‘land’, and lead to all kinds of other activity.


- The problem with increasing the number of users isn’t finding new users, it’s in keeping them once they arrive. The data shows it – run a banner ad, and you’ll have people show up on the home page. It’s not an issue of attracting people, it’s an issue of retaining them through the funnel of sign-up, first hour, first week, first purchase.


- Therefore, the primary issue is retention.


- If this is the primary issue, then we need to look at the reasons for a lack of retention. These issues are multi-factorial, but they typically come down to a few things: it’s too hard to sign-up, it’s too hard to learn and use the interface, and it’s too hard to find people/things to do.


- The solution, therefore, is to overhaul sign-up, change the interface, and come up with new ways to search and find content.

There is absolutely NO evidence that a new take on this old strategy will work now when it has never worked in the past.”

His whole article is, as usual, well thought out and insightful.

It is said, wisely, that we can learn from history. This is seemingly a banal statement, but unfortunately one which is given a nominal nod before being totally ignored (e.g. Afghanistan).

SL got built on content.

While I agree with Dusan ..

“From Mitch Kapor through Philip Rosedale and on to Mark Kingdon, everyone who has ever had a word to say about Second Life has looked at the issue of how to grow the world in the same way and failed.
And the reason they’ve failed is that, first, it’s the wrong problem. And second, you can’t design the future solely by extrapolating from past data…and yet time and again, we’ve seen from Linden Lab a reliance on past data as the main metric for planning the future.”

...it is important to realise the unique selling point of your product and understanding why your customers have got you to where you are today. What have they been buying? Why have they been buying?

When I joined SL it was not for the stability, not for the ease of use, not even for permanence (my friends thought it wouldn’t survive 12 months) it was for the possibilities. I stayed because of the tools.

This is why I wrote recently...

“There is another business model which they could have used. If you come to a prominent position in the market but decide that you are a little ahead of the mainstream, you do not have to dumb down to attract more people. LL could have used their lead to consolidate their position and driven full steam ahead to create an untouchable platform where tools, facilities, customer care, etc etc were just so far ahead of the competition that they were ready for when the mainstream caught up (for I fully believe they will one day). Educating the mainstream is a constructive use of an advertising budget.”

Now, the current thinking at the Lab is along the lines that.. because only 5 -10% of users are Builders, the Lab needs to cater more for the Consumers.
User-built content is considered less than it used to be, new tools are almost non-existent. [Mesh could help if it doesn’t get the same treatment as Windlight, i.e. introduced to the grid but never finished off to a top-class tool]

Now, as the content is the primary advertising tool, neglect in this area has a terrible effect on the future of SL.... and we have had 3 years of neglect.

Nearly all the new grids I have visited have realised the vital importance of content creators, they are valued residents. Some of these grids already have superior building tools to SL (e.g. InWorldz), making themselves, thereby, more attractive, and with a brighter future than SL in my opinion.

While I share with Phaylen her love of SL and her desire to see the platform bloom and flourish, I believe this wonderful culture and community is transworld, mobile and will refuse to be held back by inadequate tools; tools which should be available to us all.

So, Rod, let’s have an upgrade..

...and a price reduction..

.. and better servers.

That would be a good start.

A week of stuff

As many of you don't have the time to trawl thro the blogosphere turning over the digital flotsam and jetsam, I am happy to give a few links to my little cache of goodies and baddies...

The biggest story of the week continues to be the viewer thingy, and I won't even write the E word anymore, so bored am I with the whole saga.

Now, what you call your product is of vital importance and Phoenix is such a corny name, I doubt seriously that I could ever download it onto my computer as the Good Taste Police might get me for violations of aesthetic decency.. and, if you think that position is rather extreme...let me say the Z at the end of InWorldz still worries me...

Anyway, Imprudence has a new trial viewer with some added bits... environmental editor settings can be saved as a notecard (thanks to Kirsten for that feature which we hope will be rolled out to all viewers a.s.a.p.), Google translation, and the ability to load a texture directly from hard drive to prim....not sure what that actually means as I wasn't able to test it, no Mac version being available as yet.

Now, while a lot of emotional stuff has been written on viewers, I love this sort of approach by JayR Cela, The SecondLife Technologist, who has actually taken time out to test 3 viewers and compare them... also note his final paragraph...

"The UI of all 3 of these viewers is absolutely horrible, In all my days of working with computers, since 1984 and the first GUI's. I have never encountered, a more poorly designed, ill concieved, worst implemented, user unfriendly human to computer interface to date! "

Dusan Writer had a lengthy interview with Esbee Linden about SnowStorm... "But things have changed a lot. First, we’ve clearly defined a product owner, which is myself. "...hmmm... owning a pile of shit doesn't change it into a rose bed...

Much weight and lots of words are used in this interview, transparency, transparency, transparency... but the overall feeling I get from this is that it will be AGES before this viewer is usable or acceptable as the Viewer of Choice. Don't hold your breath...

Leaving the Viewer Thing behind... Lab News is that a new Linden has been employed and she's a vet. Now, not apparently of the Animal Nursing kind, nor of the Army... so why the hell call her a vet? I'm a vet, you are a vet, everyone is a vet...stupid use of the english language.
Anyway, Kim Slazer says her specialities are..."Brand Strategy, Digital Marketing (CRM, social media, SEO/SEM), Consumer Insights, Product Management, Advertising, Global Marketing, Pricing Strategy, Promotions, Licensing, P&L Ownership, Packaging"...so...marketing, then... just as well as she's VP of Marketing.

She's been working for gaming companies, apparently, ..full Lab announcement here... now while I have said several times that the Boys should sack whoever is in charge of PR.. and marketing is the same (all Dealers of BS), it seems there hasn't been..anyone...to sack.. So..good idea to try and run a company with no-one in charge of marketing...
Anyway...Kim..
"Q: What are your goals for your new position as VP Marketing at Linden Lab?

A: What I really want to do here is help the Lab figure out what the “X Factor” is going to be for Second Life. When I was working on games, I always tried to choose a single idea to focus on and bring out, an X Factor that helped people get into the game and helped them discover all the rest of the possibilities there. If I can help bring that kind of focus to Second Life, I’ll be happy about how I’m doing my job."

That should be interesting, like the Boys deciding to sell SL to the business world...that went well..

But, no doubt they are thinking a bit more like this... article about virtual worlds and how many billion dollars could be earned... *sigh*...

"SL provides so many great tools to enhance and bring out that creativity, I’m really looking forward to helping foster that as we move into the next phase of the platform’s growth"...* groan*

I have this problem.... I had it last night too at the opening of the Pop Art Lab.. when people stand up and say stuff....(it's always worse on voice too).. and it's difficult for me to express just how painful it is to hear people talking crap. Crap isn't the right word, in fact I love nonsense, but when people, artists, presenters, stand up and start telling you how creative SL is and how amazing it is and how much artistic freedom there is and start using words they don't understand like immersion and interaction and how its been an amazing journey......I just want to scream in pain...

Now, it's not Kim's fault, any more than it was the fault of anyone last night. People expect to see others open their mouths and no word of any importance comes out...."I’m excited about the prospect of helping to build a product that really empowers people to express what they’re about, and that can make a real difference in their lives. I think we’ve only just started to see what can be done here, and I can’t wait to see where we and our Residents can take things from here."

Nothing!! ...and the painful thing is that it is the norm....I am the weirdo... I expect something of interest to be said, or amusing, or ANYTHING...but Inane Newspeak. I'd rather know Kim's favourite film than read this junk. ..grrrrr...

Moving on swiftly from this uncalled-for rant....

We have been waiting, patiently for THIS>>>>



......hehehhehe..... wonderful.

In other news....InWorldz passes the 500 sim mark... 1200 residents.. and Elenia has started her own blog.... which is like one of the Lindens blogging...THAT is 'transparency'.

...and as IWz grows from 250 to 500 sims since July, so SL has lost 500 sims... people are voting with their wallets.

As far as tomorrow (Sunday 5th) is concerned...UWA has its final award day so...pop over and see (even tho I can't thanks to my ISP). Its at 5...and they have raised another 33000L$ in prize money....details here.

...and...on a personal note...I will be opening my sim at IBM on Saturday 11th September at 12 noon, when DoubleDown Tandino will play (the best DJ on the grid)...to be followed at 3PM by the Born Again Pagans (most chilled-out band on the grid)... mark that date in your diary.

Initial reactions from a few people is that is rather good. I'm calling it "Tree of Trees" and it's sort of an 11,000 prim tree.

:))

[footnote:.. my ISP has been down, no broadband...so I rang the status line: they told me my broadband was down (thx) but that their engineers were working hard to rectify the situation and they would update the status when the problem had been solved. Now, firstly I doubt the degree of hard work anyone is gonna put in on a Sunday and secondly no-one is gonna be interested in the status once the problem is solved.....the message then suggested.."Visit our website at www.BTinternet.com/ for more information"... what a great idea.]

Stuff

Well, there's been a number of things I missed this week and no doubt some of you have too. So, instead of tearing my hair out at IBM, I thought I would take a break and do a little Round-Up Of Stuff.

The biggest piece of news this week was the attack on InWorldz by some fool who thinks it's clever to break stuff. Miso has voiced my opinions on the saga here.. saying."... hey botnet feebs: attacking Inworldz is like running over a kitten in a Cadillac; no skillz need apply. You want me to admire yer dastardly ch0pz? Hack mil.net or something really hard. Until then, yer small potatos. Any monkey or toddler can break a thing."

...and, like her, I think it is InWorldz who come out of the crap smelling of roses. I was able to get news of the repair job on Twitter as well as the forum, unlike the Boys who tell you what has happened after it's been fixed. Interestingly enough, or, maybe obviously, people who were inconvenienced were patient and understanding... again....it's about customer support...(last post)...

....which leads me on to the new reduced service that LL (who is not in any financial trouble) has decided would be good for their business. You can read about it here..... and cry...

On the lists of everyones top 200 things "What I Would Most Like the Lab to Do Next" I would bet good money that no-one has thought like the Boys. The Next Offering...is.... a newsletter.... cringe...
Sandbox, it is to be called, and let's hope I am the first, not the last, to mention cat litter in the same sentence.
I could say a lot more about this, but I am trying, very hard, not to be 'down' on it before it comes out....tho....the idea that the Boys can do blogging better than the extremely good bloggers out there already seems extremely unlikely.... I would prefer if they did Support rather than Spin....

Accentuate the positive, soror!!...ahhh...OK...

Chantal has some great news... Peter Greenaway seems to be getting more and more involved with Machinima and is to be a judge in the upcoming competition. This sort of support from a credible film-maker is a real boost for the art.

..and.. Playlen Fairchild had an interview last night which I unfortunately missed...hasn't been fully blogged yet, unfortunately...and, it struck me that some may not have seen The Funniest Thing to have come out of SL, namely her machinima ...if you've seen it before...it will brighten up your Saturday, if not......




well...have a great weekend...I'll go back to tearing my hair out...


:))