Ciaran Laval

November 29, 2012November 29, 2012

Getting The Balance Right

Inara Pey’s blog post regarding the article in The Register about Second Life being a failed technology, raises some really interesting points in the comments. I’ll pick up on some of them with a blog or two. A good starting place is a comment from Ezra, who feels that in many ways Second Life has failed:

Features roll out half-ass (mesh without deformer, shared media 2 years before everyone has a viewer that can see it). Some square peg in round hole features gain little traction at all (who needs pathfinding and quasi-AI without riggable NPCs? Only so much willingness to swap sculpt maps to fake it.)

Good points, I don’t see these points as equating failure, but they are points worthy of further discussion. Mesh did seem to be rolled out with buildings and props in mind, it largely works well in those areas, but it does seem short sighted not think people would want Mesh clothing. Hence this oversight started to give birth to Qarl’s Mesh Deformer Project and it’s still in labour from what I’ve seen! However this is a feature for which residents raised funds to bring to Second Life. although it is of course a project in co-operation with Linden Lab, the oversight is one that makes people feel that Linden Lab don’t see the big picture.

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November 28, 2012

Aditi In Trouble

Nalates Urriah has a blog post on her blog and a forum post in the official forums regarding problems on the Aditi grid. Aditi is the preview grid, you can read more about it here. Basically this is where Linden Lab sometimes roll out server code for testing, or new features. This is part of the Q&A process.

Customers use it for other matters, I use it for playing around with Mesh, others use it for testing their products because Aditi is a place where you get a wad of Linden Dollars to play around with, so uploads are basically free. However bear in mind that what happens on Aditi, stays on Aditi, you won’t be able to bring your dosh across to the main grid, nor your uploaded products, you’ll need to upload on the main grid again and pay for them.

Now the issue seems to be that Aditi is creaking a little, it’s not a mirror image of the main grid, it has far less land and far less resources. Therefore it requires some housekeeping. Oskar Linden used to do this housekeeping, but of course, Oskar has now left the building and new solutions are being sought. I haven’t had any problems logging into Aditi, but it appears plenty of others have.

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November 28, 2012November 28, 2012

For A Failed Technology Second Life Is Going Strong

After a thrilling evening of marvellous total football at Villa Park, where the mighty Villa demolished Reading 1-0 thanks to a superb header from Christian Benteke, I come home to find that some people seem to think Second Life has failed!

There are those who have been writing off Second Life for years, however it’s still here and whilst Tyche Shepherd’s super stats do indicate a decline, this week’s showing a loss of twenty five private regions and two Linden regions, there are still over twenty eight thousand regions on the grid.

Whereas some see Linden Lab as moving on, The Guardian listing Linden Lab’s Creatoverse in the twenty best Android apps of last week, including a comment of:

No flying genitals or furry avatars here though: instead it’s an inventive physics toolkit: “Watch your creations bounce, roll, tilt or even accelerate on the screen…”

The simple fact of the matter remains that Second Life is Linden Lab’s premier app. Yet despite all evidence to the contrary that Second Life is dead, in an article in The Register regarding ten technology fails, which includes Microsoft Bob, OpenDoc and PDAs, on page four they also list Second Life.

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November 27, 2012

Flufee – Why Did Nobody Tell Me About This?

The Alt-Zoom Disco, DaBoom 2003.

So there I was rooting around Governor Marley’s Linden’s mansion when I found myself in the basement and found pictures and notecards from 2003. My how the world has changed. I actually thought that might be The Governor in the picture, but closer inspection suggests not. Second Life is a very big place, I mean there I was thinking I’d travelled the world and the seven seas when I discover Meshinima and Flufee!

Seriously, how have I missed this? Flufee, for those whom don’t know it, is a Mesh avatar, possibly in love with a prim lady, exemplifying improvements in Second Life since 2003 and using other backdrops for adventures! I thought I’d spotted Flufee partying on the grid, but it seems I’d saw something completely different!

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November 26, 2012November 26, 2012

Inara Pey, You Should Have Stayed At Home Yesterday

When I was a lad in Second Life, I often wondered why they kept talking about Neverwinter Nights, until I realised NWN in Second Life was New World Notes. However for me, NWN will always be Neverwinter Nights, whereas NWN in Second Life terms will always be Hamlet over at New World Notes, unless it’s a post by Iris Ophelia, in which case it will always be Iris Ophelia over at New World Notes. Along the same lines that MOTD will always be Match Of The Day!

Where am I going with this, well Inara Pey of Living In A Modemworld fame, has been voted by New World Notes readers as their favourite Second Life related blog, excluding New World Notes, which wasn’t eligible to be voted for.

I’ve often thought of Inara Pey as the rich man’s Ciaran Laval, well written, grammatically on the ball, informative, proof read, but by a girl in girl’s clothing, unlike myself as an evil drow wizard in evil drow wizard clothing, often mistaken for a girl for some bizarre reason.

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