Second Life – Page 94

January 6, 2015

The Future’s So Bright You’ve Gotta Wear Goggles But Don’t Write Off Second Life Yet

As we enter 2015 an awful lot of people seem to be getting very excited about the forthcoming VR boom. I do anticipate a VR boom, I just don’t see it really happening this year. Virtual worlds such as Second Life, OpenSim, Kitely, Inworldz are more likely to keep hold of their communities in the short term because, that’s where the communities currently are and the brave new worlds aren’t ready yet.

However some people feel that 2015 will be the year where VR goes big, I’m more in the camp of 2015 being a year of tease and talk rather than mass adoption. However there are new and interesting things on the horizon that will get people interested in VR and they’re not just in games and virtual worlds. Storytelling is a big potential market here as is live music and theatre performances.

Peter Diamindis over at the singularity hub is, not surprisingly, excited about the future of VR : These 11 Technologies Will Go Big in 2015 :

Expect a lot more action on the virtual and augmented reality front. 2014 saw the $2B acquisition of Oculus Rift by Facebook. In 2015, we’ll see action from companies like Philip Rosedale’s High Fidelity (the successor to Second Life), immersive 3D 360-degree cameras from companies like Immersive Media (the company behind Google’s Streetview), Jaunt, and Giroptic. Then there are game changers like Magic Leap (in which Google just led a $542 million investment round) that are developing technology to “generate images indistinguishable from real objects and then being able to place those images seamlessly into the real world.” Oculus, the darling of CES for the past few years, will be showing its latest Crescent Bay prototype and hopefully providing a taste of how its headset will interact with Nimble VR’s hand- and finger-tracking inputs. Nine new VR experiences will be premiering at the Sundance Film Festival this year, spanning from artistic, powerful journalistic experiences like Project Syria to full “flying” simulations where you get to “feel” what it would be like for a human to fly.

I’m certainly a big fan of the direction High Fidelity are heading in and with the platform being so open, there’s a lot of potential for people to grasp hold of it, but I think High Fidelity is also a good example of how much ground work has to be done before people adopt. I’m excited about the future of High Fidelity and I certainly expect to see a lot more people experiencing and talking about High Fidelity in 2015 but I don’t see many thousands of people leaving Second Life for High Fidelity just yet.

Over at AD Week Christopher Heing is talking about marketing creativity with VR : How Oculus Rift Is About to Reshape Marketing Creativity Brands are enamored with the potential of 360-degree storytelling. The storytelling angle sold this to me, but the article also talks about Second Life :

Nancy Bennett is a virtual-reality marketing veteran. (Yes, such people actually exist and are about to become hot commodities among talent recruiters.) In the mid-2000s, Bennett had her avatar boots on the Internet-code-built ground of Second Life, constructing cyber experiences for her employer at the time, MTV Networks.

Of course, Second Life never really took off. So with her been there, done that perspective several years later as chief content officer at Two Bit Circus, she does not deal in hyperbole when it comes to the impact the much-hyped virtual reality headset Oculus Rift will have on marketing. Rather, Bennett leans on data. One-third of her agency’s new business in 2014 was powered by the Oculus Rift developer’s kit, helping grow her 2-year-old Los Angeles digital shop from 15 to 35 employees.

When people talk about Second Life never really taking off they’re really talking in terms of mass adoption by the mainstream and that’s something that can’t really be argued with. However the point people miss so often when they talk about brave new worlds is that they recognise that there’s something in virtual communities and communications but they can’t quite figure out what that is. The Oculus Rift may well answer some of the questions, or it may be that the answer is that virtual worlds are simply a niche product. Time will tell.

Continue reading “The Future’s So Bright You’ve Gotta Wear Goggles But Don’t Write Off Second Life Yet”

January 6, 2015January 6, 2015

Second Life Grid – Rate Of Net Private Region Losses Slows During 2014

2014 was a year when the Second Life grid shrunk in terms of private regions and yet, the number of adult private regions rose. However there were signs of encouragement in terms of the rate of losses during 2014, especially when you compare the rate to 2013 and 2012.

The person to turn to for more information is of course, Tyche “Statto” Shepherd. The big blow for Linden Lab during the year was an expected one, at the end of July, Tyche Shepherd reported :

As slow as this years losses have been it still means that this weeks changes bring Private Estates below 19,000 for the first time since 15th June 2008. Net Private Estate losses for the year to date amount to 285 regions which is a 1.5% loss.

Tyche Shepherd’s grid survey report for the week ending 28/12/14 gives us the chance to look at the figures for the year as a whole and what we see is a very dramatic slow down in the number of net losses in terms of private region losses, during the year as a whole, although there were more net losses in the second half of the year than the first half.

A note on the charts in this post, they are published here due to the kind permission of Tyche Shepherd, they are Tyche’s work so please respect that. We’ll start with a chart showing the big picture .. well it might look small in this post!

Chart Should Be Here — Net Change In Private Estates

Now if you having trouble reading that the scores on the door are a net loss of 673 regions during the course of the year, or 3.5%. At the end of December private regions stood at 18,600. This is still around the levels of June 2008, the reason for this is because June 2008 was a time of unbelievable boom for Second Life, for example Tyche’s report of 8th June 2008 told us that 613 private regions had been added to the grid during that week. At this time Linden Lab were also still able to auction off new mainland sims and were building new mainland continents. Therefore don’t expect the number of private regions to drop to April or early May 2008 levels any time soon.

Ok, back to comparing this year’s private region net losses with the previous two years, If we look at last year’s stats we see :

A Chart Should Be Here — Net region losses 2013

A total net loss of 1,719 private regions, or 8.2%. That’s a net loss of 1,046 more private regions during 2013 than 2014. This is demonstrated well in the above chart because you see far more weeks last year where weekly losses were over 40.

Continue reading “Second Life Grid – Rate Of Net Private Region Losses Slows During 2014”

January 3, 2015

Lightbridge – A Medieval Roleplay Sim For Humans Rather Than Fantasy Characters

Lightbridge in Second Life is a medieval roleplaying sim set in the year 1529 in a part of English controlled France. Now before you think, you’ve seen this all before, this isn’t a place for Elves, Dwarves, Orcs (seriously, no Orcs!) etc. This is a sim that prides itself on a degree of histrorical accuracy and encourages free form human character roleplay without the use of a meter.

On the Lightbridge website description we are told :

Set in the fictional city of Pont de Lumière in English-controlled France, the town is a secondary trading port and a garrison supporting the defense of Calais. Get to know the city by reading our lore. Come January 1, it will be the year 1529 in our roleplay. If you enjoy the Tudor Era, this might be for you!

What makes us special? We’ve done a good bit of research into English-Controlled Calais and we’ve picked a time and space that are unlike anything else in the SL rp community. RL events of the time will affect our roleplay, including the many RL feast days scattered throughout the year. And although our focus isn’t on physical combat, our combat dice bonus system is also designed to reduce the absurdities of dice play.

What makes this interesting to me is the work done on Lore and trying to make this a historical rather than fantasy sim. Their lore page makes for some very interesting reading :

Like Calais, Pont de Lumière is an important nexus of trade between England and the European continent. Its harbor is not as suitable for larger trading ships, as the continental shelf is higher here and the water is shallower. Still, smaller ships make the journey between Dover and Pont de Lumière, facilitating trade of important commodities, food, and materials. Pont de Lumière actually predates Calais, having been settled in the 7th century and given a charter in the 10th Century. The town fell and was captured just before Edward III laid siege to Calais in 1346, after the Battle of Crécy, to stop French interference with English trade to the markets in the neighboring low country (Flanders, modern day Belgium).

As foreign territories, Calais and Pont de Lumière are expensive protectorates. They are heavily fortified garrisons, as the French continually have their eyes on reclaiming the land. From time to time, the French will test the town’s mettle. When Calais eventually falls back into French control in 1558 under Queen Mary I, Pont de Lumière will likewise fall before it.

There’s more, a lot more covering economy, politics government etc.

Continue reading “Lightbridge – A Medieval Roleplay Sim For Humans Rather Than Fantasy Characters”

December 31, 2014

The Drax Files World Makers Episode 25 – Oblee

Episode 25 Of The Drax Files : World Makers takes us into the seedy underbelly of rock music in Second Life! Ooooh! Well actually it’s not seedy … nor is it an underbelly, and it might not even rock music, however let’s move on, the star of the show is an artist known as Oblee.

Oblee explains how he plays gigs in Second Life two or three times a week, pointing out that there are many venues to play at. There has been talk about music being a good use case for the forthcoming VR boom and yet, there are already ample opportunities for musicians to play on a digital stage. Obviously one of the issues with the current virtual worlds is that they support a relatively small audience, as anyone who has been in a sim with 40 avatars knows. However that shouldn’t mean that the opportunities of current virtual worlds are overlooked.

Oblee is self made in Second Life and in an impressive twist, his earnings in Second Life have allowed him to earn enough money to finance his debut album outside the virtual world. These virtual worlds aren’t as distant from reality as some may think.

Continue reading “The Drax Files World Makers Episode 25 – Oblee”

December 31, 2014

2014 Reviewed All In One Post

If you’re read my other two posts reviewing then there’s nothing new here in this one, it’s just a merging of the two posts to make it easier for future reference. This means it will be a long post, with pictures, videos and probably some errors.

January

January started with a look back to 2013 and the number of private region losses. The scores on the door from Tyche Shepherd displayed a slow down on the number of regions leaving the Second Life grid, something that would continue during 2014.

2012 Net Private Region Losess – 2865 (12.0%)
2013 Net Private Region Losses – 1719 (8.2%)

The virtual world of Kitely moved to a different pricing model which largely did away with the pay by the minute options as these had not been popular.

Blackened Mirror poster should be here — The Blackened Mirror Poster

Season 2 of The Blackened Mirror was taking a mid-season break but would return by the end of January. The show was recorded in Second Life.

Linden Lab were Raising The Roof : The HTTP Project. This project, which had started in 2012 was aimed at improving HTTP communications to improve the end user experience. Linden Lab would continue working on improvements during the year.

Second Life users were getting frustrated by tax and account information requests from Linden Lab. They would continue to be frustrated by these requests throughout the year despite Linden Lab improving their communications and information on these issues.

Second Life got a mention in the comedy show, 2 Broke Girls.

Then came the storm to warm up many a chilly January evening, Cloud Party announced that they would be closing their virtual doors on February 21st.

This was quickly followed by even more news to warm up January, Aston Villa fan and Linden Lab CEO, Rod Humble, was leaving Linden Lab. This created a Twitter storm.

Continue reading “2014 Reviewed All In One Post”