There seems to be a fair degree of divided opinion over the forthcoming tools for content creators, based largely around Rodvik’s statement on the official blog:
“One of the key goals of Linden Realms was to learn more about what tools Residents could use to develop richer experiences in Second Life — and boy, did we learn a lot! In Q1 2012 , we will be releasing new tools used to develop Linden Realms, which will allow Residents to create even richer original experiences in Second Life. To prevent abuse of these tools, we will introduce a “creators” program in which verified members will be given access to these very powerful capabilities.”
There are arguments for and against such a program, there have long been arguments for and against such ideas. I’m currently very firmly on the fence about this as I believe the devil will be in the detail and some of Rodvik’s tweets have suggested it won’t be too painful, first this one:
“@AmaliaIllios Whats the dejavu? Curious I want to avoid anything bad. We are thinking some kind of minimal sign up program….”
Followed by this one:
“@AmaliaIllios ..basically so we can ban greifers who might abuse the tools (needed because they are really powerful). Hope that makes sense.”
People have been arguing for and against restrictions on who can do what for quite some time, the first sign of real restrictions however arrived when Mesh hit the grid, with prerequisites on who can upload Mesh ,which included a requirement to have payment info on file and passing a Mesh quiz. This caused some angst at the time but I haven’t seen a great deal of complaints about it and people can ask friends to upload mesh content for them, or acquire Mesh prims inworld or via the marketplace.
Around the same time as Rodvik’s blog post was making an appearance, a thread was posted on the official forums calling for restrictions on who can sell on the marketplace, due to an allegation about stolen content being sold on the marketplace. That thread in itself shows how divided opinion can be on restrictions, and let’s not forget that griefing and stolen content arrived on the grid when people did have to provide credit details before being allowed into Second Life.
Over at SLUniverse, Blog Bot posted a copy of Rodvik’s blog post, Blog Bot is a useful bot, Linden Lab should consider using the bot’s services for their own forum! Anyway, opinion there is also greatly divided with some people not seeing a problem with restrictions and others seeing a very big problem with restrictions. Prok also blogged about the idea, coming down firmly against the idea.
Part of the problem is that we don’t have details on what the proposal is, so it’s really hard to form a firm opinion, although traditionally I’ve always leaned on the side of restrictions being a bad idea. I’m still leaning that way but I want to see exactly what the restrictions are, if they’re like Mesh then it’s more of a hmmm than being vehemently opposed to it, but placing restrictions on creativity isn’t something I’m generally a fan of.
Another issue, and one that really should be dealt with, is exemplified by the Mesh restrictions. I have passed the Mesh test, I can upload Mesh, but none of my alts can because they have either not done the test or don’t have payment info on file. This is a very silly situation, especially as Linden Lab know exactly whom my alts are, they should be able to upload Mesh simply by virtue of me submitting a support ticket, which was the case when I wanted my NPIOF alts to be able to access adult land, a painless process that links my alts to me.
Whether this creators program will be a good or bad idea, I honestly don’t know at this stage, but I can see what some people are saying when they talk of a slippery slope, some people feel that if the tools are dangerous then nobody should have access to them, others believe quite the opposite. At the very least it needs to be transparent, whether you love or hate the Mesh upload restrictions, the process is transparent.
I am looking forward to seeing pathfinding arrive on the grid, so I hope we don’t end up getting tangled in a web of restrictions on whom can do what, the concept of pathfinding is a good one and should add to the Second Life experience. However when it comes to restrictions, we really do need to tread carefully here and some people are in danger of finding themselves in be careful what you wish for territory.
I have to laugh when people complain about griefing. You have not been griefed until you have been swarmed by self generating green penises in Santa hats! Reasonable precautions make sense but griefing will never go away, children will always be children no matter RL age.
Oh I’ve had the Mario’s on my land but never the penises… that wasn’t a request to have them by the way! To be fair to LL, they have dealt with any griefing issues I’ve had really quickly, and I very much agree, there will always be people who want to disrupt, sometimes it’s a drunken prank that they know isn’t funny when they wake up, sometimes it’s just because they can, sometimes it’s malicious, but it will always happen, requirements or not, heck people get ganked in World Of Warcraft and everyone pays there.
The Santa Penis, and several similar self generating object attacks were back in 2006. LL finally created a “Gray Goo Fence” and that type of attack has not been seen since.