Indigo Goes With Web Groups Whilst Hamlet Looks To Achieve

Linden Lab’s invite for people to send suggestions to them via a new feedback process is gaining some interesting commentary outside the suggestion box. Indigo Mertel has gone for greater web functionality for Groups and communications whereas Hamlet Au over at New World Notes goes for achievements. Neither of these are new territory but they are good discussion territory.

I’m very much onboard with Indigo’s suggestions as they are largely suggestions I’ve made myself in the past. The benefits of web based groups are many but some key areas would mean that you wouldn’t have to receive a notecard, landmark and texture advertising events. The idea would be you’d get a notification pointing to the group web page. This allows communication channels to do what they do best and web pages to do what they do best.

Indigo has added some depth to the broad based group web page idea suggesting that they could have a forum, a wiki, an option for people to subscribe to notifications and the ability to make the group page viewable on the world wide web or not.

In short Indigo is thinking along the lines of the functionality that Facebook and Google + offer. Now you may think that if Facebook and Google + already offer this added functionality then why not go with them for Groups? Many people do, I get event invites sent to me on Google +. However not everyone has or wants an account on Facebook or Google + whereas people who are members of Second Life groups are already happy to be members of Second Life …. one would hope!

Now obviously this isn’t easy to achieve but going forward, I think there might be a pointer or two on how to try and manage groups in the future. Groups are a social experience and they require greater resources than the inworld Second Life experience can provide. Groups are essentially a social media tool and they really need a social media solution but one that can link into the inworld experience.

Haalet goes for achievements, which is an issue he has raised many times before. The idea isn’t without merit but I’ve generally been against the idea of a Second Life wide achievements system because Second Life is a platform that includes many concepts. However I do think there’s potential for localised achievement systems.

Think about a roleplaying sim, an achievement system could give them a boost with regards to exploration, storylines and participation. Think about stores who may have achievement systems for regular shoppers.

Think about the new user experience whereby those new to Second Life could be directed to a welcome experience whereby they earned rewards for reaching achievement goals.

Think about hunts whereby you could have achievements related to that particular hunt or a cumulative one that related to many hunts. There is definitely potential for achievements in Second Life, but they do need to be handled with care.

My own personal suggestions involve making Second Life far more Orc friendly because Second Life and any other virtual world most definitely needs Orcs!

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