Metaverse

metaverse Welcome to some ideas about virtual worlds, the technology platforms that deliver them over the web and spin analysis on latest news/trends.  Rezzable designs, creates and operates the largest public space on the second life grid and we have some unique perspectives on what is going on (...ok, some are just really random).

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Metaverse News

Times: Avatars Are Dolls

Here's a little wake-up call for all us that think being inworld is kinda cool, from the venerable London Times Online we get this snarky insight into the future of virtual/online experience: "Of course, avatars are dolls, which must be ventriloquised by their cyber-parents."

Roger Scruton continues this line of reasoning with: "But the dolls are getting more realistic, and who knows, maybe soon they will be able to read each other’s body language, and begin to respond directly, presenting their watchful parents with moral dilemmas that they had never foreseen. The new “dream children” may soon possess all the attributes which their creators wish for but do not possess, and will be able to copulate in cyberspace with the dreams of other people, in a sterile caricature of erotic passion."

hmmm...maybe Roger is a Gorean?

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Linden Lab Funds MIT Research

Forbes reports that the MIT Media Lab is getting funding from Linden Lab to mess around with real/virtual concepts (they call it X-Reality) and a bunch of kit.: "Later in November, Paradiso's team of seven Ph.D. students plans to switch on 45 PDA-sized devices mounted on the walls of the Media Lab's building. Each is equipped with an iPhone-like touch screen, a version of Second Life's software, wireless connections, cameras and a variety of audio, motion and infrared sensors."

Looks cool enuff. Bet they getting more than $10,000 worth of LInden Dollars on the backend of this project.  And of course some of the OpenSpace revenues will be used for this type of stuff I guess.  But is it really about research with MIT or about the very future of Second Life? What is the point of the Second Life anyway? Is it a game? An RP for lost people? Is there really any robust technology on this platform?

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Virtual Sex Better Than Real Marriage?

Sky News reports "Woman Divorces Over Virtual Lover":

The couple spent hours having fun together in Second Life - her avatar, or alter ego, in the 3D virtual world was Laura Skye, and his Dave Barmy.

But her dreams were shattered three months later when she went for an afternoon nap and woke to find the jobless 40-year-old having sex with an escort girl in the game.

Says Amy Taylor (RL Woman)

"I caught him cuddling a woman on a sofa in the game. It looked really affectionate," she said. "He turned off the computer monitor, and I turned it back on and demanded to look at his chat history."

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Rezzable on Metanomics: Video and Transcript
Rezzable was the featured guest on Metanomics. Yes, I went for a goth look, thanks to Draconic for the cool skin and Hyasynth for the xlent suit.

I was a guest, both as an avatar and human person at the same time, on the Metanomics live broadcast on 10 November and they now have the show video (it's an hour so get popcorn) and the show transcript up. I sorta think the transcript reads better than I sound on the video!  It is a bit of an odd experience though to give an interview while watching the avatar flop around.

Doug Thompson (Dusan Writer) and Nic Mitham (owner of K-Zero) were also on the panel where we discuss the future of Second LIfe and future trends around Opensim and other virtual worlds.

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Downgrading

goin' downThanks to Mark Kingdon for reminding me to downgrade my premium account -- is like $USD 108/year when I was paying quarterly. I guess only reason to have this is to be able to have a parcel on Mainland? Anyway, there is a nice little feedback form that pops-up when you downgrade. So I suppose another chance to let the Linden Lab team know about why I am not spending more money with them.

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Warning Bogus Emails: "Subject: Warning or Suspension of Your Second Life Account"

Looks like someone hacked the SL email list somehow (some many clever minds turned to mischief). It is not from Linden Lab. Would seem to be an attempt to overload SL support page. But looks like Linden has a problem with email to avatar list security or someone is scrapping a web page where this is posted.

Email comes from "no-reply@secondlife.com" Subject = Warning or Suspension of Your Second Life Account

text =

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Campers and Bots Continue to Inflate SL Usage
Dumb Bots and Campers entice newbies to wander into empty shopping malls on the Second Life grid. It is a scam that Linden Lab continues to allow as it masks the lack of engaged user growth. Linden Lab knows the percentage of sessions and the amount of hours that Bots/Campers represents, but is not revealing this information.

While grid continues to protest the OpenSpace scandal and Linden Lab continues its policy of spin, hype, confuse and ignore, the big issue of where is the growth on the Second Life platform is still a mystery--or is it? Is there in fact no real growth and just a lot of data mixed up with Bots and Campers? And if LL is serious about improving the "user experience" wouldn't getting rid of this scam practice be a major step forward?

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OpenSpaces: A Bad Product Gets Worse

It doesn't really take a lot of effort to see that the price “jack-up” on the Voids that became OpenSpaces means anyone who keeps that simulator product will be paying a lot more for a lot less. And not just less prim density--but less peformance. Aren't hosting+server costs supposed to go down over time? Isn't performance meant to improve over time? Isn't efficiency meant to improve over time? LL seems to have it all backwards (...again).

The offering from M Linden (= Mark Kingdon, CEO Linden Labs) does little to make this mess right and adds a new layer of confusion and technical nonsense to the already stressed Second Life user-base and the SL virtual world platform as well.

Anyway, here are some comments and more detail on why the OpenSpace offering looks so terrible. I am not sure this commentary is new, but some of the ideas explaining what the issue really is might be interesting enuff.  * Warning danger of boringness is high and I show a spreadsheet*  (Better to go watch a fun machinima here!)

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Hobos Migrate Into The Rezzable World

Just yesterday it seemed that I was the only Hobo in Calleta.  Now years later, after an Info Hub and a wonderful community formed around me, there are Hobos everywhere.  Our goal was simple, welcome new people, enjoy each other's company, share, and most of all, have fun with In world the whole time doing so.  Currently, the group has expanded beyond my belief.  Due to the lack of breathing space and lag, I felt expansion was needed.  After a good half year of finding a route to an island for my group, I tried various sources.  Linden Labs' New User Experience program seemed very promising, but unfortunately the Lindens felt that people may get the wrong idea appearing in a slight dystopia.  I always like to wonder how many people join up and believe they start out as a Hobo in a video game.  If i was only so lucky to meet one of those people, I would be playful and tell them that they have to sell a can of beans to level up to Dumpster Diver.

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Rezzable on Metanomics

The gang from Metanomics invited me over to talk about Rezzable and our ideas on the virtual world.  They are also interested in more comments about the openspace/void fiasco solution that LL has generated. Dusan Writer is also joining the show--(yeah they wanted someone smart too).   Show is live (eek) at 12noon SLT and runs for about an hour. Apparently you can also listen/watch via the web (don't go there until show time!).

They asked me to talk about why we started Rezzable, what we did, what we learned in this amazing virtual world. There is also a lot of interest in what the future on the grid may be (actually wish I knew that).  I am not sure that rehashing all the noise about the openspace/void story is that useful, but I guess there are some interesting points to share about how we see Linden Lab operating and what that may mean to our audience inworld.

And what about OpenSim? Is this really a viable alternative to Second Life now?

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