Nexeus Fatale

Welcome to part 3 of my Best of 2008, where I take a look at popular music, indie music, and virtual world topics that rocked everyone’s world. This installment is all about the top Virtual Issues that made headway in 2008. While I’m very interested in many MMO platforms a majority of this list will stem from the Second Life world. Lets begin!

The Picks

1. Early in 2008, Phillip Rosedale announced he was changing jobs within Linden Lab and was stepping down as CEO of Linden Lab. In April, Mark Kingdon was announced as the new CEO of Linden Lab. M Linden is an interesting follow and seems just as passionate and invested in the platform as Phillip. It is way too early to grade M’s overall effect on the grid, he’s been at the job for less than a year. However there seems to be a lot of positive momentum in the works.
2. In October, Linden Lab announced a $50 change in pricing tier for Openspace Sims. I felt it was for the best but I was the minority. Certain members of the community strongly disagreed (an understatement). Through much of the resident “feedback”, Homesteads, a cross between Openspace and full sims was introduced addressing some residents complaints but not others. The policy goes into effect at the beginning of the new year.
3. At this years SLCC, I met Eshi Otawara and found her to be a very delightful and talented person. Last summer, due to her husbands unexpected death, she became embattled with the United States Government and faced deportation. It was announced a week ago that Eshi won her battle and is now a permanent resident of the United States. Congrats Eshi!
4. After a very successful release in the post-WoW age of MMORPG’s, Age of Conan suffered from several problems. Patches seemed to plague the game every other day, there were major balancing issues in PVP (something the game was based on), and the producer and game director QUIT! I am very familiar with FunCom, I’ve DJed at conventions for them, met game directors and their staff, and was a member of the radio station they sponsor. I like FunCom, I think they are a creative bunch and have great ideas. It seems they didn’t learn from their mistakes with Anarchy Online. I hate to say it but FunCom really earned the name FAILCom with the snafu over AoC. I hope in 2009 things are remedied.
5. After releasing employees during the holiday season in 2007, along with several commercial companies leaving Second Life, the Electric Sheep Company seemed to be the next group heading towards the exit sign. ESC released WebFlock which is a flash based platform geared at individual corporations. WebFlock is not Second Life and in my opinion does not serve as a replacement for it. It seemed to be a reaction to industry reports slamming Second Life by providing the flexibility and focus they require for virtual world projects. I’m not a fan of WebFlock (especially after trying one of The L Word rooms) but the platform may improve in the upcoming year. The idea is interesting, one I believe Second Life will be venturing further into this year. (Note: I do perform some work for the Electric Sheep Company as a consultant.)

Honorable Mentions

Talking about Virtual World platforms, the death of Google Lively was a top issue this year. Lively seemed to serve the promise of the next step to virtual world environments. It never panned out for many reasons to long to list here.

With MMO’s becoming increasingly popular, Second Skin, a documentary displaying the lives of MMORPG gamers was released and has received a lot of praise (including mine).

Within the Second Life community, Bone Mosten was deemed New World Notes top male of 2008, Ultra 7 Lounge launched with a very different approach than other Second Life clubs (less sleaze more class and use of passes), everyone is revealing their secrets anonymously (and causing MORE drama and backstabbing through it), Prokofy announced the FIC 2.5 (and I’m on it!), and a couple gets divorced due to an affair in Second Life.

I want to round this list up with a mention of two projects that show a lot of promise in the future development of Second Life, first is the Imprudence browser and the second is the Tunes inSL aimed at aiding musicians within the community. I believe both will have positive effects on the community in the future and both should garner a ton of credit for launching such interesting and useful projects.

Me hanging out in Google Lively

Lively was Google’s attempt in the creation of a browser based virtual world space (although there was still an application download) and will be closing on December 31st, 2008. Lively was an interesting product, but as designed its failure stems from it’s approach, Lively was built more as a 3D chatroom instead of a virtual world. Rooms were never connected to each other, there was never a sense of community or the ability to connect several rooms together in the creation of a larger space. Instead when filled a room became unorganized chaos as avatars would merge with one another.

Lively also suffered from several difficulties, it’s movement system was mouse based (and unintuitive), keeping up with conversations through a bubble like interface was annoying, is lacked audio streaming but had video and image streaming, and there were not any integrated tools to create items inside of Lively (let alone share them).

Lively’s approach of a virtual world is the wrong approach. It treated this space as an extension of a chatroom rather than the extension of the Internet. Where people could interact with one another not just through chat but through media. Lively was not the first virtual world of its kind and it will not be the last of its ilk to fall. I suspect other virtual worlds or flash based worlds will ultimately fail for many of the reasons Lively has.

The horizon in Second Life

After five years of its release, I am always shocked when I have to describe Second Life to another person. I assumed with its massive coverage of mainstream media (who are quick to jump on any salacious scandalous material), many dedicated blogs and websites, and even a clear definition on the website, describing and defining Second Life would be an unnecessary chore. However, I’m wrong. When presented with the question “What is Second Life” I find myself juggling between three different components in trying to describe the platform as a whole: the technology, its capabilities and the purpose. The platform is very organic; I don’t believe a single definition focused on one aspect serves as a complete definition. Somewhere between these three areas is a clearer, understandable definition of Second Life.

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Although I consider the introduction of Linden Lab’s Homestead product a resolution to the Openspace Sim controversy, the reactions around the community seem to be split. Some people (including CodeBastard) disagree with my thoughts (and have slapped me), the consensus throughout the community is the introduction of the new product and changes is a reasonable compromise between the community wishes and Linden Labs needs.  Two days before the announcement of Homesteads, hosts Dousa Dragonash and Dietrich Finesmith of Metaverse.tv MBC invited BNT CEO Intlibber Brautigan and I for a round table discussion of the Openspace issues.

While some of the topics raised here are irrelevant, there are some that remain very relevant and I feel hold true and will continue to remain relevant to the future as hardware specifications and limits are completely defined.

Privately, among friends and during an interview this week I’ve noted that the controversy surrounding Openspace Sim raised the need of a new product; something that was not a full sim, but not an Openspace sim.  Moments ago, M Linden has announced a resolution to the Openspace Sim controversy, Homesteads. This is a really good move for Linden Lab and community. This new product bridges the gap between Openspaces and full fledged sims. A win-win, for those those who wanted to keep cheaper sim land, Linden Lab wanting to maintain their grid stability initatives. This announcement also displays Linden Lab’s continued ability to recognizing, listening and adjusting their policies based on feedback. Continue Reading »