They Just Don’t “Get It”
Today I do something I don’t often do, pierce the wall that separates the real world from the mostly fictional world of our Second Lives. I generally try to keep a certain level of “Professional Detachment”, but I’m also someone that tends to connect at a purely emotional level with people. It can sometimes lead to problems, but for the most part I wouldn’t want to live my life any other way.
Because of the various events in my life, I am currently in a situation in which I spend great amounts of time flat on my back watching TV. A good number of those hours of passive informational input are dedicated to news programs. Lately they’ve been grinding over an issue that seems to have their fascination up, but also proves just how horribly out of touch the News Media are with the digital age and the shape of Internet Humanity.
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Be Careful What You Wish For …
Filed under: Internet Life and Humanity, Linden Lab and Second Life, Steam and Internet Gaming, The Project to Save Second Life
I have to start off by admitting that my thoughts are still on a whirlwind path through all the ramifications of the blogs and posts I’ve read in the past day. As often happens with me, I gather a number of “seeds” from the many sources of information I have available, then plant those seeds and allow them to grow for a bit before I reap the crop. But today’s post is a bit different in that I’ve only just planted those seeds … and already the crops are sprouting weeds that are overtaking me faster than I can chop them down and cook them up.
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The Height of Arrogance
Filed under: Internet Life and Humanity, Linden Lab and Second Life
As I recently reported, I had an encounter with the “Powers That Be” at Linden Lab regarding my access to the SL Forums. For some unknown reason, it was decided that I’d violated some rule of Forum access, and thus my ability to post and contribute was removed. It must not have been a very big violation though as I was only banned for about a week. But since I was never told what I did or even when I did it, that’s just an estimate.
When I discovered what had happened (by virtue of a rather meager reply to my support ticket), I wrote to the two people that I know at Linden Lab … Brooke Linden and Rodvik Linden. Now when I say that I “know” them, I mean that I’ve actually had email conversations with one of them (Brooke .. in the course of helping them get the ANS feature working at the SL Marketplace). As for Rodvik, I’ve written emails to him on several occasions and tweeted to him a few times. I even got a response to one of my tweets. (That was a long time ago though, and had to do with a very serious issue regarding the Forum Moderators “outting” my IP Address and private info.)
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The Focus of Interest
Filed under: Internet Life and Humanity, Linden Lab and Second Life, Steam and Internet Gaming, The Project to Save Second Life
A number of years ago, before the Dot-Com bubble burst, all the excitement in the investment and media industries was about the possibility that anyone with a half-decent idea could become an overnight success. With no more effort than some deep thinking and the right concept, an entire digital kingdom could be created and turned into a never-ending money machine. The ability to “print money” without the need for hard goods and sweaty, grinding labor was a Golden Goose worthy of chasing with every penny available.
But then the general insecurity of money people along with the inevitable missteps and bad ideas turned the Golden Goose into an albatross around the digital industry’s neck. The giant sucking sound of the investors running away was heard in every financial back room around the globe. It was logical and overall fiscally responsible, but it left the industry in an interesting predicament that persists to this day: Hunting The Fabled Golden Goose.
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The “List”
Filed under: Internet Life and Humanity, Linden Lab and Second Life
Open up your dresser drawer, a cupboard in your workshop, the trunk of your car … and without much effort you can quickly organize the contents of any of those into a List. Lists are very convenient assemblies of related items arranged in some order or sequence that makes them easy to communicate, easy to manage and very easy to memorize. Lists are overall very handy. If you’ve ever been shopping, performed a task with more than two steps, or put together a kit of some sort then you’ve no doubt created and/or depended on a List. All in all, they’re very handy things.
But from time to time, we humans engage in creating a type of List that really should not be put together. It’s not that the members of the list are so unrelated as to defy arrangement in a list format, nor that organizing the members into a list does not help understand their relationship to each other. It’s more the purpose of the List, how it is created, why it is created and by what process it gets updated and managed. The type of List I’m talking about is … the “List of Very Bad People in Second Life”.
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Mutant Internet
Filed under: Internet Life and Humanity, Linden Lab and Second Life, The Project to Save Second Life
I do realize that anytime someone mentions the term “Mutant” in regards Second Life, most folks immediately conjure up a mental image of some malformed and horribly beautiful avatar that makes your stomach roll and your face break out in an approving smile. But in this particular situation I’m using the term “Mutant Internet” as a way of indicating the future of the Internet … as in “it’s mutating and gaining new powers.” So are you even more confused? Well then read on and I’ll try my best to unconfuse you.
(BTW: The inspiration for this post came from a comment posted by Aeonix Aeon (AKA Will Burns, AKA Darian Knight) on my post “More Steam Cap’n“.)
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Fleep’s Right-On Thoughts
Filed under: Internet Life and Humanity, Linden Lab and Second Life
Thanks to Crap Mariner’s post today, I had the intense pleasure of reading a blog post from a fellow SL’er that shook me like shoving my tongue into a wall socket .. but in a good way. Fleep Tuque (AKA Chris M. Collins) is one of those people that participated and contributed to the early days, the vitality and diversity and wonder of Second Life. In her post titled “Why Anyone Who Cares About the Metaverse Needs to Move Beyond Second Life; Now, Not Later“, Fleep captures in most elegant words the wonder and why-for that caused a lot of us to fall head over heels in love with Second Life.
If you read nothing else today, make sure you read her post. If it doesn’t have the same “smack my forehead” reaction as it did for me then you need to read it again and again and again … until it DOES make you realize … the Future is OURS to make. And with Fleep’s words to light our path, the direction is clear as can be.
More Steam, Cap’n!
Filed under: Internet Life and Humanity, Linden Lab and Second Life, The Project to Save Second Life
It’s been just under a week since my first post on the news that Second Life was listing itself in the Steam catalog of titles. (If you haven’t already, it might help some to go read that post first. Steam Powered Second Life) Since that post, I have been reading many comments and blog posts from others regarding the subject. As usually happens in a diverse community such as that inhabiting Second Life, opinions and predictions wander from one pole to the other. But there are some points that seem to be pushing their way to the forefront that I think bear some review … and possibly a bit of rebuttal/clarification.
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Steam Powered Second Life
Filed under: Internet Life and Humanity, Linden Lab and Second Life, The Project to Save Second Life
In case it escaped your notice, Linden Lab very quietly announced that they will soon make the Second Life Virtual World available via the online gaming portal known as Steam. If you’re not familiar with Steam and its slice of the internet-enabled population then it would be wise to take a few moments to wander around their site and get an idea of what they offer and more to the point, what they feature.
Welcome To Steam – Click to open the Steam Home Page
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Life as a Number
Filed under: Internet Life and Humanity, Linden Lab and Second Life, The Project to Save Second Life
I spend a good part of every day “Listening” to the wide community of people that contribute to and populate Second Life. I read the Forums, read various Blogs and diatribes, and even spend a good part of time watching the JIRA. I do it mostly because I get some very good ideas for new products that way, but also because I like staying in touch and “in the know”. It does chew up a fair amount of time some days, but usually not that much … and the value returned for that investment is and has been very valuable.
DGP4SL Staff
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