Communicate! and .. also some updates

It has been a bit since I wrote the last post and a few things have happened. Mainly, continuing the ongoing story from the past weeks, the banning of RedZone and it's creator who turned out to have been a convicted criminal and someone with a more then questionable record. The last week has also seen the release of the 'Basic Viewer' by LL that, while I don't see it as a bad idea, has not been received that well by those people who tried it. Now of course those people have all been long time users of other viewers and have different expectations then new time residents, but LL would be ill advised to ignore what is being said on various forum posts. The criticism is mainly aimed at who much the viewer is stripped down in abilities that also involve not being able to use voice chat as well as not being able to 'buy' both L$ and items. The inventory is also unavailable and I am not sure, that the distinction between the 'basic' and 'advanced' mode is really that clearly made and visible to new users. Maybe it would be good to make the 'advanced' mode into 'normal' mode and make a big arrow pointing at the button that would enable the extra functions. Preferably without the need to relog, but maybe it is too early for all this in the development circle of this new viewer.

Or maybe I am expecting too much of LL, what brings me right into the big debate that sprung up on New World Notes a while ago and continued, as the writer of this blog continues to write blog entries in the same kind of topic:

http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2011/03/second-life-users-hate-and-fear-change.html#comments

Understandably he got hit over the head because of this one rather badly. I even think that he deserved it considering on how insulting this post might be to some people and how far away I think it is from what I see happening on the grid.

But he does mentions a very big problem Second Life has. There is no discussion about the fact, that it is less of a vibrant community then it has been in the past and there is much less of the old feel of amazement that has been so much visible all around the grid. A large part of cause for this goes directly to Linden Lab themselves. I agree with the following interpretation much more then with what has been written on New World Notes:

http://www.brokentoys.org/2011/03/16/second-life-community-we-really-fear-change/

I also think that things have to change. Really now! I have written this before and will point out again, that it is the communication that will proof essential in saving the virtual world we have come to love in the past years.

We indeed fear change, because we have been shown that change it done poorly and we do not trust the Lab to do the right thing!

And now I would like to see people scream because neither is there a 'we' that could be addressed with any sort of certainty, there is also no singly 'right thing' to do. There are many plans and ideas and as things that could or should be changed as there are people pointing them out. The big disorganised screaming from the blogosphere mixed up with the various Twitter channels and the numerous posts in SL's own blogs and forums. It is all there and waiting to be heard and it is all filled up with people would love to stop fearing the changes waiting to happen. Often enough I even hear more often about how LL does not change enough to be the problem instead of the will to forcefully keep things as they are. After all, why did it took until Phoenix came along that the Windlight feature become shareable between viewers? Or rather why it took until Imprudence introduced a similar feature to the OpenSim Grid?

I am not sure where this all will be going to end, but there is no doubt that SL has a few problems. Some are technical, others are directly tied to the way this world has been envisioned by LL and some more result form the way the residents are using it. I don't know for example if LL has ever really envisioned that their grid would be used for games or that the kind of social interaction happening is in many aspects different to what is going on on social sites like Facebook. Of course, SL is a social site as well and can be used as such. It does not need Facebook for it and in dumbing it down to a very basic level the beauty and nicely overwhelming feel of a fresh new world goes missing to those who see it for the first time. Of course, I am referring to myself here as I absolutely love to have functions and options. Others might feel different and this is exactly the reason why I think that browser-interfaces and a basic viewer is not a bad thing to develop. It will be the first glance for new users but for it to succeed it would need to provide them with the tools and means of interacting with the world and learning the ins and outs of the world they have just stepped into. I wont present a 'masterplan' of how to do it now since I don't even pretend to know it, but what I still want to do it to say, that once again, LL should listen carefully to what is being said to them and to evaluate their strategy and working procedures.

People in general don't fear changes when those are explained and they feel like they still have the chance to give valid feedback about it! And I have not seen anything so far that would rival the SL community on the unbroken will and desire to do exactly this:

Communicate!