The Second Life Community Should Lead the New Virtual Reality Wave, Not Follow It

Veteran virtual world content creator Maxwell Graf has an interesting and fairly inspiring (if a bit too wide-rangey) post which basically argues that the Second Life community should lead the new wave of VR, not follow it:

Ideally, the concept of a metaverse is the total of combined applications across various virtual worlds through the perspective of an identity which remains constant across all of them. The coming storm of digital reality will eventually produce a true metaverse, a new blank canvas which will be covered by the paint of humanity and its many colors. When they arrive, it is my hope that the community of Second Life will be there, waiting, to help them understand what to do with it all. Going forward it is imperative that we be there in order to share our experience and what we have learned, to preserve the foundation of community which we have so carefully crafted so that it can be incorporated into the future and kept from being lost. Therein lies a legacy and a destiny. As we begin the next chapter of our digital lives with Project Sansar starting this week, let us attempt to show the rest of the world our example. Let us lead them, not just be ahead of them. Let us light the path.

Also, love the steampunky VR image (excerpted above) Max created for the post. It's well-worth a read, even I don't entirely agree with it here and there. Such as:

Consider the 3D content market outside of SL; While there may be lots of buildings or household props on turbosquid, the majority of them are not designed for occupation or use by a family of avatars, many are just outer shells.

But while most SL's homes and buildings have been designed for simulated habitation, they've also been created for fricking giants, because most SL avatars are in the 7-8 foot range. (That actually seems to be a core reason SL is not ideal for use with VR -- you feel like a midget walking through most of the world.) So on that front, I'm not entirely sure SL builders are intrinsically best at creating the next wave of VR architecture. But I definitely agree the SL community should take the lead, showing VR where to go -- and frankly, what to avoid.

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Comments

[Levio Serenity]

From what I've seen about Sansar, they have no intention of making what I would consider a metaverse. It's going to be a jumble of connected walled gardens.

[Levio Serenity]

I should add, I really hope I am proven wrong about this!!

[A.J.]

I've only talked to Maxwell Graf one time inworld. He was a very kind, approachable, and inclusive guy.

This post has been up for a few days and I'm really surprised that the comments, so far, have been... "crickets".

I'm not a "voice" of the SL community or a self-proclaimed expert, so I'm really dying to hear from the enthusiastic LL fan bloggers as to why the SL community is or isn't boldly going to where no man has gone before.

Where is the SL community going?

[Littlewing]

I agree with the spirit of what he is saying & even linden lab would love it's community to be the driving force while in a perfect world it should happen.
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Sad that Project Sansar will be closed source 'that will prevent a lot of 3rd party development.
Vendor Lock-in is another factor.
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I think the lindens have confused everyone into thinking Project Sansar is the same but better then the the upcoming High Fidelity Platform' that is a Frenemy of Linden Lab..It's not going to be even close.
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One is open source that allows the community on the deepest level to make life changing directions of there world while the other does not have any plans for open-source other then modules for viewers (to limit the power of 3rd party developers + prevent a new generation of clones)

I think Maxwell Graf makes great points but should know this new virtual world everyone is saying is coming will be missing 99% of earths population as no one is paying $299 for a rift viewer to look like a Borg drone sitting in the living room.(not even google glass could break that)
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High Fidelity is going to be the driving community for the virtual worlds while Project Sansar is going to be like Second Life but better no matter how linden lab spins .

+ Even Open Sim is not supporting High Fidelity because content after it's beta will be encrypted' preventing Copybots..but a win for creators in high fidelity selling assets..so for once linden lab and open sim copybots are working together against a common enemy unless i am mistaken.

[Tequila Hurricane]

As far as I've been able to gather, Sansara isn't even going to be marketed to people who love Second Life. Sure, there's going to be an open market. It'll be taxed, and no one knows what that percentage will be. The Lab needs to make a profit somehow.

In order for Sansara to be profitable, it's going to have to appeal to the masses. SL does not. Let's face it...We're a niche group.

I don't know what the long term plan is.....but I don't think we're important for its success.

[zz bottom]

As long as LL only has Second Life to sustain its dreams, we (second life users) are the most important.

[Carlos Loff]

The Moment Sl Allows me to pay 50$ per month to have 144 Ull Ims, just like Opensim does, on that moment I will erase all my OS v
Irtual worlds and jump heads up into SL again, otherwise as a world builder and community manager SL still my last choi
Ce - No leading

[Chantal]

Linden Lab and High Fidelity will not be large players in what is coming. Check the VR blogs read up how Google is building a VR engine not to mention what facebook is doing. There are a lot of big companies involved looking to get some marketshare in what possible could become a big thing.

Linden Lab and High Fidelity are peanuts with laughable budgets, if they produce anything good it will get bought up by a big player. Linden only hopes to score a billion $ as fast as they can.

If you were Linden would you take 1 billion today or spend a decade with whining customers and technology with declining interest over time?

The fact that Linden Lab does not even have staff to talk directly with the community while running a community social platform tells you everything you need to know.

[Littlewing]

@ Chantal

Sorry i disagree. if Second Life in the beginning had the same level of investors as High Fidelity then Project Sansar would not even been needed.
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Let me say this again that high fidelity has some of the worlds top philanthropists
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Some of the most well known capital is from Mitch Kapor capital group & Bill Gates business capital.
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Sorry facebook does not have the years of talent or vision or all star team backing like Philip..'but most of all they cannot compete or offer a better solution then high fidelity (free open sourced community software)
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People are going to be able to have great realistic virtual sex in the new worlds but what Facebook will find is people draw the line regarding privacy even in a virtual world when it comes to a bedroom.
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I wish people would stop giving that pimple faced pervert so much credit or his company so much power. people claim they want privacy but keep a facebook account? Facebook ruling the virtual worlds is going to happen as likely as bill gates becoming the next cooking icon for betty crooker.
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And just know Project Sansar will be 10x better then anything facebook can create just due to linden lab being experts in the field

[sirhc deSantis]

I read the post by Maxwell Graf as thought it would be interesting - and was not disapointed. However..

These continual references to the 'Second Life Community' rankle me. With my 9th rez day at the end of this year I have yet to stumble over this mythical beast. Been involved in communities (plural) over the years made up of people with shared interests (of many kinds) but never met this all encompassing one.

As the word is mostly used as marketing speak to mean 'people who buy/use our stuff we want to make feel involved in a more or less touchy feely way so they buy/use more stuff and act as an unpaid evangelical force' I may be a trifle jaded.

The only thing users of SL have in common is that they - use SL. Does that make it a 'community'? In the same way as a FaceBook 'community'?

[irihapeti]

@sirhc

what Mr Graf is referring to by community is the building community. People who make stuff (clothes, avatars, houses, etc) and experiences (clubs, inworld games, events, etc) for the consumer market

like he said in his article: whats exciting for the builder community is the huge market that is coming for them, and that as pioneers in this space, with now years of experience (and hard-won/earned expertise) then they (the builders) have a early mover advantage if they can get it together

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i am agree with that thought

not everyone tho who makes stuff/experiences in SL today will prosper in this huge market to come. but quite a few at Mr Graf's level of experience/expertise will, and some/many a bit below will do pretty good out of it as well

maybe even for lots more than now, they will be able to make a fairly ok RL living out of it. Which is ok I think for that to happen for them

[Max Graf]

When I mentioned the community, It was more of an esoteric reference to the combined number of regular users. While it may be not as tightly-knit or warm and fuzzy as I portray it in parts of the article, it certainly has advantages, such as sheer numbers or the depth/length of our relationships with the other members. Granted, those relationships do not encompass the whole, only small parts of it. But there are many many small parts and as a whole it is pretty formidable. It is a true community not so much in each member knowing all the others but in the sense of a greater whole, one which has had a similar set of experiences. Even though each of us has had a different SL than everyone else, there are things we all deal with and have come to understand beyond just which button to press. We have shared a lot of things. It is similar in some ways to being a veteran of the military or the phrase "New Yorker." If you have lived in the city, you understand things about it and city life that Bob from Des Moines will never get. You would understand that you really know next to nobody in the city, yet there are 20 million people there who feel like a community of New Yorkers. Tell them you are from Albany and you will understand the difference directly.

To further clarify the idea behind the article, I have no idea if Project Sansar will become the next big virtual thing. What I do know is that a next big thing is about to happen and the Lab have a really good shot at taking the lead -IF - there are no big mistakes or errors in judgement and -IF- we (SL) show up to give it some legs. HMD's are going to "seed" VR, but most of us will rarely ever wear one until they change quite a bit. The applications are what will make it take root and grow, much the same way that app markets made most of us go get a smart phone. Form follows function for VR, even though the hardware is driving the market right now (because thats where the money is, supposedly).

If not Sansar, then any of a handful of other open virtual platforms could be a market leader and end up being a place where more of us spend part of our time online. I do not think it will be High Fidelity anymore than it could be the current SL, but both of those were/are necessary steps.

Thank you Hamlet, for the post and link and thank everyone who took the time to read it!