Massive discussion over last week's post about Linden Lab promoting Catwa, culminating in this rant by Soda Sullivan.
First, shame on you Wagner for simply dismissing in your lead paragraph the fact that Linden Lab though it was okay to put its finger on the scales of the market and promote a single creator of mesh heads over all the others.
The irony that they chose one of the baddest actors in polygon resource designs is ironic. It is basically a nice kick in the teeth for any content creator trying to make a less resource heavy product and get into the market.
For the record, I didn't "dismiss" that fact, but instead wrote "that's a very worthwhile debate for another time". And by all means, I'm totally happy if "another time" is now!
Soda goes on to dismiss SLers who resist comparing Second Life to AAA games, which have better graphics and much better optimized mesh content -- and spares her chief ire for Linden Lab CEO Ebbe Altberg:
Second, it absolutely makes perfect sense to compare SL to the technical aspects of AAA games. Not gameplay of course, but simple basic design and functionality. The fact that the two are often built on different game engines is chosen distinction, but irrelevant for this discussion. The technology used in game development are the "rules of the road" that have been laid down by witch any virtual platform has to adhere. Both have to use the exact same rendering parameters put down by the GPU in your computer.
Third, Ebbe Linden's comment that "Users are going to do what users are going to do." shows the kind of bizarre lack of interest in their product that allows them to think promoting one of the most resource heavy creators on the market on their official page is okay.
No Ebbe... when you lay down simple rules of the road, users are NOT "going to do what users are going to do" When you build a highway you set a speed limit and most people will drive within that limit. When they don't, you give them a penalty and they will eventually fall in line. That keeps everyone happy and playing by the same rules and THAT is what LL should be, needs to be, focusing on.
Yes, Ebbe did say "users are going to do what users are going to do" when I brought up the bad optimization problem. (Around 17:50 of this video.) But in fairness to Ebbe, when he says that, he might actually mean users are going to openly revolt if the company tried to impose optimization on their favorite SL brands. You can see that in comments from the many angry readers who actually seem to want their content to remain poorly optimized.
I have argued this for ages regarding LL. Forget the issue of what is better optimized for Second Life. My view is that no Linden should ever promote one brand over another. Imagine if a world leader made a choice of a particular brand and gave it special considerations? Just because he/she has connections or was better liked by that leader? An example, there is an event that has/had been subsidized and promoted by LL for a few years. They provided free mirror sims for them. For a number of years they were given a unique financial advantage that people had to compete against. This offers perks that are not an example of free trade. More like an example of how to build Russian style Oligarchies.
Posted by: Oobs | Monday, August 26, 2019 at 04:14 PM
LL has been driving on this road for a long time and, of course, this is where it ends up.
SL feels less diverse than Cylons these days. LL is promoting the Six and completely ignoring the Sharons and D'Annas. It's so unfair.
Posted by: Clara Seller | Monday, August 26, 2019 at 10:25 PM
Well said, Soda!
Posted by: Pulsar | Tuesday, August 27, 2019 at 03:46 AM
Stop your crying and just leave second life if you don’t like it.there are other worlds out there you can go to.its not like you Don’t have a choice.
Posted by: Candy68 | Tuesday, August 27, 2019 at 04:46 AM
President Trump rides around in a Cadillac, talks about what a great car it is; and yet you don't see people running out to buy Cadillacs. Subaru certainly never cries foul. I saw it more as Linden Lab recognising the success of Catwa, than actually promoting them. Why is it that nobody gets all ruffled when Patch Linden wears recognisable designs? Perhaps because Lindens are encountered about as often as is the Blessed Virgin Mary. We always need remember that a lot of users haven't a single goddamned clue who Catwa is or does - or Ebbe Altberg, either, for that matter.
Posted by: David Cartier | Tuesday, August 27, 2019 at 06:02 AM
@Candy68
We don't have a choice. SL is SL, it's completely unique.
@David
We don't get ruffled because A) no one ever sees them and B) no one dares to tell them in their face in SL... or do you walk up to a Linden and tell him his stuff is shit? I would. Not exactly like that but i'd tell him why its shit, if it is shit but then again i don't fear the Lindens, they are humans just like anyone else and if you talk to them they will either ignore you (because they are busy) or they will talk with you just like any other person.
Posted by: NiranV | Tuesday, August 27, 2019 at 07:08 AM
Now that BOM (Bakes on Mesh) is being released, things should improve.
https://community.secondlife.com/blogs/entry/2613-the-bakes-on-mesh-viewer-is-live/
We have to wait for 3rd party viewers to catch up and makers to release compatible updates.
However, a BOM version of a mesh body, without the "onion layers", would have much fewer triangles already.
Also, instead of downloading multiple separated textures per part (for each onion layer), you will download a single "baked" one per part, like the legacy avatar. It is as simple as to wear the old layers and it's more user-friendly than appliers HUDs. A con would be for example women shirts (in reality they don't follow your breast like a body paint) or if you want to add materials to stockings, but Altamura already showed a solution, by offering a separated stockings optional to wear.
Heads are especially terrible as they tend to have many layers: skin, hair-base, brows, eye shadows, lipstick, blush, tattoo and more.
Large adoption will likely take a while, but BOM heads, bodies etc should really improve the situation quite a bit.
Posted by: Pulsar | Tuesday, August 27, 2019 at 07:17 AM
"Stop your crying and just leave second life if you don’t like it.there are other worlds out there you can go to.its not like you Don’t have a choice"
An there we have it, the LL currant ethic and strategy in a nutshell.
I guess everyone who starts working for the company starts all bright eyed and bushy tailed and gradually over time they realize that this let it be attitude is the chosen way.
I don't think it is even done with any bad thought at all, or even any awareness of doing it.
It is most likely true that everyone there loves old SL and does what it takes to keep it ticking over.
I mean they obviously need SL to support Sansar for a start.
It is just an unthinking, lazy, laid back strategy that has always appeared to work for them. It works because there are people in SL who are doing their work for them in keeping the place alive. And I would definitely include the mesh body and head makers amongst, if not foremost in this category. It's a sort of, don't rock the boat attitude, or we may have to do a lot more work than we really want to on what we see as the old fading project. Just think about updates and improvements to the basics in SL or even little treats. They are so few and far between that they almost do not exist. And us SL'ers, just except this almost none existent improving of the platform, as if those poor old hard working LL people are doing their best. Look at any other major company that runs a game or a virtual world and you see them killing themselves to improve their platform and get new people. Does it feel that way with LL? I cannot recall ever hearing someone from LL saying how worrying it is that people are leaving. They just assume the place will run till it dies, and that's good enough. "If you don't like it leave" That is just how it feels. Trouble is, right now there is alternative. I wish for all the world that Sine Space was SL, because the people there strike me as really knowing how to run a virtual world. But it just is not the same. If you think that there is anything like SL out there then you most likely have no idea at all what makes SL what it is, and why it is not already dead. But it is dying, that you can feel.
Posted by: JohnC | Tuesday, August 27, 2019 at 08:31 AM
Hammy oh Hammy,these bait articles should be offered with something other then cheese or peanut butter, It's tasting somewhat suspicious while nibbling here, maybe it's a trap! =)
will hamlet strike down my comment again?
2020- Year of the Coup D'Etat™
Di*ided we Stand™
United we F*ll™
Posted by: United we Fall | Tuesday, August 27, 2019 at 09:05 AM
The cylons comment above speaks to me—A vast majority of female avatars are the same on SL. It's an army of cylons with Maitreya bodies and Catwa heads and all the lag that comes with them.
Unfortunately, people flock to them because they have all the clothing, and thus clothing makers flock because they have all the market.
The only solution is for creators to take steps to not cater exclusively to those brands and to actually adopt other models, critique them, etc.
If you could get better bodies and heads for less with better clothing choices, what would you choose for your new avatar?
Posted by: Dude | Tuesday, August 27, 2019 at 05:20 PM
I just wanted to state for the record that I am sure Ebbe Linden is a very nice, intelligent and virile person who has full use of all his faculties.
Posted by: Soda Sullivan | Wednesday, August 28, 2019 at 11:13 PM
Hammy oh Hammy, Just say what you think when asked. That is the name of the game. And don't pretend to be so f..c..g clever :))))))
Posted by: JohnC | Friday, August 30, 2019 at 03:03 AM