Sansar Getting Experience Points & Quests -- Smart Break from Linden Lab's Past "Second Life Is Not a Game" Mistake

Good news in the latest update to Sansar coming soon:

The Nexus: Dive deep into Sansar lore. We've developed a Sansar backstory that serves as a framework for initial quests and our multifaceted virtual world. This story will be unveiled over time through a series of quests beginning with Agent Primus in the Nexus...

XP System: We’ll be introducing an experience points system that will track your progress throughout Sansar. To start, you can earn XP from completing quests first offered in the Nexus, up to a level cap of 8. In the future we’ll be adding in other ways to earn XP, including opening up the system for creators to offer it as a reward for their own quests.

Smart additions to Linden Lab's new social VR world, which is starting to see some traction, at least during special live music events from artists on the Monstercat label. Adding an XP system should do much to encourage returning users and more deeply engaged users.

From a corporate perspective, this also represents a major reversal for Linden Lab:

Since roughly 2005-2006, the company's marketing department and executive leadership positioned itself as not making games (even though virtual worlds are themselves a game genre) and pushed the messaging "Second Life is not a game!" so much that many veteran users still accept the statement to be true. (And not market positioning that's become harder and harder to justify). Since then, the company has resisted adding game systems to Second Life  -- or rather, re-adding them, as they existed at launch -- and it's a key reason why Second Life has failed to grow its userbase. But with Sansar still not anywhere near to getting viral growth, it's past time to junk that marketing strategy.

Speaking of which, we should also expect to see a similar approach coming to Second Life soon: As CEO Ebbe Altberg told me last March, Linden Lab has plans to introduce game-like mechanics, such as a quest system, to SL.

Comments

[Zoey Mara]

there is already quests systems in SL that LL has added over the last couple of years but i guess we can just forget those even exist , they have story lines and objects and give nice "pets" as awards and have you travel around Sl , rather you chose to do them or not is completely up to you.

There is also community made quests , storylines and combat huds that give XP and level ranks and make you stronger with in their game system as you level up.

[Pulsar]

Yeah, if it is the typical LL mini-game, I won't expect too much. Their "Tyrah and the Curse of the Magical Glytches" (sic) had a moderate success but it didn't last for long. Once you played it for a while and got the pets, there wasn't so much interest to continue. Games like these become old relatively soon, unless:
- you introduce something new every time to keep the interest high.
- and/or creative elements that are fun do to within the game, so replayability increases.
- and/or a social one (e.g. even those MMO games with a tedious "grinding" gameplay that would be just boring if they were single-player games, are still played over and over anyway because competition, common guild goals etc.).

Sansar has a quest system since at least march now, but it didn't help much so far: the concurrency remained negligible, except during (not quest-related) events that attract a small amount of extra visitors, so it peaks up to over 100 people; but the small interest vanishes again outside those events.
Now it depends on how the new update will be presented and received and how seriously they will move the focus on the gaming side in subsequent updates. If it is well done, and they go mostly-game, they could distinguish Sansar from the many alternatives that are around now. Else they risk to remain both a virtual world that only few users join and then a boring MMOG too.

[Joey1058]

One of the things I've noticed over the years online in general, is that any 3D/VR franchise has some kind of game or gaming structure within it. I say franchise because, collectively, we have bought into that title. We have invested our time and money to make optimize it for our benefit. In Second life's case, there is a plethora of games brought in by creators. Even as far back as the early VRML worlds, there were games being played within them as social participation.

What separates a social experience like SL from an MMO like Fortnite is the way the franchise is structured. Do you want to game, with social interaction? Or do you want to socialize by playing a game? I used to debate this constantly with people. Even as far back as a few months ago. And I've been on both sides of the debate. In this particular debate, I would postulate that Sansar is more a game with social interaction. SL is a community with casual gaming brought in by the users.

[Jk]

Except that Sansar is lacking in so many ways vs SL ya it looks better without the extra work put in, but the lack of wider customization, ant kind of scripting to do much of anything and a slew of other things including too big a focus on vr makes it a no go for most people that actually go into virtual world experiences that aren't already better served by vrchat or similar

[Candy]

As far as I’m concerned this reporter needs to go move there and leave second life alone

[J. Carl Henderson (Carl Metropolitan)]

I tried Sansar. I can get around in SL on my five year old computer in rooms full of meshed out fashionistas, but Sansar grinds my system to a halt. If there was anything there to see, it might be different, but between the lag, ugly avatars, clunky unintuitive interface, and the insistence that I just need a pair of VR glasses... count me out.

I used to joke that Sansar was going to be Blue Mars 2.0. But that's not fair to Blue Mars. Blue Mars at least worked.

[justanavattar]

I just checked and Sansar is STILL Windows only? Hard pass.