Sven Analyzes "the Threshold"

Swedish virtual worlds blogger Sven Idyll over at Svens(k) Idyll has been thinking over Philip Rosedale´s statement to the New York Times recently and come up with this interesting analysis (rough translation by me) in his post "It becomes impossible only when you know it is"

"Philip Rosedale made a statement recently about the threshold of Second Life being high, and to some extent it is true, but one thing is absolutely critical, the willingness to learn and explore. I have in the past month seen how quickly primary school pupils will take on such a thing as building in virtual worlds like Second Life and Open Sim. They do not think it is particularly difficult - if they have the interest they learn extremely fast. Learning how it works is not the hardest part for them but to learn to utilize the many options that are available is difficult. Children do not see so many obstacles, but they try - and often several times. Sometimes, the impossible happens.

Children have not acquired the limitations that we have as adults. We as adults mean something else with "impossible" than children do. Impossible for us older people is a pretty solid stop but for the young, it is a condition that exists until someone finds a way. A few adults manage to keep this desire to conquer the impossible and I would have liked to be one of those but I have put up too many stop signs and signs for both "one way traffic" and "forbidden passage" in my mind.

If you could make a wish for new feature or something else new in Second Life would it be something that has a counterpart in real world, or you could come up with something completely new - something that can only exist in the virtual world? Some children just spurt out such ideas. We are well accustomed to some of those things, being able to teleport, fly and change our avatar anyway we wish - or so we think.

We have a whole new world waiting for us where everything is possible, but we just copy things from real world into virtual reality. When will things start coming in the virtual worlds that we can copy over to the real world? Lack of imagination is in short supply in the virtual worlds!

We want to come to the virtual world because it is different but when we get there we immediately start converting it to a copy of the world we want to disconnect from.

In how many areas of your life are you free from rules and patterns and have a belief that there are no limitations? If you have that, can you describe that which has no borders and that cannot be captured by rules or exhibit patterns?

Second Life needs pure imagination to grow but to let go of the rational thoughts completely and let your imagination reign free is probably the hardest things to do."

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I must say I agree with Sven, if a total gaming idiot like myself - and a few other fools I know all to well - could learn to enjoy SecondLife and develop our skills inworld by ourselves and with the eager help of our friends I do not really see where the huge threshold problem is. There is nothing "impossible" with SecondLife!

Sven is also correct in my mind when he calls for even more imagination in virtual worlds.

Challenges should not be easy, but they must be fun and interesting and allow us to develop in our own pace. Only then will the curiosity and childlike creativity be awakened that makes life so fun sometimes.

Model: Millimina Salamander

I am still waiting in vain for my fashion statement "The Jesters Hat - only for the boldest among fashionistas" to be copied into first life.

Hell no, I won´t go!

There has been a lot of talk about alternative virtual worlds lately, alternatives to "Second Life" of course.

The three alternatives I have seen discussed most frequently are "OpenSim", "InWorldz" and "Blue Mars".

The comparisons made by the believers in the alternatives invariably emphasise the shortcomings of Second Life. OK I have tried all three so called "alternatives", OpenSim a while ago and the other two just recently.

Admittedly I have only tried the alternatives for a short period of time and also with a huge degree of initial scepticism, but all I can say is that at the present stage of development they are no real alternative for me.

The points often raised by the believers in the alternatives are less lag, lower prices for land and everything else and more prims. They also speak about "the great pioneering spirit".

Less lag?
In my own experience - and I am no physicist or computer wizard - lag is often associated with the amount of avatars that occupy the same sim or perhaps the "world as a whole". No wonder then that the alternative worlds may have less lag, they only have a fraction of the inhabitants of Second Life. When I was in OpenSims there were 32 in that world, in InWorldz there were 68 and in Blue Mars there were also less than 100 (but I cannot remember the exact number).

The amount of users in those other worlds are extremely low. Being there feels very lonely, boring and absolutely useless. And even with this said, it took more than 45 minutes for my avatar to rez in Inworldz the first time I visited.

I hated Blue Mars because they let me be born with a childish face and I did not like the rest of the graphics either. (Yes I have seen that my friend Eddi Haskell has succeeded in creating a beautiful avatar for himself in Blue Mars, but all I can say it seems to have taken him a very long time, and I am not half as artistic as he is.)

Lower prices?
This is simply a question of supply and demand. The supply is infinite, the demand is extremely low. Do any of you really believe that the prices will stay low if and when more people come to the worlds you are promoting?

More prims?
I have all the bloody prims I need and a shitload of prims to spare. If i had even more prims I would not use them anyway. Who wants or likes clutter (with the possible exception of hoarders).

Pioneering spirit?
Pffffft thats just another way of saying "We don´t have anything ready made for you here, build it yourself or do without!" (I remember walking around in OpenSim with black socks and two black box shapes on my feet because there were no shoes provided in the inventory I was born with and nowhere to get any.) And to be perfectly honest, I am not a pioneer at all, send me to a shop anytime!

My top five reasons for staying in Second Life - at least until further notice - are:
1. My Ars and our Southern Charm sim.
This is where Ars was and Southern Charm still is. Until they tell me I can move Southern Charm to another grid I am staying put til Linden Lab pulls the plug.

2. My family and close friends in Second Life.
Love you guys and don´t want a virtual world without you!

3. Cultural developement.
The fantastic musicians and poets, the amazing artists, the awesome landscapers, the terrific builders, creators and developers. My world would be less without them.

4. Economic developement.
You can get almost anything you want in Second Life, and if you cannot get it you can order it from one of the creative developers.

5. I believe in Philip Linden and his creative staff.
The original dreamer is back at the helm, and soon with a better look...
Overall my Second Life experience has vastly improved during my three and a half years here, and it keeps improving.

Admittedly there are still problems to be handled, but I believe the issues will be taken care of. New problems will arise in time of course, and they will be taken care of also. I want to be here and see and take part in the evolvement of my Second Life so...

Hell no, I won´t go!

P.S. Yeah, I decided to remove the "update".