Malcolm Gladwell wrote a very interesting book called The Tipping Point. in his book he uses the example of Hush Puppy shoes. these shoes almost went by the wayside with the company considering ending their production
but . . . just the right combination of events (the tipping point) suddenly made them the “hip” shoe in Manhattan. today Hush Puppy is alive and well
it appears that this is coming close for alternatives to Second Life
Linden Lab seems to be doing its very best to drive off its best residents. the ones that poured their time and talent into making Second Life what it is have left in waves over the last year. one wave was with the openspace price increase, another was after the purchase of XStreetSOL, another with the Adult policy, another with the XStreetSOL freebie policy, another with the last TOS changes, and now a significant exodus with the firing of so many wonderful and talented Lindens. in reaction to the firings i downgraded my membership to basic and closed two alt accounts (one i never used but was a gift from someone). subQuark closed two of his alts, including his first who profited from the corporate dollars from three and a half years ago. even though i have not logged into second life for two full months, the firings were enough to make me cash out my $2400 L, downgrade, and cancel alts
as Linden continues to crap on its residents (i have no doubt they will continue to do incredulous things) more people will seriously consider the alternatives. as some people leave and many others just look over the walled sl garden, more grids are coming online. some, like Inworldz have an in-world currency and are enjoying serious growth (1,000 new members in the last month)
others, like myself, who feel that Linden Lab has abandoned the free spirit and creative vibe that Philip imparted, are looking for the most open and free options out there
OpenSim is the winner for that
self-hosted would mean the most freedom but also the least accessible by others, especially in any number (ie, having a few people dial into your box will work but that’s about all you could have). universities, cities, corporations, and governmental agencies have the server space to host their own robust worlds that could handle larger visitor and user needs
frankly, for what subQuark is doing, we could do it on his own box and have people like me, Dream Walker, and the rest of the iliveisl team simply dial into and work on it for no cost at all. once we were finished with the builds and he with his field trip manuals, we could then go into a commercially hosted OpenSim grid so that students, teachers, and parents could access them. but it was important to me (and a lesser extent to subbie) to support a viable option like Reaction Grid. Reaction Grid has the most open TOS and makes it incredibly easy to completely back up your entire sim with one single mouse click. i don’t want any one licensing me the right to my own creations, just like WordPress is the software we use on our own server, they are simply the platform with all the content we create remaining 100% ours
Reaction Grid and SimHost are two excellent providers that can host your sims and even place you on the large OSGrid. they also allow you to be hypergridded, which we are, so that anyone from the OSGrid can come to your sim, even if your sim(s) is a fully private grid onto itself and not attached to any other grid
to learn more about the growth happening in OpenSim-based grids, read Maria’s June summary of OpenSim growth where she details out the 1,377 sims added in the last month (double the 650 sims in Second Life for the same time period)
see why i have a parasol =)
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Kavon Zenovka, Ener Hax. Ener Hax said: w00t! new post: is the tipping point for virtual worlds here http://blog.iliveisl.com/is-the-tipping-point-for-virtual-worlds-here/ [...]
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19 Jun 10 at 1:59 am
The tipping point is here for LL and SL. I think it is also here for the 3D web. We are at the crossroads. The question is what direction will be taken. Unfortunately, I feel that direction will be less creative and more profit oriented. It will also be less virtual/technical and more social in nature.
SL used to have a healthy creative and developer community. It was a natural environment for that. Creatives flocked to it. The problem is… Most patrons are not creatives. Even back in the day, most patrons of SL used it as a 3D chat room. They log… They hang… They chat… That is how they used and enjoyed SL and still do.
The corporate world that came into SL saw the potential for their own industries. They used SL as their learning ground and now they are off creating their own private campuses and grids. And… They should. They control that environment and what goes on within it. I always thought it was goofy the stink some corporate and educational entities made over the adult nature of SL. Hello… Get your own region(s). Control it. Get off the mainland.
Now LL is coming full circle. They started SL as a place for individuals to come, create, socialize, and play. They gave that up in favor of corporate and educational entities. Now, they are trying to return to individuals. They really have no choice. The cat is out of the bag with alternatives like OpenSim for the corporate and educational worlds.
What does that leave us with though? Two different tracks for virtual and 3D environments? Will they stay separate? Will they once again merge? Will the web truly move from 2D to 3D? I have no clue. What I do know is this… As a business and profit model, simpler is always better.
Technically and ease of use wise, LL and SL were doomed to fail as a long term business. Honestly, until the technology gets there, the alternatives to SL for individuals, like OpenSim, face the same fate. As proof, all one has to do is look at the growth and success of 3D chat based environments like IMVU.
Alec Inglis
19 Jun 10 at 10:40 am
Hey Ener… All that writing and I didn’t say thanks for a wonder and informative post. Yet again, another great read and resource for anyone looking to move out of SL and away from LL. Thanks a bunch!!
Alec Inglis
19 Jun 10 at 10:44 am
good call pointing out the crossroads. it could stay a niche market and just be a small part of the web or, with some serious obstacle busting advances, become mainstream
unity 3D looks good for business/conference use and supplements but i personally think it will stay more corporate (would work well for like Amazon.com)
but OpenSim/Second Life i the realm for the individual user imo. far easier to build in these
time will tell and i would think it is still a few years away. facebook logins would help, but it simply means a broader reach and no change in what sl/os are at the moment
iliveisl
19 Jun 10 at 8:55 pm
[...] proches de l’esprit originel de Philippe Rosedale, Opensim semble être un choix comme le dit ce billet. Il reste néanmoins un problème pour beaucoup de SLifers: comment récupérer tous les actifs [...]
A propos de second life, et des mondes virtuels | La rupture Internet
20 Jun 10 at 10:43 am
[...] willingness from resident to step back from SL. For those close to the original spirit of Rosedale, opensim seems a good candidate. However, remains a big problem: what about all assets inworld? Everybody has in mind the closure [...]
About Second life, and virtual worlds… « Chez Serge
20 Jun 10 at 12:25 pm
[...] month or so back i mentioned the book The Tipping Point. it’s a great book and the phrase is now part of everyday [...]
virtual world tipping point at i live in science land
31 Aug 10 at 9:13 pm
[...] on the decline of Second Life over the last year or two. i had mentioned in a post last june (is the tipping point for virtual worlds here) similar concerns and it’s easy to critique other things and try to predict things, but only [...]
has the Second Life sky fallen at i live in science land
26 Apr 11 at 5:11 pm