last weeks announcement that Rivers Run Red was leaving Second Life coincided with my two year anniversary of leaving Second Life. their loss is a blow to Second Life in prestige, corporate use cases, and revenue. Rivers Run Red spent over $100K per year in tiers (heck, i spent over $35K per year)
this blog post was written for publication last friday but some wonderful OpenSim stories trumped it (the nice primary school use and that big Kitely news). my view is biased, but the loss of a good SL client and this weekend’s successes of OpenSim bespeak the larger picture of virtual world evolution
two years ago last thursday was the official last day of Ener Hax as an estate owner in Second Life (feb 9, 2010 post)
i loved Second Life and it was a great experience overall. i’ll always owe my virtual world start to Second Life and my love for building things. much of that was from Torley and he used to be “the guy” (or girl) that best represented the creative possibilities of Second Life. my “trademark” parasol is straight ripoff of his Mary Poppins outfit with umbrella. Torley made it seem like anything, truly anything, was possible in Second Life (thanks Torley!)
that was then this is now! =) *cue Party Rock Anthem*
will OpenSim ever exceed Second Life in every aspect?
talk about comparing apples and oranges! but it’s a natural question, especially for people who started in Second Life when it was inconceivable that anything like OpenSim could ever exist. somehow Second Life seemed so awesome that many people, me bigtime, never thought there could be anything remotely as fantastic (must have been the Linden Kool-Aid?)
there are many more flavours of OpenSim than Second Life (nice segue eh?). as such, OpenSim deployments have created more “aspects” than possible with SL. some tough things to top might be sheer number of accounts, but then if OpenSim becomes as ubiquitous as personal blogs, that number could be eclipsed
what do you think about OpenSim surpassing SL? is it possible and in what ways?
SL still reigns supreme over sheer amount of content - like this printing press for flip books (yes, that's me with black hair, i miss the humongous choice of clothes, hair, and shoes too!)
Great article. All I know is the for me OpenSim has trumped SL. I don’t have any reason to even log in to SL anymore. Yet I know some people who swear to never leave there. I do feel that money is a big issue and more and more people are starting to understand the cost difference between the two and as content and population grows on OpenSim regions (and with hypergrid growing by leaps and bounds) I think more people will turn to the cheaper and more relaxed society that is OpenSim.
Linda Kellie
13 Feb 12 at 4:01 pm
It will take time but not impossible as SLs prices are way over the top… But it will take time as SL is huge and ppl are heavily emotional attached to the grid. So if LL doesn´t value what they have and take necessary steps to be competitive again, yes sure…if not unity will come and take it all :)
And congrats! xxxx
Mera
13 Feb 12 at 4:02 pm
Yes and no. Linda’s response points out why. “…for me OpenSim has trumped SL.” Each person will have their own preferences, just like with operating systems. Some think Windows is best, some think MacOS is best and still others go with Linux.
And let’s not forget AuroraSim ;-D
Sarge Misfit
13 Feb 12 at 4:13 pm
Mine was cost. I’m with Ener on loving SL for giving me such a good virtual experience starting out and being available to learn on, but eventually the cost did me in. I could’ve been fine with it and continued visiting on a free account and buying things but once I comprehended OpenSim (as best as anyone can comprehend OpenSim anyway) and realized not just the content I would lose but the money I spent to obtain it was wasted, I could not justify buying anything else in SL, spending anymore money. I was under the illusion that this was the only game in town. Once it shattered, I felt ripped off far worse than some whiny uppity content creator having a cow about somebody taking plants or shoes into OS without permission. Who cares? What can they really “do” with it but virtual association?
Since it’s too expensive, and since my money is wasted 100% with zero benefit, I can’t even bring myself to log into SL (other than getting textures and my shape measurements).
I think once the HG and currency options open up with Kitely, it will see huge growth and momentum – since it would be possible to go into OSGs and pick up content there and bring it back. Ultimately, I think OS will put SL on its knees. I think LL has gone off the deep end, lost its focus, and mocks the customers that support it – and most of those sims *are* ghost towns…it was getting that was back in 2008-9 for that matter.
Virtual Clover
13 Feb 12 at 4:25 pm
PS Oooh Ener, look at you, little hottie!
Hah we were all hotties in SL ;-p I miss the boots. Man, I racked up 100 pair of boots…just like in rl!
Virtual Clover
13 Feb 12 at 4:28 pm
wow, NASA sims are leaving =(
http://danielvoyager.wordpress.com/2012/02/13/spaceport-alpha-spaceport-bravo-nasa-colab-sims-closed-down/
well, i had a lot of shoes inSL – irl, not so many (and silly ones like Converses that i wear daily!) =D
that was a cute outfit eh? =)
Ener Hax
13 Feb 12 at 6:11 pm
If you want a quality experience instead of chaos, you can find it in some OpenSim grids already. Most of the people in SecondLife, like in their Real Life feel that their looks and their stuff is reason enough to continue to pay land prices that are not only not competitive, but a complete rip-off. Because of the generosity of people like Linda Kellie, who was one of the true pioneers of Opensim, and you, Ener, who has been supporting the notion that there is are quality options and better place to call home than Second Life I would not only say that Opensim will completely surpass Second Life…in many many ways it already has. Those people that are looking for a quality, friendly, and people based virtual experiences, and companies that are looking for low cost quality alternatives to Second Life can already find what they need in Opensim.
Lazuli Pooraka
13 Feb 12 at 7:21 pm
SL surpasses OS in
1. user base
2. vehicle physics
3. ummmm……
4. oh… vampire crap
5. ….. im struggling
6. …. i give up
OS surpasses SL
1. in everything else
stiofain
13 Feb 12 at 7:50 pm
I must live a sheltered life within SL. “Rivers Run Red” who? The same has been true for several other organizations over the past year – I only heard about them when they left. Well, it is a rather large and diverse world. Spaceport Alpha is a different story. There is still much of interest to see in the area but Alpha was one of the earliest places I visited and it was a shock to find it missing.
I rent a small amount of land in SL in a community I enjoy and find creatively stimulating. For me its well worth it but I couldn’t possibly afford the space for a large project.
So I’m glad Opensim exists and allows people to do more and with more freedom. Its great to see the educational things being done, for example. If I find the time and energy to do a big project I may give Kitely a try.
As to the future…..my guess is that SL will become one choice among many and will eventually be in the position of having to work to keep up.
Kimika Ying
13 Feb 12 at 8:18 pm
Personally, I think there is a lot of life left in the Linden grid yet because, lets face it, there are powerful business interests at work there. Did you notice recently the Lab had a sale weekend in which they dropped the setup fee?
Notice too they have not done it again?
Well, they did manage to increase the size of the grid a little but the Land barons didn’t take kindly to the Lab’s promotion. Not surprising many of the buyers were already renting from the barons and this led to the barons collectively shedding empty sims which counteracted the Lab’s promotion and sent a shot across their bows. Moral: don’t &^*$ with the Barons!
So, anyone hoping LL will drop their tier price soon might wait longer than they thought. Land Barons and Gaming/gambling and even the bigger role play venues don’t want the tier or set up fee to drop because it will let in too many startups and take business away from them.
Linden Labs is as much in the grip of it’s in-world financial elite as it is the resident opinion. The elite probably gets the most notice so this is a reason to believe Second Life will truck on so long as they have the technical edge, the best content creators and the most traffic.
On our side of the great divide the Open Metaverse is struggling with a variety of software developments (some of it still very much Alpha), multiple grids (a lot of them hidden), confusing mixed economies and still lacking the vast content base that SL has. It also has to reach a critical mass in population before there is likely to be any serious influx from SL.
I have been involved with the Open Metaverse since early in 2008. I came over during the Open Spaces fiasco and originally commented like mad on the Linden forums in protest at the scam. It was then I found out about Opensim and, at the time, kept posting links to it as an alternative to SL. Basically, I wanted to worry Linden Labs and do my bit to get them to change their mind on the pricing. Well, LL banned me from posting after a while then I got a visit and a warning (good ole LL secret police!).
Yeah, well. I had too much invested to buck them and shut up. But I did get to know the early OSgrid. I have been in both worlds ever since. Oh, and I started my blog to do my bit to promote a free Metaverse.
So, on the bases of that experience I have to say it’s been a long lonely road and only now is there a little light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe two more years and we will see that critical mass then it will happen but there is still a lot of work to do and no one should jump into the open Metaverse hoping for quick riches.
But as a place to explore your creativity and meet some really wonderful people. Can’t beat it!
Gaga *mass hugs*
Gaga
13 Feb 12 at 10:23 pm
The present of SL is a soft decadence. In fact, is laudable his long survival since 2007, when SL was affected by the global crisis, destroying the “housing bubble” based in virtual lands.
In the other hand, look that today SL is a dinosaur between other new technologies and LL has displaced the cultural and bussines spaces using the politic that they think is better for his interests: is a private house with his own rules, our opinion not matter. I’m not worried.
Kind regards.
Montnegre
14 Feb 12 at 5:08 am
oh snap! “vampire crap” =)
i needs to start posting about how awesome it is to run around with fangs (yes, i had two pair inSL) =D
Ener Hax
14 Feb 12 at 7:24 am
OSG is in many aspects much better than SL. Period!
Those aspects are mostly financial and technological.
Who the feck cares about that sort of stuff???
Does OSG have any RP communities, vehicle user communities, a decent economy, a market filled with lots of products, huge navigable oceans, huge explorable continents, shopping malls, wintersport, postapocalyptic and steampunk areas?
Does OSG have any actively performing communities at all? Any streetlife, dance clubs, a live music scene?
Those are the reasons why I’m in a virtual world.
I’m, like most SL residents, not one to sit at home and tinker with my self-built stuff, all alone and goal orientated.
I want to entertain and be entertained, I want to be a social creature, a social content provider. I want to use a fancy network of groups and tools to announce my activities, to publish results, to discuss, to go into verbal fights. I want to engage into sports, relationships and other activities.
I want to have choice!
Own 100 high class race yachts, 200 fancy spaceships, 300 super airships, 400 ballgowns, 500 hairstyles, 600 pairs of heels, 700 boots, 800 jeans, 900 sneakers, 1000 bikinis, 1100 motorcycles, 1200 houses, 1300 friends!
Gimme gimme gimme!!!
Oh … I can’t have that in OSG? Really? Yes, I understand …
Kthxbai
Orca Flotta
14 Feb 12 at 9:06 am
“not one to sit at home and tinker with my self-built stuff, all alone and goal orientated.”
lol, that’s me! =)
agreed that SL has tons of stuff and tons of communities, like vampires =D
vehicle physics is my largest issue as well (even as an OCD grid hermit who is re-texturing every single thing i have made in the last two years!)
and crowds? for events? maybe for a few but not as the norm. i know inSL i could have an event with just a days notice and always max out the sim – SL remains king in those respects
thanks Orca for presenting that core SL customer profile, you did so very well =)
Ener Hax
14 Feb 12 at 11:00 am
@Orca
Well, actually, you can have all that in OSG if you do some of the work too and don’t just shout “Gimme, gimme, gimme”
In over 10,000 regions there are quite a lot of mega regions just for sailing (no border crossings and vehicle physics!). Try Becca Bay, Tea Forest or Gaf to name but a few. Check out Hiro’s boats to be had free at Littlefield. If you want Sci-fi then seek out Lani Global’s Dune world (she organizes role play you know). OSG has a fair share of clubs plenty of free content too if you look around you will find good quality clothes, shoes, skins, hair,,, you name it. (I could list loads). And so much more! Explore and ye shall find. Visit Lbsa Plaza and meet people any time and get help if needed. Not just that but OSG is the HUB of the Hypergrid with many smaller grids connecting to it if you care to check them out. Plenty of stargates to just walk through at Linda Kellie’s Airy Bay region (Linda, BTW, also offers a vast range of high quality free content too).
As for friends I would rather have a smaller number that actually call me up and speak to me than 1300 who don’t. Sheesh, that’s Facebook mentality!. I don’t need a friend list for the sake of it, heh.
A lot of us are working hard to make OSG a great virtual experience so please be kind to us.
Just saying
Gaga
14 Feb 12 at 11:13 am
The land barons and the RP groups that are the backbone of SL’s land economy are also its biggest weakness.
Those guys have the user relationships. And a lot of the must-have content.
Say I’m an RP group. I’ve got a whole bunch of members. Role playing scripts. Costumes and props and builds — that, collectively, we created and somewhere have rights to. (Or can re-create, since we built it in the first place.) We’re paying a HUGE amount to SL in tier. We can take our players, take our stuff, move to OpenSim, expand dramatically in land area, and not miss a beat.
Now say I’m a land baron. I’ve got a whole bunch of land renters, and I get a certain profit from their land. I can’t raise rents because the environment is very competitive. I can’t lower rates because of SL’s land prices. But I’ve got a bunch of content — buildings, landscaping — and, if I run a mall as well, relationships with merchants or club owners or whoever. I can take my relationships — with renters, merchants, club owners — and offer them a deal on a private grid where they get to have more land, at a lower price (plus I can have a bigger profit).
Right now, there isn’t a lot of stuff in OpenSim for newcomers to see and experience. But as the hypergrid expands — and we get better content controls (such as filtering, allowing only full-perm stuff to travel out of commercial grids) — that will become less and less of an issue.
I think at that point, the land barons will start jumping ship and taking all their ppplz with them — and it will start a cascade, as folks start selling off land, forcing prices to drop further, lowering profits of the other land barons, forcing them to take a look at OpenSim as well.
The question is, can SL come up with a competitive, low-priced, residential or on-demand sim product before that happens?
They can do it anytime — they’ve already tested HG teleports to OpenSim, they can set up private OpenSim grids connected to SL mainland just for this purpose.
But if they roll out these sims too soon, they will piss off their biggest customers, the land barons, by devaluating land prices. And if they roll it out too late, those land barons will have left, anyway.
It’s the classic “Innovators Dilemma” from the 90s. The lessons learned then: Destroy your business model before someone else does it for you.
I don’t know if Linden Lab has the courage to do that. Or if they’ll let the existing business model run its course, while they explore other projects.
Maria Korolov
14 Feb 12 at 11:50 am
@ Ener: yes, was thinking about you while I wrote it :)
@ Gaga: I know some of the regions you talked about. Some are owned by friends from SL sailing. But here is the thing: those are all developers, people who have fun building and developing stuff, people who actually know how to build and script. They don’t actually sail, they don’t organize cruises and races, they don’t manage yacht clubs. They just tinker. From time to time some of the other is posting some reports and pics from OSG into our forums, and quite frankly it all looks like shit. The boats are pure experimental testing vehicles with the distinctive smell of labcoats. No chance any greater number of people would ever buy them or have them established as a race class.
All the numbers I posted, well, I just made them up, and I posted as the general SL residemt, not the real me. Of course I don’t have several hundreds of ballgowns or spaceships, I’m not a RPer neither a huge shopper. Just saying in OSG I couldn’t if I would.
And “HUB of the Hypergrid”, what does that mean? My avie jumping from grid to grid? Sorry my avie is far too busy to care about other grids and stuff like that. Eventhough I have quite a lot of “friends” this has mostly to do with my active role in the community, not real friendship. BTW, I don’t have an account on facetwitter or any of those social stuff thingies neither.
Orca Flotta
14 Feb 12 at 12:01 pm
Eish, forgot to mention something:
I have an active account on OSG since early 2008. So I’m in fact one of you ;) But I never go there, and in my post I not only tried to communicate why but also tried to figure it out for myself. So, Gaga, you were witness of my thought process and my post was in no way to be meant as offensive or not nice. In fact I’m very sympathetic towards OSG … tho in this moment it just doesn’t give me what I want and need.
What I need most, apart from my few true friends and the sailing community is the greater community of SLers altogether. In SL I’m more interested in the structure of societies, of utopian/dystopian models, in the way we communicate, struggle, behave, misbehave, solve disputes … all that broohaha. I watch the inhabitants of SL as a whole, I imagine them a fast-forward model of how societies (d)evolve in a very short timespan. It fascinates me to see how they, as an entity, become dumber and more reactionary and aggressive every day. And then I see some outstanding individuals shining in between the stupid masses. Pretty cool.
I still am hardly able to stack up two plywood cubes. Or make them do fancy things. But isn’t it fantastic how our virtual worlds also offer those LEGO for adults for people who want it? So, in fact, and yes, you are right, I’m a consumer with a Gimme mindset. And that’s good since for a functioning economy you need more than just producers, you need consumers as well. I’m not ashamed to buy stuff from people who see it as their side of the bargain to create prim content.
Orca Flotta
14 Feb 12 at 12:26 pm
well put Maria, i was a land baron and it sucked! well, the last 6 months sucked – it was fun before that
but . . . OpenSim is a different beast to an extent and a different user group (to an extent too)
i dunno that OSG should ever be a direct alternative to SL (that’s my way of saying that i have evolved to be a higher avatar than i was inSL!) o_O
Ener Hax
14 Feb 12 at 2:28 pm
Hi Orca
This reply is a little late as I get busy elsewhere too. I probably misjudged you and over reacted but “Gimme, gimme, gimme” kind of dose that to me *laughs it off* it reminds me of gimme a man after midnight *haha*
Anyway. I understand where you are coming from and I agree SL is the place for you but let me say this much, OSrid is so much like SL in it’s early days apart from the fact more works and it is more advanced than SL although perhaps not yet in physics. I agree a lot of people use it to build for the sake of building probably or just a place to learn. Certainly, many content makers use OS and OSgrid to make stuff they sell in SL so it can be looked at as a huge workshop too. But since you mention Utopia I have to say I have found many who rather see OSG as a Utopian world or perhaps a kind of techno communism. There is a strong sharing attitude and it is at the heart of the OSG community which is greater than you might think if clubbing is not all you want. But then you already said you know many of the people I mentioned. You could help bring the community together because there are more people flitting in and out than you might think. There were 45 individuals at Lbsa Plaza just the other day and there is always quite a lot there day and night.
As for sailing I agree, OS has the means because mega regions make vast uninterrupted sailing possible and racing and regattas would be fantastic. Indeed I aim to organize a regatta one day soon to encourage people to show off their sailing vessels. Even airships because Steampunk is close to my heart too. I do actually build ships and use them and engage in role play both historical and Sci-fi when I am not busy making stuff.
As for the hypergrid think of it like Second Life where in SL there are a huge number of regions to tp to often from organized HUB sims like Gor HUB, Well, I look upon OSGrid as a HUB in itself since it attracts so many hypergrid travelers both in and out to the far flung mini grids and standalone sims. Much of it is hidden but there is plenty of unseen activity if you care to explore and get to know it and the people involved. They really are a wonderful bunch and I can get as much enjoyment and social activity from the open Metaverse as I ever got in Second Life. And it cost a lot less. But hell, if you put in time and effort even as a none builder the rewards of community involvement are huge. If you don’t want to know OSgrid or the open Metaverse then that’s fine but there is a lot more to it than what you said suggests. And you know what? It’s seriously growing!
*smiles* Gaga
Gaga
15 Feb 12 at 12:13 pm
Check out the latest news at HyperGrid Business. OpenSim regions now outnumber SL’s privately owned regions
http://www.hypergridbusiness.com/2012/02/opensim-exceeds-second-life-private-regions/
Sarge Misfit
15 Feb 12 at 7:41 pm
thanks Sarge, i’m getting on it now! w00t! =)
Ener Hax
15 Feb 12 at 9:01 pm