Tiyuk's Second Life Adventures

…. so please don’t interpret this post, as a flame.

As luck would have it, Katt Linden received my topic for the 1st Annual SL Bloggers Mix’n Match which wrapped up with the vast majority of the postings coming through in the November 11 - 13 timeframe. This post is an amalgam of “Hello, Katt? Are you alive"; “My thoughts on the mix’n match"; and “Well, if you won’t talk about my topic, I will!” – all thrust into one, long, indigestible post. Enjoy, or not; same to me.

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[This is a guest blog post as the result of the Blogger's Mix and Match challenge. It is written by Peter Stindberg of Second Stindberg - the topic got suggested by Young Geffrion of Tempietto.]

"All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players;"
(As You Like It Act 2, scene 7)

At first glance, Second Life seems like any thespians dream: a world, completely shapeable and sculptable, props and actors defying gravity, sets only limited by the stage architects imagination. If you can think of it, you can recreate it within Second Life. Fire breathing dragons for Siegfried, Prospero's wind ghost, the balcony where Juliet waits for her Romeo. The dull plain where Estragon and Vladimir wait for Godot. The claustrophobic town of Güllen where Claire Zachanassian demands the execution of her former lover in exchange for half a million Swiss Frank in Dürrenmatts "The Visit". The possibilities seem as endless as the plays - be they modern or old. No costume too extravagnt, no idea too far fetched. Your world, your imagination!

A producer's dream however might turn into a nightmare once you take a closer look. Apart from the text of the play, the presence of the actors is part of the magic of a performence. However facial expressions are cumbersome at best (read: horrible), movements difficult to orchestrate and never spontaneous, and seeing the typing animation when Hamlet writes "to be or not to be" would be rather funny.
To voice or not to voice is the question, and poses another bunch of technical issues. Prim counts and rezzing issues, animation synchronisations, texture loading delays, attachment rezzing and sudden crashes are another issue. Not to mention lag, and the poor performance of a sim with many avatars in - one of the reasons why SL's larges theatre company chose the intersection of 4 sims to build their theatre on - one sim for the stage and actors, 3 sim corners to hold the audience.
Finally spontaneity, the one thing that seperates a theatre production from a movie, and possibly the thing that translates worst into SL. Voice actors might miss a line, slip a word - but prerecorded animations still take place, and the ability of a fellow actor to re-act spontaneously is more than limited.
In one word: even though the possibilities seem unlimited, the technical and logistical aspect of a theatre production are more challenging than their RL counterparts.

The major SL theatre company is probably the SL Shakespeare Company, founded by Ina Centaur.

"The SL Shakespeare Company’s task over the next few years is to bring to Second Life live productions of all of the bard’s plays. To do so, we will be integrating some esoteric cutting-edge technology with the best of theatrical talent."

For the time being, the SL Shakespeare Company plays shorter pieces and excerpts. Their mid-term goal is to make a live, full length production of Hamlet. The amount of work involved in such a production is tremendous. Basically up to the skins of the actors all parts are made by the company themslves.

Ina was not availbale for an interview due to time constraints, unfortunately the two people she named as "liking interviews" never got back to me neither by notecard, IM or email. I personally have never attended one of the productions due to timezone issued - the next play to which I am actually invited will be one day after this post is... well... posted.

A personal note towards the end. Even though this assignment-topic was not exactly what I hoped for, and even though the research proved to be rather frustrating, it has opened my eyes for yet another aspect of Second Life. This world is so rich, and there are so many people living and fulfilling their dreams in ways they could not in the atomic world. I will certainly try to see a theatre production soon, and I hope some of the readers will too.

Thank you, and thank you Tiyuk for giving me the room here!

"Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd tow'rs, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep."
(The Tempest Act 4, scene 1)

This post is in reference to, and response to, those who are discussing M's most recent letter to Second Life residents in the official forums. I also posted it on the forums themselves, but they are so overloaded that no one would be able to find it any easier than a needle in a haystack If you have the burning desire to respond to this post, I ask that you do so on the official forums... I'll be following the thread as it develops at its current alarming pace for the next few hours.

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You know what guys? I'm not an OpenSpace owner. I have no convincing reason to care about this. I own a private island, and I don't know anyone in my circle of friends who has any stock in an OpenSpace. But when the original price hike announcement hit, I was with you guys 100%, with my pitchfork, with my flag displaying an SL emblem giving the finger, demanding an explanation on Linden's customer service sims. I felt a great injustice had been served to a great number of people, and even though it didn't impact me, I was motivated and duty-bound to make sure my voice of dissent was heard.

I'd even contemplated shutting down Envision island -- denying Linden Lab the profit of my private island, and denying my poor residents the benefits of living there -- just to prove the point that Linden was being unreasonable.

Guess what? We threw a fit, and now Linden Lab is giving you a break. They are no longer telling you, It's my way or the highway. They are telling you, This is what it's really going to cost us for the different demands each use case has; put your money where your mouth is.

Linden Lab has very reasonably compromised. They have backed down from their unreasonable position, to one where you now have alternatives. Alternatives are good, even if the end result for the carnival-on-an-OpenSpace owners is the same.

Look... the only people who know how much it costs to operate a heavily-loaded sim are the IT department managers and operations people who work Linden's data centers. We don't know the exact numbers, and I doubt we have any reason to be privy to those exact figures. Those of you saying that prices should be lower have absolutely no grounds for your claims; you are simply using Linden's compromising position to knock them back even further.

What if Linden would have to take a monetary loss when you guys start pegging openspace servers, in order to stabilise their performance? Hm? What if they had to split OpenSpaces so dramatically that there are only two OpenSpaces per server, in order that they remain stable? At $75/month, that's hardly fair to us Private Island owners, much less Linden.

Fact: The technology behind the hardware and the software is what it is. The technology can and will be improved at both a hardware and software level, but pricing cannot be set on predicted outcomes of future R & D. R & D is the single most unpredictable activity that businesses pay for, and it is the most expensive for Linden Lab.

Fact: It's entirely possible that, finally, Linden is setting price points which better reflect their costs. This is particularly compelling when you consider that a heavily loaded sim - be it an OpenSpace, Mainland, or Private Island - must be run with fewer other sims on the same server if it hogs resources. That means Linden needs more servers to handle that load.

Fact: You now have options you didn't have before. Consider them, make up your mind, and stick with it. Even if you choose a Homestead, you're still paying way! less than a Private Island, and you're getting lots of value.

Fact: This is not smoke and mirrors. There are real changes being made in terms of technical restrictions to ensure the stability of the entire grid. These restrictions will prevent the sort of sprawl that originated this problem.

Fact: Now that the policy on what is "intended" for each sim class is clear, we can also very explicitly define the term "abuse" for each sim class. Also, abuse may become less possible with the technical restrictions. So if you are given a certain number of scripts, go ahead and use them, and Linden can't call it abuse, because that's what they're restricting you to. You all complained that they gave you X and wanted you to use X/4; now they're giving you X and if you use X, they're happy. How is that bad?

My conclusion? This change has swayed me from the column of dissident to the column of Linden supporter. I now have a renewed belief that Linden Lab is a reasonable company, staffed by people who are sensitive to the reactions of their customers, and who are willing to take profit cuts and hire more staff in order to satisfy their angry customers.

To be angry at them still, at this point, is folly. So please calm down, think about these changes, and start planning for the future of your land.

Cordially,

Tiyuk Quellmalz