Why Second Life is like tabletop gaming...or "Why certain virtual world pundits don't get it."

Ah, those Virtual World Pundits. They make CC laugh. They say things like "zOMG, SL isn't popular and Facebook is so SL should be more like Facebook because unless it has double digit growth every month it's a failure". And then you discover that they spend 12 hours or less in-world...a month. No wonder they don't appreciate the in-world communication tools...they're not in-world enough to use them. And as for 12 hours, I can easily exceed that...in less than a week.

See, what those pundits don't understand is that SL...is like D&D. Not D&D Online the MMORPG....but D&D the tabletop experience. Let me explain.

D&D requires a TON of time if you want to do it right. A single encounter with multiple enemies can take up the entirety of a single session. That's not counting the paperwork and record keeping involed. Not only that, but the Dungeon Master's workload is even worse, creating a world, creating adventures, it's a major time sink. It's why there's never enough DM's. And there's the scheduling issues...can you find a time that matches a DM's plus other players? That is VERY difficult

Only a small majority of nerds want to go through that hassle these days...and some can't because of time constraints...so what do the others do? They play WoW, which although grindy, is no where near as complex as D&D. And you can play on your own schedule and STILL play with other people.

D&D is also expensive...you need your supplements and books.

D&D is not exactly the most newbie friendly game in the world, it's "UI" as it were is very complex and it has it's own vocabulary and a community that has it's own ideas about things.

Not only that, but that community complains every time some new sourcebook with additions is made or when a new version of the "UI" aka the rules is released.

So what does all that remind you of? SL. Like D&D, SL is a niche, it doesn't have to be Facebook. Those people who only log in for three hours or even a dozen hours a month...they're not SL's market. It's the people who spend a hundred hours a month in-world that are. Even if you're a content consumer like me, you still have to "work" for your fun in SL in a way that you don't in other social things. Most people don't want to do that....they want to start their crops, let the cows do whatever...while they're watching American Idol. SL requires immersion in a way that Facebook doesn't.

Here's an anecdote....my sister does her Farmville, while she watches TV. I wouldn't dare do SL while watching TV. There's people in SL who get in a little bit of a tizzy if they even think you're alt tabbed out in a web browser or in multiple IM/group chat sessions. SL requires attention in ways that Facebook doesn't....so the Facebook crowd isn't SL's audience and it's useless to pursue them in an obession for "Growth".

SL doesn't need rebranding. What it needs is for the pundits to figure out that being a niche product for a niche market is a fine and good thing in and of itself.

Return to Classic template, and by the way, Notepad sucks.

In moving to the new "Layout" version of blogger with drag and drop ability of widgets and stuffage, it seems I lost my blog links. So I added the link widget, which I discovered one cannot edit manually, you have to add and subtract links one at a time. Not only that, but the new templates are in that evil of evils, XML. I have always believed that XML, CSS, DOM, and all that other crap was intentionally added to HTML to take web page creation out of the hands of amateurs and return it to the coder elite, remember Geocities, go.com, Tripod,and Angelfire? Well, I figured I could always edit the template manually and without thinking, saved it and opened it up in Notepad, since I was on Windows at the time. That, of course gave me a jumbled mess, because the file was probably unix-formatted and Notepad isn't XML aware. Which brings me to another point, to edit XML you practically have to have an XML aware editor. Windows by default doesn't have such a thing, and I don't have one installed, I think, So I just ftp'd it over to Linux where I DO have XML aware editors.In fact I have one of the editors that has a long history, vim.

vim (vi iMproved) is a modal terminal based editor descended from the 31 year old vi, that drives non-geeks insane. Modal means you can't just start typing in vim, which starts in "command mode", you have to enter "insert mode first, and then type. To use commands, for example, to save and quit, you have to exit insert mode and enter command mode. However, as you can see it can syntax highlight xml making it much easier to read and parse. The terminal here is mrxvt a version of rxvt with certain enhancements like tabs and TrueType font support.



After taking a look at the XML I realized it used an external call to the Link widget and thus wasn't easily editable to add my links.in so I switched back to the classic template to make it easier on me. That's when I decided to do this post about vim, which also has SL related uses because it can also syntax hightlight LSL (Linden Scripting Language)



As well as autocomplete LSL, type ll and hit Ctrl+n and it will popup a little mini-window.with all the llwhatever functions.



It can do tons of other stuff, like tabbed editing (just like tabbed browsing in Firefox, but even works in the terminal version) but not to worry, there is also a graphical menus n mouses version named gvim that is installed right along with vim.



See, it's not that scary. But even using gvim, the keyboard commands stay the same, like :wq! for "write(save) and quit". So there's a gvim enhancement called cream, that makes gvim act "normal" from a Windows users perspective. Ctrl+S saves for example. But any way you slice it, any version of vim is a better text editor than Notepad.

Windows installer for standard vim and gvim

Cream-ified vim/gvim for Windows installer Very popular among Windows users.

I will not speak of the editor emacs, I don't like it even if you can play Nethack, tetris, adventure and read your e-mail from within it. Yes, I know about viper mode that makes emacs act like vi, but that's the problem, viper mode acts like vi and not vim.

I've heard good things about a Notepad replacement called Notepad++ but I have never used that.

I miss the old Second Style blog

You know, when it was just Celebrity Trollop and a few loveable lackeys like Choice, Grazia, etc.

It had more..."soul". It felt more "personal" like Celeb and friends were my gorgeous fashionista friends helping me find the good stuffage. It seems impersonal now, with that Second Style Network and all. Sigh. It's not that I don't understand being busy, having other projects, or not having enough people, and the grid overflowing with stuffage. I just miss what it was, but realize that SL has changed and that Second Style perhaps can't go back to what it was.

Ahh I guess I'm an oldbie now, ranting about how things aren't like they were in the good ol days.

Fashion Circle Jerk

Several commenters on a post about the various blog feeds on Shopping Cart Disco made that remark. That everybody blogs the same stuff, that the fashion press feeds on each other. And sometimes that there's conflict of interest a la someone working for/renting from/economically intertwined a designer still blogging said designers stuffage. You know what, they're right for the most part.

That's one reason I do commentary and opinion and don't do new items like a lot of other blogs do. This is a blog what I like blog.

I also don't ask for review copies, for one I don't have lots of SL time these days, so if would feel wrong. I DO tell people where they can send their stuff.

There's also things I won't blog, for example, I work for Metro Models and thusly am an associate/employee of Alaska Metropolitan. Therefore it would be wrong for me to blog any of her new stuffage as a "review".

If you're a new content creator, IM me, I probably won't have the time to blog your stuff, but I am willing to take a look and give a quick opinion via IM or in person.

Marketing advice....well that's another story, because that's one of the services Metro Models offers. And I wish more folks took advantage of those services. There comes a time when winging it isn't cutting it anymore in the competitive SL fashion market. You have to "bring your A game" and it's best if your stuffage is as good as what's already out there, if not better or more unique.

I could rant on marketing, ad design, etc all day and I'm not even a professional!

GLAM SL magazine.

Alaska Metropolitan told me to check out the Glam World SL magazine last night. I went to the website and browsed through the flashy thingy.

Gosh the Photoshop work sure is pretty and artistic, but it doesn't reflect the real SL, which I think is a bad thing.

We hate it when designers excessively photohop their ads to make their stuff look better, and I think it's a bad idea for the SL magazines to do similar. It also prevents those not familiar with SL from getting an overly rosy picture of how it looks.

I went to download the PDF version of the magzine today and got a surprise... it's 81MB. That's right, it's 81MB. No, it doesn't have as many pages as Second Style, it's rather short. I don't know what they're doing but 81MB for a PDF is outrageous. Optimize for screen, people, not printer. No one prints these things. it doesn't need mega high resolution/quality.

I will be avoiding Skin Fair.

"Why CC, the new Fleur skins are there." you may be thinking.

It's simple, I don't like badly organized events, even if I think it was a good idea, and even if I'm a big fan of the content creators involved.

1. They only have 1 sim, it's not enough. You get more than 20 fashionistas in a sim and you're asking for trouble. Sure the sims can handle more, but not in a "fun and useable" way. Now I'm the sort of person who'd show up nekkid, or intentionally ruthed, it's a skin fair after all, but there's folks who feel the need to show up and show off in their latest bajillion prim hair and 5m wide flexi ball gown....with bling. And an event like this with free and/or cheap skin will attract a hell of a lot of people, enough to fill and/or easily crash 1 sim. I know people love to gather, but big events with lots of avs simply don't work well in SL. That's why some of us would prefer some kind of "virtual fair" where the designers involved did special branding/adverts/promotions in their own stores, thus reducing the strain. Then hand out special HUDS, that when you click on a "Fair" location bring up the map so you can see how busy it is, and choose another.

2. They didn't promote it well. I didn't know the Skin Fair was on "for sure" til last Tuesday! They should have had all their cards together: location, time, etc and been promoting it for weeks! But maybe they were promoting it, but I didn't have any information. The only promotion I got was a picture of Sachi Vixen's booth from Sachi herself last Tuesday, and I'm press! Second string press, but press nonetheless. If Aradia Dielli dropped some press package on me I didn't see it, and I know there are others who should have got press info that didn't. Handing out press kits means the press doesn't have to actually go there and fall through the ground, walk in slow motion, see unrezzed sculptie ball shoes, unrezzed vendors, and everything else that comes with lagtastic events. They can sit at their home/studio/skybox and do their thing.

In other words, if you want to do a big event, pre-planning, lots of it, is essential.

Moo! and some commentary.

I've seen Moo Money around the grid, but never really had the chance to talk to her until I saw her at Tete a Pied in Nouveau, she was after the recently released Automne set, which she says she likes better in the lighter skin shades. We got to talking about the fashion business, about how some designers are under-appreciated (especially Roslin and CJ of Tete a Pied). And how some designers have changed their output so much that she doesn't shop from them anymore, she misses the "old stuff". The example she gave was Dazzle/Last Call. She prefers the older Dazzle stuff, and some of the early grungier-grittier Last Call releases. Me, I like the new "upper class lady who lunches" stuff over the old "yet another babydoll cocktail dress in a dozen pastel colors". That was one thing we both agreed on, that Ginny shouldn't focus on just one overall style and "run it into the ground." We also dislike the major lag at Dazzle, which is one of the reasons I rarely go there, but that probably can't be helped. The build itself is too "Midnight City" for my taste, my favorite Dazzle build was the old Warehouse across from Luxe, but I like this one better than the one just previous with the transparent walls and stuff.

One thing we also discussed was that there should be more communication between shoppers/consumers and designers. How are they to know what we like/don't like/wish they'd change/what the shopping experience is like unless we tell them. But we both thought that people, especially bloggers like us might be afraid to do so because they don't want to "piss people off" and cause "drama" I've probably ticked of Ginny with this post, but I'm one of the ones who said she should have never dropped the "Dazzle" brand name to begin with. I'm also one of the ones that says she should co-locate her store, she's one of the few designers who could benefit from having a second location to cut down the lag, but that would increase her land expenses of course.

The conversation with Moo was one if the best fashion convo's I've had in a while. I didn't get any really juicy Moo quotes though. Moo is one of the most quotable fashionistas in SL, truly.