Disqus - Latest Comments for iyanwriter

Re: A new beginning

IYan Writer — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 17:03:51 -0000

Oh wow :)

I'm OK - not playing EVE Online anymore though. I am a bit sad to see SL standing still, although new LL iPad initiatives sound interesting to me.

I still read your blog :)

Best,

iYan

Re: Pivoting to Pockets

IYan Writer — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 12:55:16 -0000

Not so much a pivot, I fear, as a desperate flapping with one sound wing trying to hit the only puddle amidst a rocky landscape.

Re: http://gracemcdunnough.tumblr.com/post/755233869

IYan Writer — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 04:06:58 -0000

As an EVE player, the criticisms are spot on. EVE developers tend to chase the rainbow..

Re: BBBC Day 4 Never Ask A Woman Her Age

IYan Writer — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 03:42:37 -0000

I used to be able to tell different connect speeds by ear.. my first modem was a 2400 bps,non error-correcting one.

/old :)

Re: Virtual World Views

IYan Writer — Sun, 23 May 2010 14:19:55 -0000

Excellent, loving the whole SL culture series.

Re: Linden Lab - Please Raise Your Grok Factor

IYan Writer — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 17:57:11 -0000

I admit to being a bit jaded about LL ;)

Not preparing for an IPO, but for a sell-out to a big company - say Microsoft or somebody like that.

Re: Linden Lab - Please Raise Your Grok Factor

IYan Writer — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 11:29:07 -0000

I have a theory.

(if you said ".. some kid is dreaming" at this point, 10 cool stars for you).

LL is a VC funded company. As we know, out of 10 VC funded startups, there is on average one big success, 6 fails and three "living dead" companies - ones that do a modest amount of profit, but who failed in the quest to make it really big. The living dead are of not much use for VCs, so they will try to get an exit - sell them to somebody. As they missed the boat in 2006/7 (when it still seemed like LL might make it big), they need to do it now. And there is just no buyer for a quirky alternate digital world company with a happy, fanatical, yet very limited user base. But there might be one for "an interactive business and consumer virtual world solution with integrated virtual goods shopping platform". Exit Phillip, enter M.

Community satisfaction is not the goal here. Sanitizing, buffing, polishing and presenting SL is. So - no, they will never grok it.

Re: F for Fail

IYan Writer — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 17:33:59 -0000

Good post, Gwyn.

Re: http://gracemcdunnough.tumblr.com/post/387390496

IYan Writer — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 14:01:51 -0000

I DON'T LIKE DIZ BLACK BRING BACK THE OLD FACEBOOK

Re: Virtual Identity and Real Value

IYan Writer — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 05:14:34 -0000

Yay, a new Grace post :-)

First the obvious stuff: yes, virtual identity should have value and be protected. It is a brand and should be treated as such.

As for the rest.. it hurts me to say this, but we're at the IMM/AUG debate again. I have no problems with linking my RL to my SL name (as a google search or two already does that) - but then, as an AUGgie, that's obvious.

The simple fact is that most of SL's active user base is not only IMM, but escapist. They don't want to mix their RL and their SL lives. The problem LL has is that they ignore the bird in the hand and go for the flock in the bush - over and over and over again. It never works, but they have to do it because of (I guess) VC pressure.

In such an environment, protecting virtual identity and establishing mechanisms that would enable users to work using their SL identities alone (say, an escrow mechanism of sorts) should be paramount.

Re: Open letter to the BBC

IYan Writer — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 04:06:18 -0000

I think cost per user and ARPU are the best metrics for both.. but good luck getting the numbers out of both companies :)

Re: Open letter to the BBC

IYan Writer — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 02:44:37 -0000

Huh - sorry about that, I thought I cancelled the comment. That was the start of the calculations, I did indeed try to account for average visits, I got to some results and after all that I decided that the numbers don't really mean anything :-)

Basically, I think it's apples and oranges. Like comparing M Linden and eBay CEO foot size :D

Re: Open letter to the BBC

IYan Writer — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:36:05 -0000

2B page views - let's say each user visits 20 pages (probably less). That's 100M users per day.

Re: Open letter to the BBC

IYan Writer — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 03:30:18 -0000

Do you have a source for the Ebay number? I did some quick digging and Alexa says Ebay has *daily* reach of 2.5% of global internet users.. which is quite a lot.

Re: graceified, What gave newspapers their value was the mission...

IYan Writer — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 16:18:25 -0000

Thanks for the pointer, great article.

Re: graceified, Business Guys on Business Trips » Consistency

IYan Writer — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 17:26:02 -0000

Bwahaha.. and also *sob*, been on the receiving end of that a few times

PS: Your blog still breaks my internets when I'm in safari

Re: Pushing the Limits II — Snowglobe and ultrafast texture download [UPDATED THRICE]

IYan Writer — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 13:27:35 -0000

I love Snowglobe too, got like 10 fps back. And textures load! Had big problems with that on my computer (although it worked for iAlja with the same client on the same OS version, weird).

Keep up the good work Snowglobe team :)

Re: Second Life Killer Apps and Weak Ties

IYan Writer — Wed, 20 May 2009 10:08:18 -0000

All very true. I also think that M doesn't *get* SL - hence the desperate maneuvers to turn it into a product that does a service X that provides value Z.

Instead, SL should be recognized as a platform - and they should work on fixing that platform.

Re: A new beginning

IYan Writer — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 04:19:19 -0000

Hi Gwyn,

thanks for your comment. You made a lot of valid points, so let me tackle them one by one.

> I find it amusing, however, that your "solution" for dealing with the lack of stability and performance you find in SL is to go... and have fun playing games ;)

Why? What am I supposed to do? Program the new viewer? Hire new LL employees? Work on the server code?

I still spend a lot of time in SL, just more focused - going to events, mainly. But a lot of my "fun" SL time (which is basically the same as playing games) was not fun anymore - the performance of the viewer on my machine is horrible, and frankly there is less interesting stuff going on for an auggie like me. So I found something that is more fun.

>Nothing against EVE online, of course. As a matter of fact, some people make more money there than on Second Life.

No, you're probably thinking of Entropia Universe. EVE Online bans RMT.

> I can very well believe that the "community" is more oriented and focused and comes together more (while SL, of course, is hopelessly fragmented — like the real world :) ).

Not really - EVE has 250,000 active players which are spread up over thousands of corporations and hundreds of alliances, so it's fragmented as well :)

> after all, since 2007, the *only* focus was on stability and performance

Excepting Havok4 and more stable sims, my personal user experience today is much, much worse than in 2007. I get 1.2 fps on "low" graphics. If I clear the cache, the viewer runs with 25 fps for a few minutes (after loading the environment) and then drops back to 1.2 fps.

>The problem, however, is that "fixing SL" is *immensely difficult* when compared to any other platform...

I don't buy that. If it is true, it's because of godawful software and system engineering (and, reading T Linden's blogs, that indeed seems to be the case - the changes being implemented now are of the "what - you mean it *didn't* already work this way before??" variety).

>As for believing that one day something FAR better than SL will come out and that all of a sudden all users will run to it... mmmh... I'm sorry, but that's a millenarist utopia :)

With all the developments in VW, I find it hard to believe that something more stable than SL will not come along - but, we'll see.

>Replicating LL's business model is *impossible* — there is only space in the world for one Amazon, one eBay, one PayShop, one Google

Er.. replicating LL's business model is trivial. The hard part is getting better technology and similar sized user base. And the "one big player" is true only for mature markets, and VW environments today are far from it. That's why I mentioned Lycos - in 1996, there were many internet search providers, and none of them turned out to be "it".

>And there will be no place for a "second multiverse".

I disagree. SL is a haven for a very limited user base - principally among them the immersionists, the artists, and the musicians. The real multiverse will be decided by the mass adoption - and, so far, the masses have stayed out of general purpose, UGC oriented virtual worlds.

>Remember, in spite of *everything bad about SL*, it still attracts 10-12,000 new registrations every day...

Yes.. and how many new signups did it attract in 2007? That is the crux of emerging technologies/services: the curve has to stay exponential if they are to reach mass adoption. As soon as the curve moves from exponential to linear, it's game over, at least where mass adoption is concerned.

Again, to reiterate: I believe that VWs will be a valuable tool to learn, work, and play; but I don't think we're there yet. SL is a great place to "get your feet wet", play with the technology, find out what works for yourself or for your company; but for serious use? Not there yet.

IYan

Re: Fun With the Linden Lab Family Tree

IYan Writer — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 05:08:41 -0000

Well, things didn't work before, so let's hope it's multiplication and not addition (-1 and -1)..

Re: I am, a comma

IYan Writer — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 05:22:12 -0000

Took the test, I think you know what the results were ;-)

Re: graceified

IYan Writer — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 05:27:11 -0000

My favorite points were the call to adulthood, restoration of science and the mention of non-believers.

Re: CNN + Microsoft Photosynth = The Moment

IYan Writer — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 09:28:00 -0000

So cool!

Re: Brutal name-calling on Christmas Eve...

IYan Writer — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 06:01:50 -0000

*hugs*

Re: Grace McDunnough's Virtual Walkabout

IYan Writer — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 04:40:27 -0000

Good point :)

BTW, Change.gov looks very promising - continuing the conversation. They really do get it.