Disqus - Latest Comments for Pavig Lok

Re: Second Life - on the wane for aussies?

Pavig Lok — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:02:45 -0000

Damn lies and statistics! I think any perception of virtual worlds taken from the experience of large corporations at this time will be horribly skewed towards disappointment. Ask any metaverse developer... (some of us have been around this developing industry for 15 years)... and they'll tell you it's because the corporate mindset and the media just doesn't get it. In the case of the internet, which they thought would be a lot like AOL, it's taken them ten years so far and they still struggle with the paradigm.

The result unfortunately of this continued abject failure to come to terms with a new medium is public distrust. We've been sold foolish reasons for entering virtual worlds, and been disapointed when they don't deliver. Public perception of virtual worlds is particularly low at the moment. Yet they provide the same unrealized benefits they always did.

The success of virtual worlds will be further delayed now as the business reorients towards providing a narrower more branded experience (just look at the new vw's in development) when it seems obvious to corporate entrants who've already tried it that brand focus was a large part of their initial failure. Oh well... winters not over yet.

Thankfuly some companies "get it". Accenture for example, which has concentrated on the collaborative strenghts of SL has seen positive returns. It's paid for itself both ways, by helping them with hires (they're a personnel company) which earns them bucks and paid for itself again in savings from using telepresence to conference. Yay for Accenture :)))

At this time a popular line is that SL is a failure, and perhaps the next big thing might be better... but let's look at what the product actually is. Virtual worlds are a reality replacement - so they act as a proxy for the real world in all it's complexity. To be compelling and useful, rather than an interesting toy, they have a huge task to undertake. SL I believe has done an amazing job in coming this far, considering the complexity of the task. The idea that another startup would come along and instantly do it better is simply absurd - the job of creating a manageable and compelling reality which can house hundreds of thousands if not millions of people comfortably is just too complex.

Demographically Australia isn't a good indicator for SL use either. Significantly Aus is one of the highest per capit users of IMVU - a cut down virtual world avchat client which is easier on your internets. This makes sense as the internet in Australia is laughable compared to many of the places in the world where SL uptake is higher. Unusual lag in SL in Australia predominantly happens within our own country. Remember we're a place where one of the policy points our last national election was won on was the crapness of our broadband. SL growth is more focused on Europe.

Anyways, just my two cents... I lived through the hype cycle of the web trying to make a buck as well, and it's frustrating to see it happening all over again. I realize that I'm passionately pro virtual world technology but for me it's a godsend. I need to telework for health reasons. But I can see a day not far off when the general application in networking, travel reduction, and collaboration through VWs will produce tangible benefits for all. Provided, that is, we stop listening to the failures and start to pay attention to the successes. :)

Re: Kim MacKenzie hits back on negative media coverage of Second Life

Pavig Lok — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 05:53:10 -0000

Phew... glad to see Kim MacKenzie's comments on this. From the article her research conclusions came across as populist disenfranchisement with corporate failure - the everyday media line, and not so worthy of interest. I should have known that it was the media itself which ran this slant. I look forward to hearing further about her insight in this area now her views are more clearly evident.

Re: Debunking mindjunk about the cost of Second Life's visual quality

Pavig Lok — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 19:46:52 -0000

Wilst I appluad work on per pixel shaders and the shadow client it is a heavy feature which (though it'll become cheaper) will only be seen by those with the highest end machines. It also radically changes the look of a build.

At the moment we now have atmospheric shaders, but still no way to turn them on for a region. Torley's done well wih the romantic lighting presets, but as soon as atmospheric lighting is turned on everything looks so different and blown out that it creates another build problem. Until we have the server side switched on per region so we can tune this effect for a build (something which mainlanders won't have the benefit of :( ) they present a challenge to making things look right for all clients. (In case you didn't notice the plug: please please please turn region lighting schemes on - the presets make it impossible to unify a build for a mixed audience.)

The shadow client will persent another layer of tuning for us, and I expect to see a lot more locked sun and fullbright in high end builds once it's in.... oh well, I can live with that.

People access SL from many types of machines, and for it to fulfil it's function of a general purpose world those machines will include low end ones. Laptops - where it costs twice as much for high end technology, and extreme graphics, even if you have them, are a terrific drain on battery life. In case anyone's missed the fantastic sales of the eeepc and other cut down machines, the trend in computing is towards scaling back from these monolithic games boxes.

SL needs to be scaling in both directions, both up towards the most kickingest of asses machines, and down towards the more modest and utilitarian devices. (No, demos of sl on an iphone aren't proof it works, that's done serverside by proxies.) We may enjoy the sunsets browsing from home on our big gamer boxes, but at work we're probably on absolutely minimal machines, and on the road we're balancing graphic horsepower with problems such as the weight of our brick, battery performance, and most probably the cost.

One day I'd like to have a presence in sl using an eeepc, XO laptop, Nokia internet tablet, or at an extreme, on the screen of a smartfridge in the kitchen (not that i'd ever buy one of those sheesh). I understand that it would look comparatively feeble. In fact if it looked like habbo hotel drawn by a cat in crayon I wouldn't mind as long as there was an actual presence. Those with gamer boxes can game here, those with more businessy or social interests may be able to scale their experience down to a very low visual quality and still get the benefit. Like in snow crash, you could get in world on a public phone, and even though it looked crap you still had the benefit of presence.

This could be as simple as opening up the im system to jabber protocol hooks out world. Something like that would change/improve peoples experience in sl much more at the moment than shadows.

They are pretty tho.... just my two cents. Sincerely, Pavig Lok

Re: Prokofy Neva’s Predictions for 2008

Pavig Lok — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 05:57:09 -0000

Hiya

I got kicked outa Prok's blog too lol - my response to predictions here: http://pavig.wordpress.com/2007/12/20/re-prokof...

Re: Anatomy of a Griefer

Pavig Lok — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 07:21:39 -0000

Personally I can see their point - we take most griefing far to seriously. But by the same token there's a difference between gooning and griefing. Cleaning up their crap can spoil my day, and not simply because it annoys me in and of itself. It takes time away from real work that I do, and which I would rather be doing.

Crapping on someone's doorstep for the lolz is something every kid knows some other kid that's done. Folk usually grow out of IRL - so making a hobby out of doing it online and not outgrowing it to me reeks of immaturity.

If they're going to have their lolz the respectful thing would be to keep it in their closed forums, or if they don't want to be respectful open up their forums to the kind of inane trolling they practice.

I love goons, but griefing and sim crashing is just lame. I don't think that's taking it too seriously at all, as I guarantee the PN and such crews would very quickly find themselves taking it extremely seriously should they find their own channels under sustained and effective attack.