As I sit here Monday afternoon waiting once again for “Unscheduled Maintenance” to allow me access to Second Life I am looking through the blogs and seeing a pattern.
At this blog There is need for a “Lite” Second Life Viewer (posted January 8th) has come back to life in comments. Activity at this page has never died; people are really wishing for a more efficient / equipment tolerant way to enjoy SL.
Nalates most recent post speaks (near the end) of problems with the avatar mesh that no deformer will ever be able to overcome. The avatar mesh itself was pretty good for 2004 technology but the world of 3D graphics has come a long way baby. Unfortunately any attempt to “correct” the avatar we have now will break existing content.
Thinking back to past blog posts and MetaReality Podcasts there has been steady, if unfocused, chatter about LL complicating the server and viewer code in order to maintain backward compatibility. Obviously this can not keep up forever.
It is time for LL to split off a team to do a feasibility study looking forward toward a true Second Life II. Essential to this team’s job would be inclusion of carefully selected long time residents; there are many intelligent, insightful and discrete residents available to choose from. They should start by fearlessly looking at past decisions and how they have impacted SL (both the community and the business). Then look forward, how will people access SL 10 years from now? What new technologies are on the horizon that SL could be ready for? Lastly, how much of today’s SL can move forward to the new version and how much must be left behind in the dust of progress?
I would not advocate abandonment of what we have now. Done right people will want to move over to the new world. Perhaps it would even be possible to “jump” between them.
The only sure thing is that something like this will happen, if not by LL then eventually by some competitor. LL should make a move while they still have our attention, and our inventories 🙂 .
Like everyone else I have some ideas, but what do you think?