Placeness is a feature, not the point
so rather than worrying about getting a virtual world in a browser has #slviewer2 side stepped by becoming a mixed media browser?
– Ian Hughes aka @epredator
No.
Plenty of analysis is out there now on the new SL viewer — which is, undoubtedly, a big step forward. Full web functionality on a prim including Flash — check out Habbo Hotel running on a wall inside SL! A usable interface! Non-programmery design!
But the answer is still no, because for better or worse, virtual worldness is increasingly a feature of a website, not a destination in its own right. Placeness is a value-add to something else — a game, a community, etc. And adoption is driven by the something else, not by the placeness.
To phrase that differently: The new viewer makes Web integration a feature of SL. Which is a great value-add for SL people. But it is not a value-add for Web users. Wagner James Au breaks it down into a series of questions, but fundamentally the question a new user asks is “why?” And for a web user, the first question is “why go somewhere else?”
The SL experience might be a value add for Web users, but for that to happen, SL would have to be a feature of “something elses” on the Web, and as Mitch Wagner points out, it’s not.
Don’t get me wrong — a great step. But I would be surprised if Linden isn’t working on the larger problem.
5 Responses to “Placeness is a feature, not the point”
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This could get recursive. Browsing the web on a browser based version of SL, running on a browser in SL… and so on. I wonder what would happen if you started that kind of infinite vw loop?
I do agree Raph š I inderstand you “no” on twitter š
I think what this has done is remove a stack of “why cant we just” barriers to entry that we hear.
Now it may move it on to people understanding the deeper relationship we can have with one another and with experiences. It’s not a bad thing to be more integrated with the existing web, able to use the simpler dynamic tools out there already.
It does remove a stack of those issues — it is great work, honestly! But it is more about conversion and retention than acquisition, in the rawest sense.
Mandrill, Metaplace had exactly that. It was fun to play with, but nobody used it seriously. One level deep was all that was useful — but that much was VERY useful.
Agree with the conversion and retention angle, although with web content integration, acquisition/viral could be easier too, especially with in world people able to communicate easily with web people.
eg- twitter or Meebo on a HUD, send messages to Facebook friends from in world etc
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