By DrFran Babcock
Full Disclosure – I Wasn’t
There
I watched a video of this interview, because I was working
in First Life when it took place in the Dreamitarium auditorium. The
auditorium, one of my favorite builds at the birthday, was built by ADudeNamed
Anthony. A tip of the hat to this Bay City regular on a creation that is form
and function excellence. The quiet colors of the interior stage provide the
perfect backdrop for the interviews being conducted.
Whom is Being
Interviewed; Whom is Interviewing?
This interview was part of the Meet the Lindens series for
SL12B. Saffia Widdershins was to be conducting these talks, but if you watch
this video, or were there, and didn’t know this, you would most likely not
identify her as the lead in the event.
The video I watched showed many technical difficulties, that
the team there, headed by Uccie Poultry worked diligently to correct, but to
this day it is difficult to amass large numbers of residents.
The oversized Draxtor Depres was on the stage from the
start, and I was surprised to see him. I adore Drax, subscribe to his podcast,
and watch all of his videos. However, that didn’t stop me from being unhappy
with his performance here. If he was supposed to be there, then I am sorry, but
I was not sure, and it was never stated during the video I watched. Is he a
Linden now, but I don’t know it?
On to the Main Event
Danger Linden is the Senior Director of Product – Virtual Worlds
and Troy Linden is a Senior Producer. Both worked many years in the game and tech
industries, and they began working at Linden Lab within a few months of each
other in 2007. Both have prior experience with EA and the Sims.
At present, neither of them are working on Project Sansar,
but Danger was part of the original team.
Draxtor tended to ask very important questions, but instead
of asking them directly he would give a long treatise on his own opinions and
end with his question. He asked Danger and Troy how they juggled work on SL2.0
and SL. He asked it after he spoke for a while about how he manages this task,
and went on and on.
I am not sure why his behavior irritated me so much, but I
am sure it had something to do with the fact that it was Saffia’s interview,
and I know her to be too much of a lady to get into a sparring match with
Draxtor.
Danger was a reasoned responder who was able to speak from
his experience and avoided speaking for others. He explained that he could
manage many tasks because he is now solely working on SL. He gave kudos to Oz,
who has put together a dedicated and experienced team to focus on SL.
Draxtor then asked about the onboarding process for new LL
employees, and found that there was a Boot Camp. This is a specific program run
by Char Linden. Danger stated that LL’s onboarding is the best he has seen in a
new corporation.
There were many questions from the audience: “How many women
work in SL?” Danger handled it deftly: “We have more than two genders here; it’s
San Francisco, after all.” Draxtor added that the staff at LL seemed the most
diverse he had ever encountered.
Finally, Saffia got a question in, and asked Troy about the
experience tools in SL. Troy then lost his voice, and we waited for him to come
back while Saffia listened to him in Skype. While waiting for Troy Saffia still
spoke with Troy, but we could only hear her assenting with him, and nothing he
said. The experience tools are still in beta, but users can try them out.
Individuals like Loki Elliot, and groups such as MadPea have been using them to
their advantage. Draxtor asked if it was OK to make them so difficult, and Danger
gave the correct answer, which is that not everyone in a world wants to use
these tools, the experience is different for everyone, and not everyone wants
to create and build.
When asked about what were the most enjoyable projects Danger
spoke about how he loves the breaking down of silos so that SL is one place from the Welcome to the
different sims. He looks at it as a system rather than disparate parts.
Troy mentioned the SL share project, and efforts to
incorporate social media into SL. These are the tools that allow users to share
from SL on FaceBook and Twitter and Flickr right from in world.
Of course this brought on a discussion about how much first
life do people want in their second life, and how Facebook makes that
difficult. Identity is a big topic in SL, and Saffia shared how she has solved
this problem by creating a Saffia page in Facebook. This is not always
possible.
There was an audience question about My.Second.Life, and
Danger revealed that it was not going to be developed further.
Another question was about Oculus and Sansar. Danger said SL
can barely support
It, because it is twelve year old legacy code, but Sansar is
being built with the new tools in mind.
Sansar
This is what everyone wants to hear about, and I think that
some of what was revealed on other blogs has been inaccurate.
Danger and Drax spoke about the burgeoning virtual reality
awareness, and that it is a hot space right now. Danger wants to do it right. Here
are some of the things that were said:
Terrain will be Voxel-based. There will be a system to allow
non-registered guests to create without paying, lowering the entry bar. Many
people (not the Lindens) talked about Cloud Party and how you could get land
once you demonstrated that you could build). I did not really hear a Linden say
there would be free land, but that has been touted about the grid since this interview.
Danger did state that SL will still be viable in five years,
and will not die when Sansar opens its doors. He added that a long life is
ahead for SL, and many will use both.
Saffia asked audience questions. How will animations work in Sansar? The
animation system in Sansar will be a full professional system with avatars and
objects, Havok plus.
Will people be able to own land? Yes. You will be able to
own lands and rent land.
The first invitees will be Maya users, although all tools
will eventually work in Sansar. It will be invitation-only.
Draxtor: To what extent will it be possible to build in
world?
Danger: that is the goal, to build collaboratively and in
world.
Saffia joked about everyone getting two acres and a cow, and
Marianne McCann quipped: “1024 and a hippo. “
A member of the audience asked if hypergridding is being
considered, and Danger said not at this time.
Saffia and others wanted to know if there will be last
names? Danger said he couldn’t answer
now. The main login will be your email, but you will be able to have many
accounts under that address, and you should be able to share inventories
amongst the accounts. There
will be text and voice chat, but probably not a build for Linux.
Will Sansar be anonymous? The current vision for this is to
have a hierarchy of permissions in Sansar, that relate to how much information
you share with Linden Lab. The more they know you as a person, the more
abilities you will have. Danger said this is to combat griefing. Trust will
build user rights.
To close Danger revealed that the first invitees were being
spoken to at this time. I guess all will be answered once Project Sansar opens
its doors to alpha.
So, thanks to the Lindens for this improved transparency
under Ebbe’s leadership, and thanks to Saffia for remaining level-headed, and
thanks even to Draxtor Depres, who asked the right questions, but should have
done it on his show.
DrFran Babcock
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