Wednesday morning, update day for Second Life. The fate of the Second World rests in the hands of a few brave and bold Lindens (the demi-gods of Second Life) for better or for worse, often with mixed results. There always new features being added to Second Life, and the bugs being banged out of the old features. Second Life has gone through many changes, even since I have been there in April of 2006.
There are many who complain that Second Life is always laggy, slow, constant packet loss, etc, and they say it only gets worse which each update. But, I, unlike they, rarely ever experience these things. So, I’m left to wonder….. is Second Life *really* that bad or is it the computer and connection upon which it is running. Sure, you can have a top of the line computer….. but, what will that do for you if it is filled with spyware, or you have dozens of pieces of software running in the background (really, look at your icon tray, is there more than six?). Then there are people who never defrag their hard drives regularly….. yes, it’s important, especially for caching of information. Defrag weekly, people!
Then, you have those who say, “Well, World of Warcraft and a bunch of other MMORPGs have millions of users and isn’t half as laggy as Second Life.” To this…. I respond….. All of these MMORPGs handle meshes, textures, sounds, maps on the side of the client, where they are stored. Of course they run faster, the servers and client only have to send *very* basic information back and forth. With games like WoW the server tells the client what to do with files *already* stored on your computer. Second Life, on the other hand, the server has to send you *everything*. It has to send you the sounds, the textures, the objects….. and not only does it have to send this information to you, it has to send it to everyone around you….. and then sync the use of this information. I can assure you, if MMORPG servers like World of Warcraft had to send even 5% of the information the Second Life servers send you, the World of Warcraft would come screeching to an abrupt and immediate halt.
Anyway! There are some new privacy features coming to Second Life that I have been looking forward to….. the elimination of being able to “map” or teleport to someone, for instance. I don’t mind being found online or messaged, but I really don’t need to have an electronic ankle bracelet telling anyone who might know me where I am at any given moment. Sorry, just because I know you or you know me, does not mean I want you to put a deer tag in my ear and look me up by satellite when you feel like it.
