Exploring Linden Realms
Here's my January column for
AVENUE magazine
.
Out of the blue at the very beginning of December(apparently it was available to premium users previously, but where Lindenannounced this I have no clue), came a potential new paint job for Second Life®. Linden's latest idea, 'Linden Realms', is "theLab's first-ever game prototype… dodge rock monsters and fierce fireballs asyou cross deadly, toxic rivers to complete quests and cash in your crystals forLinden Dollars." What's notable is that(at the time of writing, at least) this venture is apparently so significant toLL that the Linden Realms logo currently displays on the SL home page withequal prominence to the regular SL logo, and over a full page Linden Realms poster. The newcomer to www.secondlife.com is nowshown our metaverse as consisting of cartoon style fairies, rocks and evergreens. At the moment, this is the very first thingthey see. Not wanting to be part of thatcrowd that unleashes the hounds of blogosphere fury every time Linden have theaudacity to do something to try to grow their business, however, I decided togive Linden Realms a go. The first couple of tries met with failure when I tried to followlinks from the 'Showcase' section of inworld search on Imprudence: theseclaimed to be to Linden Realms but one led to a bog standard welcome hub andthe other to an island somewhere with a red brick lighthouse and a large groupof rather confused looking avatars. Thethird attempt was via the Destinations Guide on the web site and got me to thestarting point, 'Portal Park 1', okay; but that was when I realised from theodd collection of spheres and cylinders around me that I obviously needed amesh-enabled viewer. Linden hadneglected to mention this, presumably because this whole experience is veryclearly aimed at new residents who won't yet have learned about the existenceof third party viewers, especially those not yet supporting mesh.
Attempt number four, then – this time in Firestorm – got meviewing finally Portal Park 1 and its eight gates to the first gaming area correctly. A note about the gates – and I think it'sworth spending a moment on this, since they're the first point of contactavatars actually have with 'the game': they're numbered in roman numerals inthe following sequence: 5, 7, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. Unless I'm missing something blindingly obvious,it strikes me that this sequence is frankly bonkers and likely to confuse thehell out of newbies. As an experiencedSL user, I spent nearly ten minutes camming around (newbies wouldn't have yetmastered this skill) trying to work out if these were different levels and I'dsomehow managed to miss levels one and two. In fact, each gate leads to an identical version of the game situated ondifferent islands (each island consisting of eleven sims) towards thenorth-east of the grid and it doesn't actually matter which of them you choose. None of this was obvious to the largecollection of avatars stuck in a big heap of uncertainty in the centre of thePortal Park, many of whom had disappeared by the time I decided to throwcaution to the wind and take my chances on entrance number three – and not bywalking through one of the gates.
And so to the first realm itself. Gameplay can pretty much be summarised asfollows: your guide – Tyrah – directs you from one part of the island toanother and you have to avoid such obstacles as rock monsters, fire balls,toxic water and rock falls to get there. Along the way, you can collect different coloured crystals which can betraded at 'The Portal Workshop' in quantities of 50 for Linden Dollars (50 redearned me L$1, 50 yellow earned me L$2 and 50 orange earned me L$5; hardly afortune, but for damned sure more lucrative and more entertaining thancamping). All these things are achievedvia some rather slick technology. 'Death' occurs on physical contact with beast/fireball/toxic water/fallingboulder, automatically sending you via teleport to the nearest 'resurrectioncircle'. Similarly, crystals arecollected simply by walking into them (they disintegrate on touch) and thequantity you have of each colour is recorded in a HUD which loads automatically on entry into the gamearea. The HUD – which is also where youreceive your instructions from Tyrah – is a point of interest for a number ofreasons. First of all, it loads withoutasking permission. Second, it doesn'tget stored in your inventory. Third, ifyou take it off you get automatically teleported out of the game. Fourth, when you return to the game afterleaving – minutes, hours or days later (even if you've removed the HUD in theinterim) – your crystal levels and game status are preserved. Whatever your orientation towards crystalcollecting might be, this technology has interesting potential for useelsewhere on the grid.
Each 'quest' is essentially a challenge to find/reach aparticular point on the island without dying too many times. Tyrah asks you to go check out destination A;you finally find it; Tyrah tells you, "Oh, so X is happening there. Now I want you to check out what's happeningat destination B". And so on. Avoidingthe rock monsters is initially frustratingly difficult, but gets easier onceyou realise you can outrun them if you, well, run. The rock falls also finished me off fairlyconsistently until the point where I abandoned my strategy of basically leggingit through the caves and instead used a stop-start approach to theproblem. I spent a few hours of aSaturday afternoon playing and got sent from the Base Camp to The ShatteredCavern to Banshee's Peak to Tyrah's peak and then to a toxic pool in the centreof Devil's Canyon. Along the way, I alsovisited the Sunspire Tower and its satellite platforms, where I experiencedbeing burned up "by the outer layers of an expanding star" (amazingly, theisland was not even singed by this) and later "atomised by a brokenportal". The toxic pool in the centre ofDevil's Canyon was, alas, where I finally abandoned Linden Realms, sincewhatever it was that was meant to happen there didn't and twenty minutes ofwalking around it in circles (and even managing to jump my way onto the tinyisland in the middle which I felt had tobe the intended destination) led me eventually to conclude there werebetter things to be occupying myself with on a weekend.
If all this sounds rather cynical, you might be surprised tolearn that I actually quite enjoyed Linden Realms. Simplistic as it is, the gameplay had anappeal to it that reminded me of the eight bit dodge-this-and-collect-thatcomputer games of my teenage years. It'ssimple, but it's fun. And the scenery –whilst admittedly a little like something you'd expect to see in a Disney moviefor under tens – was well designed, colourful and bold. The island had a definite atmosphere. Theexperience is immersive. Perhaps mostamazingly of all, but also most crucial of all for any sort of online gameexperience – there was practically no lag whatsoever.
I say I gave up on Linden Realms, however I do intend toreturn to that toxic pool and work out what it is that's supposed to happenthere. I also want to visit the otherrealms I've since discovered are accessible from separate Portal Parks (checkthe destination guide). Is this thestart of a new direction to my SL? Ofcourse it's not; it's just an interesting distraction. As a start to someone's SL, however, I think this idea has possibility. It's hardly a net that's going to catcheveryone's interests; nonetheless this represents an approach to one of themost difficult challenges facing SL recruitment: getting new residents immersedin the world before they tire of its uncertainty. A newbie that follows the pointers to LindenRealms as their first SL experience will actually have something structured to do instead of all that hanging aroundat the infohub, waiting for something to make sense (or, at least, for the guywith the large penis attachment to go away). The awarding of Linden Dollars is an especially cunning strategy,particularly since – at the Portal Workshop where you trade your crystals in –you're given a direct link to the Marketplace website, preloaded with a searchfor items costing between two and twenty Lindens. This is a great way of getting peopleinterested in their avatar's appearance whilst caught up in the game… and mighteven have worked as a strategy were there an area in the workshop for rezzingthe boxes when they get delivered.
Which brings me back to my earlier grumbles. As an idea, Linden Realms has potential. But it needs significant polish if it's goingto succeed in its newbie attracting objectives; at the moment there's still toomuch about it that's just confusing. Infairness, it's a new strategy and should be given time to mature, but a lot ofthese gripes are relatively easy fixes and just require a little newbieempathy. There's technology here thatI'm looking forward to seeing exploited by SL's immensely creativecommunity. And it's a good showcase formesh. Last of all, I can't help butwonder – particularly given the prominence that the venture's been given on theSL website – if this is the first step in an SL 'rebranding' that I've seensuggested in a couple of blogs. A yearfrom now, will we still be visiting 'Second Life', that world without a propername that suggests we can't cope with our existing life? Or will we be visiting just 'Linden'?
Out of the blue at the very beginning of December(apparently it was available to premium users previously, but where Lindenannounced this I have no clue), came a potential new paint job for Second Life®. Linden's latest idea, 'Linden Realms', is "theLab's first-ever game prototype… dodge rock monsters and fierce fireballs asyou cross deadly, toxic rivers to complete quests and cash in your crystals forLinden Dollars." What's notable is that(at the time of writing, at least) this venture is apparently so significant toLL that the Linden Realms logo currently displays on the SL home page withequal prominence to the regular SL logo, and over a full page Linden Realms poster. The newcomer to www.secondlife.com is nowshown our metaverse as consisting of cartoon style fairies, rocks and evergreens. At the moment, this is the very first thingthey see. Not wanting to be part of thatcrowd that unleashes the hounds of blogosphere fury every time Linden have theaudacity to do something to try to grow their business, however, I decided togive Linden Realms a go. The first couple of tries met with failure when I tried to followlinks from the 'Showcase' section of inworld search on Imprudence: theseclaimed to be to Linden Realms but one led to a bog standard welcome hub andthe other to an island somewhere with a red brick lighthouse and a large groupof rather confused looking avatars. Thethird attempt was via the Destinations Guide on the web site and got me to thestarting point, 'Portal Park 1', okay; but that was when I realised from theodd collection of spheres and cylinders around me that I obviously needed amesh-enabled viewer. Linden hadneglected to mention this, presumably because this whole experience is veryclearly aimed at new residents who won't yet have learned about the existenceof third party viewers, especially those not yet supporting mesh.
Attempt number four, then – this time in Firestorm – got meviewing finally Portal Park 1 and its eight gates to the first gaming area correctly. A note about the gates – and I think it'sworth spending a moment on this, since they're the first point of contactavatars actually have with 'the game': they're numbered in roman numerals inthe following sequence: 5, 7, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. Unless I'm missing something blindingly obvious,it strikes me that this sequence is frankly bonkers and likely to confuse thehell out of newbies. As an experiencedSL user, I spent nearly ten minutes camming around (newbies wouldn't have yetmastered this skill) trying to work out if these were different levels and I'dsomehow managed to miss levels one and two. In fact, each gate leads to an identical version of the game situated ondifferent islands (each island consisting of eleven sims) towards thenorth-east of the grid and it doesn't actually matter which of them you choose. None of this was obvious to the largecollection of avatars stuck in a big heap of uncertainty in the centre of thePortal Park, many of whom had disappeared by the time I decided to throwcaution to the wind and take my chances on entrance number three – and not bywalking through one of the gates.
And so to the first realm itself. Gameplay can pretty much be summarised asfollows: your guide – Tyrah – directs you from one part of the island toanother and you have to avoid such obstacles as rock monsters, fire balls,toxic water and rock falls to get there. Along the way, you can collect different coloured crystals which can betraded at 'The Portal Workshop' in quantities of 50 for Linden Dollars (50 redearned me L$1, 50 yellow earned me L$2 and 50 orange earned me L$5; hardly afortune, but for damned sure more lucrative and more entertaining thancamping). All these things are achievedvia some rather slick technology. 'Death' occurs on physical contact with beast/fireball/toxic water/fallingboulder, automatically sending you via teleport to the nearest 'resurrectioncircle'. Similarly, crystals arecollected simply by walking into them (they disintegrate on touch) and thequantity you have of each colour is recorded in a HUD which loads automatically on entry into the gamearea. The HUD – which is also where youreceive your instructions from Tyrah – is a point of interest for a number ofreasons. First of all, it loads withoutasking permission. Second, it doesn'tget stored in your inventory. Third, ifyou take it off you get automatically teleported out of the game. Fourth, when you return to the game afterleaving – minutes, hours or days later (even if you've removed the HUD in theinterim) – your crystal levels and game status are preserved. Whatever your orientation towards crystalcollecting might be, this technology has interesting potential for useelsewhere on the grid.
Each 'quest' is essentially a challenge to find/reach aparticular point on the island without dying too many times. Tyrah asks you to go check out destination A;you finally find it; Tyrah tells you, "Oh, so X is happening there. Now I want you to check out what's happeningat destination B". And so on. Avoidingthe rock monsters is initially frustratingly difficult, but gets easier onceyou realise you can outrun them if you, well, run. The rock falls also finished me off fairlyconsistently until the point where I abandoned my strategy of basically leggingit through the caves and instead used a stop-start approach to theproblem. I spent a few hours of aSaturday afternoon playing and got sent from the Base Camp to The ShatteredCavern to Banshee's Peak to Tyrah's peak and then to a toxic pool in the centreof Devil's Canyon. Along the way, I alsovisited the Sunspire Tower and its satellite platforms, where I experiencedbeing burned up "by the outer layers of an expanding star" (amazingly, theisland was not even singed by this) and later "atomised by a brokenportal". The toxic pool in the centre ofDevil's Canyon was, alas, where I finally abandoned Linden Realms, sincewhatever it was that was meant to happen there didn't and twenty minutes ofwalking around it in circles (and even managing to jump my way onto the tinyisland in the middle which I felt had tobe the intended destination) led me eventually to conclude there werebetter things to be occupying myself with on a weekend.
If all this sounds rather cynical, you might be surprised tolearn that I actually quite enjoyed Linden Realms. Simplistic as it is, the gameplay had anappeal to it that reminded me of the eight bit dodge-this-and-collect-thatcomputer games of my teenage years. It'ssimple, but it's fun. And the scenery –whilst admittedly a little like something you'd expect to see in a Disney moviefor under tens – was well designed, colourful and bold. The island had a definite atmosphere. Theexperience is immersive. Perhaps mostamazingly of all, but also most crucial of all for any sort of online gameexperience – there was practically no lag whatsoever.
I say I gave up on Linden Realms, however I do intend toreturn to that toxic pool and work out what it is that's supposed to happenthere. I also want to visit the otherrealms I've since discovered are accessible from separate Portal Parks (checkthe destination guide). Is this thestart of a new direction to my SL? Ofcourse it's not; it's just an interesting distraction. As a start to someone's SL, however, I think this idea has possibility. It's hardly a net that's going to catcheveryone's interests; nonetheless this represents an approach to one of themost difficult challenges facing SL recruitment: getting new residents immersedin the world before they tire of its uncertainty. A newbie that follows the pointers to LindenRealms as their first SL experience will actually have something structured to do instead of all that hanging aroundat the infohub, waiting for something to make sense (or, at least, for the guywith the large penis attachment to go away). The awarding of Linden Dollars is an especially cunning strategy,particularly since – at the Portal Workshop where you trade your crystals in –you're given a direct link to the Marketplace website, preloaded with a searchfor items costing between two and twenty Lindens. This is a great way of getting peopleinterested in their avatar's appearance whilst caught up in the game… and mighteven have worked as a strategy were there an area in the workshop for rezzingthe boxes when they get delivered.
Which brings me back to my earlier grumbles. As an idea, Linden Realms has potential. But it needs significant polish if it's goingto succeed in its newbie attracting objectives; at the moment there's still toomuch about it that's just confusing. Infairness, it's a new strategy and should be given time to mature, but a lot ofthese gripes are relatively easy fixes and just require a little newbieempathy. There's technology here thatI'm looking forward to seeing exploited by SL's immensely creativecommunity. And it's a good showcase formesh. Last of all, I can't help butwonder – particularly given the prominence that the venture's been given on theSL website – if this is the first step in an SL 'rebranding' that I've seensuggested in a couple of blogs. A yearfrom now, will we still be visiting 'Second Life', that world without a propername that suggests we can't cope with our existing life? Or will we be visiting just 'Linden'?
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