What is the reason for new users to turn their backs on SL?

It was a non-official statement, but if it is true, nonetheless a plausible explanation for the "Killing of the Telehubs", announced by the Lindens last week. It is an attempt to improve the retention rate of SL for new users. At least that was stated by Babbage Linden in the last meeting of the Thinkers (transcript here).

Babbage Linden: ok, the big discussion that drove all this was about making SL easier to use
Babbage Linden: at the moment loads of people are turning up, becoming bewildered
Babbage Linden: and never coming back
Babbage Linden: making SL easier is a big focus
Babbage Linden: to keep those people here

[...]
Babbage Linden: yes, newbies need to find what in SL appeals to them
Babbage Linden: but once they find it, they need to be able to get there easily
Babbage Linden: not find an event that sounds fun
Babbage Linden: and be teleported somewhere else

And I have to agree: P2P teleporting will make SL easier to use. (I think P2P has many other disadvantages, but that's not the point here.) And while, IMHO, the importance of direct teleporting is grossly overrated, ease of use - or the lack of it - is maybe the most important factor for newbies giving up on SL in the first days or even hours.

In my own portrait post on SLOG I already mentioned my own problems in the first days in SL. I don't want to generalize them too much. Maybe I am exceptionally clumsy. But I fear a lot of new users that are not too savvy with computer games in general or other online platforms like There or TSO will face similar hurdles. It may sound ridiculous to a seasoned resident, but Second Life is too damn hard for many first time users. The reasons are many:

• The client leaves much to be desired in terms of classical software usability.
• There is nothing much in the way of a tutorial.
• Online support is completely dependent on whom you accidentally meet in the WA or - similarly accidentally - contact through the help menu.
• There is not even a formal manual for the client and the "world". (No, a user-edited wiki does not count as a manual for a professional product.)
  

Am I exaggerating? Maybe ...

Many a youngster coming to SL with years of experience in early egoshooters or console games will snicker at these statements. A "tutorial"? LOL! "Manuals" for an online game? Christ, who needs that? Simple answer: many people in the most important target groups for SL! Lets face it: for the average player of console games SL is not a very attractive offering. The platform leaves much to be desired in the way of fast graphics, physics engine etc.

On the other hand SL is extremely attractive to people who like to communicate, to people who like to create, who don't want to slay monsters, who simply want to have a good time together with others - or alone, but in the context of a larger and complex world and society. That's why - compared to other PC games and online platforms - you'll find a high percentage of women and people with ages above the age of 30 (or even - OMG - above 40) in SL. These people are, BTW, an extremely attractive target group for Linden Lab. Why? First because they are a large - and growing - part of the internet population. Second: a lot of them have "money to spend". Third: for these people most other MMOGs and similar platforms are not really a competition (because of the personal preferences mentioned above). They only remaining competition currently seems to be There and TSO.

But - and that's a big "but" - many people in this promising target groups need more in their first days in SL. They need a client that is significantly easier to use. They need more in the way of up-front documentation. More in the way of guided tours, tutorials, how-tos - which could be implemented marvelously with the tools available in SL. More interactive support by real people. More "structure" to guide them through the first days. Some of these weaknesses are so obvious that I often did ask myself why Linden Labs seems to do so little in this direction.

I suspect that this has got to do with the dogma of a society and a world mostly build by the residents themselves. This is a stated principle by Linden Lab - and has a lot of cost advantages, too (having hard working natives being paid with glass pearls). It worked fine for a while. But I am not sure if this will work in the significantly larger and fast-growing society of Second Life in the year 2006. Admitted, efforts like the Ivory Tower and similar offerings build by the residents are great. The greeter program is a fantastic achievement of the community. I bet the new Helper Island is great, too. But the quality and accompanying support fluctuates wildly. And all these programs do not attack the usability weaknesses of the client.

All in all this is not a problem the most enthusiatic user community could handle. It is a job that should and can only be done by Linden Lab. There are some steps in the right direction I can see. But at least in the inworld activities I also still observe something that I fear is the attitude to get it done "as cheaply as possible" (= use non paid residents work wherever possible). And thats not the right way to set priorities, IMHO. Any Dollar invested in making Second Life more accessible to casual and non game-savvy users will come back manyfold.

Maybe I am prejudiced with this "ease of use" issue. Maybe that is because in my RL job I am often involved in usability improvement projects for large websites and development processes along the lines of "user centered design". Maybe ... On the other hand I have experienced exactly in these RL projects how important ease of use can be for an IT solution; especially if it is a system on the web, which is used by a large number of casual users. Little improvements in the front end or in some simple support process can lead to huge improvements in the retention rate or conversion rate. I wonder, if this really should be so much different in a platform like SL?

On the forums there is a lot of lively discussion about what features would make SL more appealing to "the masses". The usual suspects are "less lag", "more fps", "better physics/Havok2", "VoIP", "speed tree", "more stability", "try before you buy" etc. etc. And all this is probably true. But not one of this features will help much if Second Life as a whole - the client software and the support structures inworld and outworld - will not become easier to use for the newbie!

Worshipping the Almighty PP!

I had almost forgotten that it existed, the "Popular Places" (all hail the almighty PP!) listings. Back in the famed days of Darko's Cannibis Cathedral, a full effort was put forth by many people to break the dwell record of 30,000. Well, Dwellnor hath long since been defeated, and now people worship at the altar of the mighty TRAFFICVS.

I did a double take seeing traffic counts approaching 100,000, then realized that the number of people a simulator can handle simultaneously was allowing traffic counts to reach new levels. Unfortunately, its a house built on a foundation of sand. I visited a sim that had 83 people in it, spread out in various areas, featuring dancing, tringo, slingo and more. I explored each area and approached the people in it, saying a friendly "Hello!" or "Howdy!" Out of the 83 people in the simulator, I got a reply from exactly three. I spent nearly an hour going to the different corners of the sim trying to find answers to queries that puzzled me... mainly, why are you doing this?

Now, all three of these people were very nice, and when asked questions, after about a minute they would reply; however, it was quite clear that people were gathered at this location to make a pittance. Is this kind of THX-1138 existence worth it for the quest of popularity? Is the metaverse just going to turn into a gym where we all stand on virtual treadmills to ensure other peoples' popularity? Is it really popularity if people are just visiting you to make money? How can these people not realize that you can get L$1000.00 for less that the price of coffee at LindeX or Anshe? Do they realize that the electricity and time they're wasting to accrue L$1000.00 is costing them more than they're making?

I set out to find out the answers to these questions. I just found it very unfortunate that no one was answering my questions, since they all appeared to be (Away) or (Busy).

Sitting on a Goldmine

Money chairs make me sad. Not because I dislike the idea of an easy way for new players to make a few lindens but because of what they have to go through to get a few dollars.

I get a lot out of Second Life. It's a creative outlet and a way to connect with some really interesting people. That's my reward. Everyone has their goals in SL and that's one of the most beautiful things about it - you can do anything and set your own goals. My concern is that the people won't be able to experiment with the many facets of this place and discover something that will set off a spark to start projects of their own if they are simply sitting in one spot hour after hour.

As I mentioned, I don't disagree with the idea of new players being able to make some easy money. I've always liked the money trees. New players can simply walk up to one, pluck a few lindens and fly away to explore the rest of the grid and maybe buy something. And from what I've heard Slingo and Tringo are a fun way to make a few bucks too.

But generally, I have always felt that there is a bit of a gap between the new player and their ability to enjoy what SL has to offer right off the bat. Many people have argued that you can't throw money at new players, it's terrible for the sl economy, which I agree with. But by the same token, I wonder about how many new people SL loses on a monthly basis because people are too impatient or are simply unwilling to put too much effort into it in order to make money from content they create themselves. I bet there is a slew of people who have no interest in learning about the building and scripting tools. I can't blame them. At the end of the work day, my brain is often fried and I don't have the energy to get started on something new to sell.

This is where the money chairs come in, although I don't see them as a solution to the problem at all. To me they just highlight the need for LL or someone , maybe a resident, to come up with a more amusing way for new people to make some cash. And if they did, it would spare hundreds of avatars from sitting on their duffs while the rest of the SL world goes by.

A noob comes to town

Hi, there ;)

Contrary to most of my famous co-authors on this weblog nobody knows me in SL. So I thought, it might be ok, to say a few words about my perspective on Second Life, without looking too vain. It helps to understand what I will be posting in the time to come ;)

I came to Second Life in January 2005 after a friend and colleague of mine discovered it and invited me. It took him and another colleague a whole afternoon (connected to me over a normal phone line), to lead me through my first steps. Otherwise I would have given up after 5 minutes. That's because I have to admit (full of shame!), that after a few first steps with computer games in the 80s on a Macintosh 512 I never, ever have "played" any game on a PC since then. Yes, yes, yes, I know that I will get some angry frowns when I call Second Life a game. Rest assured. It isn't - to me; but I understand when others see it like that. But at least I can say with some certainty, that without prior knowledge of PC games, especially 3D games, Second Life if very, very, very hard to grasp in the first day. I still see this as one of the great weaknesses of the platform and believe this is a main cause for a relatively high churn rate of new users in the first days.

But I am meandering;) I just wanted to say that I came into SL with a rough start and soon learned to love it. The weaknesses of the system as a "game" does not annoy me much because I came to Second Life with a few friends and colleagues in our search for a platform on which we could build business applications in a 3D virtual environment. Yep, *blush* we thought we could do business here. How embarrassing. Even more embarrassing: I still believe that this is possible - and I mean "business" not only as a content creator, club owner or land baron(esse).

I - among many others - see Second Life as a first small step towards a future version of "The Net" which will not replace but complement the World Wide Web. You might call it "Metaverse" if you like;) But there are many other stories out there about a future virtual world, in which we will communicate, collaborate, work, play ... live. I like some better then Snowcrash. But thats personal taste. I am sure that this "virtual world 3D" web will come. And it will be fun - SL surely is - but it will be big business too.

I am rather sure, that - like it or not - platforms like SL will be used by companies of all sizes for entertainment, training, marketing, collaboration and more and more for sales, too. Projects like the one Well Fargo did are just the first steps. There are many more to come. But now at the end of 2005 this platform is still in its infancy. The update to 1.7 and its aftermath clearly shows that. Second Life is severely limited in many aspects - in its architecture as a rapidly growing MMOG and as a development platform. But besides being a fascinating world to spend time in, meet people, create, dance, drive, explore etc. etc. it is still by far the most flexible solution on the market for building applications. I am rather sure of that because our group checked quite a lot of competing systems before we settled on SL.

Still not much in the way of "real projects" has come out of the discussions in our group; which is frustrating, of course. Maybe it is too early for a medium scale RL operation based on SL, maybe we are too naive, maybe we are not focused enough. I am not sure yet. But I am sure that SL or a similar platform will play an important role in my professional life at some point in the not to distant future. Lets see what will happen over the next months or years.

In the meantime SL is the most interesting society to observe (and take part in) that I have encountered so far in my travels in the real and virtual world. It is one great playground where you can watch a society and an economy evolve that is not based on (at least some of) the limitations of the real world. But people don't change so easily. Even if you take away some physical limitations. Human nature has a great inertia. We can fly in SL but we still build most of our houses as if we could not. And the need to define ourselves in a larger, but closely knit group with strong emotional ties is so strong that many have begun to use their profile to define a family of their choice: sisters, brothers, parents, children ...

And maybe this is the most fascinating aspect of Second Life at all: how residents use the limited tools provided to build not only a new world but a new society, too - with many similarities to the Real World but many interesting differences.



Lest I forget: Of course I have a 1st Life, too. (I prefer not to call it "real life", SL is very "real" to me!) In my 1st Life I am a German, in my forties, married and happy father to a little son. My professional life always was dominated by "new technologies". In the 90s I founded one of the first German internet agencies, which through a series of new economy mergers now is one of the largest firms in this field in the country. I was CTO for this group for a while before I left it some two years ago looking for new adventures in technology ;)

Everyone wants to be a land baron(esse)

The Linden propaganda seems to have succeded. If you have a look at some of the latest auction results one can get the impression that ambitous new players are entering the land market and prices are on the rise. The market is heating up. Many residents seem to find the job of "land baron(esse)" interesting.

Of course ... with Philip touting Anshe (pictured to the right) as an example for a player making "six figures a year".

Seeing the rising prices at the auctions and the envy and hatred with which some residents look at the land barons made me curious and I did a little calculating.

The result? Alas, "getting rich quick" is not as easy as some may expect. At first look it seems that all you need is some investment money. Buy sims cheap at the auctions and sell them with a nice markup. Easy, quick! Or is it?

Take one of the auctions results for example:

A fresh sim was sold at some 1,600$. This is a rather high price but not especially unusual these days. The sim had some 61,000 sqm usable land (the rest is Linden protected). A quick calculation results in an avarage price of 6.7 L$ per sqm (at an exchange rate of 255L$/$) that the owner needs to break even. I am not sure if this is a price you actually can fetch for this type of land (I have not looked at it in detail). But 6.7 or 6.8 is a rather common price for nice flat land in the last weeks. So far so good.

But, oops, I forgot: the auction price is not the only cost connected with the buying of a sim. You have to pay tier for the additional land while you own it. Actually you have to pay tier for PEAK land ownership in an accounting period. So you have to add some 200$ to the price. Or more ... if you don't succeed in selling the land in the first month. (There are situations where the cost is less, but only if you have rather large holdings and can sell the land really, really fast. Possible but not easy. In effect it is hard to sell a sim without additional tier costs of 190 - 220$.)

OK, this added cost leads to a price of a little less than 8.5 L$/sqm to break even with the deal. Hmmmmm ... might be hard to achieve that price on the current market.

But wait! Didn't we talk about "get rich quick"? A little profit might be nice. I know "profit" is a dirty word for some. But no way to get rich without a profit;) So we add 100$ (a markup on cost of less than 10%). And please don't forget that it means work to parcel up a sim.

Please don't laugh. Believe me: to cut a sim into parcels of the sizes that are going best on the market (512, 1024, 2048 etc. and combinations thereof) takes time - especially when the sim contains oddly shaped protected areas. I talked to land barons and even when you take their words with a discount I estimate that it takes at least 3 - 4 hours of work to research, bid, take over, set up and list (in land sales) a sim. At a markup of 100$ this means you get 25$ per hour. Not bad but no way to "get rich quick".

Oops, and I forgot that if you want to get the hard earned money out at one of the currency exchanges you have to add more costs: fees (or "spread") on the exchange and PayPal commissions. And with all this added, said land baron has to ask more than 9.0 L$/sqm. And now it is beginning to get a little implausible. Prices like that may be achievable for some waterfront land or in the vincinity of a telehub. But this sim wasn't either.

Land is not exactly rare these days in SL ...

This was just one especially striking example. There are more. And you don't have to look at the auctions with the high bids. Depending on the amount of sellable land it might even be hard to break even with the starting offer of 1,000 US$. Thats why the auctioning process for some sims seems to take forever to start. They are a bad deal even of you only pay 1,000. Selling a pure water sim for 6L$/sqm? Plain grass land for 8.5L$/sqm? Not easily. But some budding land barons seem to hope for exactly that. And there is lots of land on the market these days.

Looks like an overheated market to me.

By the way: contrary to the real estate business in RL its not possible for a land owner to simply wait out the market and speculate on rising prices. Tier payments would eat you up. Tier is the great factor which differentiates the real estate business in RL from SL. You have to be fast in here!

I am NOT saying, that you can't make money in the land business. Obviously you can. But it's in no way "easy" in the current market.

Finally one good tip for all wannabe land barons: as frustrating as it sounds, when you finally see that you outbid Anshe there is not allways reason to rejoice. It usually means that you made a bad deal;) (If you don't have insider information about future telehubs or such). She is very experienced in estimating market prices, has a better cost structure made possible in part by larger volume and might get better prices for her L$ at her own currency sales. At auction prices where she still makes a profit, a smaller land baron is already in the red.

If you are looking for a quick and easy way to get rich - maybe you better start looking in another direction.

Finding Second Life

Linden Lab has recently created a new program called "Second Life Surrealty", which gives new residents a home in Blumfield when they upgrade to a premium account. Blumfield is a fantastic rendition of the types of suburban neighborhoods that sprung to existence in the 1950s. It is appropriately being compared to Levittown, a planned suburban neighborhood created 30 miles from New York City between 1947 and 1951. William Levitt built affordable homes after WWII to address a local housing shortage as soldiers returned from war, stating, "We believe that every family in the United States is entitled to decent shelter." With a $10 down payment and $90 upon moving in, an American family could have the foundations for tackling the challenges of life. I grew up near Levittown, so upon hearing Linden Lab's announcement, I took a trip to Blumfield.


Blumfield, much like Levittown, provides new residents a place to call home as they begin to build a Second Life. New residents are given the choice to move into one of six different styles of homes (created by resident architects for a Linden sponsored contest) in neighborhoods filled with residents in the same stage of their new virtual lives. The 14 x 14 homes have either 2 or 3 rooms, and the one I was invited to visit had a cozy fireplace. I was lucky enough to run into a number of residents inhabiting Blumfield all extremely excited to have been offered the opportunity to move into a new home while they master the basic skills of Second Life. Each resident had a similar pre-Blumfield story, "I hung around 1 or 2 clubs, frequently trying to win their raffles" and like Rhinohorn Axon, who was learning how to texture by replacing his front door, felt very good about having a place to call home. Rhinohorn told me "I felt like a hobo and this gives me a sense of belonging. A sanctuary from which I can learn the basics" and then when asked if he will ever move out of Blumfield said "If I ever spend enough time to determine a way to make an income, I probably will."

When I asked new resident WhiteWulfe Hauptmann what his favorite thing about Blumfield was, he answered "just a place to call my own". While WhiteWulfe was waiting for the official move in notice, he was noticeably excited to have a place where he could learn more about creating content in Second Life. In anticipation of having a place to build he told me, "I can't wait until I can move and take on the offer to apprentice to build race engines, though." Another resident told me she was 3 weeks into Second Life, bored, and was thinking about leaving, when she was offered a place in Blumfield which "gives me something to do".

None of the residents I spoke with had heard of any resident efforts to create villages for new users, or really understood the new land program. These future land barons, content creators, animators, and game developers all appreciated the opportunity to have a place to call home while they learned what Second Life was all about. Retention is an important issue the world of Second Life faces. The more people who find an anchor, a place to learn the basics and develop the skills to make it in this virtual world, the larger the overall active population will become. With so much to see and do in an increasingly expanding and complex world, it's easy for new residents who do not have a specific goal to accomplish in SL to get lost in the Sea of Second Life. Blumfield is a really attractive place for new residents to learn the ropes, but after they find their niche, they will want to move into their own plots. Encouraging residents to stay and become active members of the Second Life economy creates a larger market for land sales and rentals, clothing, vehicles, games, and just about every other resident run business inside of Second Life. Diversity, customization, creation and a feeling of self are the defining qualities of Second Life and the homogeneous design of Blumfield will eventually drive these same residents to find other places across the grid to settle. But for now, they have a place to call home, a reason to return and "a sanctuary to learn the basics."

Fear of Music

Tuesday I was admiring Octal Khan's house with some friends. Octal's house has been carefully textured to create the illusion of diffused summer light, and the effect is quite nice. It's also laid out very realistically, like an actual house would be; as a consequence, it's preferable to negotiate the tight (for SL) spaces in mouselook.

Each room has a specific purpose, including a kitchen, livingroom, bedroom, etc. One room which immediately grabbed my attention was the music room. It was lovingly crafted to mimic a modern home studio, with electronic keyboards and a centralized desktop computer to run everything. Of course none of it was functional, but it looked very tactile to me.

Octal in his music room.

I said aloud "I wish Linden Lab would integrate a General MIDI module into the Second Life client." Marcos Fonzarelli countered with something along the lines of (and I paraphrase) "No way. I've heard enough crappy MIDI files on the Web to last me a hundred lifetimes, thankyouverymuch." And he has an excellent point there...nobody likes MIDI on the Web. At the same time, I've heard enough bad techno streaming from parcels all across the Second Life grid to kill my higher functioning brain cells many times over. Audio can be abused in so many ways.

What made me think about MIDI in this circumstance had nothing to do with playing prerecorded music. It was about giving musicians a way to collaborate in Second Life.

A MIDI file is different from a sound file in that it actually contains no audio information. Rather, it is a set of instructions sent to an electronic instrument, telling it what sounds to use, what notes to play, how loudly to play, etc. Because MIDI files contain no actual audio information, they are much smaller than WAV or MP3 files (which is why they're popular on the Web). The downside is that it is up to the instrument receiving the MIDI information as to how to interperet it. An instrument built by Yamaha may play the same MIDI file very differently from an instrument built by Roland.

In the early 90s instrument makers collaborated on the General MIDI specification. Among other things, the General MIDI spec defines a predictable list of electronic instrument sounds for MIDI use. So if I make a MIDI file that sends the information "play sound number 22," both the Yamaha and Roland instruments know I want an accordian sound. The Yamaha accordian may sound different from the Roland accordian, but at least we know we can expect to get an accordian sound of some kind.

When you listen to MIDI files on the Web, generally you are hearing them played by a software synthesizer...a computer program that acts as a musical instrument. Often the software synthesizer is embedded into your sound card. On Macs it is integrated into QuickTime. And there are any number of standalone software synthesizer programs available for purchase or download.

What if Linden Lab licensed a decent-quality, General MIDI-compatible software synthesizer to integrate into the Second Life desktop client? It would be controllable via Linden Scripting Language, allowing people to create bandwidth-efficient musical instruments. Because the sounds would all be produced locally on your computer, rather than streamed from the Internet, performance would be lightyears better than the streaming audio we're familiar with in SL; The amount of data necessary to trigger the sounds is tiny.

Imagine buying a drum kit in SL. It comes with drumming animations for your avatar, and when you activate the drums a HUD appears on your screen with visual representations of all the drum heads in the set. Click on the snare, and a signal is sent to the software synth embedded in every SL client within listening distance to play General MIDI percussion sound number 40. Click the bass drum and percussion sound number 36 plays.

Your friend buys a guitar, which works similarly to the drum kit, except it plays General MIDI sound 30 (overdriven guitar). The cool part is you can both play at the same time, in real time. Add a couple more friends with instruments, and you have a Second Life band that can actually perform live in-world.

I admit that I have painted a simplistic picture here. Even the fastest data transfer in SL can be affected by lag, and mouse clicking on HUD objects is not the best interface for playing anything other than the simplest music. I have no idea of the technical hurdles that would be involved in adding the necessary MIDI tools. Nonetheless, I think it's an interesting idea, and would be a huge step in allowing musicians to participate more fully in their Second Life.

What do you think? Far fetched? Leave your feedback at Prim Heavy.

Half Empty, pt. 2

Half Empty, pt. 1

I remember as a newbie I spent a some time just hanging out at Joan's in Kissling (still there relatively unchanged, although these days it features a somewhat incongruous R2-D2 wandering about). Joan's has a marina feel, with docks, boats, and open air builds. It's bright and touristy. And it never felt empty to me, though I was often the only one there. I attribute this in a large part to the sound of water lapping at the docks, and the ever-circling gulls with their characteristic cries.

Pol at Joan's.

Any veteran of Second Life knows that circling birds are child's play to script, and where to track down a freely available ambient sound script. The point is that basic touches like these, working in harmony with the environment, can make a significant difference in how visitors perceive your build.

People understand this instinctively, which is why you see so many water features across the grid. In addition to being terrific eye candy, they add motion (and often sound) to give a sense of human presence to the world. Many water features, such as fountains, are already partially integrated with their environment simply by being both a scripted and architectural object. Contrast this with the ubiquitous "spinning box" signs, which add superficial motion but are made to grab eyeballs rather than to contribute to environment. Integration is key.

This doesn't mean we always have to go with the expected. For example, Fallingwater Cellardoor of Fallingwater Flowers recently showed me a sample from her new batch of plants. Her prim-based plants have always been equal parts sculpture and organics, and now she's adding some interesting scripted behaviors; her "bug-catcher" flower snatches a buzzing insect out of the air. It's a nice surprise, and I imagine that it would be even cooler if you stumbled across it in somebody's garden.

You can make comments about this entry at Prim Heavy.

Around the SL blogosphere

Recent interesting entries in the SL blogosphere:

Gwyneth Llewelyn on “generations” of SL users – if you found Aimee’s politics article interesting, you might also enjoy Gwen’s post.

Jauani Wu, always a colorful and controversial character on the forums, has a brand new blog -- I particularly liked his response to prok in the comments section of the Nov. 4th post where he discusses the role the avatar can play in the building process.

PARC's Play On has a short post on avatar communication, summarizing a recent conference presentation they did. Much of Play On focuses on WoW (I have never played), which is not surprising given that mmorpg’s market dominance. The Daedalus project also has some interesting analyses on mmorpgs, including one on buying gold.

Finally, on the breaking news front, check out this post on Clickable Culture where Forterra Systems, formerly There, has filed patent suits claiming infringement against methods for instant messaging with a 3D virtual environment. EDIT: speaking of Clickable Culture, this post is also interesting.

Comments or other interesting links? send me an IM in-world or PM me on the SL forums.

Temp on Rez: Peace and Quiet

(click image for larger version)