Cory Edo's wishes for 2006

• Mo' better builds. The stuff I saw people producing by the end of 2005 is light-years beyond what I saw at the beginning of the year. Better lighting, better texturing, more imaginative work overall, with care crammed into every orifice. Love it. Wanna see more of it. Nothing gets me more motivated than seeing something like the new Apollo sim (Dane Zander, are you the guy that did the new WA? You don't have to tell me, but its my hunch) and feeling that little twinge of panic - "Yeah, this guy is goooooood." Raise that bar, people.
  
• Its the little things that mean so much. New pixel shaded water (I liked oily vs. the eternal refraction effect, but that's just me). Goodbye telehubs (SUCK IT TELEHUB BARONS, SUCK IT HARD AHAHAHAHA). I hope 2006 brings more pleasant little suprises for everyone in SL - something for the scripters, something for the builders, something for the everyday guy or gal just having fun.
• All things to all people. SL has gone (for me) from being an absorbing online experience to a place where I make things I love for real cash. Companies and non-profits use it for education and promotion (not to mention fund raising). People use it to keep in touch with friends and family - or gain new ones. Artists use it to explore their creativity. Business moguls use it to break new economic ground. The more residents we get, the more new and unexpected uses we're going to see SL applied to - which increases our longevity. Can't wait to see what ideas are percolating in the heads of people out there right now...
  
• More joy. SL has not only opened up a world of creative and career opportunities for me, but its also brought me out of a RL dying factory town into a place where I can meet and create with other people like me - something I can't find in my RL location. Through SL, I've gone from the quiet resignation of Crap Job A, B or C to the overwhelming (almost panicky) thrill of believing for the first time that there's a niche I can fill - that there's something I'm actually, honest-to-god good at. And because of SL, I've met the person I've been looking 'round for my whole life. SL has given me more than I could ever give in return.
  

I hope 2006 brings more joy to each one of you - in real life, in Second Life, in all lives.