Currently tested Battlefield 3 Beta on PC… Dice maybe promised us to much. I´m disappointed.
Currently I am testing Battlefield 3
I just thought I give my 2 bits on that topic.
(Please note my native language is german so you probably find some misspelling)
Overall I must say this game was pretty much hyped. Can Battlefield 3 satisfy expectations of the people?
Well. If you ask me, I would defenetly say “No!”. If you would ask my friends and mates you would defenetly get the same answer.
If you search your answers in the Battlefield 3 UK, US or EU Forums, then you probably find differend opinions.
Ok so I want to share my experience with the game. My experience is collected both from my own gameplay experience but also from several discusions with
friends and people in the forums.
About the delivery of the game:
For me as a gamer since the 80´s I saw pretty much games. I must say when I dislike something than it is, if a game is delivered through detours. Yes you can say I am happy if I just can install the game, make a shortcut on the desktop and just start the game. I also do not have anyproblems with menues which are ingame. In fact I expect that everything related to the game IS ingame.
That is the reason why I was shocked how EA/Dice delivers Battlefield 3. First you need to install a tool called origin which is a houseown selling platform for games from EA. This tool has defenetly no advantages for a game instead of shopping. The overall download of the game is minimalistic and it looks that you cant even choose a installation directory. Yea the tool will just put all the content on your clean OS partition which is horrible. Maybe you can choose anywhere how to install the games but if you ask me.. I did not want to watch where I can find that option in Origin. I just want it as it was in the past. Give me an installation file and then I choose where I want the game to be and not such a tool like origin. So origin is not my taste. For me it is useless and for my friends as well.
But not enough. After you have downloaded and installed all files, you need to click on the game in the origin manager. Then you will be redirected to a website called battlelog. That is something like a facebook-styled app where you can start the game. Honestly.. start a game through a website feels like playing an facebook app.. feels like playing this battlefield play4free crap. In fact they force you to start the game by a devious route. Usability? Not existing. Its just the same bullshit like facebook. Untidy navigation and hey it tooks me and my friends more then 30 minutes to join a game together. What the heck is so wrong with an ingame sever browser and menue? Why the heck is there need to develop such a mess? We all had similar opinion. Battlelog is completely cluttered, has no usability and its useless. And hell yes we want back our good old ingame menues and server browser. We dont really need improvement here and infact battlelog is not an improvement. If you want to know how others think.. just read on here, its very interesting: Battlelog is INSULTING to the PC Gaming Platform or read my other blogpost about Battlelog “Ten reasons why Battlelog is crap that we dont want!”
I think that most people have already there friends and clans and if not there are enough ways to find new game mates so that there is no need for something like the battlelog. Yes I know its a trend to say “Peopls want to socialice!” but in fact that statement is not true. Most people are already socialized and anyway this facebook trend is not copyable to whatever. Do we gamers need it? I asked people and they expect game features instead of that. I think it is just a wet dream of any social media expert involved to this product and it reminds me also somewhat to stuff like gamespy which never did establish. This battlelog alone and the detour to start the game was already the only reason to cancel my pre-order. What I forget to write here is that you need to install garbage browser extensions and plugins so that you can start the game. I already see it coming that if you have problems they will ask you how many plugins you did installed, which browser you use and so before they can fix your problem. All this is a complete mess and I do not want to support this lalalala-facebook-trend.
I understand from business perspective that it might be easy for the company to pull out updates through this system but the biggest reason seems to be that they can now supply you on this way with ads in the future. They also can gather stats about you and analyze them. Also my theory is that they want to kill the second-hand market. Really and again.. I do not support this system and I wont buy the game.
About the graphics:
I must admit I was somewhat suprised when I saw all these early Battlefield 3 videos. In fact I was amazed.
When I first logged into the game I did notice my computer can handle the settings very very well. Ok ok.
But looks like videos can give you another impression. Ingame my thrill of anticipation did bust in the very first minutes.
To be true I do not want to say that the graphics are ugly or so. But anyway I noticed some huge gamebrakers in this engine.
Battlefield 3 is very colorful and some people might like it but me and my friends didnt. The overal opinion was that the game has to much
brightness in textures, the lightning is overdriven, everything is glowing even the soldiers looks like sparklers, the reflection on textures is overdriven as well so that the overall setting looks very very plastically and in some situations cartoony. Im suprised that it appeal ingame differend to the video previews.But the reason should be that I was now able to run through the whole maps and thats why I got overall impression and not single cut scenes like in a video.
From the aspect of the engine it also doesnt look innovative it rather did remind me to Crysis 2 mixed with Mirror´s Edge graphics.
I dont know why but the Frostbyte 2 engine is not my taste. Its to much make up and overdone. As I said plastically. It didnt gave me the Battlefield look and feel. It is hard to descripe.
About the sound engine:
Here I must say that it was in some situations very very bombastic. I really did like the sounds. Not much to say here. I just would prefer it if the weapon sounds coming from my own character would sounds a bit more like the weapon sounds I hear from my team mates and near me (Enviroment sounds). I mean a little bit more acoustic and echo would do it but that could be a matter of taste and I dont know what others think about it. Really… I dont want to complain much here as the sound engine seems to be modern and top-notch. I want to stay fair and I really want to say again that it is overall bombastic and the sound immersed me pretty good when I used my headset but I guess it is not much differend if you use your speakers. Let me call this part of the game almost perfect.
Gameplay:
Here I did feel the biggest disappointments. The complete handling (movement, controls) of the character was a major turn off for me and my friends. We played with keyboard and mouse but it still does feel like you play it on xbox or ps3 with an controlpad. Moving and shooting feels rather like any console game or is at least more comparable with Bad Company 2 or any of the latest Call of Duty games. I did like the complete control, handling and game feeling of Battlefield 2 or Battlefield 2143 but Battlefield 3 feels like a pain. I would not like to get used to it. Its just not what I expected and I am sure it is rather optimized so that the dev team can easily port it to xbox and ps3. And then we come to…
Hitboxes or Hitzones. It looks like they are optimized for people who will play the game with control pads on console. Its defenetly nevermind where you shoot at as long as an enemy is in front of you. You will notice you will hit him/her anyway. My theory here is that a control pad is inaccurate in aiming but a mouse not. So the game is optimized for consoles but not for PC. You defenetly dont need to search and aim the head of an enemy. You just shot as long someone is in front of you and if you are the first who shoots, you will survive and get a kill credited. A real major turn off from the game. We talked about that on our Teamspeak Server and we all had the same opinion, it is not good. But we had also the same opinion that the produced damage by the weapons is just fine and makes a bit more hardcore. The hitzones are defenetly not contemporary for a PC game and might only work on consoles with controlpad. If you take shelter for example behind a stone, then it doesn´t mean you are safe. I seems to me that there are still problems and bullets can go through very heavy objects. If bullets can go through soft objects I would understand it. But in BF3 they in some cases I had the feeling the bullets can go through any object so that I didnt feel safe often. But that problem might be fixed in the full release and thats why I do not want to complain much about it as long it will be fixed.
Classes. I did not really see a reason for such hard class changes. It has defenetly not anything to do with BF2 or BF2142 anymore. They changed so much that I dont want to start listing all that here. For BF2 veterans that is a real pain. They moved complete weapon sets to other classes. We said also that we rather would like it if we have more classes like in Battlefield 2. They also removed the commander mode. I did not play commander much in BF2 but anyway this feature was really great. I did like it to destroy the commander buildings with c4. Indeed I do not understand why they removed the commander.
Squads? Squad management in BF3 is a real catastrophe. At least in beta you cant join or create squads for your friends. I defenetly feel no teamplay. The system puts you randomly in a squad or on a team and it is a real pain to get all your friends playing together. I am not sure if there will be big changes until release.
Do you remember the great squad management in BF2 and BF2142? Dont expect much from BF3. Loos like they thought this Battlelog management would amaze peoples.. but where is the sense when you create a group in Battlelog if the system randomly throw your friends apart ingame? Right, it makes no sense. In BF3 you need defenetly more communication with your friends and it is often so that you ask your mates “Hey do you go over the right, middle or left flank?” and that is something we didnt really need when we played BF2. You joined squads with your friends in the past and the good thing was you could easily find your frinds on the map and radar as a squad was colored in green. It was perfect. This system alone makes BF2 to a better game then BF3. No problem if you shed bitter tears now.
Commandrose is also not in the beta but we believe they will add it in the releaseversion (Yea I did read that now, its true).
Let me write down some words about the rank-progression or let me say level-up-system. Im not sure if they reduced the distances between each rank due to test reasons. If not.. then it is a real problem. I rather favour the system from BF2 and it tooks me a very long time to go up all the ranks there. in BF3 Beta it feels just like “Ding-Ding-Level-Up” and “Ding-Ding-Next-Level-Up”. First I got a new rank each match or at least each second match. Yea I noticed the distance between each rank will be bigger the higher your rank gets. However it still feels like the progression is easy and fast to master. Also I miss a tier-tree where I can spend points and unlock weapons. I favour the system of BF2142 but the new system is not a real problem for me. Some peoples might like it. I just think you go up all the ranks way to fast and that must be changes. Holy sheep… Yes! I did like the tedious way in BF2!
The Interface (UI). Here me and my friends had again same opinion. You defenetly feel lost. The little radar map and the color of it is a complete joke. You just feel lost and we also said it will be impossible to get used to it. Same for the map. You´re lost and we asked our self why they did decide to make it all in blue color. The Scorecard has no ping tracking (why?) and you cant see which class each name in the scorecard plays.
There was tons of bugs and the whole games looks more like pre-alpha stage but not beta. If they can fix this in just one month, then they have a mission. I do not want to list every bug here as the list is big. I also think that bugs are ok for an beta. My overall review here is not based on any bugs its based on gameplay experience. The bugs will probably removed when ever. But the gameplay wont change in the future! So to argue its just a beta wont change my overall opinion about the game.
When we played the metro, we had the feeling that EA/Dice trys to copy Call of Duty. Also the bigger map called caspian border which we did access with an leaked password, doesnt gave us the good old BF feeling. Thats where Bad Company 2 already failed. Suprising the Battlefield PC Community positive as such.
Caspian Border has closer flag points then the bigger BF2 maps have. It was very soon clear that the devs provide more instant rambo battles like in Call of Duty
and Bad Company 2 instead of the nice exploded battles in Battlefield 2. And those battles in each corner on a big map, thats what at least me and my friends expected from a title called Battlefield. Warfar here and there in whide spreaded flag points with much posibility.
I could go on and tell you that I am not a real fan of the idea that they didn´t even add a commander but as I said the screwed already the whole classes up. Everything looks like it makes no sense. Why would you remove so much elements and features of a game which had a real big inpact and a huge fanbase (BF2)?
For the BF2 players BF3 seems to be a kick in the arse… yea it is a deliberate provocation.
Concluding:
Im tired and I probably missed lots of points in my little review but most of them was anyway negative for the game.
Concluding my judgement is devastating. They should have called the Game Battlefield Bad Company 3 instead of Battlefield 3. Its not much similar and I would not call it a sequel to Battlefield 2. I played Battlefield 2 over 5 years and it was a hell of fun. I think that isnt the target of this industry anymore. You do not have to be pleased with a game for a long time as they want to sell you new games in the future and that soon as possible. 5 years fun is something they see as a problem. The keyword today is shares and stocks and those sharks will do anything to prevent that you are pleased. Battlefield 3 would propably be a game if I would buy it, it would be soon in my gameshelf and get dusty til Battlefield 4 which will propably the same mess. The game industry has changed negative.
Is Battlefield 3 really not a console port? Bad Company 2 defenetly was. Now they told you that the main development-platform was the PC but Battlefield 3 is still crossplatform. And thats is what you feel ingame. I feel they produced it so that it can get easily ported over to these consoles. It is a pain and insulting us PC gamers very hard. Those days seems to be gone when PC had there own games with great quality and longterm fun. Today its mass consumption and mass food forced into line for the casuals. Thats how I did experience Battlefield 3. As I said I am not comepletly sure about the difference between Medal of Honor, Crysis 2, Bad Company 2, Call of Duty and Battlefield 3. Its all the same instand 5 minutes battle stuff. No innovation.. nothing improved then grafics (matter of taste) and sound. Does grafic and sound dazzle me so that gameplay is indifferent? Hell.. no! Gameplay is much more importend for me. If I want to watch a movie, then I sit in front of my TV and DvD player. But when we talk about games I want to get immersed by funny gameplay and that please for a very long time!
I do not want to get assimilated neither thourgh facebook-trend, xbox, ps3 or what ever. I stay PC Gamer and I choose my games carefuly like all my friends will.
Will Battlefield 3 flop? Again my theory is that this game will be sold much anyway on the casual and fast mass consumption market and I believe there is demand for such a game otherwise Bad Company 2 and Call of Duty would not be sold so much. But I also believe that many people will be soon bored so that they can come up with new sequels. And those people will buy this junk food again and again. From the otherside I defenetly did read and hear from people that they canceled ther pre-order due to several reasons. Me and my friends included. But the market is still so huge that this fact wont be a leg fracture for EA. Buy or buy not.. get used to it or not.. as long as you are happy with your decision. I am!
Please notice this blogpost and my opinion are the subjective thoughts of me and some of my friends. Everyone is free to have there opinion, also you. If you like Battlefield 3 then it is ok. Opinions and favor can be differend. I do not like this game and my friends dont too. I am free to blog about it even if im aware of the fact that it could start a controversy. But thats how it is. EA has divided the BF Community into two differend camps since Bad Company 2 and Battlefield 3. That is obvious.
So long…
Greetings.
See also another Article about EA on a Friends Blog: Criticsm on EA, BioWare and SWTOR
2ndhub becomes better known each day!
In a previous Blogpost, I told you already about 2ndhub. It is a Social Media Website related to Second Life and for Second Life Users. “Social Media” is probably not an unkown Concept for you. If not, then it is explained easy: Meet Peoples, Make Friends, Get known!
I think apart from making Friends inworld, lots of us use already Services like Twitter and Facebook to connect with Peoples who use Second Life. The basic problem is that Twitter and Facebook is not only used by Second Life Residents. So when we only want to meet and read Informations about Second Life, we need to filtering. But we do not have to do it on 2ndhub! And that is handy!
It doesn’t matter whether you want to connect because of Business-Reasons or because you just want to connect with Peoples from Second Life so that you can make new Friends. For each reason they have a Section and you wont be disturbed by one of them. The Layout is clean divided in Private Profiles and Business Profiles. That must be the reason why this Website becomes so interesting for differend Second Life Users.
Today I did read the Announcement that they reached 440 new Members in just 4 Days. I became nosy about the precise number of members and had to ask Mason Kingsford (Owner). He was very friendly to me and told me it is not a Secret! 2ndhub has today over 3100 Profiles which is in my Opinion very much. As we see.. it is doing well and I guess it will increase more. Many of us are already there and I just can suggest those who still dont have a Profile there, to hurry up! 
You can find a 2ndhub Tour here.
Thanks for reading.. oh and by the way.. You can find my Profile there as well. Just contact me if you like. 
Greetings
How to set up your own Banner with Link on the Second Life Forums
Today someone asked me how I did set up my Banner under each of my posts on the Second Life Forums.
I want to explain that now, because it is maybe helpful for others as well. Be sure.. it is really easy.
First Go and login in to the Forums.
1. At top on the right side you can see “My Settings”… click it.
2. Open the tab “Personal Profile” (I think its loaded already when you click “My Settings”)
3. There is a row called “Signature”… there need to be your html-code.
Here is the html code you need to put in there:
<a href=”PUT IN YOUR URL HERE”><img src=”PUT IN YOUR PICTURE ADRESS HERE”></a>
My html-code looks for example so:
<a href=”http://bit.ly/gqdgni”><img src=”http://i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/Miyo-Darcy/darcydesignsbanner.gif”></a>
When you did add your own html-code there. Just click on “save”. Now you will have your banner under each post you write in the forums.
Additional information: If your URL or the URL of your picture is to long.. you can use an URL-shortener.. for example bit.ly. There you can generate a short URL if yours is to long.
One easy but hot way of automatic tweeting your latest SL Marketplace Uploads to Twitter
Yes there is a cool way to always automatically tweet the Information to Twitter, when you uploaded any new Product to SL Maketplace.
You need to know how you can automatically tweet RSS-Feed entrys to Twitter. If you dont know.. read this Guide first: How to automatically post your RSS Feed to Twitter.
Lets get started!
1. You should first log in to SL Marketplace.
2. Click on “My Marketplace” and then on “My Store”.
3. Now look at the URL in your Web-Browser.
The URL of my SL Marketplace Store for example, looks so: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/37414
As you can see… there is a number in my and your URL.. my Storenumber is 37414. Look at your Store-URL and write your Store-Number (Store-ID) down.
4. Every Store on SL Marketplace has an own Feed but most peoples do not know it! Here you can see how the URL of my Store RSS-Feed looks like:
You can see again that there is my Store-ID 37414. Just take this Feed URL above but change my Store-ID to the Number of your Store-ID.
5. Now you know your SL Marketplace Store Feed.
6. Now apply it like in this Guide mentioned: How to automatically post your RSS Feed to Twitter. Then you should be able to let TwitterFeed automatically post on your Twitter Account, everytime when you upload new Products to your SL Marketplace Store. All your friends and fans will be informed everytime when you have new Products in your Store.
This is a good way to get known too as there are lots of Second Life Users on Twitter. Yes it is possible that you boost your sales on this way too.
Additional hint: Setup Twittertags like “#SL“, “#SecondLife” or “#SLM” as Prefix or Suffix when you create your SL Marketplace Store Feed on TwitterFeed! This is a cool way, so that each of your Updates get found by Second Life Users on Twitter!
How to automatically post your RSS Feed to Twitter
Someone asked me “How do you automatically post your latest Blogentrys (Rss Feed) into Twitter.
Some Content Management Systems and Blogging Tools have it already on board but if not…
There is still a Solution!
First we need to register on TwitterFeed. That is the website which will help us to feed our RSS Content to Twitter later.
When you finished your registration, then log in.
You know see the Feed Dashboard… Later you will see all Feeds you created here.
But now lets create our first Feed which will automatically post our latest RSS Feed entrys to Twitter in the future then.
Click on “Create new Feed” in the Dashboard of TwitterFeed.
Now everything will be very self-explanatory:
Step 1
As you can see… you just need to name your Feed (It is just the name so that you can find it in the TwitterFeed Dashboard later, if you want to edit it again)..
And in the second box, you need to put in your Feed URL. In the case of my blog it would be: http://miyodarcy.wordpress.com/feed/
Usually this would be already enough in Step 1 but you can additionaly open the advanced settings on the bottom:
I suggest it because you can customize how your Feeds will be posted to Twitter.
You can decide, when TwitterFeed should check your RSS Feed for new posts and how much new Feed entrys should be posted to Twitter (Up to 5).
You can decide if it should be posted to Twitter with “Title & Description”, with Title or Description only.
You can decide about the Postsorting.
You can prefix and suffix each Tweet (Add words in front or after the main tweet).
At least you could also setup a Keyword Filter.
After all this you can continue to Step 2:
Here you just choose your Service.. In fact we want to click on “Twitter” here but as you can see.. We could also setup our Facebook and others here.
Click on Twitter and then click on “Authenticate Twitter”… This is the way how you can connect TwitterFeed to your Twitter Account. On the bottom.. “UTM tags”.. there you dont need to change anything.
Now just hit “Create Service” and after it “All done!” and everything is done! Its easy and you can repeat it with every Feed you own! Peoples will then be informed through your Twitter Account, whenever you have a new Feed entry in one of the Feeds you added to TwitterFeed.
If you think “OMG! I can’t find my blog on Google!”…
If you think “OMG! I can’t find my blog on Google!”, you should defenetly take a look at this cool writen Guide here:
“OMG! I can’t find my blog on Google!”
Today I did read that Guide and found some very helpful Tips and Tricks about SEO “Search Engine Optimization”.
You should take a look there if you write in a Blog. Im sure some of us who use Second Life and write in a Blog had already some Questions about that Topic. Me as well.. so take a look into the Guide if you want to learn some Google and Blog related stuff. 
How to use Phoenix Viewer, Firestorm Viewer or any other TPV with xfire!
I know some of us use the xfire Tool beside the games we play as this is the easiest way to make screenshots, videos and upload it fast without trouble. In addition xfire lets us broadcast our online activity if we want to, on a very easy way. So for sure we want to use this Tool with Second Life as well. But the main problem is that xfire only supports the official Second Life Client. Lately a friend asked me howto add a third party viewer like the Phoenix Viewer to xfire (Indeed this is probably working with all other TPV´s). And I thought this is something which could interest other peoples as well. If you still dont know whats xfire for, just see what Torley wrote about this wonderful Tool here. Or take a look at the Official Xfire Website.
I will explain how to add the Phoenix Viewer to xfire. As I said it is probably working with all other Third Party Viewers. I tested it also withFirestorm Viewer. If you noticed it´s working with any other TPV you use, then feel free to add a comment here and name the Viewer and mention that it worked too.)
First I need to say it is much more simple then you can imagine:
1. First of all we go to our Phoenix Viewer directory. There we look for the file called “PhoenixViewer.exe” (in some releases it is just called phoenix.exe) and rename it to “SecondLife.exe”. (Indeed, if you use another Second Life Third Party Viewer, you must locate the right Viewer exe)
2. We open our xfire client and go to “Tools” on the top of the xfire working box and there we go to the options panel:
3. Here we open the “games” Tab:
4. Now if Second Life is not in the list on the right site, we just have to find Second Life in the “Not installed” List. If Second Life is already in the List of “installed Games” you just have to click on it.
5. Change Second Life from “Automatically Detect” to “Manual Detect” and set the “Detect Path” by click on “Browse” to your renamed “SecondLife.exe” in your Phoenix Viewer Folder.
6. The final step is to click on “Apply” to save this settings.
Now just make a new shortcut on your desktop to your SecondLife.exe in your Phoeniox Viewer directory, start the Phoenix Viewer and have fun using xfire with Second Life together.
This is the way how xfire will accept Phoenix Viewer as the Second Life client and after all this, xfire will detect the hours you played Second Life and you will be able to take Screenshots, Videos and upload them to the xfire Webspace. Or if you like to broadcast your activity online.. now you can do everything with your Phoenix Viewer what is offered by xfire!
Have fun.
Did you know about 2ndHub Social Media for SL?
Today I did discover a new Social Media Website for Second Life Residents, called 2ndHub. I did create already my Profile there. My first impression is very good. The design is pretty good and you can setup many things on your Profile. For sure you can also connect with other Peoples which is logic as it is an Social Website. If you are Merchant, Designer or what ever, you are able to create addidionaly to your private Profile a Business Profile. The last one seems to be a good idea if the Website will be popular in the future. I can imagine that this could be a nice way to make your Business again more popular then it is already.
I also did discover that they seems to be adding Vendors in the Future. It seems so that you will be able to open Shops directly on this Social Website but im not sure about this.
I need to say that the whole Website is still in Beta-Stage. So I´m not sure what the future will bring. But my impression was that this could be a good alternative place to meet Second Lifers. I would say you try this Website out.. it is without cost. I will defenetly follow whats happen to this Project in the Future. I guess its promising.
Latest Lionheart Times released…
Mistletoe Ethaniel released the latest Lionheart Times. This is a Newspaper about Second Life, the Lionheart Estates and the Lionheart Community. You will find an Article about the coming soon Oktoberfest, Halloween and Winter Carnival in Second Life. You also will find a great Article for Merchants called “Why Customers Leave Your Shop in the first two Minutes” and much more.
So I strongly suggest to read this Newspaper:
You are sick of searching Tenants for your AdBoards?
I started to get bored to even search new tenants who advertice on my AdBoards in my Mall. So I´ve seen something interesting on a friends parcel and thought I give it a try. I did register to SLBiz2Life because they offer AdBoards with PayPerClick Method. So this means after I rezzed one of the AdBoards from SLBiz2Life, I have constant advertisement on these boards and the point is, if now someone click this AdBoard, I will get payed for this click.
I did decide to use this Service because it safe me a lot of work. I do not have to search for new Tenants for my AdBoards anymore. So this is why I placed some of these new AdBoards. They have two differend modells you can choose. Or you just take both. You defenetly should take a look. I think it is an easy way to get some extra income without have the work to search peoples who are willing to rent on your boards. That means all is automatical.. you dont have to do much more then registrate on there Website and grap an AdBoard and rezz it whereever you like.
I placedsome in my Mall and some outside of the Mall so that they are good visible but not too annoying. I think I did place them very decent.
So if this Service is something for you too, well then just check it out. Placing these AdBoars wont cost anything. You rather can earn Linden Dollar with it, if your place is good visited.
I didnt know about this Service and I guess there are still peoples outthere who also dont know about it and thats why I did write about it. Maybe it is a great addidion to your Business. Greetings.
New Design for the Phoenix Viewer Website
I visited the Phoenix Viewer Website and noticed that they work on a new Design for the Website. Im nosy how it will look like.
SL Collada Mesh Import Beta coming soon.. huh? Alarming?
Linden Lab announced in a new Blogpost “Next steps for Mesh Import” that Mesh Import is soon in the Open Beta. As I own a 3d application called Macon Cinema 4d wich supports Collada Files, I first would say “Woow great news! Mesh Import is not far away”. But on the other side I think this all this is pretty alarming. But why do I think so?
Well..
I could imagine if Mesh Import is going live that lots of peoples will grap some Files from TurboSquid or any other Website where you can buy or get free objects. This could mean that many mesh creators who did offer there stuff on any other website could get ripped off. And I think that it is safe to say that Linden Lab will get lot of more work because a real big bunch of DMCA troubles.
So from this angel its a bad news. Sure for mesh designers its a great news. But the “grab some mesh and import it” will bring much trouble this is safe to say. Its a great news for fair designers who did create the mesh them self.. but criminal peoples will exploit “Mesh Import”.. they just need to attend any mesh and upload it to Second Life.
Im sure the Future will bring much more trouble. And if you ask me.. why is Linden Lab working on these improvements? Shouldn´t they rather improve the Grid first and all the Grid Performance Problems? Im not a technical and dont know much about the technic behind the Grid but anyhow I guess that Mesh Import will bring more lag then we have already.
So.. yea.. I´m pretty unsure about this news. Yea.. I think it is fine but also alarming.
Second Life Marketplace – Transition Plans Announced
The Commerce Team announced now the transitions Plans for the Second Life Marketplace:
Transition Plans
Here is a quick overview of what to expect in the next few months while we move toward retiring XStreetSL and launching SL Marketplace. Dates are supplied where available.
- XStreetSL Feature Enhancements suspended – Tomorrow, September 1st, will be the last day to purchase either homepage or category feature enhancements on XStreetSL Please check out the offerings on the SL Marketplace site, As there are even more options for feature enhancement. Feature enhancements on XstreetSL will not be migrated to the new marketplace.
- XStreetSL banner ad sales retired – Soon, you will no longer be able to purchase banner ad subscriptions on XStreetSL.
- In October: XStreetSL Linden dollar exchange trading suspended. – All market trades that are not filled will be closed and the funds returned.
- XStreetSL new listing creation closed – As of 9/5/2010, XstreetSL will no longer allow for new listings to be created, and the Commerce Team will focus on migrating all remaining content to the new marketplace.
- XStreetSL will have links added for customer to choose if they want to buy the item on the new marketplace.
- XStreetSL Items will no longer be available for purchases on October 6th 2010. - If there are links to Xstreet SL detail pages on blogs or articles those links will automatically refresh to the linked product on the new marketplace.
- XStreetSL sales history, account history will no longer be available after December 1st 2010.
- XStreetSL RSS feeds will be replaced by Marketplace feeds
- XStreetSL links in SecondLife.com changed to Marketplace – The links in the Second Life web site will be updated so they point to the SL Marketplace.
- SL Marketplace is out of beta!
Read the full announcement here: Second Life Marketplace is coming soon – Transition Plans
Not far apart.. Second Life Marketplace replacing SLX
The commerce Team announced on the Commerce Blog that the the big changes arent far apart. It seems Second Life Marketplace will replace XstreetSL very soon. So stay tuned.
Emerald Viewer and the new Website.. looking cool!
Just downloaded a new Version of the Emerald Viewer.. no I dont know if there is a new Version. I just wasnt up to date because the SL brake I had.
Ok then I did notice that they have a new Website here:
And I must say I like the style of the Website. Its so minimalistic but fine. I like this style. I mean what else should you see on this website? Right.. Most peoples first look for a new Emerald Version. And the first thing you see on this website is the “Download Button”. Easy .. and sweet!
You may wonder why I write about this.. I just dont like the trend that new Websites have to be overcrowded.. Its a trend I dont like.. Lots of Websites outthere which are overcrowded even if they just offer one single product. Yea on some Websites you wont find this single Product with the first hit.
So.. Great Emerald.. I love the new Website.. keep it simple but fine
Twitter App "twitterfeed.com" seems to be back online now!
For all Bloggers.. The Website of the Application twitterfeed.com for Twitter seems to be back online now.
Twitter App "twitterfeed.com" seems to be down?
My last few blog posts did not update to twitter. I usually did use the Twitter Application twitterfeed.com for this function. But this Service seems to be down now? Anybody knows something? Any good and trustful alternatives out there? Im not sure whats happened to this Service and Domain.
No Luck With My Advertise Activitys?
Since round about 20 days I am running several Ads inworld with AdBoards but also on big community websites with advertise banners.
I just cant notice any success on this activity right now so that I just can hope that it did produce at least some name recognition or brand awareness.
But I wouldnt say that I did gain any traffic or sales because of this kind of advertise activitys.
Let me tell you an example.
I did book an advertice sidebanner on SLuniverse.com with a medium rotation for 30 days and $3240L.
Since now my banner had 1820 impressions with just 7 clicks I did notice on the statistic website of this banner. So this is a Hits to Clicks conversion rate of 0,21%.
For sure we could now say that my banner isnt interesting? But I cant believe that this banner didnt work.. The banner is pretty good in my opinion.. Ok dont know how other peoples think.. But if you ask me i just think that banner advertise on website doesnt work to get peoples to your products. The only think I can imagine here that this maybe can create some brand awareness or name recognition. But this would be something which just the future can show me then.
My position is now that I dont book more of these banners.
I did also book banners on SLinfo.de and XstreetSL.com and I really cant notice a difference. The ratio was low there too so that I didnt notice any pros for my business. But if this is working for brand awareness.. well then the future will show. But I dont belive on this.
Ok what to write now?
I think there is nothing more to say.. Website advertise doesnt work well.. inworld advertise doenst work well too. So again I need to try out other strategies which arent that exorbitant expansive for my little Second Life business. At the moment I dont have other ideas.. in the past I did try out much stuff.. so now I need to chill out for a while and think about some other fun.
Greetings
Miyo Darcy
Peoples like to filch backlinks with there SL Blogs or they are lazy!
Yesterday I asked the “Second Life Club Review Blog” Owner if a backlink exchange would be a great idea? The answer was “Woow cool yes sure!”.
I did add this blog to my “Second Life related Blogs” Section and thought they would do so too.
Today I had to notice that they didnt add my blog to there lin section. However and nevermind for me because I can pass on peoples who just say “Yes and amen!” but dont do anythink.
I dont think that they did forget to do it because we did chat in IM Second Life yesterday and a link exchange takes just a minute. I did need just 1 minute to but there blog to mymlink list.
But because they didnt, I had to remove there link today too because I have to assume that they are just to lazy to put a link online or they just wanted to filch my backlink..
But im not stupid so go away with your “Second Life Club Review Blog” and be happy!
Greetings
Changes to XStreet SL Image Support
Dear XStreetSL Merchants,
We’ve had to make a change, effective immediately, to what image hosting locations we can allow on Xstreet. If the images in your listings are all hosted on Linden-owned domains, this will not impact you.
You can read more of this news on the Second Life Blog
-DD-Mall Advertisement on SLU now!
-DD-Mall Advertisement on SLU
Since I have very realistic Skins and Shapes for Second Life Avatars in my Mall and since I did place more and more great Fashion there, I did decide to advertice my business a bit harder.
On the left side you can see my new 160 px x 600 px Banner which is the one I use to advertice on the SLUniverse Forums now.
If you want to see the new Skins and Shapes or the new Fashion in my Mall, then just click the Banner on the left side or just teleport to this location here:
SURL to the -DD-Mall in Second Life
Im not sure if this kind of Advertisment will help my Second Life Business to grow. How ever I check that out right now.
I hope to get some new customers on this way. Banneradverticement is pretty new to my Business. I did try that out long time ago on a very popular german Second Life related Forum but there I didnt notice a great success.
Well but the SLUniverse Forums seems to be a big place for SL related topics and I did notice that there are many peoples online every hour.
I even like to give new ideas a try. And who knows? Maybe I get some new visitors to the Mall. Maybe I can spread out a Message on this way.
And if I notice some more sales, I will keep that Ad up in the future, I´m sure.
But how I said: First I need to try how much clicks I get on this way. Greetings.
Lionheart Virtual Real Estate Expanding Tour
When it goes to virtual real estate, its often not that easy to find the right place to rent land in second life.
Why? Well my experience is that many sim owners start there business with to low prices. I mean most of them think that they could do better business then. But what is the result often? Well those virtual real estate companys dont live very long. The bad thing is that you as a business owner need land for long time. You know you share your landmarks and so and this is why its very bad if you have even and even to rent new places because the sim owner close the doors.
And this is why i want to tell you something about a second life real estate company where i rent my land.
They are called Lionheart Virtual Real Estate and i am very happy with them.
I call the titel of this post “Lionheart Virtual Real Estate Expanding Tour” because they really do expand time by time which means that there business must be good.
What i can say because of my own experience with them. They prices of land arent low.. but also not to hight. How ever if you ask me.. Its ok if the prices are a bit higher then anywhere else. On Lionheart you can see that they live longer but not only this. Those prices give you better support and Lionheart has very good support.
I could tell you a big story about it.. there are many specials. Its great there.. time by time the peoples from Lionheart but also the peoples who rent land there meet up to talk about differend news, experiences but also about problems and so. This is great because its a good way to know who are your neighboors on the sim.
This is why i know what is importend and what not on the search for good land.
I just dont want to rent land.. no i want to be sure that if i rent, the estate need to live very long otherwise i would have to search again for new land which wouldnt be effective for my business. So better to pay a bit higher tiers but get long time land and pretty good support then renting cheap land and wonder laters why the estate company get a crash.
So a long time relation is way more effective for our business. Good support makes it professional and if you addiotionaly have the chance to meet the estate assistants, owners and for sure the tenants and your neighboors, what else could be better?
All this is why my suggestions go to Lionheart Virtual Real Estate.
They did expand often last time.. they grow and get often new sims and this is for me an indicator that they have success. And this is also a sighn that they dont close the door after you did decide to rent there.
So this is also why I decide to tell you about them.
If you looking for land you should visit there homepage.
Btw. you can gather many informations on there website. many of them are pretty helpful for your decision.
Here is the link to the website of Lionheart Virtual Real Estate:
Xfire and Second Life
Some of you maybe use the tool Xfire oh and for sure Second Life or?
So some days ago, a friend told me that peoples who use Xfire and Second Life, can meet up in a special Xfire group only for Second Life users.
I thought i would share the link to this group. Currently there are 48 members and I thik this group will grow and grow.
And you maybe also ask about the sense of this group? Ok let me explain..
Many of us like to take screenshots and videos. Sure some of us also like to broadcast.
Because xFire shows every new screenshot and video of a group member on the index site of this group, it is more easy to find Second Life related screenshots or videos now.
So this is the place where we can show our material. This is the place where we can share screenshots and vidoes with each other.
This is more then perfect.
Additionally this place is logical also the place where we Second Life users can connect.
Yea and the reason why I did join this Xfire group too!
Woohoo Pagerank
Im not sure but i have to wonder why this blog has a google pagerank of 3! I mean I didnt write much last time here. Anyway someone maybe did link my blog so that i´ve got shared the pagerank of them too.
However this is great!
