Sim Total Number Growth, Slight Decline In Private Estates, Continues

 

The current number of sims is 27,735 according to the Second Life Grid Survey. That's more than the number there were at the start of the year according to an article by Daniel Voyager, 27,659. But there is one small detail with the statistics: the number of private sims.

 

As most residents know, some sims are outright owned by Linden Lab while the majority are run by private residents. At the start of the year, January 1, 2023, there were 18,370 private sims and 9289 Linden-owned sims. By July 2, the number of private sims had dipped to 18,330 and the number of Linden owned once had rose to 9360. As of the last report in November 19, the number of Linden run sims had once again risen, to 9542. But once again, the amount of private sims dropped slightly, to 18,193. 

 

So there are 177 fewer private sims and 253 more Linden-run sims than at the beginning of the year. This trend isn't necessarily a bad thing for Linden Lab. While private sims do bring in a lot of money, $210 USD a month, the Linden Home sims on Bellisseria can hold plenty of Linden Homes, and plenty of Premium residents, who pay $12 each a month. And then there's the money they spend, of which the easiest way to get is to buy Linden dollars. On the other hand, private sims can be used to create great and interesting builds, which can attract curious people to Second Life by word of mouth.

So will these trends continue? Time will tell.

Sources: Daniel Voyager's Blog, Second Life Grid Survey

Bixyl Shuftan

New 80 Sim Region Appears on Map, Overall Sim Growth Continues

In Tyche Shepjerd's latest Grid status report in the Second Life Universe forums, he found something interesting on the northern part of the map. There's a new area made up of eighty sims, named from SSP1 to SSP 80. The landscape appears to be a mix of sea, river, flat land, and hills. I couldn't get into them, so apparently they're closed to most. Most likely, these are run by Linden Lab, possibly as part of some upcoming project.

Tyche also noted the number of private sims went up by 18. Looking at past recent weeks, on August 12 he reported no change in the number over the past seven days. On August 5, there was an increase of 28 private sims (including 12 academic). July 29 saw an addition of one private sim. July 22 had a loss of 20, but if one leaves out the Relay for Life track sims, the number would have been an increase of eight private sims. For July 15, there were 35 more private sims than the week before. For the week before, it was 34. So five out of the past seven weeks have seen a small increase.in the number of private sims.

So it appears that Linden Lab's tier reduction that took effect July 1 may have halted the overall long slow decline in the number of private sims over the past several years. There could be other factors at work, such as increased interest in virtual worlds, new users of virtual worlds whom looked at Sansar or VR Chat first and moved on from them to Second Life, more Second Life residents with better confidence about the economy in real life, or perhaps some combination of these. We'll know more as the months go on, but for now there is reason for optimism.

As for the eighty SSP sim region, Linden Lab will probably have an announcement concerning it soon.

Hat Tip: Daniel Voyager

Bixyl Shuftan

Second Life Geography

Second Life Newser has wrote about many places on the map, but what about the map of Second Life itself? Becky Shamen takes a look at the larger picture, including some statistics about the Grid.

Read more in Places. 

Relay for Life Flood Party Expected Sometime Today

The Relay in Second Life has a few traditions. Some are official, such as the opening and closing ceremonies and the awards given out. Others aren't part of the official program. This includes the "Flood Party."

In 2010 in the days after the Weekend Walk with people looking around the sims and holding impromptu parties, one of the track sim managers decided to have a little fun by raising the water level. People nearby noticed, headed over, and began swimming around in it. Word got around by word of mouth (or word of mouse), or people noticed the clump of green dots on the map, and headed over, whooping it up with inner tubes and swimmer AOs.

As this event isn't part of the official program, there's no set date. It could happen at any time today. And there's no guarantee that there will be one. Sometimes there are twists, such as the "drain party" last year as the Track already had a few flooded sims. But every year, there's been a flood party. So keep an eye on the Relay group chatter, and an occasional peek at the map over the RFL sims.

* * * * *

Some statistics about the Relay are available.  http://slrfl.maintree.com had the following

 Avatars:     1229
Laps:     2370
Distance:     20,016,523 meters
Minutes:     123,240
Course Length:     8,448 meters

There were also three lists of whom completed at least one lap, and qualifying for recognition by the Relay for awards. On the first list, yours truly was counted as having walked "2.33" laps, and a Turtle Award. Twenty-one avatars were determined to do at least twenty laps, including Newser writer DrFran Babcock, and will get the "Roadrunner Award." But only twenty will get awards. The one whom did more than thirty was disqualified from getting any official recognition.

 The date for the "Relay Wrap-Up" event was also released. It will be on Sunday August 16 from 9AM  to about 1PM SL time, with several more awards given out, including the Spirit of the Relay team and individual awards.

Hat tip: Daniel Voyager

Bixyl Shuftan

SL10B Statistics and Comments

Daniel Voyager had some statistics about the SL10B published on his blog. While there have been no numbers for the number of visitors (for SLB6 more than 17,000 residents dropped in at some point while it was open), it does say over 640 were present at the moment of the grand opening. For the 22 sims, there were 375 exhibits and five stages, with 470 applications submitted by performers and among the staff, 115 alone were registered as greeters.

Click Here for the whole list, along with a link to statistics of previous SL birthday celebrations.

The Second Life Wiki has a "History of Second Life" page. It's from Linden Lab, so there's no mention of the adult content protests and the 30% layoffs. Click Here.

Of Second Life's future, Daniel expressed optimism, "I think we will see more new technology introduced from Linden Lab in the coming years making Second Life more realistic, faster and better improved."

Hamlet Au of New World Notes also had a few comments about Second Life, a few which made it to a SF Post article, and more in depth on an article in gigaom.com. Hamlet felt the biggest mistake Linden Lab made with the virtual world was "it ignored what the overwhelming majority of residents were actually doing." While it was pushing things like an "Enterprise" version for businesses to hold meetings, it paid little attention to the roleplaying and other gaming, fashion and shopping, adult activities, and other things which were drawing residents. It might have a second chance to get the larger public's attention as technologies like Oculus Rift make it much easier to use. Another thing that got Hamlet's attention, people with physical and mental disabilities were using Second Life to interact with others in ways that would be difficult to impossible without it.

What do you the readers think? What has Second Life done right, and wrong, in it's ten years, and how do you see it's future? Will there be an SL20B?

Bixyl Shuftan

Sources: Daniel Voyager, Hamlet Au

Growth in Private Estates, But Total Sim Numbers Still Dropping

Daniel Voyager had a couple things to say about recent statistical data of Second Life. For a change, there was a little good news as far as trends in sim numbers was concerned. Tyche Shepard's data on new private estates saw a small increase, the first one recorded on the Grid in forty weeks. Unfortunetly, the declining numbers of mainland sims made up for this, "Since the start of 2013, the net number of private regions lost  now stands at 510 (2.4% in 13 weeks).

While the growth in private sims is good news, it's unsure wether or not this trend will continue. Daniel Voyager commented, "… it needs changes from Linden Lab to start the recovery again."

For Daniel Voyager's article, Click Here.