Mel Guymon
Head of 3D Operations
Google Inc.
Dear Mr. Guymon,
I am not sure what is compelling me to sit here and write to you today. There's something about Lively... !!
When the announcement came, I logged into Lively and made a room to Keep Lively Alive. Within seconds, the room was full - I put out extra couches to accomodate everyone. We sat in a circle watching our chat bubbles - of shock, of disbelief, of panic, of grief... I knew then that what we had here was too precious and it had to be saved. I have spent the last 6 days ever since the announcement doing nothing but think about how we can save Lively from being shutdown. And I am not alone - there is a big community on Lively that is devastated bythe news about the shutdown. We are all working overtime trying to figure out how we can reach out to Google and explain our reasons for not shutting it down.
We know you would have thought long and hard too before making this decision. Did you think of us - the community on Lively? Did you even imagine that you will have all these people rallying for a "half baked beta product" as Lively has been called by the media? That we would be willing to do whatver it takes? Well here we are.
Lively is a truly unique 3D world and I have not seen an equivalent in graphics/animation aesthetics in any other virtual world that I have seen so far. It is easy to use and has attracted people from all corners of the world. 3 months ago, I would not ever imagined that I would have a friend called Pony at Taiwan or a friend called Imajika at Florida or a friend called Cherry at the UK or a friend called Oriste at Crete or a friend called Rossen from Lebanon or... the list goes on. Lively has this unique ability to connect people from all over the world from the simple uncomplicated rooms.
To be honest, when I first tried Lively after having tried Second Life for some time, I was disappointed. Lively wouldnt let me add content or create objects. The mouse movements were different from SL. etc. But then I tried it once again - and then once more...and I am glad I did.
From what I have read on blogs and news sites about Lively - most people tried it only once and gave up OR they had never heard about it at all !! I feel strongly that Google did not give Lively the right ingredients to succeed. Not enough advertising and not opening for content development were some pitfalls that worked against Lively's success.
Sincerely,
KosmiKGuru
http://livelyzens.com
4 comments:
Fellow Sentient Beings;
What would you do if you knew, with near certainty, that Universe
would end on 12.21.2008? Not just the Earth and Solar System, not just the Milky Way and local group, but the entire fabric of space time? Not just you, not just humans, but all sentients in the Universe?
Well, that is happening to the Universe of Lively.
Now you, like I, might regard
2ndLife as a colossal waste of human time and computer cycles. I had logged on to it a few times, and thought it was just a glorified set of chat rooms. Forgot about it.
Lively is NOT 2ndLife! There is no comparison.
I had not even heard of Lively until last week when Google announced they would shut it down permanently on 12.31.08. So, I created and account and tried it, and was immediately captivated.
Sure, there is plenty of mindless chat, but there is real art and creativity too.
Realizing that the End of Lively represented a model of real-life human tragedy and the inevitable end, I got to wondering. How will
people react? Will they party mindlessly? Will they try to stop the end? Will they go on as if nothing is happening?
This and other considerations caused me to sit down and build a "room" - a Space Ark. I used a shell named "Underwater SuperHero Hideaway" - it looks kind of spacey, and could easily represent a spacecraft moored underwater, hidden from view.
And as I work on the Ark, I have come to realize it is beautiful. Visit my Ark and see if you agree.
Here is the direct URL
http://www.lively.com/dr?rid=1491701249705804473
I plan to labor right up to the end - no mindless partying for me, no sitting in bars crying in my beer.
My daughter Jewell has her own avatar; she is JewellOfTheGalaxy. Being with her in the Ark, (we use separate computers to do that) and in other rooms where we promote the Ark, is a very interesting thing; a new way to interact. It's more than just fun, it is something very special. Our
visitors are impressed with the Ark, and find it fascinating that we are there as father and daughter, talking, arguing, moving, working.
I did a short screen-capture video, with sound, to give you an idea of what I have built so far. I uploaded two versions of the video clips to my website; one is low-res for slower connections, the other higher-res for faster connections.
Low-res: http://www.huecotanks.com/vids/raarghhsArkLow.wmv
high-res: http://www.huecotanks.com/vids/raarghhsArkHigh.wmv
Please watch.
We can convince Google that Lively can be profitable. They have not
tried hard enough. They have not promoted it, and they are not using
it to generate either ad or subscription revenue. Both are easily possible!
I hope that Lively does not die - but either way, Raarghh's Ark will be ready on 12.31.08 to transport as many Avatars as possible to safety.
$teve
Great comment steve. "The only necessary thing for the triumph of Evil, is for good men to do nothing" - Edmund Burke.
webrunner1981
Thanks, Webrunner!
I really think the way to attack the problem is to help Google figure out a way to make Lively profitable.
How about ad links on the walls? Surely they could change the engine to force the display of such links, triggered by the content of the chat taking place in the rooms.
But - how do we actually get our ideas to Google? They are very, very hard to reach.
Steve
Hi Steve,
Thanks for the great analysis about the usefulness of Lively. I just visited your room and it is very impressive considering that you are a new user!
Please join our group http://groups.google.com/group/livelyzens if you would like to join our wonderful community.
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