If anyone ain’t noticed from my Snapzilla gallery, I been running shadows full time lately.  And, really, SL ain’t never looked hawter! (^_^)

But… SL really only looks like that for ~me~. (._.)

At the same time, I’m seeing the craptastic pictures that the Labbies put on the SL home page and I wonder if they’re noticing one of the reasons peoples is scoffing at.  Namely, “Second Life graphics suck!” (>_<)

Now, yeah, I know it takes some pretty epic equipment to run SL.  Prim build polygon counts pretty much assure that.  Come mesh, a cube can finally consist of 12 tris instead of 48.  So, hmm… Some lag reduction potential there, right? =^-^=

Anyway, so, what’s with the promo pictures?  Many of them are dated, with obviously old builds and textures, grainy, and deceptive.  Deceptive? Yeah… The AVs presented are already dec’d out with AOs magic particle stuff, and all.  So, newbie.resident joins the grid expecting to accomplish teh hawtnezz on day one.  In a way, they can… But only if they find help inworld.  (Crying bloody shame there ain’t mentors, no?) (=_=)

As a paying customer, I want to see SL thrive nearly as much as the Labbies depend on it.  So, when I see this, I can’t help be be a bit concerned.  I’m seeing signs of neglect left and right, starting with the opening sequence of the bloody home page. (>_<)

Try it out yourself.  Log out of the SL web site, clear your cookies, and hand type www.secondlife.com … What do you see?  Does it look interesting?  Would you buy that? (o.o)

Then go back to your ‘been there’ mindset… What do you see?  Does it reflect what you log into when you hit the grid?  Does it make you consider jacking up your hardware a bit to run pretty like that?  Or, have you gone beyond that and groan at the generation of Luddites who are going to sign up now? (=_=)

I’m being cruel. =^-^=

Either way, I just get the feeling the Labbies aren’t putting their best face forward.  And, quite frankly, the current opening page is “M” Linden’s SL.  What’s he done for us lately? (=_=)

Actually, I wonder who the Labbies are trying to attract.  With the ballgowns, glitz, and sparkle… 40-somethings? (O.o)

Dunno. (o.O)

One thing all this stuff doesn’t do… Answer the question “What do I do here?” DX

… I guess that’s where people like me and groups like NCI come in. =^-^=

Hm… Should SL look as good as possible?  Because, given the right computer, that can be pretty darned good.  I like people to join SL… More souls to dev…. friends to make.  I wonder what the Labbies can do to promote SL to people I’d like.  Right now, I don’t even know what that would be.  Hows about you?  OH!!! IDEA! (o.o)

Has anyone ever published a survey to gather the personality types of ‘happy’ SL users?  Like, not so much the blogoforasphere yappers like me, but, the peeps that make up the other 90% of the population  What is the average SLer like?  Go beyond the basics.  Age, gender, language, income, bleh…. Go to preferences.  XD

Is the average SLer a tech-nut? Gamer? Budding entrepreneur? Horny hentai fan? In the basement? In the closet? In the fursuit?  Now I’m all curious.  I mean, what better customer to attract than the same kind of person who’s already here? (O.o)

In any case, is Second Life putting its best face forward?  Has the cleanest, most homogenized, and sterile environment presented so far been leading to revenue generating premium/land owning/content creating population? (o.o)

It’s not easy, selling a dream.  But that’s exactly what the Labbies gotta do.  (^_^)

Can “Your world.  Your imagination.” come back and keep the dream alive? (^_^)