DocD

Will There ever fix the lag issues in the Funzones?

One of the causes of lag in Funzones is how much server CPU is available to run the physics simulation part of the experience.

As you may know, the existing There cluster was built over 2 years ago, using what were at the time modern CPUs, motherboards, and chipsets. Since then, technology has obviously advanced, and these machines aren’t so “modern” any more.

Obviously, we haven’t got the financial resources (yet) to replace the entire cluster, but what we are doing is beginning to experiment with new servers to solve the lag problem. These experiments take two forms:

1. Over the past few weeks, Operations and I have been contacting vendors to find what we call the “uber server”, which is basically “how much CPU can we get into one box?” I’m happy to report that last week we think we’ve found two candidates for this: one based on the Intel “Pentium 4 EE” or “extreme edition” CPUs, and another based on AMD’s FX or Opteron chips.
   
   In fact, we cut POs for samples of these boxes, and once we get them will be putting them into service in selected funzones to see how they do. Look for more announcements about this when the hardware arrives.

2. We also continue to find ways to get more CPU power for less money, so as we lose machines due to attrition, we can replace them with equally priced machines which are faster than their predecessors. We’ve gotten quite creative on this front, even experimenting with building our own machines to see how cheaply in can be done.

Finally, we’re constantly looking for ways to make the experience more economical, CPU-wise. We have some ideas floating around which aren’t even fully formed yet, but do hold promise.

meret

Since I am leaving for California in a few days, I need to think any questions up soon, so here is my first one.

"There" has generated a very colorful history in such a short time. From grand visions with flowing funds to a seemly bleak future, it has continued to exist. It is obvious you (Michael), Steve and others that took the step to spin "There" off have a vision and belief in the future of a virtual world like "There". Now that sufficient time has passed to review and plan it's immediate future, would you please outline some of the major feature changes you envision within the next 6-12 months.

Thanks,

First, the “Grand Vision” for There is the same as it has been throughout There’s “colorful” history, in fact it’s a vision which predates There or even the Internet: we saw it’s forerunners in companies like daVinci Time and Space, books like “Snow Crash”, and precursor Worlds.

To understand where I see There going in the next 6-12 months, I think it’s fair to start with it’s history, in very broad terms:

First, the software to support a  “world” was implemented, with terrain, objects, and, most importantly “people”, or avatars.

Next, there was physics, which brought a unique realism to the world, followed by avatar communications, expressions, and emotions.

Next we added activities (paint guns, vehicles, etc), a currency, and commerce in the form of Therebucks and the catalog.

On top of this we added the beautiful ready made content from the art team: the islands, trees, buildings, houses, etc.

Finally, we added the “Developer Program” which made it possible for you, the community, to create things for the world – either for your own use or for sale to others.

That, in a very crude sense, is where we are today, with the one difference being that you, the community are now the creators in the world. To that end, developments over the next 6-12 months will focus on improving your ability to create and control the world (or your little part of it), and what I refer to as "convergence" between There and the internet at large.

For the former, some of the things we have in mind are: An accelerated submissions process, more tools for developers (“Sandbox” for examples), more things for developers to customize, more control for developers, and more ways for more people to “develop” (or “build” things). For the latter, we're thinking of more communications tools, better ways of exposing "There", it's members, and creations to the internet at large. 

I can’t tell you today exactly which feature will come first, since we will have to size these new features, but that is the direction we are headed. Rest assured, along the way we will also be addressing bugs: new, existing, and long-standing, and, where necessary, addressing features for new partners.

Celtic

My question for Michael:

"Since beta, some island features and locations have been advertised as "coming soon, and now "sneak peak". For various reasons of necessity , these fantastic concepts have consistently taken the back seat to the more pressing tech concerns, and rightly so.

With that realization in mind, could you provide some insight into what stage of completion these features were in when development stopped-and also, could you provide a realistic expectation of when-if ever, certain features will be made available or completed?

Below are just a few examples:

-Egypt no drop/no vehicle zoning drastically limits any community activities. (current zoning protects the pyramids, but it also prevents any use of the island)~Has thought been given as to how to make this island more useable by the community?

-Egypt "invisible wall" that prevents avatar exploration from the tomb to the pyramids

-Saja housing

-The various rooms within the Tyr Tower as shown by the glowing "pictures" near the tower entrance.

As a personal side note to my question:

While technical upgrades are quite often necessary and therefore naturally take precidence in terms of resource allotment, I really hope that the visually spectacular "official" development of our world will not always have to take the back seat."

Let me address some of these specifically:

-       Egypt. We actually built a major upgrade to Egypt last year before “Black Friday”. Unfortunately, due to some, uh, shall we say “peculiarities” of the There terrain engine and the way the upgrade was built, it will take quite an investment to deliver this upgrade. However, once we do get the resources to bring on a 3D artist for a bit, this is one of our first priorities to get “out there”.

-        Saja. Expanding Saja, which has long been one of my favorite places, would take a significant amount of 3D art resources. I wish I could tell you differently, but it’s not even on the radar yet.

Celtic

My second question:

"During previous state of There addresses, it has been mentioned that terraforming (personal island creation) is something that has always been within the vision of what There will be.

Is this vision currently a priority, and if so can you provide any insight into when this will be a reality?"

Terraforming and private islands is indeed an exciting part of the vision for There. But, before we can get there, we need to make some fundamental changes to our terrain engine, develop a usable terraforming tool, and, finally develop a viable economic model for “private islands”.

Some of the precursor work for private islands has been completed, you can see it in Real Estate and other features being developed (but not yet announced or released).

As for when we’ll actually have terraformable private islands, I’m not going to put a date on that yet. We’ve got a lot on our plate ahead of it, and any estimates I would give today would be wild guesses at best.

meret

Many features that members want including the occasional addition of new "There" structures requires the services of an artist/animator (new emotes, hair, etc). Do you envision adding an artist back onto the team within the next 6 months?

Meret

No.

TheChaz

In the March 2005 "State of There" speech, Steve Victorino focused on three areas for this year. One of the areas was the developer program, which he stated accounts for 97% of the new content in There. He highlighted the following...

- Custom scripting

- Better training tools

- Better management tools

- Better marketing avenues through stores and storefronts

- An easier to navigate auction system

- A faster and more flexible submission system

On the "imagine" side, he encouraged us to imagine...

- Developer pets

- Developer card games and games of chance

With this in mind, my question is... How is the progress with the developer program?

See my previous answer to Meret’s question.

While we’ve made some progress on the Developer program over the past 6 months, it has not been what we had originally hoped for. Over the next six months to a year, we will be re-focusing on this part of the product.

Majandi

Focus on international customers.

The majority of There speaks English and all 2D information is displayed in English. International folks from other countries have various problems becoming and being part of the community because of this language barrier.

Many never sign up, because the basic information about membership plans is not available in their home language (so the last thing they would do is type a credit card number in a box between lines they don't understand 100%), some manage to at least sign up but never feel comfortable in There because "learning There" is a hard time reading English help files and using a 100% English client. Most of them most likely will never take part in the developer program because of the same issue. 

Customers from Europe, Asia and Australia have an other problem, which only adds up to an even worse scenario:

Customer support usually is not available during their day/ evening times.

I live in Germany and have to wait until 11 PM before I can get in touch with live help. And then live help only is supposed to care either about billing or abuse.

Will There provide multilingual sign up and help information in future?

Will There extend their customer service and support (also for developers) to hours in which international customers can take advantage of?

What about international offices? I am sure that quite some of the more experienced international members would offer a few hours (only one or two a day may be enough) to work as employed official helpers in their part of the world.

I see two big questions here; let me see if I can address them both:

One of the reasons we used “XSL” in our web application implementation was so that we could, one day, localize the content to new languages without rewriting the applications. We are aware that localizing our product and pages to non-English language is a prerequisite to our international expansion. But, at this time, we would be hard pressed to prioritize it over many of the other initiatives we have on our plate (see, well, all of the other questions). Rest assured, we are aware it’s an issue and want to address it.

Support hours for international customers are an issue for us. At the current stage of our growth, we operate support under a controlled budget which doesn’t permit us to extend our hours, or number of offices, yet.

All that being said, we continue to think about this problem. We’d love to find a creative solution. 

roxetteusa

hmm I'd like to ask how far along there is in giving us terraforming abilities in terms of contouring land inside neighborhoods, its a feature that would make hoods when and if they are released a very very attractive option

I think I have addressed many of your questions in prior answers, but I’d like to add that as week look at improving the submissions process, situations as you describe (the ability to “pull back” a submission) will be one of the many things we would like to fix.

Jo_Bleaux

This may sound like a silly question, but here goes...

It seems to me that a community leader is going to lead in a direction according to:

* how he defines "community", i.e. his ideals and aspirations

* how he perceives our community in its present state

* how he envisions its potential

* what he considers to be obstacles and limitations to achieving that potential

* which obstacles he believes can realistically be overcome (and which cannot)

I'd like to hear some elaboration on these points.

Let me start off by saying that community is not defined by any one person at There, or any one person or group in the community.

As far as I am concerned, the Community (also known as “The Customer”) is an integral part of our business and any participation, vision, etc of the community is the business of every employee, not just one.

In my view, the answer to most of your questions: How community is defined, it’s potential, it’s obstacles and limitations, are best provided by the community itself, not by There. Of course, we’re happy to participate in the discussion, toss in our own ideas, and facilitate or develop solutions, but far be it from us to define the Community for you. That’s your job, and privilege, so to speak.

exalted_1ne

My question, of course, is regarding the paintgun/paintball features in game.

A while back, Grandmaster made a post considering a "moddest proposal" or at least an idea of what to do regarding the sport of paintball... One of those ideas that recently followed the topic was the option of a "pack" much like the explorer, music, or voice, that enabled the avatar to receive free paintballs.

My question is: Could there be future to "free" paintballs or a pack for like $5.00 instead of spending 1tbuck per bullet?

P.S. I realize that this may not be a major concern with regards to the other questions being brought about, but there are a lot of people still waiting for an answer from someone.

Thank You 

As you have observed, one of the things we’ve been experimenting with are new membership models and pricing structures. Since Paintball is one of our more popular sports, a plan like you’ve suggested is definitely something we’d like to look into, hopefully sometime next year. .

Average_Joe

Is There currently planning or developing a new client to replace the current one?

Thanks,

Average_Joe

Many people, especially on higher-powered machines, look at the There client and wonder why it isn’t as high-resolution as those used in other on-line worlds and games. Remember that There was designed to run on more machines rather than fewer, higher-powered machines. We could rewrite the client towards these machines, but by doing so we would potentially lock out a significant portion of the market. 

That being said, we would like to improve certain aspects of the client, such as the terrain engine. While it’s not specifically scheduled yet, it will be necessary for things like terraforming, so it’s definitely on the list. 

Rudy246

My suggestion was going to be the exact same as Exalted_1ne's

Paintball prices etc. Will they ever be cheaper? Or will There ever consider creating a "Paintball Pack" which makes Paintballing free for the user?

Rock on! =D

-Rudy

See Above.

Daniel_Hoz

How has the company's future plans for There changed from the State Of The THERE address that Steve gave in March? Why hasn't there been ANY change in Egypt or Tyr for so long? There has been coming soon signs for SO LONG, when will THERE make "the updates" for TYR and EGYPT?

See the question above.

Pixxelshim

One addirional question of MW

I am in favor of members acquiring property in our small world and transforming it to there wishes.

If you feel that new acreage( terraformed or not) will fall under member control, will you commit to the creation of new islands/geography dedicated to the general population?

My question realtes to a concern that greater percentages of this world will fall under member control, and that yo0ur staff has no plans to create compensatory new real estate.

See my previous answers in regards to Terraforming.  

In one sense, we’d like to see almost all of the World fall under member control, but we also want to avoid what we’ve seen in other worlds where the entire planet becomes a chaotic mess (not that chaotic messes are bad, but “everything in moderation” as someone said…)

KittyUru

Since this last update that gave us the new Paz's and the Neighborhoods, so many Members are having ALL KINDS of BUG issues now. And as each day goes by these issues are getting worse.

Many members are

1. Crashing right and left

2. Log in problems

3. Can't get the auction pages / profiles / Transaction history to work

4. Quest’s are not working

5. Inventory / There Bucks not there

6. Events are failing so no skill credits

7. Segment Violations are back

8. IM is messing up

9. Vehicles & Avatars are sucked into a black hole (both ending up in a different location)

10. And more

Is it not time to deal with fixing all the bug’s as the members need to be able to enjoy There and not have to deal with all these bugs on a day to day level.

PLEASE make this your #1 priority

See previous comments on the Top 10.

additive

"Will There ever fix the lag issues in the Funzones?" DocD

I would like to second this question. Race enabled zones in particular are completly usless to those that know how to control the vehicles. If you are just a casual driver/rider,you probably don't understand the big deal being made.

It's those that log onto There and spend their Thereian existance in race zones that are suffering.I'm sure this is happening in PB zones aswell.

Visit a race zone and ask people how the rubberbanding/lag is and those that drive regular will tell you it has been getting worse every update and at times to the point of being completly usless. Bank turns in particular. You exit one of these at speed and you never know where you are going to be rubberbanded to.

So Mr Wilson,what are Theres plans on this issue? Are you actively seeking out ways to eradicate the rubberbanding and lag, or are you just going to carry on blaming us for it?

add

See previous post.  

Elaur

Perhaps a better question would be:

What is there doing to increase member retention? 

As previously discussed, we’re experimenting with lowering pricing to make it easier for members to get into and stay in There, and we hope that all of the previously discussed changes, fixes, and features will help make the world more fun and “sticky”

MarineDude

im somewhat relived alot of my posts are gone lol... Im still thinking of a good question to ask.. :=/

Where do you see There.com 1 year, 3, years, 5 years, and the future? What is your goal now that you have taken ownership of the company and how long do you percieve those goals will take to reach..

<MD>

had to think fast for those two lol...

See my answer to Meret, above.

Celtic

I have a big question.

"Has there been any serious in-house discussions of a "There 2" or a major graphics/client upgrade that would drastically alter or improve the graphics/ world engine quality?, and if so has any work begun on such a venture?"

See Previous answer. 

Soosi

Except for developers, there is no viable way for members to make money in There resulting in a very one-sided economy. Furthermore, the economy has declined due to some very poor decisions by There. You only have to look and see that there are about five featured auctions pages where there used to be one or two dozen and houses go for a song. This has caused many members to leave and trial members to not sign on. Do you have any plans to improve the economy, change the existing structure, and/or enable members to make money?

We realize that, until recently, there was only one way to make money in There, as you say, through the developer program. With the introduction of Real Estate, we’ve added another potential income source for members: Land Development. As discussed in the initial and follow-up real estate announcements, it’s now possible for members to buy neighborhoods and develop them, or even buy lots, “build them out”, and re-sell them on the open market.  

Beyond that, well, we are constantly studying the economy and looking for ways to improve it – which includes giving you more ways to make money in-world. Keep in mind that the constant conundrum with every source of member income is finding a way to keep people from “gaming” the system, which could seriously impact the economy overall.