I hope not. If SL goes down Prokofy Neva will be released into the internet like Cthulhu…

The first impression anyone has of SL is how ugly it is. The avatars they start you off with are 7′ tall mongloids. Tiny heads, and arms way too short for their bodies.

You look around and see these horribly made environments that make up LL’s orientation and welcome hubs.

Then you try to move forward and you’re treated to this god awful duckwalk that makes Bethesda’s animations look like Pixar.

Sure, LL’s strategy should be that the users create the vast majority of the content, but LL sets the bar for new users. Because they set it so low, few people move much beyond it.

Then you’ve got the problem that those of us who know better still have to compromise our work to compensate for problems like 8′ tall avatars who think they’re only 6′ tall, and SL’s 1994 era camera placement which makes it so every room has to be the size of a school gymnasium or you can’t see anything.

Although, the user isn’t always right. I’d like to see LL ignore the panicked cries of users who think atmospheric shaders ruin their precious texture work. They added a halfway decent atmospheric shader plugin like three and a half years ago, but the defaults are set to make everything look as flat and lifeless as possible. Improved sky settings alone would make SL look a hundred times better.

I can think of a hundred seemingly minor details that LL could address to make SL a much nicer looking, easier to use, and way more immersive experience. They just don’t seem to understand the importance of details.