Editorial: Linden Lab, Sansar, and Steam

UPDATE 7:35 p.m.: I screwed up. Since I wrote this editorial, I have discovered that Linden Lab has, in fact, been responding to at least a couple of the negative reviews on Steam since January 1st, 2019. (Also, I learned that thumbs-down reviewers can disable comments and follow-up on their reviews.) So I am just going to say, thank you and bravo, LL! I was wrong, I will admit it, and I stand corrected. But what I said below about LL needing to promote Sansar via advertising still stands. And Linden Lab needs to keep on top of the negative reviews on Steam! Some of them raise valid points that need to be addressed.

I have really, really not enjoyed writing this particular editorial, and I’m not looking forward to being painted (again) as a Sansar basher by a certain percentage of my blog readers. Just to make it perfectly clear, and deflect that criticism before it starts again:

I want to stress that this is only one person’s opinion, not an official Sansar spokesperson’s point of view. I still remain a strong Sansar supporter, but I would be neglecting my duties as an independent social VR/virtual worlds blogger if I simply posted nothing but “good news” about Sansar, as some people want me to do.

There are indeed many truly wonderful things about Sansar, and I want Sansar to be a success! And please keep in mind that Sansar is still a BETA platform, and in constant development. There has been much good progress over the past two years. But I still feel—STRONGLY—that Linden Lab should have waited six months to a year before releasing Sansar on Steam. And I stand by my statement, and I feel I have supported it with my arguments. 

However…

It’s time to address a few issues relating to Linden Lab’s launch of Sansar on Steam. This move was supposed to invigorate the platform, and bring in lots of new users, right? And I quote:

Why is Linden Lab pushing to release Sansar on Steam before the end of this year, rather than wait another six months to a year to further polish the platform and add new features?

We want to get more people in, to help refine the product and make it better. We want to start building a community on Steam.

Re: dealing with any negative feedback on Steam, Eliot will pass that along to the appropriate people to deal with and respond to.

Well, here’s the latest statistics on Steam usage of Sansar:

We haven’t seen anything like that initial crush of curious users seen in the first few days. And I’m not the only blogger to notice this, either.

And that’s not the only bad news. I don’t know if you’ve looked at the Sansar page on Steam lately, but there are now 34 negative (thumbs down) reviews to 46 positive (thumbs up) reviews, which is the highest ratio of negative-to-positive reviews to date:

The review which was voted “most helpful” by Steam users is by 1029chris:

I’m reviewing this from the perspective of a VR user.

It certainly has potential. The engine is absolutely gorgeous, and runs decently. Some of the worlds blew me away with how nice they looked. But I cannot enjoy them.

Sansar has horrible controls in VR. It is very uncomfortable to use. The feeling of embodiment that I can get in other social VR platforms does not happen here. Your virtual hands noticably lag behind your real ones, they have some sort of weird smoothing. Doing any fast body movement in VR detaches your head, and you can watch your decapitated avatar walk up you. They seem to have designed it with more concern regarding how your avatar looks to other people, rather than how it feels to use. It really takes away from the experience. Immersive VR demands the least latency possible, and they’ve deliberately added a lot of latency so that other people see you move more smoothly. It’s very uncomfortable.

Sansars avatar system is also super restrictive. They don’t let you move any bones on their skeleton, and they do EVERYTHING through bones. I can’t rig my hands since they’re too big, and I can’t rig my head since my avatar has a beak. Sansars face animations are all done through bones, but I can’t rig my beak to human face bones. They need to allow more freedom with their avatars. They say that it’s so restrictive because they want marketplace clothes to fit to avatars, but they don’t allow you to put clothes on custom avatars anyways. All of the avatars that I use on other platforms are cartoony with bigger heads, so none of them can have face animations on Sansar. No face animations means it’s less immersive to talk to me. This strictness stifles creativity for everyone, demanding you to conform to their proportions.

Sansar has a lot of potential, and I wish it the best, but I cannot recommend it in its current state.

The next-most-helpful review states:

Are you a fan of Second Life? Do you like the idea of Virtual Reality becoming a literal virtual world? Do you want to Shop, Explore, Build, And Socialize? Then this game will be a massive let down!

Pros: Explore small empty worlds filled with disappointment! Watch your framerate tank lower than Fallout VR! See a massive amount of effort spent on photogrammetry and the passion of SL’s best artists put to waste~

Cons: If you feel socially awkward around groups of people larger than 1 you might run into issues on a couple of the maps. There seems to be an issue with higher graphics settings not buying you the 2080ti you need to run them. I’m trying to get a hold of LL for that.

Non sarcastic review: It was touted as SL 2.0 during its creation and it’s nothing more than a sponsorship friendly ghost town. aka what all of google/facebook’s companies are becoming in 2018. If you wanted to make your own avatar or build something amazing you will be let down by the restrictions and lack of in world tools. This is an oversimplification of SL’s worst attributes wrapped in a bow and **** out onto Steam in a last ditch effort to get people to look at ads.

Edit: I’d like to warn you all the top positive reviews are from people selling things in app. 😛

However, what’s even worse than scathing, sarcastic reviews like this is Linden Lab’s (almost total lack of) response to them. I understand why you can’t properly respond to vitriolic garbage like what the last reviewer wrote. Another reviewer even went so far as to unfavourably compare Sansar to IMVU (really? really?!??).

But at least in the first few weeks, Linden Lab tried to respond to some of the criticism directed at Sansar, like Lacie’s response to 1029chris:

And this example from early December:

And then, Linden Lab stopped responding as the negative reviews increased. As far as I can tell, there have been no responses since mid-December. Why?

Linden Lab really needs to get their PR game in gear here, and get someone to respond to at least some of the most recent negative reviews, to show that they are listening. It might still be a losing battle, but at least they would be fighting back.

And where in blazes is the “significant ad spend” promised at one of the Product Meetings last November, when the launch on Steam was first announced? And I quote:

What steps are you going to take to promote Sansar once it launches on Steam?

Eliot: expect some significant ad spend, expect some original assets. Linden Lab wants to build a community on Steam.

If Linden Lab wants to build a community on Steam, the time to start tending to that community and building positive word of mouth is NOW.

LL seems to be missing in action, while Sansar is drowning in an increasing number of thumbs-down reviews. Do something! Don’t just leave it all up to your users! Start promoting Sansar! Start responding to at least some of these negative reviews on Steam!!!

As I said before, it gives me no pleasure at all to write this. I love Sansar, and I want to see it succeed. But Linden Lab absolutely needs to step up to the plate here.

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