Written 23 July, 2008
ARC Discrimination
Introduction of Avatar Rendering Cost led pundits to predict a new form of discrimination in Second Life. Those with high ARCs would become pariahs, unwelcome everywhere. To date, that doesn’t seem to have happened—but then again, neither has rampant discrimination against those who don’t use voice, another much-predicted social ill.
One of these days, when our computers are a thousands times faster and ten thousand times more powerful, when our bandwidth is a hundred times faster—that will be in what, about five years?— we’ll laugh about the days when we were limited to 15,000 prims, when only 50 or 60 people could gather in one spot, when time dilated, when our frame rates slowed. We’ll think it quaint that we had to be careful about what we wore.
For now, though, it’s good to be able to check our ARC and the ARC of visitors to our sims.
ARC Discrimination
Introduction of Avatar Rendering Cost led pundits to predict a new form of discrimination in Second Life. Those with high ARCs would become pariahs, unwelcome everywhere. To date, that doesn’t seem to have happened—but then again, neither has rampant discrimination against those who don’t use voice, another much-predicted social ill.
One of these days, when our computers are a thousands times faster and ten thousand times more powerful, when our bandwidth is a hundred times faster—that will be in what, about five years?— we’ll laugh about the days when we were limited to 15,000 prims, when only 50 or 60 people could gather in one spot, when time dilated, when our frame rates slowed. We’ll think it quaint that we had to be careful about what we wore.
For now, though, it’s good to be able to check our ARC and the ARC of visitors to our sims.
3 comments:
Chey, it happens already! Estate owners discuss loudly that LL should make banning options based on ARC available, and in clubs or high traffic sims "security" personnel regularly is seen to harass visitors with high ARC.
Give people a tool to discriminate, and they will!
Discrimination?
What on earth is wrong with asking those who ignorantly or selfishly enter a private space with insanely high ARC to take things off?
We allow scripting, building, flight and voice to be on or off in sims according with the owners wishes to provide everyone with the experience they intend.
We ask people at large rallies or even sailing events to strip down to the basics to reduce sim lag. We ask those with weapons or giant prim "attachments" inappporprate to a setting to leave.
I have seen amazing elaborate outfits with ARC's under 2000 and very basic ones with a single attachment like rhinestone boots, crazy super prim hair or a heavily studded and scripted collar or weapon with arcs of 12000+.
If a sim owner is rude, draconian or harassing patrons, then they wont have to worry about lag problems when their sim is empty. Encouraging everyone to be more aware, encouraging both venue owners and attendees to be smarter about using resources is just necessary.
Last night I saw an amazing ballet by Ballet Pixelle. Amazing, not just as a performance, but also because technically I expected the lag cause by the performance and audience would make a synchronized performance impossible. How did they do it? They had the performers in one sim and the audience seated just across the sim line. A brilliant solution by a venue owner!
Give people a challenge to come up with innovative solutions for a better second life, and they will!
-- I'mSoNotSweetieWhoisTrappedontheKrispyKremeGrid :)
We really have to realize that a lot of people are unaware of their ARC, or don't even know what ARC is. I'm on the teen grid and I hadn't heard of it until today, and was very embarrassed to find that my ARC was around 1650! After stripping my avatar and putting things on slowly, I found out that the problem was a clunky AO that was over 700 points.
Designers of things that are attached to an avatar should be responsible for the ARC of their items, and learn how to minimalize the points that their things generate. I'm looking for a lower cost hair, but I'm hesitant to buy any because I don't know the point cost of the hairs in the store. We shouldn't discriminate against the people who wear the items and are unaware of the point cost - designers should test the cost of each item and post it! If we make shoppers and designers aware together, they can find solutions to lower costs and make everyone happy. This will also rewards low ARC designers with more sales.
Bottom Line: It isn't always the avatars fault - Vendors must be responsible for their products.
Post a Comment