[sldev] New to the list with a complicated question.

[Stickman]

> Incidentally, the built-in browser originally supported both javascript
> and Flash content -- at least under Windows -- (I may have spent one or
> two dull in-world meetings playing the Grow games through the builtin
> browser). I assume there was a good reason at the time that it was
> subsequently disabled.

I have vague recollection of people mentioning difficulty in
maintenance. The very act of maintaining an inworld browser takes up
development resources that could be spent elsewhere, and everyone and
their mom already has a browser of choice. Thus, why there even is an
inworld browser is a debated issue.

The only use I see is if people use SL fullscreened (Which I don't).
And without statistics about something like that, I can't make an
argument one way or the other. I don't even know if LL has statistics
like that. That kinda stuff would be fun to see, in addition to all
the other wonderful stats LL releases.

Eve Online, which I do run fullscreen, also maintains an inworld
browser. It also doesn't support Flash. I don't believe it supports
javascript, even. They recently did a complete rebuild of it, which
means they have no intention of scrapping it soon. I know Eve Online
has stats (they've got an economist on staff and release public
quarterly reports) so they know their inworld browser is heavily used
and loved, even with its limitations.

Steam, the game distribution service from Valve, also has a built in
browser. Steam's browser has Flash. However, Steam's browser seems to
simply piggyback off Internet Explorer. I'm not sure as to the extent
-- but it seems to be a nice shortcut that avoids having to do
anything but maintain a fancy skin for it. Also, Steam loves stats.
http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey
http://store.steampowered.com/stats/ Oh look, Steam hit 12.65GB/s on
their content servers today.

-|

^ hey look, a tangent!

-Stickman