Well, we’ve come to the end of yet another year! I wanted to spend a few words on what we’ve accomplished in 2014 and where we will be heading into the new one. 

Overall, I think we’ve made steady progress considering the team that supports CD also touches DE; and soon, we will be adding new one. Of all the role-play communities in Second Life, we’re also very proud to know we’re one of the oldest - we’re going into our 9th year. Before you know it, we’ll be celebrating a decade’s worth of history and stories in our fictional home we call Hathian.

2014 In a Nutshell

Expansion was the highlight of the year. We added our new sim, Batterie, and a number of updates in downtown District 8 followed shortly after. There a number of other items that we addressed:

• New Registrants: 5,735 in CD (10% increase from last year), 1,052 in CU, and 246 in Seaside
• Batterie sim added
• Beach expanded
• Downtown District 8 expanded; Row Homes added
• New emergency vehicles designed
• Theater renovated
• HGH sub level expanded
• Union Yard replaced the Junkyard
• Hardware Store added
• Security HUD 2.0 released (redesigned the way the system communicates in-world and to servers to make it more reliable in Second Life)
• Abuse Reports released (streamlined documentation and handling of abuse within the community)
• Website updated (major patches applied to fix a number of issues; still in progress)

Hathian History

I know there were some awesome scenes and stories that happened this year - what were the most memorable to you? Submit them here to get them highlighted!

The Future

Over the past couple years, I’ve been on a constant blitz of new feature releases to make the role-play experience cutting edge and innovative. Soon, the all-new Outbreak community will be released with its own set of features that will redefine survival role-play in Second Life. With the following in mind, I’m dedicating the next year to improve support and the efficiency of the systems in place today:

• Introduction of an IC government
• Businesses Overhaul Completion
• ALTERSCAPE Support Portal - All new intuitive website to handle support related issues for land, rentals, and reporting bugs seen in-world and on the web.
• Staff Overhaul - beef up security presence in all timezones, redefine roles and areas of focus
• Security HUD 3.0 (add ability for moderators to handle RP-related abuse reports, automate kicking of griefers by community if staff isn’t around)
• Mentor Assignments - system to automatically assign new players to a mentor if desired
• Furniture Audit - we’ve been loose about the decor on the sim since the rebuild in 2011; in that time, the number of differentiated furniture and objects account for the significant spike in lag for players. I’ll work with designers to create several high quality and well-scripted objects to replace them.
• Mother Nature Facelift- similar to the objective above, I think there’s an opportunity to bring a little more realism to the RP area with more 

Final Word

As always, life is unpredictable. While the above are goals I am hoping to keep, I also have a full time job, my own consulting gig, and a relationship to maintain. I’m expecting some big changes next year and one my own goals to simplify life a bit. Second Life has been a source of inspiration to me - I love the challenges and opportunities to solve them. Remember, as you think about your own year and what you want to accomplish, make sure Second Life continues to be your own source of inspiration - don’t let it be anything other than a positive force in your life. 

Good luck and hope you all have a wonderful New Year!