January 9, 2007 - While Load Testing, Make Sure to Check for any Nakedness or Hairlessness in Avatars...

In the article "IBM to Build Virtual Stores in 'Second Life' for Sears, Circuit City"

(http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,242564,00.html)

it talks about an interesting load-related problem.

IBM's chief technologist, Irving Wladawsky-Berger, acknowledged that virtual-world business is in the experimental stage.

 

On Monday, hundreds of avatars were naked and hairless — a software glitch resulting from so many users trying to participate at once.

I guess I'll have to remember to look for that the next time I set up a load test.

I'm picturing the Bug Report:

Steps To Reproduce The Problem:

- Have more than X users participate at once

 

Expected Results:

- Hair and clothing on all avatars

 

Actual Results:

- No hair

- No clothing