Max Key

Well played Linden Lab, only last year you managed to get the entire state of Texas to invest in over 50 sims, and now you make them pay double for it once they have invested all their time and money into Second Life.

Many top educators around the world and other specialist in the field of virtual education are promoting other virtual worlds, other than Second Life and some of of the main reasons are the high maintainence costs, ability to scale your education program and the fact that focus is not spent on colloboration and education instead of financial gain. Follow the discussion groups on Twitter or the educators mailing list from Linden lab and you will know what I am talking about. Next week I will hear someone who has been employed by Linden lab and directly involved with education virtual learning, and who has deep knowledge of using virtual worlds, speak about another open source alternative to Second Life during a seminar. It seems like some people know when it's time to abandon the sinking ship and I dont' want to be the last one aboard.

As an educator, and active administrator in maintaining a major European university (over 14,000 students) presence in Second Life I am not impressed with Linden Labs so called business strategy. Yes I am upset and disappointed about this incomprehensible call of action from Linden Lab. I usually speak positively about Linden Lab and Second Life during my classes and seminars, trying to promote and bring more institutions, corporations and residents into Second Life, but it seems I will have little to say in the future. Anything postive that is... Universities, and non-profit organisations, not only bring new residents into Second Life in form of students and business associates connected to immersive education, but also educate all these students in how to use Second Life, how to navigate this virtual world and interact with others. In cases more often than not, these new residents will take on their own virtual life, and want to fund their account with real money and purchase a home, on virtual land. Residents created Second Life, this is how Linden Lab pays them back? What happends to all the non-profit organisations who are dedicated, devoted and give their heart (not to mention hundreds of man-hours unpaid work) to help new residents in form of guidance, arranged classes and exhibitions? They join other virtual worlds where maintaining an educational institution, or organisation, is cheaper. What happens to all the wonderful artwork, museums and galleries in Second Life who is currently available for anyone to watch and be immersed in? Artists and galleries must beg for money? What happens to non-profit projects who use Second Life to support and help disabled people suffering from dyslexia, aspergers syndrome or other disabilities? We ask the disabled to pay our bill? What happens to residents when there is nowhere to go for amusment, immersive learning or mutual colloboration? They leave Second Life! The Black Swan was a monumental landmark for artistic creativity, and so was The Greenies. The Scottish castle which was built to it's real-life counterpart, or the moonlanding sim, not to mention The Second Louvré, these have all, like many others, left due to high maintainance costs. A non-profit organisation in particular is vurnurable to funding from external sources, and once the funding stops due to high costs, the presence of that organisation will vanish (join another virtual world). We do not expect to pay for learning how Second Life works, and if we are eventually forced to pay for it since there are no help areas, no classes or building tutorials available, how many new residents will then join? How many old residents will stay once there is nothing new to learn? If you think that universities and non-profit organisations will stay regardless of paying double the price; we won't. Who cares about learning anything anyway, education is nothing important and the future is all about money, money and money.