Deltango Vale

You didn't read the article either. I challenge people to actually read the article.

You did not read the article. I recommend you sit down and read it carefully. Those who have actually read it, got it.

Let me give you some history. In late 2006, during the massive immigration wave, Linden Lab had no land management strategy for the mainland. No new mainland sims were created. Tier on private estates was raised from US$195 to US$295. The demand for mainland skyrocketed. The supply was frozen solid. Guess what happened next? That's right. Mainland prices skyrocketed. Finally, LL began adding some new sims...a trickle at first, which resulted in them being bought at auction for US$5000, cut and resold retail. LL restarted the First Land program, but because the demand was so high, anyone lucky enough to get a 512m2 for the discount price of L$1 per m2 immediately flipped it to speculators. Through gross mismanagement, Linden Lab generated a huge bubble in mainland prices. What did LL do next? They flooded the market - and I mean completely swamped the market. There was no land management strategy other that creating thousands of sims. The market collapsed, wiping out the first big wave of immigrants to SL. Not content with this devastation, LL initiated a program of discriminatory pricing that drove the Europeans out of the market, essentially killing SL's European expansion. Needless to say, many Europeans dumped their land onto an already weak market and ditched their Premium accounts. Gods, the story goes from bad to worse. The 'XXX' policy cause huge disruption. Not only was more land created, but people were forced to move their long-established homes and businesses to this new land. Mainland prices fell even further. Meanwhile the 'relative price' of tier continued to rise. I will spare people a long essay and convert economic jargon into a simple, exaggerated illustration: In 2006, an island sim cost US$300 per month. In 2006, a moldy bit of bread cost US$300. In 2012, an island sim costs US$300 per month. In 2012, one can buy three nuclear submarines or a round trip to Jupiter for US$300. That, in a nutshell, is the problem with SL's high and rising 'relative cost' of tier. SL Marketplace is not the problem. The problem is that people cannot afford the tier for a large residential parcel on which to build and furnish a home. LL sucked up all the small-parcel owners/tenants into Linden Homes. The number of private estates has fallen back to where it was in 2009. A person can now buy a new iPhone every month for the same price as an estate sim. We are now in a situation where 10% of the mainland is abandoned. Land prices are effectively zero except in rare and special locations and the mainland rental industry is dead. Meanwhile the CEO has gone AWOL, the company is running around like chickens with their heads cut off and we spend out time being ignored in the SL official forum. This is why to only way out of this mess is for Linden Lab to sell Second Life to another company who can rebuild it and manage it properly.

"It's been said many times that Linden Lab does not understand their own product." ---------------------------------------------- Kodak didn't understand their core product either - and went bankrupt. If the folks at Kodak couldn't figure out the digital camera (which they invented), what chance for Linden Lab? The only hope is for another company to buy Second Life (including patents, IP, human capital, IT infrastructure) and rebuild SL from the ground up (as should have been done in 2006/7). Anything else is simply rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. What drives me insane is that SL has huge potential, but I seem to be the only person in the entire galaxy who sees it. Oh well. Imagine the frustration of a handful of people in Kodak who wrote email after email pleading with the Board to get out of celluloid film and into the digital age. It's heartbreaking.

Second Life is not a game any more than New York or Paris or Brazil are games. Second Life is a parallel world, a virtual country, a new political-economy and social geography separate from everyday life on planet Earth. Here is a comprehensive article on the nature, history and future of Second Life.

"EVE Online + SL = Walking in Stations!" ---------------------------------------------------------- Imagine whole world colonies on planets, multiple SLs, each perhaps with its own type of government. Imagine the sophisticated market system of EVE applied to SL. Imagine advanced Carbon technology applied to avatars and textile physics. Imagine inter-system, inter-world commerce with all its risks and opportunities. Imagine a simple but clever method of user-generated content. Imagine the mass influx of female players to a universe of avatar-based social interaction (don't have to look at a spaceship if you don't want to). Imagine SL on a single server (all of EVE is on a single server). Imagine grid stability on a par with Air Traffic Control. Imagine an international company that is deeply integrated with its customers around the world. Who better to rebuild Second Life and achieve its full potential?

"This is the best damn news ALL YEAR!" ------------------------------------------------------------- Sigh, if only, if only... Personally, I believe CCP could pull this off if they wanted. It's one hell of a smart company doing all the right things. The problem is the financiers. Linden Lab could be bought for a song now, but it requires some VISION.

Bloomberg - Friday 9 November Linden Research Inc., creators of Second Life virtual world, announced today that they have been acquired by CCP Games of Reykjavic, Iceland. Hilmar Petursson, CEO of CCP Games, makers of EVE Online, DUST and World of Darkness, said in a press interview this morning, "We believe very strongly in the future of virtual worlds not only as roleplay/game environments, but as unscripted, immersive spaces with huge social and economic potential. We realized this during development of World of Darkness, although EVE itself is unscripted. The next step was to embrace user-generated content and we felt that acquiring Second Life was the logical step." Dave Bland, Bloomberg: "Considering the competitive gaming culture of CCP, isn't Second Life an unusual purchase? Some would say the two are incompatible." Petursson: "Actually, no, they are compatible, though they do occupy different spaces in the market. EVE is actually a very social game, unscripted, involving much cooperation among players. We have a huge fan base that has evolved into a global community." Bland: "But spaceships and care bears are not likely to mix very well." Petursson: "Ha, well, we have that term in EVE, 'care bears', and they do mix, generally speaking, if by 'care bear' you mean economic agents producing goods and services for the economy." Bland: "Do you plan to merge the grids?" Petursson: "No, not at the beginning anyway. Our goal is to build on Linden Lab's expertise with user-generated content, feeding some of the technology into World of Darkness, though we have our own Carbon technology for avatar design. Eventually, we would like Second Life to be a model of planetary development in high-sec. Multiple world economies and societies spread out through New Eden." Bland: "You literally want to create a virtual universe..." Petursson: "Yes, by acquiring Linden Lab and eventually integrating hyper realistic social and economic conditions into New Eden, we believe CCP can be the Microsoft and Google of the next generation."

A phone call in the middle of the night? Vague grounds for dismissal? I wish I could understand Linden Lab. It all started so well six years ago, then something happened and the company fell apart. Does anyone know the inside story? Is it a problem with the Board of Directors? Senior management? Both? I'd really appreciate some links to explain how such a promising company with such an amazing product got so messed up. ETA: Tangentially related, I found this link: http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2012/10/linden-lab-2005-second-life-2nd-anniversary.html#more

Looking back over three generations of this forum, what I notice most is the loss of so many knowledgeable residents. I find it sad that Linden Lab never valued their wisdom and experience. Eventually, they drifted away. Over five years (I began writing in the forum about a year after going inworld), the same topics have come up a billion times and, yes, we had our share of tinfoil hats, axe-grinders, kooks and trolls, but the wit and humor of the best posters made the forum a joy. A few remain (Val among them). What a difference now from when I joined in October 2006. Back then, Linden Lab was posting frequently. There was also a monthly LL Newsletter. The company was engaged with Second Life, enthusiastic - the forum buzzed with excitement - and one had to be damn sharp to venture an opinion. I remember being terrified of Argent Stonecutter, who could eviscerate a fool with a three-word comment and, of course, the Prokodile. Those were amazing days in Second Life. For five long years, Linden Lab strove to make SL as banal as possible and it worked.

jwenting wrote: Deltango Vale wrote: I would like to see Linden Lab sell Second Life to a well-managed company that understands and appreciates virtual worlds. I would like idiotic comments like that to lead to an automatic lifelong ban... It's people like you who cause potential customers to run away and not even try SL. If you're so disgruntled and unhappy with SL, why don't you vote with your feet, cancel your account, and LEAVE? SL would be a better place without you no doubt, and you happier. Or are you paid to make such comments by a competitor? Well, let's see now. I have been online daily (sometimes 10 hours a day) for the past six years (annual Premium membership). I have paid Linden Lab about US$20,000 in hard cash. I have worked like a dog to build a business that improves the quality of the SL experience. I have written extensively about Second Life in this forum and my own blog. What have you done for Second Life lately?

I would like to see Linden Lab sell Second Life to a well-managed company that understands and appreciates virtual worlds.

Well, in terms of estates, SL is back to where it was four years ago. Economically, I think only Zimbabwe, Libya and Venezuela have done worse than Second Life over the past four years. Perhaps the folks at Linden Lab should start wearing funny uniforms.

So, Linden Lab, creator of the most dynamic and immersive virtual environment in history, is now going to make Etch A Sketch for tablets. Hey, why not make coloring books and crayons too? Perhaps Rolex will start making bubble gum. Maybe Microsoft will open a chain of pizza restaurants. Hell, NASA should concentrate on clock radios. Thank all the gods that Linden Lab is not a government agency funded by tax dollars.

"I wish LL would just give up and sell the platform to a competent company already. I get the feeling they'd be much happier if they did." ------------------------------------------------------ Honestly, I get the feeling Linden Lab really hates Second Life. So why not sell it to someone who wants it?

I cringe to think what Project #2 might be. An electric dog polisher? Upside-down Coke glasses? Perhaps a mechanical fax machine. I suppose the idea of investing in a virtual world is too advanced for them.

There once was a Linden named Rodvik, Who gave up his job at the Old Vic, He went to LA, To get better pay, But ended up terribly homesick.

Holy crap! I thought I held the record for long-winded posts, but this beats me by miles. People are free to believe anything they want. The Aztecs, for example, believed that the Sun shed its blood to create the Earth and that for the Earth to survive (not be destroyed by the Sun), man must shed his blood in repayment. Because the belief was so intrenched, no one dared to test it. The situation lasted a couple hundred years until Cortez put a bullet in their heads.

"In the 6 years that it has been possible to make unlimited numbers of new alts with no real identifying information provided, the only thing LL has done to restrict this huge security hole has been to limit account creation to two new accounts per day per IP address. " ------------------------------------------------------------------ It is a no-brainer that Linden Lab should require payment information for all accounts. Offer free accounts, sure, but require some kind of RL payment info. Having been an active resident for six years, I can honestly say that Linden Lab no longer gives a damn about Second Life. The concept of virtual worlds is way over their heads and they have almost zero ability to manage a business. The result is a perfect storm of incompetence. Linden Lab is overwhelmed, paralyzed, incapable of salvaging the mess they created. If people think I'm just moaning, contrast Linden Lab with CCP Games. Whereas Linden Lab goes nowhere, CCP Games is collecting mega kudos from the virtual world / gaming community for the quality of their products, the excellence of their customer service and the professionalism of their management.

I have had an annual premium membership since I joined in 2006. At US$86.40 (for UK residents), it works out to $7.20 per month. Land tier, on the other hand, is outrageously expensive. Linden Lab uses the same pricing model as printer manufacturers: the cost of the printer is low, but the replacement toner cartridges cost a fortune.

I guess I feel that life is hard enough already trying to use Firestorm (even when emulating Phoenix). I don't want to mess around with V2. To offer an analogy, Phoenix is the 'English' of Second Life. I can speak a little bit of French (Firestorm), but I'm not even going to try to speak Italian (V2). For a noob, arriving in Second Life is like landing in Mumbai. It's a whole new world, a new culture, a new environment. One must explain to them everything from top to bottom in order for them to become oriented and to integrate. This job was a lot easier when everyone used versions of the V1 viewer. If a noob seems truly interested in learning, I'm willing to switch over to Firestorm (emulating Phoenix) to hunt down all the new and strange names and locations for viewer controls. It's a royal pain, but some people are worth it. The point is that the V2 infrastructure (even when emulating Phoenix) is so awkward and user unfriendly that oldies like me treat it as a strange new religion. We live in our world and the V2 people live in theirs. If Linden Lab had understood Second Life, they would never have developed V2 in secret as a bridge to 3D Facebook. It was a mistake all the way from concept to execution. We continue to live with the consequences.

I, like most residents, never migrated from Phoenix to V2 because V2 was the Edsel, the New Coke, the John Carter of Second Life. According to Oz Linden (watch from about 33:00 to 36:00), V2 is currently used by a "significant minority" of residents. Phoenix is the most popular viewer, followed by Firestorm, followed by V2, followed by Singularity. By relogging from Phoenix to Firestorm, I can at least communicate to some degree with noobs using V2. V2 was and remains a serious problem for Second Life. It created a Tower of Babel where before there was uniformity of viewer operation and terminology. It created a wall between experienced residents and noobs. It was hugely disliked when first introduced and remains, two years after its introduction - two years in which new signups were given V2 as the default viewer - a distant third. It may be the official viewer, but, in reality, it is used by a small minority.

"If the Lab did a better job of retaining older users, the new people would find a richer world with more to do and more Residents ready and willing to help them out." ---------------------------------------------------------------- Bingo. Not only that, but the experienced users are on TPVs whereas the noobs are using the default V2. When a noob asks me for help, my first question is, "what viewer are you using?" I must then log out of Phoenix and log in with Firestorm in order to provide a basic level of technical help. In all honesty, the catastrophic introduction of V2 (designed for Facebook 3D without any consultation with the residents) was yet another massive screw-up leading to the decline of Second Life. And, let's again be perfectly frank, how many older players want to help someone called BobXXmax123fftrtrgone Resident? The last names problem was another disaster - and an easy fix - but Linden Lab screwed that one up too. Since the new CEO is a Brit, he will appreciate a parody of Second Life:

The 'Second Life' brand is a disaster, but changing the brand without changing the product is pointless. No one takes Second Life seriously anymore. Linden Lab drove the brand into the ground over the past five years and really couldn't care less. Only when a professional, visionary company buys Second Life will it be possible to rebrand it.

I figure within another ten years, California will slide into the sea. Nevada will have a coastline and everyone will be happy.