December 6, 2008 by Nobody Fugazi
Posted in
I haven't even bothered to log in to Second Life in about a month. My reasons aren't necessarily because of business but it would be foolish to say that business had nothing to do with it.
As a Second Life Consultant, I have seen people who took the myopic path to such consultancy make money either through their honest short-sightedness or through a lack of conscience. It's not my place to speculate, but it was pretty apparent to me that many corporate presences would be short lived and that people paid too much for them.
Sort of like what people used to do with web pages on the Internet.
I wasn't getting business that supported my own use of Second Life, so as a business decision, I moved on to explore other things. In the case of in world businesses, I'm really very sorry that Sarah Nerd took such a hit. Sarah's a friend of mine, true, but more than that she's an honest businesswoman with a flare for branding and marketing. In her own way, she's inspired people and perhaps will continue to do so. Her one flaw, perhaps, is loving something that doesn't love her back - and she's not the only person in that boat. Second Life loves no one. Linden Lab loves some people, you can see it on their site quite clearly who they love, but they don't love everyone. And either they don't care about inworld businesses such as Sarah's, or they honestly have no clue. Given that Sarah's been going to the Linden meetings and trying to affect the course of what is/was happening, it seems that Linden Lab doesn't seem too interested in virtual land businesses run by users.
They do care about their own businesses, though. I imagine that Anshe Chung's face on a BusinessWeek cover served as a pointer that they created a market they weren't cashing in on. It seems that everything Linden Lab has done with land since that point has been to to assure that they could 'own' that market - cutting out the middlemen, forcing them out with their own rules to assure a lack of competition with it's own users. That's speculation on my part, but it is informed speculation. Take a look around. Second Life is floundering in the media, as many of us who played Nostradamus expected, but what we don't have insight into is whether Linden Lab is becoming desperate.
At this point, given the climate of change at Linden Lab as seen by the dictates of policy and pricing, it is questionable whether Second Life itself has a future for anyone but Linden Lab and the specific people that it has grown close to.
Game Over.
Please insert 25 cents.
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Re: Business and Second Life
Well, I guess I'll take the heat for being the main detractor in all of this.
Re: Business and Second Life
I agree Ari that Linden Lab is in business for Linden Lab but there's a very narrow line of thinking here. The more successful inworld business that exists, the better the promotion of the platform becomes, which helps Linden Lab no end. They don't seem to be able to grasp this concept though.
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Re: Business and Second Life
Honestly, I was one who basically never logged out of Second Life starting in 2006. When things started to go thin out I started logging in less but kept up my account fees and tier payments. I logged in recently after having not really spent any time inworld since last spring. I wanted to get excited about it again to find that feeling itI used to have while exploring and meeting people. After trying for the past week or so I'm convinced that Second Life we knew is gone forever. If there is any one aside from me logging on on can't find them. The once busy and crowded mainland sim my land is on is now pretty much empty lots and abandoned dreams. I want to se;ll my land but there are no buyers. I'm left with the option of either continuing to pay tier for space no one will ever visit or abandoning almost 3/4 of a sim back to LL. I'm tired paying tier while waiting for some miracle. I'm just going to give up my worthless land and cancel my account. Second Life is dead no matter how some want to believe otherwise.
Re: Business and Second Life
I don't disagree with much of what you say and I'd say it's odds on that Linden Lab will sell homesteads direct at some point, my bet is August 2009. That again would be a slap in the face for their current estate owners but Linden Lab don't seem to appreciate the work their current estate owners do.
In terms of retention it's often estate owners providing the space for people to stay. Mainland, which is Linden estate, is floundering because estate owners manage land better. That's not to say all Mainland is bad and there are some excellent mainland landlords too.
Linden Lab appear to have no concept of a reseller market, it's staring them in the face.
Then we have the content creators, who without a doubt create the wares to make the world viable, Content creators promote the hell out of the world.
Long term I don't feel Linden Lab care much for the user created world, immersive workspaces and the grid seem aimed at giving people their own little world, if the Second Life world collapses I don't think at the end of the day that Linden Lab will be that bothered, it's spreading the Second life technology that interests them more. Of course the people paying for that development are inworld, that's another area where Linden Lab appear to be short sighted.
Re: Business and Second Life
Scaling issues.
The recipe Linden Lab had worked when cooking for a small group. But it sucks at running a cafeteria.
It's sort of like a to scale model airplane. Built exactly to scale, a model airplane will not fly the same as the real airplane. In this case, they had a flying model airplane that when scaled up cannot seat too many passengers.
Re: Business and Second Life
So if Linden lose the Residents that got them this far, either thru attrition or neglect, doesn't that demonstrate a complete inability to manage Second Life?
Re: Business and Second Life
They may believe that sacrificing one market will create another.
I haven't really bothered going inworld for some time because there's (1) no business case and (2) I no longer enjoy it.
The first is pretty easy to explain. Clients have sobered up to the reality of Second Life in the course of business, which is something I actually applaud. Too many people overcapitalized and created overbuzzed and underproductive things, too few actually created things of worth. Hidden in that is the fact that there are some great things going on that I know of, but because they aren't produced by overpriced friends of Linden Lab there's little heard of them. I'd write about them, and may in the future, but seriously - I just don't feel like logging in.
The second part has a bit to do with the first part. My contacts are mainly entrepreneurs who are continuously upset by the way Linden Lab is doing things. Some are publicly vocal - most not. And when I log in, I either get an earful of that or have to restrain cynicism at most things new entrepreneurs wish to try.
The act of creation in Second Life was, and probably still is, it's greatest strength. And yet that, by itself, is not enough for me. It never was, and it never will be.
Re: Business and Second Life
Where Sarah herself is concerned, I've been inclined to wait for her upcoming announcement before I weigh-in. Though there's certainly going to be people that hold her accountable, and understandably, I can't be the only person that saw her announcement as a nearly-drowned woman's first gasp of air in a long, long time.
It's a bit premature to ask, NF, but I'm curious what you think the impact will be on the SL community overall.
Much like yourself, I've been largely absent, and I haven't missed it. But you've been vocal about your disinterest for a long time. Now one of your dearest friends has been driven out of business by LL's cutthroat practices. I expect the bitter taste in your mouth has led to a dearth of writing on Y2P. But what's keeping you from covering other virtual worlds? Y2P doesn't need to be exclusively dedicated to SL. All I'm saying is it'd be nice to see your enthusiastic side again. That, and uh, you've been missed..
Re: Business and Second Life
The overall community? I don't know. The community now isn't what it was when I joined, and I won't pretend to understand how it will react.
And that probably says a lot more than anything else. I've seen a lot of great people leave.
As far as other virtual worlds - I was actually going to post about PlaneShift yesterday, but the server was down - and still is. It isn't a good idea to post about something that's dead...
I did try out Metaplace, but it's still in beta and seems a lot like WORK still.
I also had an invite into a really racy virtual world based completely on sex, but... I opted to ignore that one because... I feel a bit out of place covering that one. I'd be a voyeur in a world of voyeurs exchanging digital masturbation, and I'm not sure that I'm comfortable with that idea... not that I would have to be, or need to be, but... I'd have to really work on writing about that. Being a porn reviewer seems like a lot of work, and a step down...