Commentary "What Should I Do About the Land I Own on Second Life?"

Question:

Should I sell it or hold on to the land I own in Second Life and wait out the economy?. And what about Linden Lab restructuring, does it mean they are selling Second Life, if so what can I do?

Basically, in having invested a lot of your time and money, is it still a good investment considering all the recent changes with Linden Lab and the worlds economy?

MY REPLY

The future cannot be predicted and I'm not a 'futures' investor, so who knows but I can say this, in my opinion Second Life is a very successful business but that depends on how you measure it. By Linden Lab's measurement, I think they feel they have failed in their original intent but then they were overwhelmed with the resident/average user's output, so their original goals were sidetracked and they inadvertently switched to the unexpected resident oriented goals and LL got sloppy in going with the flow, so they had to pull up their pants so-to-speak, make new decisions and refocus on what they needed to do. By the time they did that thought, their founder had already lost interest and started a new business. This makes them seem a bit unsuccessful but wait...

After releasing their code source, LL has been successful in spawning a generation of 3d worlds, most of which are flourishing in more ways than anyone could have imagined. Search "3d world" or "open sim" and see what you come up with. Due to the current growth of open sim platforms, LL could feel that they have reached their goals and are now done and ready to move on to bigger and better things but I also think they feel an obligation to its residents and will find a way to insure creators can continue with Second Life, rather it be sold or not.

I think Linden Lab's Second Life, is ripe for sale and they may be preparing for that but they are not saying, so who knows. If sold, whomever buys it most likely will not change it much at first. They may come in with their own ideas about what's good for them and that may mean later changes. If they are smart, they will respect the solid foundation that Linden Lab is now trying to create and leave things as they are.

As for the land you now own. If it is not your sole income and something you enjoy. I would reevaluate it and make a decision to either stick it out and see what happens or sell and get out now. I do suggest you do not make a rash decision because these things are worth waiting out. I've learned that the best decisions are educated ones, so I suggest you read business news regarding 3d worlds such as www.hypergridbusiness.com. They offer credible research for their 3d related business stories. Search 'secondlife' and see what you come up with. Make sure the date is recent because this biz fluctuates everyday.

If I currently owned land on SL, I would not sell it but maybe cut down according to what makes sense to me based on the real world economy because it has affected Second Life. Virtual land sales have taken a big hit but have you thought about marketing differently? When something we do does not work for whatever reason, it means we have to find a different way of doing it - before we even contemplate giving it up - most just give up - will you?

SamanthaS Nightfire