2021: Year in Review

 
2021 was a year with triumphs and tragedies, successes and pitfalls. As we move on to a new year, we'll take a brief look at what happened over the course of the old one.

Among the biggest changes were that of the staff at Linden Lab, notably the death of CEO Ebbe Altberg. He had been seen and heard from less for some months, but no one outside the Lab knew what was wrong until the announcement of his passing in June. Despite his dying, the company continued to run smoothly without him, with Patch Linden appearing at events he otherwise would, answering questions and concerns. For some reason, Linden Lab never did choose another CEO. It did announce that Brad Oberwager/Oberwolf Linden, one of the leaders of the investment team that bought Linden Lab the year before, was Executive Chairman. While it seems Patch leads the Lab in making everyday decisions with occasional input from the investment team, it remains unknown just how often the investors make directives.

There would be other changes at the Lab. Oz Linden, the VP of Engineering, would announce his retirement. Linden Lab was so impressed with his record, they commissioned an artist to make a real-life bronze statuette for him as a parting gift. Also retiring was the Operations Manager April Linden, noted for her furry purple bunny avatar and friendly manager. Both had worked on the move of Linden Lab to Cloud Servers, which was finished early in the year. Of the new Lindens hired this year, among them was Mojo Linden (Andrew Kertesz) the new VP of Engineering and Oz's replacement.

Sadly, Second Life would say goodbye to a number of residents last year. Robin Sojourner (Robin Wood) had connections to both the Ivory Tower and Bay City. Avi Arrow was the director of the Ivory Tower of Prims. Delightful Doowangle (Barbara Truman RL) was in the VWBPE and a winner of the Thinkerer Award. Dahlea Milena was one of the volunteers at Veterans Isle. Jessicabelle Dayafter was a memorable pilot of a combat RP and aircraft designer. Alleara Snoodle was a noted member of the Chilbo and Sunweaver communities, and a brilliant content creator and coder whom made many things, often behind the scenes so much of her record of accomplishment is hidden.

The year would see further growth of Bellisseria. With the addition of the Chalet Linden Home areas, the continent was now connected to the continent of Satori, and enabling residents to fly or walk between most of the mainland sims without teleporting (a feat the Lindens celebrated with a funny video). With the addition of the Fantasy homes, there would be a subcontinent at Bellisseria's south.

June would see the arrival of a new new user experience, the first one in several years. There was work on the ability to take 360 panoramic view pictures. While the Lab had been working on an app for users to access Second Life accounts on handheld devices away from their computers, although Apple expressed their approval in the middle of the year, later on the Lab would pause development.

Linden Lab would continue to engage in more partnerships as in 2020, such as with the NFL Alumni Association for an inworld stadium, and with the Zenescope comics producers for a sim. Another with Levitate Media would result in a Second Life commercial being made. Although winning awards, it is not known to have been widely used outside Linden Lab and Second Life media, though it has won awards. One partnership with residents was the Second Life Endowment of the Arts, the "Spiritual successor" to the Linden Endowment for the Arts which collapsed months earlier.. Their sims filled with art exhibits were opened in January.

Glitches would be a problem as always. There would be some occasions a number of residents couldn't get on for a little while. But in August was an outage that forced "Unscheduled Maintenance" for many hours. Longer lasting was the glitch of the Second Life map that rendered newer sims invisible in winter and much of spring. Older ones which had been modified, the changes that would have appeared on the map didn't. A couple residents would make maps of their own in early April as a stopgap solution while the Lindens worked on the problem. Finally in  April, the Second Life Map glitch was mostly fixed. The newer sims could be seen on it again, but there would continue to be problems for a while with some land turning invisible as people zoomed in and out.

The year would also see controversy. In August, Linden Lab announced that next month the use of gacha machines would no longer be permitted. The Lab claimed the move was due to "Due to a changing regulatory climate." But there was no evidence presented of any country asking Linden Lab to take action against gachas. Residents were split with some on both sides being quite vocal with their views. Critics called them a form of gambling, or too much like the lootboxes in some games. Supporters stated the charges were false and the ban would hurt some content creators. Despite the ban, some larger gacha events would continue, the people selling their wares without the machines. The ban did not apply to gacha items already sold from the machines, and selling and trading of them would continue. Another issue that raised much less controversy but still raised some eyebrows was the "NFT Sweepstakes" by the Lab and Zenescope which were in a partnership.  The winners would have to disclose some real-life information, which was a surprise to a few as the Lab has in the past taken pride in it's policy to protect the privacy of it's residents.

Outside Second Life, Facebook announced it was changing it's name to "Meta," short for Metaverse, as it would soon e expanding into virtual worlds. Irronically enough, the announcement got Second Life more attention as people looking up "Metaverse" and virtual worlds online ended up finding stories about Second Life. In it's first year withour Linden Lab, Sansar seemed to be doing okay. By by late December, it was a world with severe problems. Activision/Blizzard, the people behind "World of Warcraft" were beset by a series of sexual harassment lawsuits.

For the Newser, it was a busy year with much to report on. And we look forward to bringing you the news of Second Life over the course of the next.

Bixyl Shuftan
Editor/Head Writer
Second Life Newser