On May 1st we expanded the SLCE with the addition of 10 new exhibits,
bringing more diversity and creativity to the showcase. This second
phase not only enriches our current offerings but also introduces five
larger parcels, designed to provide more space and opportunities for
immersive experiences.
The new communities, and groups, are Baunatal German Community, Islands of New England, The Nature Collective, FOCUS Art Magazine and Gallerie, The Teegle Equestrian Communit, Leeward Cruising Club, Premier Wrestling, The Lighthouse: Support & Meeting, Virtual Worlds Education Consortium, and American Cancer Societ.
The Community Exhibition was added in January 30 as a way for different communities in Second Life to describe themselves to newcomers at the WelcomeHub sim, and possibly get them to join.
In a special episode of Lab Gab on Friday April 26, Strawberry Linden interviewed Oberwolf Linden, the Executive Chairman of Linden Lab, about the recent announcement that Linden Lab was selling Tilia.
So why is the Lab selling Tilia? In short, money. He explained it was "costing us millions and millions of dollars to run it." While bringing in other online places brought in some revenue, it wasn't enough to cover it's costs. So he was looking for someone to buy it, under some conditions, "The number one criteria was would they continue to support Second Life. ... That was more important than anything else I looked at. The second criteria was what could that company bring to Tilia that we could bring to Second Life." He was soon introduced to the CEO of Thunes, and in just twenty one days, "which is lightning fast and shows a few things," they were able to make a deal. It still needs Federal approval, which could take some time.
On Friday April 19, Linden Lab had a pre-recorded episode of Lab Gab. It included the following shorcuts to certain subjects. Strawberry Linden would interview Grumpity Linden, then later in the video (on the Beta Grid) Signal and Kyle Linden, then Kiera Linden.
Among what was discussed, Grumpity stated there were "No plans to charge for access" to the mobile viewer. It will be able to use HUDS, but of being able to build inworld and manage estates, maybe, "For serious creation, you're still going to have to use desktop." They are hoping to open the mobile viewer access further to include Premium residents "soon."
Progress is being made on mirrors in the Beta Grid, as well as PBR terrain, "you can see the sunshine bounce off the surfaces." There is no scheduled release date, though they felt "weeks and not months."
Of the issue of underage residents in areas with clearly adult content, Kiera Linden would say, "one thing we are looking at closely is strengthening our age verification process, something we'll be sharing more about soon. ,,,Let me be clear on this one, we do not and will never allow sexualized ageplay. We do have a policy on this, and it is strictly enforced. In addition, we want to acknowledge and recognize there are residents who enjoy roleplaying as child avatars, and we have no intention of preventing that." They wanted the community of child avatars to continue to feel welcome, "but child avatars should not be present near or in regions that also have adult-rated activities. We're in the process of strengthening our child avatar policy right now, and you'll see us roll that out soon. But one of the guiding factors to these changes is to ensure an even stronger separation between child avatars, and adult-rated content and activities."
Kiera would also say there would soon be "better clarity and stronger guidelines on conduct and policies both within our community and in our organization. Internally, we're finalizing an update to the conduct policy which addresses a wide range of topics such as how Linden Lab employees interact with the community, and policies that address perceptions of conflict of interest, or favoritism."
There was also a mention of a "Community Roundtable" in late May, which Grumpity called part of the desire for better communication with the residents.
Strawberry would also talk about the upcoming SL21B
Last week, Linden Lab announced there would be an episode of Lab Gab on Thursday February 29, at 10 AM SL time. The subject: an update on developments on the Second Life Mobile Viewer.
Interested in learning more about our Second Life Mobile app? Our
development team is working hard to add new features and fixes to bring
the best of Second Life to iOS and Android mobile and tablet platforms –
it’s an entire virtual world in the palm of your hands!
Second Life’s Senior VP of Product Grumpity Linden and Senior VP of
Product Operations Patch Linden will be discussing the latest updates
and future plans for Second Life Mobile ...
Residents are free to submit questions. Those interested need to fill out this form on Google Docs, "some selected questions will be answered by both Grumpity and Patch on the show." You'll need to hurry as it will close sometime tomorrow, Monday February 26. The event will be pre-recorded and presumably no live audience watching.
On January 30, something new was introduced to the WelcomeHub sim. Linden Lab wasn't just touting Bellisseria to the residents. They were offering other communities in Second Life to tout themselves to newcomers and others visiting the region. The location was called the Community Exhibition.
As part of our effort to better connect virtual world newcomers with
some of the best and most active inworld communities, we’re excited to
debut an all-new expansion to the Hub – the Second Life Community
Exhibition (SLCE).
SLCE aims to bring more visibility and exposure to a diverse range of
Second Life communities during the earliest moments of the new Resident
journey via primely-positioned exhibition space in one of our most
active and popular starting points for all newly-registered Residents.
Dropping by there, there were exhibits from the first eleven communities that had signed up to be on display. Some were more familiar than others. Among those that most seasoned residents would most likely recognize included Bay City, Virtual Ability. Burn2, Non-Profit Commons, and Caledon.
There was also a special Lab Gab episode, streamed live on the day of the announcement, featuring Strawberry and Patch Linden. Besides the official ribbon-cutting ceremony, they talked to several individuals representing their communities, such as Marianne McCann of Bay City.
The Lab plans to expand the Community Center, and is inviting more communities to sign up. Community leaders, or officers who can represent their communities, are invited to fill out the application form (here). Those taking part need to be open to new residents, "priority consideration" will be given to those with a history of having newcomer-friendly events, they need to have been active for at least one year, while communities don't have to be G-rated their exhibits at the Center need to be, and more.
From Linden Lab on June 28, "Watch a Lab Gab Special Live at SL20B with the Founder of Second Life Philip Linden, and Executive Chairman Oberwolf Linden on Wednesday, June 28th at 1:30pm PT." Both Philip Rosedale and Brad Oberwager talk about how Second Life got it's start, how it came to be acquired, and more, including a few funny stories.
Friday, June 30th at 1:30pm PT - Watch a Lab Gab
Special Live at SL20B with the Moles! The Moles are builders, scripters,
and content creators employed by Linden Lab to work in the Linden Department of Public Works.
Thursday, June 29th at 1:30pm PT - Watch a pre-recorded
Lab Gab Special at SL20B with Chief Marketing Officer StyFy Linden and
VP of Marketing Brett Linden. Together they focus on both the
acquisition of new users and the retention of existing users for Second
Life.
On Monday June 26, Patch Linden was interviewed in the first of the SL20B's Lab Gab shows. Patch almost always reveals something about what Linden Lab is planning or is about to release, and yesterday was no exception. But the big details involve users with the most cash to invest in their inworld experience.
The all new Ranch theme features country style Ranch homes in multiple
sizes and open floor plans on 2048m2 parcels. It is a beautiful rural
area with gravel roads, split rail fences, windmills, silos, and
stunning fields of wildflowers.
More land means more land impact. Previous themes have 351 or 175 LI
per parcel. These have a whopping 703! Plus a new theme means a new
content pack, with wildflowers, hay bales, and such.
They would also be mentioned in the SL wiki in the page about Linden Homes.
The ranch theme is your invitation to step into life on the
grasslands of central North America. This is farm country, a land of
rolling prairie and big sky. It’s a place where you can imagine raising
wheat or corn or soybeans and having a few cattle, a horse or two, and a
flock of chickens. You might have a barn stocked with hay bales and a
tractor and harvest machinery. Or, perhaps, you could have the large
garden for vegetables and flowers that you always wanted.
The houses are in a new area in Bellisseria, north of the central part of the continent (and the new WelcomeHub area, which is now also connected to Bellisseria by a road). The sims themselves often had appropriate names such as Silo, or whimsical ones such as After You and Knott Mine. There were several different styles of Ranch houses, Spring View, Stable View, Knotty Pine, Creek Stone, Silver Spurs, Buffalo Pastures, and Grizzly Point. With the larger amount of land per home, plus the gravel roads and the country look of the houses, the place certainly looked more backwoods than much of the Linden Home continent. There were silos, windmills, and other farm buildings and structures in places. And some residents and brought in cows, horses, and other animals.
Despite that "selection of specific Ranch homes will not be available until July 10," demand for these houses was high. In Bellisseria chat, it was stated that a day after they were made available, there were no more left to claim. When the next batch will be available is unknown.
The other feature aimed at Premium Plus, and Premium, accounts was "Second Lifetime." This was an option to have a Premium, or Premium Plus account for life.
Be among the lucky few to claim one of the limited edition
SecondLifeTime Premium or Premium Plus plans – available in extremely
limited quantities at SL20B. Each SecondLifeTime plan offers the same
benefits as Premium or Premium Plus – but for a one-time fee for the
rest of your life! Only available while supplies last!
Patch Linden would explain some details at the Lab Gab, and there was also a "Frequently Asked Questions" page. The one-time payment for a lifetime Premium account is $749 USD, and for a lifetime Premium Plus, it is more expensive at $1749 USD. Compared to Premium at $99 USD a year, and Premium Plus at $249 USD a year, it's comparable to a resident paying for several years in advance.
Patch would say that only so many residents can get a lifetime account. Only two hundred residents will be able to get Premium for life, and for Premium Plus for life the limit is much smaller, just twenty. The openings are available on a first-come first-served basis. On the FAQ page, it stated a Premium for life account holder "might not" be able to upgrade to Premium Plus, and anyone wishing to do so would have to talk with a Lab agent to see what could be done.
While it wasn't mentioned by Patch, or the FAQ, it should be reminded that even a lifetime account holder would still be subject to the Lab's Terms of Service, and people have been banned for what some would see as small offenses such as using a parent's credit card.
Patch would discuss other things in the video, such as the upcoming newcomer NUX avatars, the new WelcomeHub area, an SL radio station, the *possibility* of one of the more recent last names being brought back temporarily, and Linden Lab talking to the producers of a TV show about a deal which would have Second Life being a big part of the plot of one episode. This would be the first time since an episode of CSI in 2007.
Wednesday, June 28th at 1:30pm PT - Watch a Lab Gab
Special Live at SL20B with the Founder of Second Life Philip Linden, and
Executive Chairman Oberwolf Linden. Philip rejoined Second Life in
2022, as Strategic Advisor, focused on helping to shape and build a
better metaverse. Brad Oberwager has spent his entire career in
technology and consumer focused companies as an entrepreneur and board
member.
Tuesday, June 27th at 1:30pm PT - Watch a pre-recorded
Lab Gab Special at SL20B with VP of Product Grumpity Linden, and VP of
Engineering Mojo Linden. Grumpity heads up Second Life Product, where
she has overseen a shift to growth, a stronger, more balanced economy, a
movement towards better community cohesion, and an overall
forward-looking approach. With over twenty years of experience in the
games industry, Mojo is an expert at building teams and launching
groundbreaking games across genres that push the limits of their
respective platforms.
Monday, June 26th at 1:30pm PT - Watch a Lab Gab
Special Live at SL20B with VP of Product Operations, Patch Linden. Patch
works to bring the best of product and support based decisions on a
daily operational basis to the virtual world platform for Second Life,
while maintaining oversight on how all of the various teams within
Linden Lab can best work together for the highest good of the Residents
and the business.
From Monday to Friday this week, there will be events in which various Lindens will talk to the residents about what they do in Second Life and answer a few questions about what's going on and what they plan to do. All will be held at the Aboretum at SLB Exhilarate.
On Monday June 26 at 1:30 PM SLT, Patch Linden will speak
On Tuesday June 27 at 1:30 PM SLT, Grumpity and Mojo Linden will be there.
On Wednesday June 28 at 1:30 PM SLT, people will get to see and hear Oberwolf and Philip Linden.
On Thursday June 29 at 1:30 PM SLT, Styfy and Bret Linden will be featured.
On Friday June 30 at 1:30 PM SLT, the Moles will be on stage to speak.
Once again, the events will be held at the Aboretum at SLB Exhilarate (229/229/24) . For those who can't be there, watch the event live on Youtube at the Second Life channel.
For the past several years, Linden Lab has scheduled some time at the Second Life Birthday events for the chance to talk to the residents. At these "Meet the Lindens" events, various Lindens explain to an audience what they've been doing lately, what they plan to do, and answer a few questions from the audience. In the case of the latter, lately they've been asking for most of the questions in advance.
During the celebrations, there will be a series of Lab Gab events, held
live at SL20B, where you can meet the founder of Second Life, Philip
Linden, and Executive Chairman, Oberwolf Linden - along with numerous
other Lindens and Moles.
Here’s your chance to interact and hear directly from Linden Lab
leadership as we celebrate the past, present, and future of Second Life!
Do you have questions you want to ask? Submit your questions at this link no later than June 21 to be considered for inclusion in the Q&A during these Lab Gab events.
As the post stated, residents are asked to send questions via a Google Doc (here). And as stated, there's not a lot of time to wait as residents have until Wednesday June 21 to send them.
The Second Life Birthday officially starts this Thursday, June 22, and lasts until Tuesday July 11.
Last Friday's Lab Gab started with a video. Grumpity Linden, the head of
the Product team, talked about the upcoming SL mobile app viewer,
showing it off at the Kaleidoscope sim. "Yeah, it's true, it's so early,
but we're super excited to share a first peek at something new, Second
Life Mobile. Look it's me on my phone." She would say this wasn't the
first time they've tried to build a mobile viewer, "because of course we
want to have all the glory." But it was "the most exciting result we've
seen so far." They were starting with the more difficult details, such
as being able to view the "hardest" avatars and most detailed areas.
Plus they wanted the app to work on all platforms, "And so it is with
joy and trepidation that we share with you the early results of these
efforts." They did say things were still very much a work in progress,
so "you will see very little functionality or user interface for now."
Still, she spoke, "it is a vibrant Second Life on Android and iOS."
Mojo
Linden, the VP of Engineering who would later say he's been with Linden
Lab for about a year and a half, would say that he was working with the
development team "to make sure that the community can experience
everything they love about Second Life while on the go with our upcoming
mobile viewer," repeating they were starting with some of the more
difficult details first such as full rendering of avatars and the full
rendering of complex environments. The viewer is built on Unity and can
use multiple mobile phone and tablet platforms, including Android and
iOS. Mojo described himself as "blown away" by the ammount of detail
they can get on it, saying they haven't had to "compromise too much on
graphic fidelity." He did admit "there's much work to be done" before
the mobile viewer's ready to be launched.
Patch, the VP of
Product Operations, was next. "Imagine being able to connect to Second
Life from anywhere, chat with your friends, visit your favorite inworld
hangout spots, and later do pretty muchanything you do with the desktop
Second Life viewer without being tethered to your computer. ... We can't
wait to show you more in the coming months as our development progress
continues."
The scene then changed to the three seated with Strawberry Linden, and would introduce themselves, Grumpity musing she had no real power but was still responsible for a lot ot things. Mojo joked he felt tlike the "baby" in the group. Later on, Grumpity would say she wasn't in her usual stick figure as it wasn't rezzing properly in the mobile viewer.
Questions about the mobile started 6:45 into the video. Mojo would state development started in October 2022, saying that using the Unity engine "really helped with quick progress and portability to IOS and Android." He was condident they would be able to make a mobile viewer that could show "Second Life in all it's glory." A beta version "with some limited functuality" should be released sometime in the second half of the year, adding "our play is to layer more features over multiple releases after that." Later in the video, Mojo would call being able to work on the mobile viewer "such an honor."
At nine minutes, Strawberry brought up the price changes. The lower sim prices were talked about first. Grumpity would say since 2017, they've been working to lower the price of land and making it "more accessible for all our residents," saying it wasn't easy as Linden Lab's income had been built on land. So they had to find ways to make up for the income loss there, "We try to find the fairest way to do it ... and, um, we decided that Linden dollar fees were really the way to do it. ... We know your prices are going up, and our prices are going up, and the cost of everything up. ... We took as long as we could before raising fees. But it's happened. ... We're watching very closely to see what happens in the markets so far."
At just before 11 minutes, Strawberry would also bring up the new option to pay for a sim with Linden dollars. Patch called it an exchange being done "on the Lindex basically behind the scenes ... and so yes, the price is a little higher."
At just after 12 minutes, Strawberry brought up the concerns about bot activity. Patch stated the Lab has been working on a new policy, including some talk with lawyers, "We had to take some time and get it reviewed by our legal team ... that took several weeks to get all of the necessary reviews in place for it." Patch would say they were expecting to bring it out the following week (the week of this article). Grumpity would add they're planning on giving extra ability to estate owners to ban bots, "will be able to choose access levels for scripted agents going forward, and those should be rolling out soon." She estimate the time as "weeks."
Just after 13 minutes, the PBR (Physical Based Rendering) development was mentioned, that it will bring "more realistic lighting to Second Life," Mojo saying it brought that particular technology about ten years ahead from where it was, "It allows content creators to define materials based on how they reflect light in the real world." He added there was already a project viewer with the feature currently out and people looking at it and giving feedback, "We want to be sure we are not going to cause content headaches for people as we've been fixing bugs for quite some time." He wasn't giving a definite release date, "it might be another three months." When asked if people would beed higher-end computers to see the feature, Mojo would say no, saying they were working to better enable current computers to see the new featurejust fine. But if people had any kind of performance issues, they could simply "just turn off Reflections" to get lighting back to where it was. There will also be tutorial videos about it later. It was stated that while PBR puts Second Life on the way to having true mirrors, for the moment they're not around just yet, at least the (virtually) real deal, "You can sort of fake it now with PBR." The Lab plans on working on technology to allow mirrors next.
At just after 18 minutes, they talked about inventory updates. Grumpity would say one project they were workiing on was "Inventory Thumbnails." They would also add a single folder inventory view. Of updates to the viewer, they were working on an "emoji viewer" that Grumpity called "a third party contribution from Catnip" amd that they've been "trying to make sure everything works." A project viewer should be availablt in "weeks."
Just before twenty minutes, Strawberry asked if there were plans to make Second Life "VR ready." Mojo's response was "probably not this year" saying the render rate would have to be at least around 60 frames per second. Of the possibility of a Linux viewer, Mojo did say there were internal tools that benefit from a Linux viewer. But for now what they have can run through Wine and Proton. But an outright official Linix viewer isn't in the Lab's plans for this year.
At 21:30, Strawberry brought up Marketplace saying there's been "a lot of changes." Grumpity would say a week earlier, the Lab released an update to Marketplace search. She would go on to say they were "taking your feedback, we're making changes." The fifty-page cap on search results has been removed. Strawberry asked about inworld office hours. Grumpty's response was, "We have user groups for all sorts of topics ... choose your favorite and come talk to us."
Just before 26 minutes, Strawberry would ask about the upcoming New User Experience (or NUX) avatars, which one was shown off at last year's Second Life Birthday. Patch answered they were "quite a ways along in their development." The avatars themselves are done, he stated, and the work at the moment was getting them a line of clothing and attachments. They will also be "PBR ready." The avatars, he reminded, were to help new users have "better simpler easier fun," and there should be an update about them soon.
Around 27:30, Strawberry brought up Linden Homes. Patch stated there would be some information coming soon. They were working on the homes for Premium Plus resident accounts, which were "nearing completion." They were also working on expansions and additions to current themes, Victorian being named. Of Second Life's upcoming 20th anniversary celebration theme (which was announced Thursday March 16), Patch would only say "It's really, really, really big" and that they would have an announcement soon.
Before the Lab Gab ended, Patch would say they might make a "blooper reel" of errors made during the filming of the movile viewer video.
This Friday, Patch Linden and two others from Linden Lab will be speaking in an Episode of Lab Gab. The topic will be upcoming changes and other plans for 2023.
Want to learn more about upcoming Second Life features, changes, and our roadmap for 2023?
Second Life’s VP of Product Grumpity Linden, VP of Product Operations
Patch Linden, and VP of Engineering Mojo Linden will be in a
pre-recorded Lab Gab on Friday, March 10th at 9am PT.
As this is a pre-recorded video, questions will have to be sent in advance. Those having questions are asked to fill out a Google-document (link). The deadline to submit a question is tomorrow, Thursday at 9AM SL time, and there is no guarantee of it being accepted for answering.
The show will be at Friday, March 10, at 9AM SL time. It will be on the official Second Life Youtube channel (link).
Last week on Thursday December 15, the made in Second Life movie (or machinima) "Waarheid" premiered at the "Film Threat" theater. Scheduled to start at 10AM SL time, the 100 second countdown started at 10:30. There were over a hundred people in the sim.
The movie is a dystopian sci-fi tale of which the script was written by Huckleberry Hax, who has also done over a dozen novels and numerous short stories in Second Life, the most noted being "AFK", and also plays the part of the antagonist, Belletristik. Caitlin Tobias is the actress behind the protagonist Erika Janssen/Waarheid. Other roles played include AvaJean Westland, Ylva (Soulfullife ), Boudicca Amat, Lydia Lindemann (Lydiadecremorne), Mich Michabo, and Strawberry Singh (Strawberry Linden). The movie is a sequel to Stomol, Huckleberry's first major SL film, which debuted in July 2020.
The movie starts with Waarheid / Erika trying to track down the location of the man who nearly killed her, recalling what happened to her, losing her arm, and her recovery. But things do not quite go as she planned. She eventually wakes up in what apparently is a very sophisticated virtual reality simulation, placed there by someone who says she wants to help her accomplish her tracking down her attempted killer, but wants her to trust him, which she's reluctant to do.
The movie ended with applause, and afterwards much of the cast and audience went to a club to celebrate at an afterparty, Huckleberry saying at one point, "We have this amazing venue tonight due to the generosity of Amelie (amilee34) and Ylva - please show your appreciation to the venue and DJ."
Yours truly doesn't want to give too much away about the movie, though with her in an ultra-realistic virtual reality simulator comes the question how does she truly know she's out of it (Total Recall anyone?) I was pleased with the ending. A lot of work was done on the movie and it was well-done.
A few days before on December 9, Strawberry would interview Huckleberry, Caitlin, and AvaJean in a Lab Gab episode. Huckleberry would say he didn't plan on doing a sequel to Stomol at first, but hearing what people thought eventually came up with the idea for Waarheid. It was filmed in a number of locations, some of which are no longer around. Huckleberry spoke that he has no plans for a sequel to this, though he won't say "never" either.
To see the movie, head to Film Threat (48/126/23). It should be there for a few more weeks. Exactly when the theater's next movie is scheduled to be up is unknown.
From Second Life's Youtube channel, a recording from the Thursday October 27 Lab Gab, "Strawberry Linden and Boston Blaisdale will be exploring some haunted destinations this Halloween"
Yesterday on the Second Life blog, it was announced there would be an episode of Lab Gab tomorrow, Friday October 21. The event takes place at 10 AM, and will feature Patch and Grumpity Linden. The notice stated "They will make a few announcements about upcoming features."
The event can be seen on Youtube. As with other Lab Gab shows, no location is given for residents to drop over.
Grumpity Linden is the "VP of Product." Patch Linden is the "VP of Product Operations," and the most visible Linden since the passing of late CEO Ebbe Linden.
If you rent a place in Second Life through someone rather than getting it directly from Linden Lab, then chances are you know of Caspertech. Their rentboxes are a fairly common sight in numerous places here, including at the Sunweaver Estates where the Newser office makes it's home. Since 2018 with the closing of Hippo Technologies, they've clearly been the top seller of rental vendors. Things seem to have run smoothly with them. So it was a big surprise yesterday when Linden Lab announced they were acquiring them.
CasperTech has provided various business related services within Second
Life for 13 years. Over that time, CaperTech has proudly provided
continuous service for tens of thousands of Second Life businesses, and
it has remained steadfast in its commitment to the merchants who have
depended on those services.
This acquisition will ensure that all of the existing CasperTech
services in Second Life will continue to operate without interruption
into the foreseeable future, but it also opens up brand new
opportunities to vastly improve the experience for our users as our next
step in the CasperTech and Second Life journey.
You can expect to see the same great services that you know and love
continue on, with all of the same functionality you enjoy today, but
with closer integration into the Second Life ecosystem – and as such, an
even more reliable and convenient experience.
The news sparked more than a few questions and some fears among some residents, both those on the forum thread to discuss the matter, as well as conversations with people I had that day. A few were expecting Linden Lab to gouge them to the point they'd have to give up some of their land.
Shortly afterwards, there was a special episode of Lab Gab to help explain things. In short, Caspervend is not in trouble, but the owner had other reasons to sell.
Caspertech is owned by Casper Warden, and he and Patch Linden were interviewed by Strawberry Linden. Casper stated he came to Second Life in 2006, was asked to by people in his real-life job to take a look at it. Worked on promotional material for the company at first. But was soon making his own items. Caspertech as a Second Life company has been around for 13 years. Casper originally created the vendor system in 2009 for his own personal use as he didn't like some of the ways what was on the market worked, "they were script-heavy, and I didn't like the way that the vendors scrolled through the products." But he soon realized people were more interested in his vendors than what he was selling, "In hindsight, I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised by that." So he soon launched version one to the public. While he didn't do an ad campaign for it, word spread by word of mouth and started becoming popular, "and we just continued to expand to meet customer needs." Casper does make other items, such as a security orb and a product update system, though his vendors continue to be his "bread and butter."
Patch called himself "a bit of a fan" about Casper's products, and had been using them not just for himself, but Linden Lab work, calling it "an awesome system." He would say the talks about Linden Lab getting Caspertech started, "a little while back now," with he and Casper talking on various subjects, and eventually came to the idea of the Lab taking the system and intigrating it with Second Life. This way, Patch stated, this would mean the long-term stability of the vendor system while under the Lab there would be more resources available to improve on it. So Patch asked him about the idea, "and well, here we are." Patch went on to say Caspertech's technology, "will bring a lot of capabilities ... in the future."
Strawberry asked what residents can expect. Casper answered that customer services will continue, "It's really critical to us that our customers don't get disrupted." He went on to say that he was still basically in charge of Caspertech's day to day operations, saying the big difference was that they now had, "the support and resources of Linden Lab behind us," reminding that other companies offering rental vendors had closed down over the years, "now our customers can be assured that their Caspertech services aren't just going to suddenly disappear." Of the future, he stated that he saw "plenty of exciting opportunities" to improve the vendor system, saying residents can expect "significant" improvements. Patch stated that in the deal, the Lab "would not interrupt or change what you know and love about the Casper products today. They will continue for the foreseeable future just as they are now. ... the goal is to ... give Second Life residents the tools they need to be successful in what they do."
Casper described himself as mainly a software engineer, and stated that as his business expended, "I found increasingly less and less time on my hands to really spend on the code," and that "many requested features have kind of sat on the back burner. ... this move give me an opportunity to really get back to what I love and what I'm good at," developing his rental vendors and other products of his. He would go on to say he'll still be online, and around in group chat, "monitoring and helping to keep everything running," and thanked his support staff, "who have already kept the show running all these years."
Patch stated they would soon start working with Casper to "transition the service" to the Lab, saying the goal was to make it smooth to the point it wouldn't be noticed by anyone. And after that, Casper would presumable have more time to work on the system's new features.
In the forums, someone would ask Casper if he was in some kind of financial trouble, and he would answer, "No! We've been profitable since the day we launched. But the amount that one guy (me) can handle is limited, and as CT grew I found myself with a massive challenge and not enough time to improve the service. Now I can! *yay*" There were numerous other comments. Some were cautious, some were optimistic, some were a little of both, feeling the Lab wasn't out to gouge them but weren't so sure about the promised improvements. There were a few comparisons to Linden Lab's acquisition of Xstreet, which would eventually become Second Life's Marketplace. One would say this was no surprise as she felt Caspervend had gotten "too big to fail" for Second Life.
While a major development, for now it appears little will change as far as daily life in Second Life goes. Hopefully Casper will soon come up with the improvements he says he was requested to make, but hadn't the time to develop them. For now, we can only wait and see.
