Creative Fiction: Second Life’s TV Commercial (2010)

  

Yesterday, we wrote about the Second Life commercial done by Linden Lab, in cooperation with Levitate Media. While the commercial's been in development for months, no doubt the idea of one has been floated about among the residents for years. In the days of M Linden in early 2010, for amusement I came up with a couple ideas that were part of a "creative fiction" story I did for JamesT Juno and Dana Vanmoer's Second Life Newspaper then. 

The fictional story can be found in Extra. 

So how do these two fictional commercials compare to the one that was made for real? Feel free to leave comments below. 
  

SL Video: M. Poster Linden's Christmas 2012 Video

From Crap Mariner, "M. Poster" is a parody of "M Linden," the second CEO of Linden Lab whom got the blame for the Grid starting to go downhill.

Creative Fiction: Second Life’s TV Commercial

It's been something of a wild week with sim closing and coming back, then another sim set to close, still another apparently having quietly faded away (more on that tomorrow), and finally Linden Lab's move on Third-Party Viewers that's raised more than a little alarm. So maybe it's time for something to inspire both a little brainstorming and maybe a few chuckles. Tateru Nino recently asked her readers "how would you advertise Second Life." That got me thinking of a story I wrote for Dana Vanmoer in my days at Second Life Newspaper. The section it was in closed when the paper did, so here it is again in the Newser.

Read the editor's attempt at fictional writing in Extra.

Commentary: What A Month!

Last week, there was a new ad by Linden Labs almost certainly aimed at taking advantage of the hype around a movie being released. In different times, it might have generated quite a bit of buzz. But after all that’s happened in June 2010, it seemed almost ho-hum.

A little more than a week after the month started, came the announcement of the Linden layoffs. This event cast a big shadow over the planned event, Second Life Seventh Birthday. And in the middle of that, came the big news of M Linden “stepping down” as CEO of Linden Lab, and Philip back in charge. And there were the smaller events of a tribute to the dismissed Lindens and a party in their honor.

There’s been a bit of talk over just what Philip’s return means. The initial reaction of most was to cheer. Second Life under M has mostly been one blunder by Linden Lab after another. After a little thought, some expressed caution. The Metaverse under Philip wasn’t exactly a rose garden either. And a few expressed fear. They saw bringing Philip back as the last desperate gasp of a company on the edge of bankruptcy.

Linden Lab is not going bankrupt. “There,” which closed down a few months ago, had a history of problems making a healthy income. Second Life, in spite of Linden Labs’ heavy-handed moves, has still been bringing in some cash. The problem is, Second Life has been near-stagnant, with Linden Lab stumbling about in how to make it grow again. Some have commented that most people inclined to try Second Life already have. But Linden Labs’ clumsy moves under M Linden certainly haven’t helped.

Can Philip turn things around? Paisley Beebe made some remarks that are similar to mine. Things weren’t perfect when he was around, but let’s give him a chance. That spoken, if Linden Labs keeps on a clumsy course, time to hold his feet to the fire.

As for M Linden, for all his blunders, he did make an effort to support the arts in SL, and the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery at the UWA stated “his personal artshow will remain ... in perpetuity.” So perhaps he did some good after all.

In the meantime, Linden Lab is in Philip’s hands now, and we at Second Life Newsier will do our part to keep their moves under the spotlight.

Sources: Second Life Newspaper, Tonight Live with Paisley Bebee

Bixyl Shuftan

The End of M Poster Linden?

Crap Mariner, like many, has been no fan of M Linden, and did a number of "M Poster" films poking fun at him. This is his most recent one, which during a conversation when we were both in the audience at "Tonight Live" he told me about, making light of M's stepping down as CEO of Linden Labs.

Some Events on the Day Philip Returned

The news of Philip Linden taking M's place as CEO on Thursday June 24 didn't take long to spread around Second Life. Various impromptu events from parades to parties to media programs were created on the spot in response to either discuss what happened, or celebrate the news.

Find out more in Events.

BREAKING NEWS: M Linden to "Step Down," Philip to Return

In a statement on the Linden blog, Philip Linden announced that M would be resigning his post as Chief Executive Officer of Linden Labs, and would be taking the position of "interim" CEO. Bob Komin, former Chief Financial Officer, would be promoted to Chief Operations Officer and work "side by side" with Philip.

This is a big, tough change but one the board of directors and management team deeply believes in. We owe Mark great thanks for the many things we've accomplished in these last two years -- most notably a great improvement in the stability of Second Life, and also the hiring and nurturing of a strong team of new leaders who are now ready to do some amazing work together.

Our thinking as a team is that my returning to the CEO job now can bring a product and technology focus that will help rapidly improve Second Life. We need to simplify and focus our product priorities -- concentrating all our capabilities on making Second Life easier to use and better for the core experiences that it is delivering today. I think that I can be a great help and a strong leader in that process.

It is an honor to have a chance to help more directly again, and I come to this mission with energy, excitement, and an open mind about what we need and how we need to do it. I want to see Second Life continue to grow, amaze, and change the world. It's what gets me up in the morning. Despite the challenges of such a big change, I am happy to be drafting this blog post while sitting in our San Francisco office, surrounded by the many Lindens who have made it all possible.

More to come, as soon as we all get settled and figure out how best to work together!

Details are still coming in as to yet another major news story in what has been a month full of surprises for Second Life.

Reader Submitted: Letter to M Linden

Hiya M!

Thank you for being VERY responsive to my prior missives!

Topic: Viewer 2... I love Viewer 2... it's a great user interface. I am in the 3% minority. Duh?
http://blogs.secondlife.com/poll.jspa?poll=1018

Right to Speak: I wrote and taught over 100 classes about SL, about 2000 of your core peeps. The root question always "How to find fun?" and "How to make the funsters come to my gig?" Truism: The teacher always learns the most.

I am sorry you're losing viewership. You can stop the bleeding.

The key is SEARCH. Viewer 1.x finds 20-30 live music events each hour. Viewer 2 finds 3 to 5. Duh? If Google ain't delivering dump them!

Bring back the real search, and real SL fun! IMHO.

Cheers! Peace! Love! and Happiness! Forever!

P.S. My friends asked me to write you. I care. And IMHO, SL rules as a form of entertainment, completely crushes movies, videos, CDs, MP3s, etc. It's all about people and fun and world peace - WOOT!

any1 Gynoid

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