On her Google profile, Fleep Tuque announced there were some plans in the works for a new convention for Second Life residents next year. For several years, Second Life users would meet up at the annual Second LIfe Community Convention. But this year the event was canceled, Linden Lab refusing to support it and telling the organizers they were on their own. "SLCC11 was probably the last time we'll use that name" Fleep wrote.
The plans in the works include more than Second Life, but other virtual worlds as well. Fleep wrote that "AvaCon is planning to expand the convention to include Opensim and other
platforms in the coming years under a new name and we have volunteer
staff positions open if you're interested, see http://www.avacon.org/ for more info."
Fleep has expressed some disappointment on the directions the Lindens have taken the Grid lately, "In the last couple years, I've begun to feel that Second Life is moving
in a different direction than my own priorities and I'm spending less
time and tier there than in the past." It's residents, however, are a different manner, "Despite my feelings about the direction of the platform, the awe I've
always felt for the community of people who create the world never
diminishes."
Second Life fans whom enjoyed going to their yearly convention got some disappointing news. AvaCon, the group that organized last year's Second Life Community Convention (before, it was done by The Future United) announced it would not be doing another. There would be no SLCC 2012. The only reason given was "changes in the terms of the contract offered by Linden Lab this year," which they did not mention. The event would have been the 8th SLCC convention, and likely would have taken place on August 11th or 18th.
With few facts available at first, most of what there was to report on immediately afterward was opinion and speculation. Most people expressed disappointment, a few charging Linden Labs had held off on announcing the SLCC's cancelation in order to make sure there wasn't enough time to residents to organize one of their own.
I can’t say I was completely surprised considering the meeting we had with Linden Lab at their offices after SLCC last year. Instead of being treated like valuable customers who had just volunteered months of our lives working for no pay to organize a fan event for their product, we basically got chewed out for not producing the equivalent of BlizzCon. Seriously, that’s what they said. (Note to Linden Lab, if you want BlizzCon, you have to pay for it – BlizzCon had a budget in the millions.)
"Second Life isn't the draw it once was," she explained, and a dwindling number of people made it more expensive per person, "even last year it was almost on the edge of being unsustainable, given the resources we had." If Linden Lab had been more willing to help market the event, making it a top priority, Fleep felt the convention would have gone on. But instead, "As with the Second Life Birthdays … they basically said AvaCon could use the name, but we were on our own. … there would be no financial support, no sims (for SLCC inworld), no marketing, and no participation from them." Another SLCC just didn't seem feasible to her.
Linden Lab, however, was just the big reason Fleep felt, not the only reason. The residents of Second Life, or rather a troublesome fraction of them, were another. She described many as being unsympathetic to the volunteers, and some just plain nasty, "Some of the celebrities and thought leaders in Second Life seem to enjoy trashing the event. … I'd guess some folks are right this very moment pointing gleefully at how it has failed." Griefers and lawsuits were another factor, " Linden Lab wasn't on the hook if something went wrong or someone got hurt, WE were." She described last year as having to deal with personal vendettas, threats of harm against congoers, booths being vandalized, and threats of lawsuits, "At some point, you have to ask yourself, is it really worth this much grief ... especially if people's physical safety is at risk."
Fleep also cited the lack of volunteers as another reason, there just simply weren't enough this year "without requiring some people to basically have no life outside of SLCC for months on end, and that's not sustainable or fair for anyone. ... It takes willing partners on all sides of the equation to pull something like this off, and this year, it just wasn't there."
Others expressed their opinions on the matter. Hamlet Au commented this was another sign of a trend in Second Life, "Linden Lab has lost any real interest in being involved with the user community." Others have expressed similar opinions. Following the canceling of last year's Winterfest, the Valentines Day "Kiss a Linden," the Second Life Birthday, and now the SLCC, this points to a Linden Lab that just simply isn't interested in interacting and involvement with the residents.
Can SLCC 2012 be resurrected? Most expressed strong doubts that it could be done in time. Could one be held next year without the support of the Lab? A number have expressed pessimism on the matter. Still, given how residents came together to organize the SL9B on their own, it's possible a SLCC 2013 could be pulled off, either on it's own or part of a larger convention such as "DragonCon." But the obstacles, as stated by Fleep, will take some effort to overcome.
In any event, the canceling of SLCC 2012 points to another sign of how the relationship between Linden Lab and the residents of Second Life have changed. Gone are the days of the town meetings, of Blue Linden and others being seen at everyday Second Life events. Now, we have Linden Lab quietly fixing things from inside their "flameproof bunker" on occasion making an announcement to the residents, one made anonymously instead from an individual Linden.
Daniel Voyager's Blog reports that the SLCC, the Second Life Community Convention, has been canceled.
Due to changes in the terms of the contract offered by Linden Lab this year, AvaCon has declined to organize a Second Life Community Convention in 2012. We continue to pursue our overall mission and are focusing our attention on other activities and events that promote the metaverse.
New World Notes also had a few articles. Among them, that it was announced in a keynote panel that game mechanics would be introduced as part of the experience for new users. Hamlet Au called this announcement “easily the most important of the panel, because the lack of a game-like structure is a key part of the confusion that causes almost all new SL users to feel frustrated and aimless, and subsequently, quit shortly after installing the client.”
"Second Life is not a game," spoke Executive Producer Michael "Gez Linden" Gesner during the panel, "However... you can use game mechanics and game systems to help people become more comfortable in Second Life... we're trying to get people over that initial hurdle."
Hamlet Au also noted that ironically enough, people at the convention weren’t on Second Life that much while there,”this is the first one where I noticed a serious lack of SLCC attendees logged into SL.” Instead they were using social media sites such as Facebook. His readers responded that iPhones were easier to carry than the computers they felt logging onto the Grid needed, plus “not being able to plug into power means your battery is dead fairly quickly.”
A recording of Linden Lab's CEO Rod Humble/Rodvik Linden, giving his keynote address, taken last weekend at 1PM Aug 13th.
Rod committed himself to becoming more experienced with getting around on the grid, “this first time addressing you, (it’s) as a relative newb. Hopefully this time next year ... I’ll be a little more experienced.” He noted Second Life was getting 16,000 new sign-ups every day, “something that many games would kill for.” Talking about the “why people go in” Second Life, he admitted he couldn’t really put a finger on it. He felt this mystery was part of it’s charm. He went on to say that when he first came to Linden Lab, he had the impression Second Life was much like “the Sims.” He quickly found out it wasn’t like that at all, “everything created by others. ... everyone creates, even if it’s just relationships.” On the issue of “the point” of Second Life, he felt it was the need for people to create, “the creativity is what makes us human.”
He talked about such creativity being shared, and another important role being identity and being about to “segregate” the different roles one has. He commented he was “disturbed” by the rise of certain social networks which did not recognize any right to privacy of any of these roles. He commented that people act differently when they go to church from when they go to a sporting event, and admitted being part of an online soccer forum where he expressed a very different side of himself with his “obscenity-laden rants.”
Rod also expressed the goal for the company to give the family members of each a Second Life account, “right now, we’re about halfway through that project.”
Rod stated that Linden Lab planned to work more on region crashes in the Grid, “less features, more on fixes.”For the rest of the year, they would put a little more focus on costumer service, addressing concerns, and the lag. He talked about the quality of service. He also brought of the subject of griefers, wanting to “make life unpleasant for griefers, in an inhumane way.” Rod also mentioned improvements to Premium accounts, with new features added.
He also took questions via 3x5 notecards from the audience, and answered some. One of the first was about protecting content creators. Rod answered that “we have several plans.” He mentioned some new products, involving tablets, saying “sales of desktop (computers) had fallen flat.” Linden Lab would be working on products besides Second Life.
He mentioned Second Life was getting more new users these days. But they were not showing up on the Grid like before. They were different in that they were spending less time logged on, and spending more time socializing. He mentioned tools on the horizon, such as facial recognition and voice recognition. He commented at one point about “Second Life a killer ap for education. ... Best we can do is support. ... It is not for Linden Lab or me to push it’s users into a direction.”
Of Viewer 2, Rod commented that the Lindens didn’t want to annoy their customers, and if some residents didn’t want to use Viewer 2, that was “fair enough.” But they had worked a lot on the viewer, with new features in the codebase, and just couldn’t give it up. But Rod was willing to work on further improvements, adding more features from Viewer 1.
He mentioned getting a Twitter account, saying the only reason he got one was because residents has asked him to, “the best way to get in touch with me is through my profile ... or message me on Twitter.”
Of clothes being affected by long rezz times and lag, Rod seemed to be saying the improvements being worked on would be through Mesh.
A few times, Rod was asked about land pricing. Each time, he refused to answer, “I’m not going to be talking about that.”
He talked about the “new user experience,” saying the destination guide had been a big help, and the Lab would work on further improvements. He talked of setting up some newbie areas where they could go to chat.
One interesting point was when one of the audience asked about if the Lindens would bring back Community Gateways. Rod, admitting his unfamiliarity, asked, “what are those?” Someone explained they were branded web portals from a few years ago. Rod responded, “That’s a great idea. What happened to them?” The audience enjoyed a few chuckles of the CEO’s “noob status.”
Rod stated at one point that no other major companies had tried to duplicate what Second Life has, “except maybe Google.” Someone asked if Linden Lab was planing to “once again go overseas.” Rod answered they would. He talked about “localizing in languages,” such as Russian and Thai.
Today is the last day of the 2011 Second Life Community Convention (SLCC). For those who couldn't make it to the real-life location, there's a place here on the Grid for it.
On Saturday August 14 at the SLCC conference, Philip Linden gave his keynote address about future plans for Second Life. Among them was a change which has been around in rumors for years but never brought about until now.
The Teen Grid will be closed, and some of the minors, the 16 and 17 year olds, will be moving to the main.
There's no official post in the blog yet, the news coming from SLCC. But residents certainly have been making comments, some of which can be read: Here.
Developments are still coming in as to what is another major change in Second Life.
On her Google profile, Fleep Tuque announced there were some plans in the works for a new convention for Second Life residents next year. For several years, Second Life users would meet up at the annual Second LIfe Community Convention. But this year the event was canceled, Linden Lab refusing to support it and telling the organizers they were on their own. "SLCC11 was probably the last time we'll use that name" Fleep wrote.
