News and Commentary: Can Second Life Replace Real Life Events Amid the Coronavirus Scare?

By Cyfir (Cyfiremmerich)

With the advent of the global breakout of Coronavirus (COVID-19), major events are being canceled left and right. Many have joked that the year 2020 is canceled, but does it have to be? It would seem that Second Life has indeed seen a resurgence since the pandemic started. Linden Lab has even set their sights on the corporate sector since many businesses have had to halt business travel plans.

So can Second Life be a valuable alternative to group gatherings? First, I’ll provide a possible example of a large scale event: The Electronic Entertainment Expo was one of the big events that were canceled this year. The event itself is no different from a car show or computer fair. You have vendors there showing off their products to the public, explaining why they should buy them, and letting the public try out their hardware and software. Would this work in Second Life?

No. This wouldn’t work in a virtual world like Second Life. This large trade show had 66,100 attendees last year. A Second Life sim would fill up pretty fast with that kind of crowd. Most big events in Second Life only can hold 60-80 people. You could try to spread out the crowd amongst multiple sims but even then there would be issues. There’s also the problem of there being no real way to try out the products. People want to touch and feel a new video game controller. They want to play and experience a new game. They want to sit in a new car. They want to do these things so they can write about it or spread the word through other means. You can’t do that in Second Life. You could maybe stream a conference, by why not do that on YouTube?

What about smaller events such as corporate meetings? Why bother? There are much cheaper options than renting a sim just so everyone can have their own virtual avatar. There’s also the problem of everyone having to learn how to use Second Life. Can you imagine Jill from accounting trying to figure out how to dress her virtual avatar? GoToMeeting would be a much better option in terms of cost and time investment which is what companies look for when choosing such services.

Second Life only is an option for very niche events; the kind of events that already take place on the platform. What Second Life can do in this time of turmoil is provide a unique social platform as well as an escape. What do you think? Are there other events that could take place in Second Life that I haven’t thought of? Sound off in the comments.

Sources: New World Notes, Skift

Cyfir

Commentary: Is Linden Lab Leaving Second Life Behind in Favor of Sansar?

Recently Will Burns, known as Aeonix Aeon in Second Life, took a trip to Linden Lab. He got to meet Ebbe Linden, and they were all to happy to show him Sansar, putting him in an Occulus Rift, and giving him a show. He mentioned one of the areas in Sansar that's been getting the most attention, Ache's Garage of the upcoming movie about virtual reality "Ready Player One." And he could understand why companies such as Warner Brothers would prefer working with Sansar over Second Life as Sansar is more controlled while Second Life to them, in Burns' words, "is like the inmates running the asylum." So he felt both virtual worlds had a place with Linden Lab.

But from his point of view, for all the attention Linden Lab was giving to Sansar, he felt Second Life was being ignored. Or in his words it was "treating it like the wicked red-headed step-child."

While I was at Linden Lab, I definitely got the feeling that SANSAR was the main focus with a near total avoidance of discussing Second Life or its future. It’s technology evangelism at its peak. As far as Ebbe is concerned, he’s all-in for SANSAR while Second Life is … somewhere in the basement level with the engineers. On one side of the equation I can see why Ebbe would be all-in for SANSAR. I’d assume Linden Lab spent a stupid amount of money developing it and couldn’t afford to pull the plug, and so he was likely told to produce an ROI come hell or high water. ...  Right at this moment, he’s showing qualities of Captain Ahab, in the blind pursuit of SANSAR (Moby Dick). But I believe he’s intelligent and an overall great guy. Smart enough not to sabotage his own efforts and company. After all, Second Life is still the goose that laid the golden egg. It didn’t die, it’s just being actively starved and strangled by the aforementioned organizational changes and CEOs. Which is really unfortunate, because I also believe Linden Lab also has some brilliant and creative people there with their hands tied, and who absolutely love Second Life and want to make it better.

Burns would later talk to Hamlet Au, whom later brought it up in New World Notes, "Here's the vibe I get. When I was there, Ebbe was of course wearing the Sansar hoodie, and keen to steer conversation back to Sansar whenever possible. Whenever I did bring up Second Life related things, I got the vibe that he was politely listening and waiting to go back to Sansar discussion and show it off." Burns would also cite the Newser's February 23 article of Linden Lab laying off twelve employees in which one former worker stated, "Company is too focused on its new product; those who work on the mainstay feel set aside and taken for granted."

While Linden Lab is still maintaining and improving Second Life, as Hamlet put it, "the overall shift in corporate cultural focus, away from Second Life and toward Sansar, seems undeniable." Granted it's natural a company would want to showcase it's latest product. But why leave out it's tried and true moneymaker out of any attention and exposure? Could it be the tendency in the tech industry to focus on what's new? Could the Lab think Second Life has been "tainted" by the seedy side of Second Life, the tales of cyber-affairs, flying penis attacks by griefers, and interactive porn? That the streaming service Twitch continues to have the virtual world on it's banned list alongside "Porno Studio Tycoon" is not exactly one of Linden Lab's finer moments. Or perhaps the Lab simply thinks Second Life's time has come and gone?

It's been hinted at before that the release of the movie "Ready Player One" could rekindle interest in virtual reality. But as Burns notes, "opening the floodgates to SANSAR right now ... would be very, very, bad" for the virtual world as it is still in it's early stages and "the public would compare it harshly to other more polished systems." Perhaps Linden Lab could compare Second Life to an early version of the movie's "Oasis," not as flashy as some MORPGs, a little buggy, a little laggy, and often chaotic. But it's got a solid fanbase that uses it in many ways. Some of those ways are truly grand, from great works of art to large online communities to raising thousands of dollars for charity. And that is certainly worth drawing attention to.

Burns' article can be read in it's entirety in his Andromeda blog.

Bixyl Shuftan

Botgirl: "What Went Wrong" With Second Life from 2008-2010

Botgirl Questi did a noteworthy article about Second Life during a turning point in it's history. In 2008, it looked like it was part of the future of mainstream computer use. By 2010, the amount of land owned by people was dropping, and Linden Lab had laid off a third of their staff. Botgirl felt this was the result of a number of decisions by the Lab with the goal to "transform Second Life from an anarchic virtual frontier settlement into a business-friendly company."

This wouldn't the first time a business decided to alter it's focus in an attempt to gain a wider audience. Unfortunately like many such businesses, it ended up alienating it's existing market while failing to gain a new one, "with incomprehensibly poor communication with the Second Life community along the way, Linden Lab managed to throw out the virtual baby with the bathwater." 

Botgirl's "From Thriving Anarchy to Failed Corporate State" can be read here: (link). The following few articles in her blog expands on the subject.