Bonniebots and The Debate About Them

 

In the past few days, a new controversy has come up in the Second Life forums: the Bonniebots. Some say they provide a useful service. Others call them a privacy threat and a violation of the Terms of Service. The topic was a hot one in the Second Life forums with four threads on the topic shut down by the Lindens. In the last one, Patch Linden stated they would soon be meeting up with the bots' team.

 

 Read the story in Design.

Questions Raised About Second Life's Redesigned Homepage

The Second Life website has gotten a new look. Those going to secondlife.com will see the above image (you may need to log off if you're already logged in), an elven girl with bluish skin and glowing blue eyes and hands with a white dress and gold jewelry. "Explore, Discover, Create," it says next to the woman, "A new world is waiting ... "

Going down the page, there was more:

Expect the Unexpected

With thousands of virtual experiences and communities, you'll never run out of places to explore and people to meet. Music clubs, roleplaying communities, virtual cinemas and more. Second Life is always wonderful, sometimes weird, and 100% wow-worthy. 

 Remote Meetings Redefined

Make meetings fun again with virtual hangout spaces, classes and conferences. For over a decade, leading companies and educators have trusted Second Life for branded social spaces for events and remote meetings. 

Imagine the Possibilities

Shop the Second Life Marketplace to discover millions of items including virtual fashions, home decor, and more. Create and monetize your own creations to earn real profits in a virtual economy powered by Tilia.  

There was a thread about the new page in the Second Life forums. The overall tone of those commenting was mixed to negative. It was noted that the top image didn't really look like an avatar, but was likely the blue girl in their "Behind the Scenes" Youtube made in December about doing a commercial in partnership with Levitate Media (1:14). 

There were a few comments about the filming not being cheap, and wondering where the money came from. One woman commented, "I can see it is really a human. I could not believe it. What has it to do with SL? ... I think how much that video had to cost. The studio, models, rigging, light, makeup and costumes. Where the bleep did that money come from? And for what purpose? Making people logging in to get an avatar, that is impossible to get. I feel like I do in RL when it is discovered that some politician has used money we had paid for taxes, and thought it was going to infrastructure, schools and such. Not to give politicians all sort of luxury. How many new regions has people have to buy, only to cover the cost of making that bleep video?"

Another woman reflected her friend worked at a big company, and over the years they'd made marketing campaigns that didn't do much except burn money, and this reminded her of his stories, "The marketing folks come in with 'tweaks' that will 'reap great rewards'. Sometimes there is a new look involved but that is the domain of another long time employee so not many changes there.   So my friend's company does the tweaks --- which costs the company he is working for a lot of money because what seems like a small thing to the Marketing people is often not a small thing at all.  In the end it doesn't work and my friend's company puts thing back (more money gone) and then the next great sales person comes along === and it all repeats."

This week, Linden Lab changed it's fees for buying Linden dollars, making it slightly more expensive to buy larger amounts. Among the reasons stated was "Developing new marketing initiatives and entertainment partnerships to fuel growth." While this is almost certainly not the sole "new marketing initiative," if the comments in the forums are a guide, it's not raising confidence among the residents.

Hat Tip: Daniel Voyager  
 
Bixyl Shuftan
  

Linden Lab Lays Off Twelve, VP of Product Leaves

Linden Lab is a little smaller as a small number of employees have been dismissed. Also, one of the people higher up has left to accept a new position elsewhere.

Hamlet Au recently stated in New World Notes that, "A highly reliable source tells me Linden Lab recently made workforce staff reductions. ... this most recent layoff impacted about a dozen employees: 'It was like one person from each department, totaling 12 ... mostly shared staff ...' "

There were also two recent former employee reviews of the Lab on Glassdoor, which may or may not be two of the twelve. One who called himself a software engineer remarked, "Massive layoffs, but got rid of the wrong people." While he felt, "Some of the people I worked with were smart, passionate and really wanted to create something amazing." He had a mediocre view as a whole of the company, "Leadership has no vision and don't have the skills to run something as ambitious as Sansar. ... The same old people have been there for the longest time. (They) keep hiring the wrong people and putting the wrong people in positions of power."

The other review from an anonymous employee, "Make LL Great Again" was less critical. But he still had a negative outlook, "Company is too focused on its new product; those who work on the mainstay feel set aside and taken for granted. HR is nearly non-existent; most team members are remote or barely in the office. Too many org changes lately have left folks feeling insecure, morale is low and sinking. I hope they can turn it around." His advice to the Lab's leaders, "You have some really awesome people there; get out of their way."

In June 2010, Linden Lab had a massive layoff, or "restructuring" as they called it, in which about a third of their staff was given pink slips. Followed by the CEO then stepping down, it was a sign of a company in trouble. This news following the Lab's decision to raise fees for it's users a few months ago can be considered a sign the company is more pessimistic about it's long-term profitability. Part of the reason may be Sansar having a small base of regular users, despite Linden Lab's large investment in the next-generation virtual world.

One Linden whom left the company recently did so on his own. Bjørn Laurin, who was the "Vice President of Product, turned in his resignation. Joining Linden Lab in March 2015, Laurin was most associated with Sansar. Inara Pey described him as "one of the popular Lab reps (alongside Ebbe Altberg and Jason Gholston (Widely Linden) ) for his willingness to offer broad-ranging views and comments on Sansar’s direction, upcoming releases and ideas being discussed for the platform back at the Lab." Laurin left to pursue a job at HTC Vive.

Sources: New World Notes, Modem World, Glassdoor

Bixyl Shuftan

EA's Star Wars Battlefront II's "Lootboxes" Stir Controversy, Calls For Government Regulation

It used to be if we paid money to play a game, whether all at once for a console game or monthly for an MMO, that was it. If a game was free to play, that the makers would offer a few items to make gameplay easier for a few bucks was accepted. So what happens when a game noted for it's multiplayer mode with player versus player combat, which you have to pay sixty to eighty dollars to play to begin with, starts offering people the chance to buy the loot boxes needed to advance? A lot of controversy, comparisons to online gambling, and talk of the government getting involved.

Read more in Other Grids, MMOs, and Games.

News and Commentary: Will Sansar Be Doomed By It's Unpopularity?

Last Friday August 11, the Newser posed the question "How much do you want to hear about Sansar?" For the majority answering, the answer seems to be "not interested."

Sansar, originally called "the next generation virtual world, has been the target of skepticism, even fear, from the very beginning. Even yours truly was thinking early on that it could very well be the "New Coke of virtual worlds." A few thought this was going to be a tightly-controlled place Linden Lab would try to force everyone into by shutting down Second Life after it's opening. But most felt that the Lab, even with it's past heavy-handed moves, wouldn't pull such a thing, if for no other reason it would mean risking the future of the company by shutting down a sure thing. But still, most had strong doubts this new place was going to be for them. Granted Linden Lab had done a breakthrough by creating Second Life in the first place, but many of it's developments since then, such as it's viewers which after 2010 have reminded in use by only a minority of longtime users in favor of third-party ones, and seeming to favor "bells and whistles" in favor of fixing bugs and flaws, convinced many this place wouldn't be as good as the virtual world they had known. And as a few details came out over time, while some remained open to possibilities, many remained doubtful.

And when Sansar finally came out two weeks ago, well, it was my own observation the best thing about it is it's potential for improvement. Draxtor Despress has been expressing enthusiasm about Sansar, but it's my observation he is one of the few to do so.

There have been some neutral to positive comments, such as Ciran Laval, and Monica Querriren. Lauraina Hawks had a cautious review. Much like me she advised people to wait and see.  In Inara Pey's commentary, she felt the place had a lot of bugs and downsides, but felt it had potential, and suggested Linden Lab wasn't aiming just at Second Life users but "casting Sansar’s net far wider, as has repeatedly been said throughout the development process."

Hamlet Au over time had expressed increasing skepticism about Sansar in the days leading up to it's release, once comparing it to Blue Mars which lasted only a few years. Once it was out, he was more or less observing.  Will Burns in short called Sansar "nothing special," also making a comparison to Blue Mars at one point, "it’s a nice place to visit, but we live elsewhere. When you want a short term experience, SANSAR is a good vacation ..., but when you really want to spend time in a virtual world that is organic and user-generated – you should stick to Second Life. If Linden Lab understood the reasons why we love Second Life, they would have never made SANSAR the way they did ..."

Most of the run of the mill comments I've observed are negative to indifferent. For instance when I asked the question about Sansar on Friday, Xymbers Slade answered he had, "Zero interest. (Linden Lab)'s ineptitude after the first few years makes me bitter and turned off toward any future products." Sakki Salurbia commented, "I personally have zero interest in Sansar. My time and money have been invested in SL for the last 9 years. Why on earth would I change to this?" As I wrote earlier, Marusame Ari felt it wasn't even as good as the simplistic IMVU, of which I've heard a couple people compare Sansar to. And one moderator in the "Second Life Friends" Facebook group commented, "I think Sansar needs to focus on improving what people have been complaining about before they start pushing people from SL. It was fun to test out but it wasn't interesting enough yet. So much more needs to be done before it will draw many SL users, and I'm afraid the tech isn't as available as the Lindens must think. It won't be long, but it's still too soon when it comes to VR for most of us."

Interesting enough, the moderator of the Second Life group on Facebook proceeded to remove the post I had made on the grounds it violated their rule of "This group is for posts related to Second Life only," even though Sansar is made by the same people and it's a big topic of discussion inworld. Someone I talked to about the matter suggested the reason was probably less about a desire to be super-strict with rules, and a desire to avoid drama from people who get angry every time the word "Sansar" is mentioned. That some people feel topics on Sansar need to be deleted because of that suggests something about the level of negativity.

It's doubtful that Linden Lab expected Sansar to be a big hit right away. While it seemed at the beginning they were saying "We're going to make Sansar so good, you'll want to stay," over time they were either getting wind of the constant skepticism, becoming aware that their new world wasn't going to live up to the hype, or something of both. Their press releases in the past few months have stated, "There's been nothing quite like Sansar," even though Linden Lab already has a virtual world, a clear sign they were aiming mainly at people from outside Second Life's userbase. Or to paraphrase Inara Pey, casting a wider net.

But with people marketing their product as the best their is on the market all the time, people can and will do their research before trying. And when people look up Sansar beyond the press releases and official statements, they'll find numerous blog and forum posts calling it a lousy product. That could very well keep usership of the place down.

So how could Linden Lab combat this kind of bad publicity? More press releases and spin artists can only do so much. The best thing it could do is to make Sansar live up to the potential it has. But like many longterm residents, yours truly has come to expect mixed results to overall improvement from the Lab at best. A Sansar that's sort of good probably won't be enough to overcome the weight of the negativity.

Sansar won't be going away anytime soon. And even if it's marginally profitable from it's own sales of virtual content, Linden Lab will keep it around. But if it's userbase remains tiny, about as small or smaller than InWorldz or Kitely, it's likely to be judged a failure. But not unlike the "New Coke" marketing fiasco with Coca-Cola, Linden Lab might end up a winner anyway. A Sansar that turns out to be all but ignored by computer users would likely discourage any major player in the industry from developing their own virtual world. That would leave Linden Lab in it's de-facto monopoly with Second Life. While they didn't set out to discourage competition for Second Life by making an alternative that turned out to be a dud, people could be forgiven for thinking they had.

Bixyl Shuftan