News and Commentary: Logins Slightly Down, Sim Numbers Slightly Up Over 2022

 

 During the Coronaviris/Covid-19 Pandemic, the number of people using Second Life rose. Linden Lab stated in April 2020 that signups had gone up sixty percent since it started. In June 2020, CEO Ebbe Altberg stated the number of active users, those who were logging in at least once a month, had gone up to 900,000, a one-eighth of an increase over the previous year. 

Since then, the Lab has been quiet on just how many are coming in and staying in. There has been some speculation that with the Pandemic over, people have been leaving once more. In an article by Daniel Voyager, he stated that the daily peak has gone down slightly, from 55,000 about a year ago to about 48 to 53,000 this month. Checking the Second Life Grid Survey, this was the case. 

So it seems some people are leaving, though it appears to be a smaller number than those who joined during the Pandemic. Some who came back are sticking around, at least for now.

Of the number of sims, things looked more encouraging according to Daniel. With the growth of Belisseria, it should be no surprise to most that the total number of sims has continued to go up. He reported the total number at 27,659. This is an increase of over 2000 from two years ago. What will surprise some is that the majority of these, at least from two years ago, were private sims, from 17,024 to 18,370. But it should be noted almost all this increase was in 2021. The number of private sims didn't change much in just 2022, an overall increase of thirty-eight. But the number of Linden-owned sims grew at almost the same number, 378 more in 2021 and 380 more in 2022. 

 

So the number of private sims is still growing, but it appears economic troubles such as inflation causing the prices of everything from food and energy to rise and cut back on the amount of cash available for entertainment is resulting in fewer people getting new ones. 

So what do things have in store over the course of 2023? Difficult to say. If inflation drops and the global economy avoids a recession, we may see a few more people logging in and more people getting private sims. But if we end up with 1979-1980 style "stagflation," the news over the next several months may have some sim closings.

Source: Daniel Voyager's Blog

Bixyl Shuftan

More on Linden Lab's Deal With JP Morgan And Tilia (News and Commentary)

 

 On Tuesday, Linden Lab announced that Tilia had "secured a new strategic investment from J.P. Morgan." Also, "Tilia is also working with J.P. Morgan Payments to further enhance Tilia’s current capabilities throughout its processing platform including providing increased payment and payout methods, expanding pay-out currencies and support services." So just what does this mean?

 

Well, it's a little more complicated than to just call it a deal between Linden Lab and JP Morgan.

To begin with, Tilia was created over three years ago in 2019, announced in July and going active in August. The service had been created to avoid future problems with the US Government concerning changing Linden dollars for real-world currency. At first, only those cashing out Linden dollars into real world currency had to keep it in mind. In May 2020, it was expanded to cover both the buying and selling of Linden dollars. Following Linden Lab being bought up by the Waterfield group, Tilia would be involved with not just Second Life transactions, but other places online, "virtual worlds and metaverses, online games, and NFT marketplaces" such as Upland.

So why the deal? Well, the Waterfield Network's motivations are easy to understand: quick cash in exchange for sharing further profits. In the statement from Tilia, Brad Oberwager, whose position at the service was Executive Chairman, stated, "Virtual economies represent a huge financial opportunity particularly for game, app and virtual world developers. J.P. Morgan Payments, a worldwide leader and recognized innovator in payments, is the right partner as we continue to expand capabilities in line with these rapidly growing creator-based economies."

JP Morgan's motivations? As a bank, obviously their motivation is to make money, in this case over the long term. But considering Second Life's golden age was over a decade ago, why would they be interested in this kind of deal now? In the statement from Tilia, the representative from JP Morgan stated, “We believe that contextualized commerce - such as virtual economies within games and virtual worlds - is an area perfectly positioned for innovative payments solutions to play a critical role in the coming years." He would call Tilia, "a market leading provider of software gaming payments tools, to develop solutions for these new and exciting marketplaces.”

In the Second Life forums, there was a thread with two news articles about the deal on the first page, from Forbes and Venturebeat. The Forbes article called Oberwager the acting CEO of Linden Lab. The Venturebeat one stated that Tilia would no longer be under Linden Lab, but now it's own company under the Waterfield Network. Tilia would use the money from JP Morgan "to expand its business and go into new markets." So it seems Linden Lab probably won't be getting much of the money, at least not directly. The article would say the deal took about a year to negotiate. Oberwager was quoted as saying, “They invested in us and they solidified a really big partnership. We’re like the tip of the spear for the metaverse. They’re a good partner with a lot of credibility.”

He would go on to say, “This is a good thing when creators can make money. There are people around the world who make their living by building things in Second Life. ... Here’s why I think it’s so important,” Oberwager said. “These universes are social economies. If you don’t allow people to make money, if you don’t allow this economy to happen, if you don’t support creators, you’re going to have to rely on an advertising model to make your world work. That is a disaster. That would be the worst thing that could hit our society — an advertising-based metaverse.” He felt such a virtual universe would operate on companies tracking people so they could better target ads, "That's not a world we want to live in."

There is some irony in the Tilia deal. It was a year ago that Facebook announced it was going to make a major effort into virtual worlds, saying it would become the "Metaverse," even changing it's name to Meta. It's owner Mark Zuckerberg was acting like Second Life never existed. Since then, things have not gone well for Facebook/Meta. The company has lost a LOT of money and investor confidence shaky, "some analysts say that they aren’t even sure what Facebook’s core business is anymore — or if it even has one." Horizon has also performed far short of expectations. Despite Facebook's huge base of users, a Wall Street Journal article reported the number of people using Horizon has been much smaller than Second Life, with a smaller ratio of women to men, with reports of some of the men behaving badly despite the lack of legs on avatars (while in SL about 80% of the entrepreneurs are women according to Oberwager), and most areas never being visited by anyone other than their creators.

With Horizons and Facebook/Meta faltering while Second Life is flourishing and indirectly attracting attention of the largest bank in America through Tilia, Linden Lab has proven not only can it outdo Zuckerberg with virtual worlds, but also on attracting big money investors. While "The Zuck" can pretend our virtual world doesn't exist, in private he sure can't deny we do.

Sources: Forbes, Venturebeat, Petapixel, Ryan Schulta/Wall Street Journal
 

Bixyl Shuftan

Reflections on The SL18B

 

"Ebbe is gone, but Second Life goes on." That was the message the Lindens were sending at this year's Second Life Birthday. There were other details. But the recent death of CEO Ebbe Altberg overshadowed them.

Last year, there were no great revelations at the SL17B Linden and Mole discussions. The Lab wanted to reassure the residents the move to The Cloud was going smoothly, and it was offering new types of Linden Homes and expanding the Bellisseria continent. But those details would soon be overlooked as days later came news of Linden Lab being acquired. So for two years in a row, the announcements made by the Lab were in the shadow of other news around the time. 

But what the Lab did have to say this year was noteworthy. They announced the new class of upcoming Linden Homes: fantasy. They also announced the continued expansion of Bellisseria to place the neighborhoods of these now homes. There would be new starter avatars and a new starting area for new residents. The Lab stated it was getting closer to having a chat app available for mobile devices (and a few weeks later they would announce Apple had accepted one). There was an acknowledgement by Brett Linden that the Lab hadn't done quite enough to promote nonhuman avatars, such as furries, in the past. And of course there was the first time one of the Lab's new owners appeared in an interview to speak to the residents. 

The overall layout of the sims seemed similar to last year's to me, especially the entry area. While it wasn't the exact same layout as the trees had some giant mushrooms mixed in with them, it did have much the same feel (As my viewer does not see the EEP feature for skies, perhaps there was effort in there that I missed). It was notable that for the first time, the sims didn't have a number in their names, called "SLB" instead of SL18B." Perhaps the latter will be how the Lab names the sims from now on.

While the Cake Stage from previous SLB events is still missed, the design of this year's stage to look a little like a turtle got some compliments. For the first time, there was a Skill Game area.

And of course there were the exhibits. Like last year, the Lab informed the exhibitors they weren't going to be overly strict to keeping in theme. While some took advantage of that, other exhibitors tried to stay within it. The result was an interesting mix of exhibits that helped make "The Birthday" worth going to, notably once the music events were all over.

It was noteable that soon after the celebration ended came the announcement from the Lab that it's chat app for mobile devices would soon be ready. If not for the passing of the late CEO, this might have been what the event would have been remembered for.

Despite the overall layout being so similar to last year, it was a good SL18B. Exactly what next year has in store, who knows. Probably a new kind of Linden home. Perhaps a new game, or maybe a new continent (unless they keep growing Bellisseria). 

And thank you for what you've done, Ebbe Altberg.

Bixyl Shuftan
 

News and Commentary: Second Life Commercial

In the middle of the SL18B Lab Gab on June 21, between when Oberwolf Linden was interviewed and when the leadership team was (more on that later), an advertisement appeared about here. This was the commercial that's been talked about since a still image appeared on the Second Life home page about two months ago two months ago, and there was more discussion a month ago when a video could (sometimes) be seen on the home page. It would first appear on it's own at Torric Rodas Newswire on June 22 before appearing on the Second Life Youtube yesterday June 23. It would also appear on the Viemo page of Levitate Media, the people Linden Lab worked with to do the commercial. 

If you're traveling beyond this life, where the weight of tradition cannot follow, do not fear re-invention. The design is your liberation. Between the planes where our dreams are built, where the mind reigns  and the light bends, and the children of creation dance in time. If you're traveling beyond this life, you are not alone. We are waiting.

Levitate would say the commercial won four Telly awards, two gold, People's Telly Award and Visual Effects, and two silver, Directing and Music Score. Evan Scott of Levitate Media was listed as the producer and Kanin Guntzleman the director. 

I have yet to see a thread in the Second Life forums about "Children of Creation" as the ad has been called. Hamlet Au would say of it, "Overall, it's quite a bit better than I originally feared from the homepage imagery." But, "with its use of real world models, heavy post-production effects, and only a smattering of actual SL-based 3D content, it feels like something of a bait-and-switch: Anyone who excitedly creates an SL account after watching this is bound to be disappointed! Even more off, it doesn't actually show any of the actual creative building tools of Second Life, leaving the random viewer to wonder if the creation referred to is only about customizing avatars." 

Inara Pey would have some comments about it as well, " ... I think the advert as shown works pretty well; the images are well-matched to the narration, and the overall impact is the idea of liberation and freedom of expression. The intercuts of changing avatar appearances particularly underscores this, as do more subtle elements ... " On the other hand, she called "If you're traveling beyond this life" a poor choice of words, comparing it to someone dying, "perhaps 'beyond this world' might have been a better choice of words."

Personally, I feel an ad campaign of some kind by Linden Lab is necessary if it wants to retain the numbers it gained during the Pandemic. I've also been hearing that young adults these days with an interest in virtual worlds are more likely to head to other places such as VRChat. But could the ad have been done better? As mentioned before, there's not much actual SL content used in the ad. It could have a similar effect that the CSI television show episode that took place in Second Life had in which TV viewers were given an idealized description: everyone talking in Voice and no lag. While it encourages users to check out the virtual world, it may be setting them up for a small disappointment.

How it will ultimately work? So far it has yet to appear on television or elsewhere on the Internet other than Youtube or Viemo. So we'll have to wait a while, days, weeks, perhaps months, before we find out.

Addition: Levitate Media (https://levitatemedia.com/) would later thank the Newser for it's coverage

Bixyl Shuftan
  

News and Commentary: Mixed Reaction to Buyout of Linden Lab

Well, that was a surprise.

Occasionally, there's a rumor that Linden Lab is talking to someone behind the scenes in negotiations to sell Second Life or be bought out. This was especially the case in 2010 in the months following the layoffs of a third of the staff. But while the Lab has made deals with other companies, the last time having sold Sansar to Wookey, there have been no negotiations about either the ownership of itself or Second Life (at least officially). That is until yesterday when in a Press Release, Linden Lab announced it had been "Acquired" by a group of investors.

It didn't take long for news to spread, and there's been no shortage of comments, such as the thread in the official forums. There's no shortage of predictions of doom, "Second Life is dead." "We're so screwed." "Damn I cannot believe it, after 13 years its time to say good bye, I guess, that sucks. I mean you put 13 years of your life into something and wham its gone just like that."

And there's more than a little pessimism, "But after being let down by Blizzard, Bioware and Bethesda, I'm usually not rooting for any company to get investors on board nowadays." "This is worrying indeed, I've always been more in favor of a company remaining independent from outside influences, and this is basically... the opposite." "Investment groups are typically parasites that contribute very little while sucking companies dry."

Some others were more optimistic, such as those pointing out Linden Lab founder Philip Rosedale quoted as saying, "I’ve known Brad for 14 years personally and professionally, and I’m confident he will bring his passion and proven strategies to help Linden Lab achieve new heights in distribution, scale, and quality while remaining true to the original vision, creativity, and community that makes Second Life unique and special.” And then there was the track record of Oberwager, "My ... thought was that this fellow buying the outfit seems to have more business success (with this sort of better Task Rabbit thing called Jyve) and more experience than the past lab technicians, and that's a good thing."

And there were those suggesting it was too soon to make conclusions, "I need to wait and see what Ebbe has to say from his side on this to us the users of SL before I get overly excited." "I've worked for several companies that got taken over by investment companies.  What happens next falls into two categories ... Things run smoothly for a year or so, then the investment company starts asset stripping piece by piece. ... The investment company...invests.  They take a loss on the initial purchase, a loss on the initial investment but have a road plan to regain that investment back in 2 to 5 years. ... THIS is the kind of investment company we can hope has taken over Linden Research, the type of company who are in it for the long haul. We will find out (probably by the beginning of next year) if the investment company who took over is path 1, or path 2." "After careful consideration, I have decided not to freak out just yet."  "Hope for the best. Plan for the worst. Expect nothing.That's it. Speculation is lovely and all but being panicked will not help whatsoever."

And of course there was humor, "I guess that guy that's been perving us all and IMing with only 'hi' all these years finally got the money to buy the thing."

It was also suggested that the negotiations for the buyout were the reason that there were no big revelations in the Meet the Lindens event at the Second Life Birthday this year.

Ebbe Altberg/Ebbe Linden would try to answer these concerns from residents on Twitter, saying Linden Lab was free to make it's own decisions, "No plan for drainage here. Great to remain independent. Everyone motivated to build and grow."

Brett Linden would finally step in the thread with his comments, "A few folks are speculating that this is the end of SL and nothing could be further than the truth. Any talk of dismantling or radically changing the fundamentals of SL that we know and love is inaccurate. While we can't get into specific details about the deal itself, I want to emphasize the fact that this keeps Linden Lab as an independent venture led by two investors who have a great deal of awareness about what SL is and isn't. They are excited to join and help us grow both SL and Tilia while also respecting and recognizing the needs and sensitivities of the existing culture and community. " When asked when more information was forthcoming, he answered, "We look forward to being able to share more as soon as we can and I know that Brad (Oberwager) is eager to meet the community as we get closer to the closing/approval date." Bret would go on to say that Oberwager would get an avatar and come inworld, for the Lab Gab show and meeting people elsewhere inworld. A couple Lindens, including Grumpity, would poke fun at the doom and gloom by wearing signs proclaiming "The end of the world is coming!"

My own opinion? In short, I tend to agree with those whom argue "wait and see." After being part of this virtual world for over thirteen years, I've seen my share of people of people predicting the end whenever something big happens. But I do see signs of optimism. That Oberwager is planning to come inworld to discuss things is a good sign. So are the Lindens with their "End of the world" joke signs. If they weren't optimistic, I doubt they'd be kidding around. Of the two people, one a member of Mensa, the other whom has an interesting success story with Jyve, it's obvious they're smart businessmen. That one plans to come inworld shows at least he wants to talk to his new customers.

On the other hand, there are enough acquisitions that went badly, or had mixed results. So those with dim outlooks don't have to look too deeply for evidence to support their conclusions.

So why did Waterfield and Oberwager's group of investors buy out Linden Lab when the company couldn't find a buyer in 2010, assuming the rumors were true? Well, Second Life's glory days were from 2006 to 2008. By 2010, it was clear the place wouldn't be drawing as many people as it once did for quite some time to come. Today, the world is under a global pandemic that has send many places into lockdowns and quarantines, and even in places that aren't people are discouraged from meeting up or going to crowded areas. The result is people are spending more time online, and more are coming here. Our future, at least for the near term, is looking brighter. And this is what financial investors are looking for.

In a sense, this sale marks Linden Lab finally becoming a success story in the eyes of the tech world. It's been commented on that one of the reasons Second Life wasn't considered one was it was never bought up by a larger company. And now, Linden Lab has been bought out under what look like generous terms. Not that Second Life's residents/customers cared much about what those people thought.

In any event, Linden Lab, and Second Life, are entering a new era. How it turns out, we'll need to wait several months at least, maybe over a year, before we can really say it was for the better or worse.

Image Credit: Whirly Fizzle

Source: Techcrunch

Bixyl Shuftan

News and Commentary: Reflections On The SL17B

Different Second Life Birthday events are remembered for different things. The previous one, the SL16B, was "Sweet Sixteen," when Linden Lab got back into full control and had a 1950's theme, and the ending of some traditions such as the "Cake Stage," at least for now. The SL15B was our "Crystal Anniversary," and the first of the "Swaginator" gift hunts by Linden Lab, and would turn out to be the last resident-run anniversary event, and the last of the Cake Stage and Stage Left builds. The SL14B, "Carnivalesque" will be known for it's "Dragon Island" and "Stage Left" two-sim "Guardian." "Unlucky Thirteen" was lucky in some ways with Loki Eliot's tribute to a kids' game show and Madpea's "Mad Monster Island," and it's "Stage Left" then, sometimes called The Librarian. The SL12B had it's "party velociraptor" gift avatar from Linden Lab, and Linden Lab was starting to step back in the events with "Music Fest" and "Meet the Lindens."

For people, age seventeen is thought of as the last year someone's a "kid" and the year before they get some of the privileges and responsibilities of being an adult, at least in Western developed countries. "One more year and Second Life gets to vote" I would hear more than once. Maybe it's with this in mind Linden Lab chose as it's theme "Vacations and Road Trips," or "Road Trip" as I heard it called for short a few times. And this is what helped distinguish this year, allowing the resident exhibitors more freedom to build what they wanted. And people made a variety of things from the playground of Rocket City's community to Fiona Fei's "Conversation with a Stranger" art exhibit. to Suika Manamoko's Bleriot XI exhibit that was a tribute to an early aviation pioneer, and of course Silva Ametza's tropical vacation island build for the Newser's exhibit, there were many examples.

In this birthday party, the residents had more than a few gifts. The gift shop area had a number of things from clothes to a toy airplane. And there were gifts in the exhibit areas as well. The GTFO game people had a place one could get a gift car. One wasn't so much a lasting gift as a free ride rental. Teegle set up a place one could get a temporary horse or horse and carriage and ride it for as long as they wanted until they detatched it (or crashed).

One difference between this anniversary event and others in recent years was this one was taking place at a time Second Life's numbers have been rising instead of slowly falling. So there were likely more people at the SLB this time than in the past few years. This may have been the reason for some residents complaining about more lag.

At the "Meet the Lindens" events, there were no revelations that were particularly earth-shaking. There was some talk about the move of Second Life data from existing servers to Cloud servers. It was also mentioned the number of Moles in the Linden Department of Public Works was increased from about twenty to thirty due to work on Bellissaria. Work on a mobile device continues. Sansar is no longer really an issue, save for those Lindens that returned from working on it (some such as Torley apparently stayed). There are no new games in development, though it was mentioned the Paleoquest game *might* get an upgrade in the future. And new user experiences are still being examined for what works and what doesn't. The effect the Pandemic has had on day to day Linden Lab operations has been described as "minimal." The revelation that got the most attention seems to be the latest kind of Linden Home, the stilt houses. But they won't be available for some time to come.

There was much greenery and other natural scenery around, such as the forest area around the main stage. The auditorium was also different as it was a stage with an open seating area. Some liked it. Others didn't, and while I didn't personally hear it, there were likely some whom wondered if there was a connection between this and perceived greater lag. Was it really greater? I seemed to have more trouble going about the Meet the Linden events and concerts more than walking the Relay Weekend this year, crashing a lot. So my personal answer is "maybe."

And of course, there were the residents whom missed "The Cake." Nancy Clowes personally came up with a partial solution with her own SL17B birthday cake. With no Cake Stage for two years in a row, perhaps next year we'll see some cakes of some kind among the exhibits.

In any event, it was quite a "road trip." And the Newser was happy to be part of it. Special thanks once again to Silvia Ametza for her well-done exhibit. And of course thanks to the Lindens and Moles for making sure things went smoothly. And now that our "busy season" is coming to a close (we still have some things to write about), we can get back to topics that were left on the back burner.

See you at the SL18B.

Bixyl Shuftan

News and Commentary: Mixed Reaction to The Return of Last Names

For years, Second Life's users have asked for Linden Lab to bring back account surnames. Although display names were an option, some continued to call people by their account names. Finally in March 2018, Linden Lab announced they were working on finding a way to bring them back. To the Lab's credit, they were looking for a way to allow those with "Resident" as their surname to change it, which was the hard part as the Grid had been built with the assumption one's name would never change.

Finally on April 13, Linden Lab felt confident enough that they could release the option to change one's last name. And the reaction from the residents has been, mixed, some of which can be seen in a thread in the official forums. A few cheered, "Awesome!" "Woot!" Some grumbled along the lines of "It's about time." Some laughed at several of the choices, notably "Covfefe" which was seen at a poke in the ribs by the Lab at a certain President whom doesn't always correct his spelling before sending out a comment on Twitter. And a few were seen as clever, "I'm delighted to see 'Bellisserian' on the list, that was a genius decision."

But overall, I've noticed two reactions that are more widespread and/or louder than most. One is an overall disappointment of the choices of surnames Linden Lab gave. There were some early signs of this in February when the winners of the Last Names Contest were announced, "Please tell me they will go through another batch?" "Most of these are horrible in my eyes." So it was no surprise when there were reactions like, "I'm blocking anyone with the last name Covfefe, PERIOD!" "This one is a bit of a disappointment but then again, my expectations have become so low by now, they're practically flatlining."

Personally, I feel Linden Lab was a bit hard-pressed on the matter as they've committed themselves to the old process of a list of surnames being available for a limited time and never used again. And over time, thousands have been used. By 2010, some Lindens tasked with the job of finding new surnames were finding themselves at wit's end, supposedly one just grabbing a list of dessert names. And being a writer of fiction before my time at the Newser, I've had people tell me that my choices of names for characters can sometimes, leave something to be desired.

But the biggest criticism fired at the Lab was the money that residents would have to fork over. A few such as Hamlet Au called the $39.99 / $51.98 charge "a small price to pay." But far more common were reactions like Ryan Schultz whom called the fee "an outrageous price. ... I knew that it would cost me, but I am shocked at just how much it did actually cost me. ...  approximately double what I was expecting to pay for such a feature. This is outrageous." He would go on to say that thanks to the economic damage wrought by the coronavirus crisis, people overseas were suffering from currency devaluations, and many US residents as well were suffering, and that Linden Lab was morally obligated to keep this in mind, "these fees seem particularly harsh, tone-deaf and out-of-touch." Some residents also felt Linden Lab should have at least made the first change free for residents, especially those who had to live with the generic surname the longest.

One person responding to Ryan offered one possible reason for the high fees, guessing "they were worried about being hammered with name change requests, so they made it expensive enough that people will think twice. I have no idea how much of a burden large amounts of name changes would be on their system ..." So it could be that the high fees were not done out of greed, but a calculated move to deliberately keep the number of people changing their names low. Oz Linden is on the record as saying they wanted to charge enough to discourage people from changing the name a lot, "Not something you want people to do too frequently. It creates trouble. One of the ways to slow down things we don't want to go too fast is charging people for it."

So will the Lab lower the fee in the future? Probably not any time soon as it's easy to imagine that with the complaints coming in now, there would be more from those who paid early. As the Lab has lowered the price of sims gradually in the past, I imagine after a while as they're more confident of they're system holding up to more people doing so, or few people make the change, they will lower the fee for changing names. Considering right now, some early changers have had trouble with games like Tiny Empires, there are already reasons to wait a little to change.

Of the economic crash caused by the Coronavirus Crisis, this is something Linden Lab couldn't have forseen until just as it was finishing up the feature. Assuming the decision on the fee was a done deal, should they have waited until the economy recovered? Considering it took years for the world to bounce back from the crash of 2008 (and some feel we never really did), probably not. As one of the unofficial rules of Second Life since the beginning has been "real life comes first," those whom have had to tighten their belts due to finding themselves out of a job will have to wait before making the change, even if they like the current list and by the time they have the money the Lab will have gone over to another one they feel is bad.

When the Lab ended last names, it affected Second Life society by creating a dividing line between residents whom signed up before late 2010 and those after. Those with surnames were instantly recognized as longtime residents or "oldbies." As old habits take some time to change, most will probably still assume those with surnames are from 2010 or earlier, at least unless it's one of the more recognizable new ones such as "Covfefe," until they bother to check the profile and the rezz date. Should a lot of people decide to open their wallets and pay the fee, this assumption may start to fade away among most. But if residents hesitate due to the high cost and/or economic troubles and few make the change, many users will likely continue to make this first assumption for some time.

So what do I personally think of the names? On the whole, not a bad choice. There are some that resemble real-life ones such as Takeda, Timmerman, and Ravenhurst. Many are amusing ones, such as Jazzhands, Puddles, Float, and Whimsy. Yeetly and Doge sound like names for meme fans. Melodious and Heartsong sound like a name that someone from the music scene could use, or perhaps a bard in a roleplay community. Mainsail sounds like a name for someone from the Blake Sea area, or perhaps a pirate or Colonial Age roleplay. Littlepaws and Alpha could see some use among the furries, the former among tinies as well. Bellisserian will be popular among fans of the Linden Home continent. Nimble sounds like something one thinking of himself as quick would use. Mercury could end up being used by fans of the late musician of the name, or perhaps space fans thinking of the Mercury Seven. Hexem could be used by someone seeing themselves as a magic user. Of Covfefe, I know a number of opponents and supporters, both enthusiastic and reluctant, of the current President, and can see people of both affiliations using it to poke fun at the other side. As for including "Resident" among the list, I can only call it Linden Lab's sense of humor at work as it's very difficult to imagine a longtime user changing their surname to that.

For better or worse, Second Life's residents since late 2010 now have the option to get a real surname. Like so many things in real life and virtual life, it comes with a catch. So will large numbers open their wallets willingly and reluctantly and pay up, or will most continue to rely on display names? It will take a little time to tell.

Sources: Second Life forums, New World Notes, Ryan Schultz,  USA Today

Bixyl Shuftan

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

News and Commentary: Will The Corona Crisis Mean More People Using Second Life?

With the Coronavirus epidemic having reached around the world, life has changed greatly. For Americans, there hasn't been anything quite like this since the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 2001. Countries around the world are erecting travel bans. There are numerous stories about panic buying and hoarding in the US, Canada, and Australia. Major events are being canceled. Schools and colleges are being closed. People are being encouraged not to gather in large groups. Businesses are having more people work at home.

With more people staying home, some have been asking a question. Will this mean more people coming to Second Life?

In my opinion, there will be a few new users. But we'll likely see more infrequent users spend more time here.

In the golden age of the virtual world, we had plenty of people coming here as it was the talk of tech media and even in TV shows such as CSI. Today, advertising and word of mouth (or word of mouse) draws some here, though not as many. There's also that in addition to online games, people have simpler places to go to online such as Facebook and Netflix. With the high learning curve, only those with friends already here and the curious are likely to stay beyond a few visits.

Will more people from colleges and universities come here? Maybe a few. But I don't see more than a possible tiny few institutions joining those already here. Probably none. After Linden Lab discontinued it's educational/nonprofit discount in 2010, many places of learning responded by leaving and never coming back, not even when the Lab brought it back a few years later.

People from charities and support groups may start making more use of Second Life. With real-life "Relay for Life" gatherings being canceled, supporters will likely look to donate online and find out about the Second Life chapter. Members of groups like Alcoholics Anonymous have met in Second Life before. With the epidemic, we'll likely see many such support group meetings of these and others inworld. A number of veterans have continued to use Second Life for years to meet up. It's likely we'll see a few more of them as well.

But what about those residents already here?

Not everyone with accounts comes to Second Life every day. Their main interests and/or group of friends may be elsewhere online, so come here only occasionally to check up on someone or somewhere they like. They might have been too busy with a job with long hours, or perhaps working two jobs. And other reasons. It's on the record that there are a few people whom drop by once a month or so just to pay the tier on their virtual homes, maybe spend a few minutes to look at the scenery, then leave. These are the kinds of people we'll be likely to see more of.

Eventually, the crisis will pass. And many of these people will go back to their old schedules. But others will have found some reasons to stick around here. Maybe a club where a DJ plays tunes they hadn't heard for years. Maybe a place that appeals to them deep down. Maybe a group of people that gives them a sense of purpose (such as the Relay for Life). So out of the crisis, Second Life very well could get a few new users, and some more active users.

Bixyl Shuftan

News and Commentary : Looking Back at Torley Linden

Torley is gone.

If you were a resident in Second Life from 2007 to 2010, Torley was one of the Lindens you heard about the most, if not the Linden you knew about the most. He was the Linden who did various videos for Second Life residents, both tutorials with basic information and tips for more experienced residents. They often started with the cheerful opener "friendly greetings," which became an unofficial trademark of his. So was his going about in bright green and pink avatars, his "watermelon" look.




When interviewed by Saffia Widdershins in 2016, Torley stated he joined Second Life in 2004, "I was in a really hard place in my first life, and I discovered Second Life through various sources ... and I was reading a lot of cyberpunk and transhumanist literature at the time, thinking about a brighter future for my whole life. And I soon found myself – well, there’s no nicer way to put it than I was utterly obsessed with being here every day." After several months, "I basically sent this crazy,  rambling note card to Char linden at the time." She and a few other Lindens "gave me the opportunity to apply. So I went through that. Guess it turned out OK."

Torley would say of his time in Second Life, "I’ve mostly been a nomad explorer. I have had homes, and I have had full regions. I still do in fact. But I think the prime thing that always drives me is really the force of discovery, and to share those discoveries, and I really get curious, and I love asking people 'where did you get your avatar?' or 'did you make these parts of your avatar?' or comment on a cool build they’re making. And finding the connections. I love introducing wonderful creative minds in Second Life to each other, and we’ve had so many over time."



Torley would make his Tips and Tricks videos from 2006 to 2009. They can still be found on his Youtube channel. In February 2010, he would announce there would be new Second Life tutorial videos on their own channel. He would do a few of these newer tutorials, which were not as numerous as the ones he did before. He would explain in the 2016 interview there had been a "shift in focus" at the Lab for him to promote newer features and his time was more limited, "I wish I could clone myself." He did feel that numerous bloggers had helped fill the role he had earlier.

Despite no more of his "friendly greetings" videos, Torely was still around. He would appear at events such as Burn2 and the Linden Snowball fights, either as a Linden or in a "civilian" avatar. And he would appear at the Second Life Birthday as well. Although obviously male in real life, his avatars were often female. He would also post thousands of screenshots on his Flickr page.

In 2017, he would be among the Lindens moved to the Sansar team. There he would remain until last month February 2020, about the time of the layoffs in which the next generation virtual world's staff was reduced to a skeleton crew.

Exactly why Torley was apparently let go, one can only speculate. His old position on the Second Life staff had long been filled by others, but he could have been given a position in public relations, which the also popular Xiola Linden left after stepping down from in January with her leaving Linden Lab. Perhaps he wasn't dismissed, but like Xiola decided it was time to move on. But this is all speculation. Linden Lab isn't talking and neither, at least for now, is Torley.

In any event, the "watermelon man" will remain a part of Second Life history. Whereever he goes, we at the Newser wish him well.

Source: Modem World

Bixyl Shuftan

News and Commentary: More on Youtube And COPPA

Youtube has long been a staple on the Internet. It was a place that people could post videos, as long as they weren't porn or graphically violent, for friends and anyone else interested in watching. Over time, there were changes. There were the ads, there was monetization, there were the takedowns of videos that were seen as infringing of copyrights, and others. But one recent change has scared many video makers: the new rules concerning COPPA. Second Life music video maker Nydia Tungsten ended up removing most of her videos as a result, and many others are doing or considering doing the same. So why are they worried? The new rules in question are just too vague to trust.

Read the commentary in Extra.

News and Commentary: Linden Lab Lays Off Over 20 of Sansar Staff, Next-Gen World Faces a Mediocre Future

On Monday November 4, it was reported by blogger Ryan Schultz that Linden Lab had dismissed over 20 of the part of it's staff running it's Sansar virtual world. The news of the layoffs was just two days after news that the next-generation virtual world had undergone a major staff shakeup. As Linden Lab won't confirm if anyone's lost their job or not, Schutlz and then Hamlet Au got the news from insiders in the Lab. Inara Pey would state of the sixteen names she knew on the Sansar team, four were no longer active.

While Sansar has had a few enthusiastic fans, it's following has remained small. While it initially got a large number of curious visitors after it's introduction in July 2017, most didn't find a reason to stay and it's numbers dropped to less than fifty users a day, sometimes as low as ten. By January 2019, the number increased a little to 79 a day. A report on New World Notes last month brought up an infographic from September stating that Sansar was third of social VR platforms in peak concurrent users at 220 compared to 475 of Recroom and 10610 of VRChat, which has become the next-generation virtual world of choice. The report stated what the numbers didn't show was that most were coming on for a handful of popular events, and between them normal usage of the next-generation virtual world was closer to 20. These statistics are a tiny drop compared to the tens of thousands on Second Life and the several thousands of VR Chat, "220 people for Hello Kitty during TwitchCon 2019 on September 27... And after the event, tumbleweeds as usual."

Hamlet Au would put part of the blame for Sansar's failure to draw in bigger numbers on Linden Lab changing direction with the virtual world during it's development and after it's release, such as making content creation available only with offworld tools and pairing it with VR gear, the latter which is too expensive for most computer users. The current direction seems to be a focus on live events, which as stated earlier provides a temporary boost to it's mediocre numbers. Sansar developer "Gindipple" would comment, "They've changed direction so many times now. They are winging this and hoping. I gave up on them a while ago, so don't care as much now. They lost a lot of good people in this cut back, some went to SL but many [are] just out."

Second Life's future is still secure, as the Lab is still hiring people for it. But for Sansar, it looks like it will be operating with a "skeleton crew" as it faces a mediocre future. It's highly unlikely the Lab will close down the virtual world. Hamlet predicted it would "eventually be run as a spinoff company and product separate from Linden Lab." In any event, Linden Lab long had high hopes for the virtual world, despite most users of Second Life giving it a thumbs down. Now it appears even they have admitted, at least to themselves, that it's next-generation virtual world won't be attracting numbers anything close to the one that's been going for over sixteen years.

Sources: Ryan Schultz, New World Notes, Modem World

Bixyl Shuftan

News And Commentary: Patent Troll Sues Linden Labs

By Cyfir (Cyfiremmerich)

News broke recently over on yahoo!finance that a known patent troll, Worlds Incorporated, has filed a patent dispute lawsuit with Linden Labs for their extremely broad patent on a “System and Method for Enabling Users to Interact in a Virtual Space.”

In fact they have used this same patent to files a suit against Blizzard all the way back in 2012. In 2013, they were counter sued by Activision when they went after them.

So what is a patent troll you might ask? Patent trolls are often not companies that offer their own services or goods. They are more of a “patent holding company” and they often collect and sit on patents just so they can go after legitimate companies in the future in the hopes of either settling with them or collecting royalty fees for the use of their intentionally broad patents.

In this case, Worlds Inc. maintains a very basic 3D chat client which you can read about here (but be warned this article is very NSFW and that’s not the avatar’s tail). It’s obvious that this service isn’t even looked after. What these patent trolls will do is gather the patent and release a barebones “service” or “product” so that they can prove later on in court that they have been sourcing this “product” or “service.” They are essentially opportunistic vultures who see an opportunity, wait for their prey to get fat (successful), and then strike when the time is right.

This is nothing new and happens all the time in the technology industry. Since it’s so common, the companies that these patent trolls go after tend to pay for good lawyers who take care of these things. Let’s hope that Linden Labs is able to do the same. It’s just a shame that it’s such a drain on resources for these companies.

Cyfir

Image Source: Engadget. 

Editor's Note: According to an article by Engadget, they sued NCSoft and had gone after Linden Lab in the past as well.

It seems among the things that the money coming from Linden Lab's price and fee hikes will be going to is paying lawyers to defend them against patent trolls.

News and Commentary: Reflections on the SL16B

After seven years, Linden Lab is back in charge of "The Birthday."

It was a surprise in Spring 2012 when Linden Lab announced it would not be organizing any Second Life Birthday celebration in June that year. The result was disappointment, followed by a group of residents getting together to organize it on their own. The overall result was a success, and a collective sigh of relief to all involved. After a few years, the Lab would gradually began to be involved once more. There came presents from the Lab, such as it's robot, bear, and dinosaur avatars. There were the Music Fest. There were the "Meet the Lindens" events. There came the shopping events. And last year there was the Swaginator Hunt. Still, it was the resident-run team that was in charge.

This year, the Lab assumed full control of the Second Life Birthday. The volunteers were still there, but the Lab was in charge. I heard one resident express disappointment, saying that the Lab should have just given the volunteer group the sims and let them run it. A few expressed disinterest in the whole thing, "My bank is important to me too, but I don't celebrate it's anniversary." But the general feeling I got was most were okay with or happy that the Lab was in charge again. Why was the Lab back in charge? One Linden stated that over time, they were analyzing what worked for The Birthday and what didn't. So apparently they felt they were confident they were up to the task again.

A man once stated with change inevitably comes loss. And with the Lab back in charge, a couple traditions from the resident-run Birthdays came to an end. Gone was the "Cake Stage," in it's place a much simpler Festival Stage that could handle the traffic of four sims. Also gone was Stage Left, which in the past few years had wowed crowds with it's detail. One volunteer told me that The Birthday was probably just as good without the fancy builds as while they looked fantastic, all that detail meant extra lag. Others however missed the Cake and the fancy builds that Stage Left offered.

One detail about this year's Birthday that raised a few eyebrows was the 1950s theme of "Sweet Sixteen." Some residents felt "why celebrate the past when Second Life is about the future." Others disliked it as they felt it was a decade with backward values. But most were fine with the theme. Between a decade that saw a world war that killed tens of millions worldwide and about 400,000 Americans, and another decade that saw a great deal of social change and anxiety and a war that seemed to drag on and on without any end in sight, the Fifties were seen by many as a quieter and more innocent time. It was a time when there was a great deal of optimism of the future, and (most) Americans were enjoying economic prosperity like never before. Plus this was the decade that a number of things we take for granted came about such as transistors, affordable televisions, passenger jet service, the popular concept of the teenager, and of course the birth of rock and roll music. As Linden Lab put it, "It was an era that rocked and rolled."

The exhibitor builds as usual were, as a whole, well done. While some seemed to have little or nothing to do with the overall theme, the majority fit in it. There were a few 50s style diners and drive-in theater areas. Some builds were made to educate about certain aspects of the time, such as the "Postwar Prosperity," Korean War, and 1950s Britain exhibits. And some made clever use of the theme such as the Fantasy Faire Literature Festival's exhibit, which was a tribute to a number of Fantasy novels published in the decade. There were people and groups I hadn't noticed before at the SLB, such as Rocket City and All Fur Radio. 

Two events took place that put a small damper on the festive spirit. Just a few weeks before The Birthday was when the Lab announced price hikes to Premium accounts and a doubling of the cashing out fee. A week ago, they announced that at the start of next month, residents cashing out Linden dollars would be required to use the new Tilia service. The announcement of the former following the success of the new Linden Homes encouraging people to sign up for Premium accounts at first could have been seen as the Lab getting greedy for money. But with the announcement of the former, it looks like the recent fees are needed at least in part to pay for and upkeep Tilia. Indeed as there was a paper published in early May by the US Governments Financial Crimes Enforcement Network about online applications possibly qualifying as "money transmitters" under US law, it could be seen as Linden Lab getting nervous about Uncle Sam and deciding to play it safe, though it would cost money that it decided to pass on to it's customers.

One other thing that made the SL16B different was beyond Linden Lab's control. In past years when the Birthday wound down, residents still had one more big event in the summer to look forward to: The Relay Weekend. This year however, the Relay's big event had taken place a few weeks before. With the Second Life Birthday over, the next big event is Burn2 in October. So perhaps this year a number of residents will be making plans for their real-life summer a little early.

It was quite a party, and the Newser was happy to be a part of it. Special thanks to the volunteers, the Lindens and moles for running things smoothly, Silvia Ametza for her first-class exhibit that she made for us, the other exhibitors, and of course the residents who made it possible.

See you at the SL17B.

Bixyl Shuftan

A Reader Responds on Linden Lab's Price and Fee Hikes, Group Limit Cuts

On June 4, yours truly made a commentary about Linden Lab's decision on May 29 to raise Premium account prices by 37% (or a little over 25% for those paying monthly), the doubling of the fee to cash out Linden dollars (2.5% to 5%), and their decision to cut the group limits on basic accounts from 42 to 35. While the Lindens canceled the last part of their plans due to feedback, I questioned why the Lab made that move to begin with while also raising prices and fees while their successful Linden homes were already bringing in more money.

Some people felt the commentary was overreacting to Linden Lab's move. Most of those comments on Facebook were simple ones to the tune of "If you don't want to pay, you don't have to play." But one reader, an Elizabeth Jarvinen, took the time to explain why she felt the comments were a little harsh.

I've been one of very few residents who routinely helps out both the Lindens and the third party viewer devs with bug reports and problem solving on SL. There's been talk for years about how group size and group numbers have been problematic. Whether people believe it or not, the facts remain the same. Group membership, particularly very large groups really weigh down the SL system. That's also why they limited viewing group members / roles to groups with (under) 5000 members. 

Balancing Public Relations with Technical Solutions is not easy. It's one of the hardest things with doing anything 'on the internet' in this era~ people can always construct a narrative that has conspiracy and ill intentions, marked with corporate greed and personal gain for~ well~ pretty much any situation really. That being said, I also condemned the notion of cutting basic groups, and I'm glad they listened.

I also feel a bit compelled to point out that with regard to "small land owners" a year ago they literally doubled their parcel sizes for FREE. How was that forgotten so quickly? I get that people remember bad things more readily and that Loss Aversion is a human propensity ~ but, I really wish it wasn't.

Also also~ random addendum, the reason there was teleport failures was literally related to the linux version that the servers were running on. Not, as your article suggests, things being moved to the Cloud. Sounds silly, but that's what it was. So the issue was basically an unforeseen consequence of some other software developer that changed a thing that SL uses to exist~ and that caused teleports in SL to change behavior.

The parting words of your post seems to indicate that you believe that the Lindens of old were less greedy somehow~ and that the new ones are putting the screws to the residents just 'cause they can. The fact of the matter is SL is a dinosaur, an aging behemoth. It's made it this far, due to some very good design choices by those early Lindens you revere, but it also is struggling due to some very poor ones that did not age well. Solving these issues may not always have the most socially expedient solutions, and I may not always agree with them. But I'd rather they try than we all get a "June surprise" of Linden Lab closing it's doors and the Second Life we all know and love becoming a footnote of the history of the Internet.

Do you the readers agree? Disagree? Further comments are welcome below, as well as any reader submissions.

Commentary: Linden Lab's Surprise Price Hikes and Group Limit Cuts

Individual Lindens can be quite friendly and helpful. The moles I've run into at the SLB grounds, they've been very cheerful and reasonable. But when it comes to Linden Lab, older residents often have mixed opinions. We're grateful of course for their creating the virtual world, and admire the effort the first Lindens put into getting it going. But it seems once they became a big success, they began to change. They've kept the virtual world upgraded, with additions such as Windlight, Mesh, Animesh, and more. But they've also made a number of questionable moves over the years, a number of which got people wondering about their motivations and how interested they were in listening to the concerns of their customers: us.

While some residents were grumbling about the Lab moving Second Life's data over to Amazon Cloud servers, which they complained were leading to a number of glitches such as the teleport disconnects this spring, in general, the attitude about Linden Lab this year has been mostly positive. The new Linden Homes proved to be highly popular, and were almost certainly the big reason for the number of Premium accounts going up this year. Considering that more than 700 added were snapped up in less than half an hour after they were made available, all the Lab had to do was to offer more to further encourage residents to go Premium. Instead, they made the decision to raise the cost to residents for Premium accounts, in addition to doubling the fees to cash out Linden dollars.

As one person on the forums put it, this was bad timing by the Lindens. Being done so soon after their latest release of Linden Homes, it made the Lab look more than a little greedy. Plus being done just as Second Life's more active residents, such as it's media, were getting ready for two of it's biggest events of the year, the Relay Weekend and the Second Life Birthday, this became the latest "May/June Surprise" that the Lab has pulled. One wonders if they decided to make their move now so with everything else going on, it might not be noticed as much.

Talking and listening to the residents, while sims may be cheaper, with Premium going up so much the smaller landowners won't see a benefit. With cashout fees doubling, some content creators have been complaining this will hurt already small bottom lines. "Why are you punishing people that help keep SL more interesting, LL? ... the less I make here, the less time I can devote to creation in Second Life."

Of the Lab saying they would cut the group limit of basic accounts, the residents didn't buy the explanation of more groups per resident taxing the system. Some of the largest complaints came not from run-of-the-mill basic account residents, but by merchants, club owners, DJs, and content creators, saying they relied on people joining their groups to help advertise their events and products, and Linden Lab's move would throw a monkey wrench in how they did business.

Needless to say, the calling off of Linden Lab's planed basic account group limit cut was a sigh of relief to many. Still, people wondered why the Lab wanted to do that to begin with. Indeed since the Lindens cancelled that part of their plans, I've had people ask me if the Lindens never seriously intended to carry it out, but that was part of a strategy to satisfy the residents by ditching what would be the most disliked part of the announcement. One recalls their ordering all third-party virtual currency exchange businesses to close down operations in May 2013, and two weeks later after numerous and vocal complaints doing a partial reversal of their decision by allowing them to sell Linden dollars, but not cash them out (two years later, they would order them to shut down again, this time for good).

Going back to the account price and cashing out fee hikes, if Linden Lab was already poised to make some more money with people getting Premium to get one of the popular Linden Homes, why raise prices? Indeed I've been hearing various people saying they won't renew their Premium status. So while Linden Lab may be getting a little more money as a result of this move, the amount from Premium accounts will be significantly shorter than the 37% hike. Of raising the cashout fee, Jo Yardley of The Berlin Project pointed out some people just might bypass Linden dollars alltogether on some Second Life transactions, "If cashing out keeps getting more expensive, people might just start asking tenants, customers or clients to start paying them directly via Paypal."

Yes, we understand the Lab is trying to make land more affordable and reduce the "tax burden" on landowners. But as a Premium account is necessary to directly own land in the first place, how does jacking up the price by almost 40% benefit those who own only one to a few sims? Maybe a hike of five to ten percent now would have been understandable. But this kind of increase plus the doubling of the cashout fee just after how successful your Linden Homes have been just reminds us longtime residents why we are so wary of the Lab.

As this is the time that the Newser reflects on it's anniversary, yours truly can't help but look back at some of the parting words of our predecessor paper's editor Dana Vanmoer, "One thing I would hope for the future of SL is that the Lindens go back and realise what they are destroying with their policies. The sheer creativity, communication and international impact somewhere like Secondlife can be is being eaten away by the Lindens stupidly ignoring the content creators with their ill thought out policies which help no-one except their own pockets." Nine years later, it seems we are still dealing with policies that could have been thought out better.

Linden Lab, we're grateful for this virtual world, but how can we put much trust in you if you continue making moves like this time and time again?

Bixyl Shuftan
Editor
Second Life Newser

Islandz Discord Server Taken Down, Questions and Comments Continue

Sometime yesterday on Monday January 28, the Discord channel for Islandz was shut down. On Saturday, Elenia Llewellyn (Beth Reischl) announced that the virtual world, which was set up in November as the replacement grid for Inworldz, was closing down due to her running out of money. While there are articles about Elenia's announcement, such as the Newser's, the announcement itself and the following comments are gone.

The Inworldz Disporia Discord group ( https://discord.gg/aTDyn9U ) that was set up before the closing of the virtual world in July 2018, remains up. And numerous comments have been coming in. Many are angry and upset, such as content creators who never game permission for the goods they designed not to be used outside InWorldz who were unhappy to hear about Elenia deciding she would send back the items residents saved in OARs without going through them to see which content had the okay to use elsewhere and which didn't. But their options are limited as a lawsuit would require hiring a lawyer, and Elenia has stated she's broke and has no cash to give as compensation.

The impending closure of Islandz has brought back the sad memories of former residents of InWorldz when that grid closed in July 2018, as well as reviving discussion of why it closed. Elenia had stated that she had taken out a loan to keep the grid running, though claimed something went wrong in repaying the lender despite having the funds to do so. No one else on the team at the time seems to have been told this decision. Exactly how this came to be is only speculation, though one can guess the departure of certain members of the team that helped Elenia keep it running over the years, things went downhill. With the confusion and questions surrounding the closure, and doubts following it, only a fraction of InWorldz's users chose to move to the new grid to make their virtual home. Some people who kept the faith in the owner did move in, and Jim Tarber did join in to help out despite his earlier talk of staying out. But it wasn't enough. Instead of a new beginning, it was a sad last chapter.

Hypergrid Business, as well as Ryan Schultz and Daniel Voyager have also written about the closure of Islandz. Some people have also left comments. While Elenia may have left virtual worlds, it's fair to say the discussion of what she left behind will be talked about for a little longer.

Bixyl Shuftan

News and Commentary: More On InWorldz's Closing

The InWorldz grid is gone. On Friday afternoon, most of their residents found themselves no longer able to log in, and by Saturday morning the place had completely shut down. The closing has left many sad former users with a decision: where do I go now? From both InWorldz and Second Life residents, there have been a number of other questions such as "How could this happen?" "Will there be another InWorldz?" "Could this happen to Second Life?" Yours truly offers a few answers, or partial answers, based on my observations.

Read the article in Other Grids, MMOs, and Games.

News and Commentary: Is Second Life's Population Not Growing in Numbers Because It's Growing Older?

When Second Life began to fade from the tech media spotlight, naysayers predicted it would quickly go away. It hasn't. After almost fifteen years it's still around and tens of thousands can be found online at any one time. But over the years, it's been undergoing a long slow decline. Why this is has been the subject of some debate. But it's been suggested that maybe the reason isn't so much that people are leaving on their own, but that the existing userbase is getting older with not that many young people going in.

Read the commentary in Extra.

Looking Back: Why Did Linden Lab Get Rid of Last Names?

By Bixyl Shuftan

It was one week ago in which Linden Lab announced they would be bringing back last names to new accounts. It was a move that was cheered by the residents. Though some were asking why did they get rid of them in the first place?

As most longtime residents remember, before 2011, when someone made an account in Second Life they were asked to give it a first and last name. The first name they could make most anything they wanted (slurs were not allowed, and profanities were usually not). The second name was from a list. Originally, once 150 people chose a particular surname it was no longer available. But that limit was later dropped. It was possible for a noted person, such as Newt Gingrich, to get the Lab to have his account named after him. But most didn't have that choice.

According to the Second Life Wikia, "Last names often refer to significant people, places, or events, either in history or in popular culture and literature." Examples include Baker, the name of the actor who played "The Fourth Doctor" on "Dr. Who," Maginot, referring to France's Maginot Line built between the World Wars, Trudeau, a Prime Minister of Canada, Trumbo, a novelist and Hollywood screenwriter who was blacklisted for refusing to testify before Congress, Pascal, a 17th Century French mathematician, Protagonist, which refers to both the central character of a story and the name of a character on the cyberpunk novel "Snow Crash," Rand, a Russian-born American novelist, and thousands of others. But just as often, "the names can reveal much about the mindset of the Lindens." A website named "SL Name Watch" gave a list of 10,888 last names that were offered by Linden Lab. The most common one was "Gossipgirl" with over 163,000 residents choosing that. Over 400 were chosen by more than 10,000 residents.  My own, "Shuftan," was chosen by a total of 594. According to this list, there were dozens of names, such as Goodwin and Parkinson, that not a single resident bothered to pick.

Some of the names were a bit odd. While many liked them, others didn't. So why were some occasional odd and offbeat names put on the list at times? Perhaps many were a case of "it seemed like a good idea at the time." Though Hamlet Au, whom was once Linden Lab's embedded reporter, stated that at times the person in charge had to struggle and ended up pulling names from unusual sources, "In my Linden Lab days, I sat next to former community manager Daniel Huebner, and enjoyed watching him wracking his brain to come up with new last names, for a time going through various desserts of the world -- which is why many oldie SLers are named, say, 'Tiramisu.'"

It made sense to many, just as in real life, one had two names. And this system would put residents in a kind of "extended family" whom were roughly the same age and presumably the same level of experience. And it certainly gets the attention of most pre-2011 residents when they see someone with the same surname. But not everyone was happy with this system. When signing up, if you didn't like any of the last names on the list you were given, there were only two options: bite the bullet and accept a name you thought was bad, or turn around and not sign up to Second Life after all.

As James Cook, the former James Linden put it, "Whenever you have a registration flow for any service you lose signups for each additional step." There was also that this naming system was different from most MMOs, in which you simply used one name. And of course some people were confused as why couldn't they use their real name.

2010 was a year of change to Second Life when the Lab realized it was no longer attracting media attention, and people signing up, like it did before. So it made a number of big moves, such as laying off a third of their staff and merging the Teen Grid with the main one. Seeing that many people weren't bothering to sign up due to the naming process, Linden Lab decided a change was needed. So the old naming system was dropped in favor of just one name that you could more or less make whatever you wanted too, unless it was obscene or a slur, as long as it was unique. They also added "Display Names" that one could make whatever the resident wanted it to be.

But just like the Teen Grid merger about this time, which led to most of Second Life's younger residents leaving (aside from those who were faking their age), the move had consequences the Lab failed to foresee. Seeing older residents with two names, and with all new accounts given the default surname "Resident," newcomers felt like second-class citizens. Linden Lab had in effect created a dividing line between Second Life users who had signed up during when it had the old naming system, and those who signed up under the new one. Seen as newbies, they were treated differently from older residents, and even made unwelcome as some places were so fearful of griefers they threw them out as they were instantly recognizable as recent accounts. Less important but still a problem was that while there was now one name like most MMOs, the new system brought with it some of the problems associated with them, such as names with numbers and repeated letters, such as John777 and XXXcalabuRRR.

Linden Lab soon realized they had a problem. And in December 2011, then CEO Rodvik Linden announced the Lab was looking into how to bring back last names. But a few months later in March 2012, they announced they couldn't find a way to do so that was best for everyone. While some acknowledged the new system was a better one than the old, the general feeling was that the Lab could have easily made some improvement, "The Lab has just blown off one way that could have given a greater degree of engagement and building community – without costing residents money."

Since then, the issue wasn't really mentioned by Linden Lab. It's easy to assume they were waiting for the residents to forget about it. But they never did, occasionally discussing the issue. So why is Linden Lab addressing this issue at this particular time? Did it really take them several years to figure out how to bring back surnames for new accounts, or did they just not bother to try after their initial attempt until someone suggested they could charge a fee for it? Could recent questions about if Linden Lab was having a "cultural shift" away from Second Life and to it's newer (and far less successful) virtual world Sansar have spurred the company to do something. Talking to various residents, all were happy overall with Linden Lab's announcement. The one complaint I heard was that those who signed up after 2010 would not be able to get a last name for free but would have to pay to get it. They felt those without surnames in their account names should be able to get one for free

And so, as Second Life approaches it's fifteenth anniversary, those stuck with the surname of "Resident" will finally get a chance to have a real last name like older residents. But, it will cost them.

Sources: New World Notes, Second Life Wikia, SL Name Watch 

Bixyl Shuftan