More On Linden Lab Acquiring Caspertech

 

 If you rent a place in Second Life through someone rather than getting it directly from Linden Lab, then chances are you know of Caspertech. Their rentboxes are a fairly common sight in numerous places here, including at the Sunweaver Estates where the Newser office makes it's home. Since 2018 with the closing of Hippo Technologies, they've clearly been the top seller of rental vendors. Things seem to have run smoothly with them. So it was a big surprise yesterday when Linden Lab announced they were acquiring them. 

 

CasperTech has provided various business related services within Second Life for 13 years. Over that time, CaperTech has proudly provided continuous service for tens of thousands of Second Life businesses, and it has remained steadfast in its commitment to the merchants who have depended on those services.

This acquisition will ensure that all of the existing CasperTech services in Second Life will continue to operate without interruption into the foreseeable future, but it also opens up brand new opportunities to vastly improve the experience for our users as our next step in the CasperTech and Second Life journey.  

You can expect to see the same great services that you know and love continue on, with all of the same functionality you enjoy today, but with closer integration into the Second Life ecosystem – and as such, an even more reliable and convenient experience.

The news sparked more than a few questions and some fears among some residents, both those on the forum thread to discuss the matter, as well as conversations with people I had that day. A few were expecting Linden Lab to gouge them to the point they'd have to give up some of their land. 

Shortly afterwards, there was a special episode of Lab Gab to help explain things. In short, Caspervend is not in trouble, but the owner had other reasons to sell.
 

Caspertech is owned by Casper Warden, and he and Patch Linden were interviewed by Strawberry Linden. Casper stated he came to Second Life in 2006, was asked to by people in his real-life job to take a look at it. Worked on promotional material for the company at first. But was soon making his own items. Caspertech as a Second Life company has been around for 13 years. Casper originally created the vendor system in 2009 for his own personal use as he didn't like some of the ways what was on the market worked, "they were script-heavy, and I didn't like the way that the vendors scrolled through the products." But he soon realized people were more interested in his vendors than what he was selling, "In hindsight, I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised by that." So he soon launched version one to the public. While he didn't do an ad campaign for it, word spread by word of mouth and started becoming popular, "and we just continued to expand to meet customer needs." Casper does make other items, such as a security orb and a product update system, though his vendors continue to be his "bread and butter."

Patch called himself "a bit of a fan" about Casper's products, and had been using them not just for himself, but Linden Lab work, calling it "an awesome system." He would say the talks about Linden Lab getting Caspertech started, "a little while back now," with he and Casper talking on various subjects, and eventually came to the idea of the Lab taking the system and intigrating it with Second Life. This way, Patch stated, this would mean the long-term stability of the vendor system while under the Lab there would be more resources available to improve on it. So Patch asked him about the idea, "and well, here we are." Patch went on to say Caspertech's technology, "will bring a lot of capabilities ... in the future."

Strawberry asked what residents can expect. Casper answered that customer services will continue, "It's really critical to us that our customers don't get disrupted." He went on to say that he was still basically in charge of Caspertech's day to day operations, saying the big difference was that they now had, "the support and resources of Linden Lab behind us," reminding that other companies offering rental vendors had closed down over the years, "now our customers can be assured that their Caspertech services aren't just going to suddenly disappear." Of the future, he stated that he saw "plenty of exciting opportunities" to improve the vendor system, saying residents can expect "significant" improvements. Patch stated that in the deal, the Lab "would not interrupt or change what you know and love about the Casper products today. They will continue for the foreseeable future just as they are now. ... the goal is to ... give Second Life residents the tools they need to be successful in what they do."

Casper described himself as mainly a software engineer, and stated that as his business expended, "I found increasingly less and less time on my hands to really spend on the code," and that "many requested features have kind of sat on the back burner. ... this move give me an opportunity to really get back to what I love and what I'm good at," developing his rental vendors and other products of his. He would go on to say he'll still be online, and around in group chat, "monitoring and helping to keep everything running," and thanked his support staff, "who have already kept the show running all these years."

Patch stated they would soon start working with Casper to "transition the service" to the Lab, saying the goal was to make it smooth to the point it wouldn't be noticed by anyone. And after that, Casper would presumable have more time to work on the system's new features. 

In the forums, someone would ask Casper if he was in some kind of financial trouble, and he would answer, "No! We've been profitable since the day we launched. But the amount that one guy (me) can handle is limited, and as CT grew I found myself with a massive challenge and not enough time to improve the service. Now I can! *yay*" There were numerous other comments. Some were cautious, some were optimistic, some were a little of both, feeling the Lab wasn't out to gouge them but weren't so sure about the promised improvements. There were a few comparisons to Linden Lab's acquisition of Xstreet, which would eventually become Second Life's Marketplace. One would say this was no surprise as she felt Caspervend had gotten "too big to fail" for Second Life. 

While a major development, for now it appears little will change as far as daily life in Second Life goes. Hopefully Casper will soon come up with the improvements he says he was requested to make, but hadn't the time to develop them. For now, we can only wait and see.

Bixyl Shuftan

Breaking News: Linden Lab May Be Looking to Sell Sansar

Earlier this month, Linden Lab hit it's Sansar staff with it's second round of layoffs in two months, raising questions about the future of the virtual world. At Strawberry Linden's "Lab Gab" show today, the first thing CEO Ebbe Altberg / Ebbe Linden brought up was their plans for it. They were "looking for a plan B ... for Sansar to continue."

Yeah, so as you might have heard, sadly we have decided that we, as Linden Lab, couldn’t continue to sponsor the project financially, so we’re looking for a plan B for Sansar to continue. I can’t say much, but we’re having very interesting conversations with several parties to help that project move forward, which I’m really excited about. But no deal is done yet, so people will just have to be patient and see what happens with it, but yes  it is true that Linden Lab going forward will focus entirely on Second Life and Tilia. I’m still busy making sure that Sansar finds a great home and that the great work that that team has started can continue.

So that’s where things are at. Hopefully, we can be more specific on what’s going on in the next couple of weeks or so. So lots of conversations going on.

The "conversations with several parties to help that project move forward" could very easily mean that the Lab is looking to sell Sansar. But it could also mean they're looking for a company to partner with to keep the next-generation virtual world running. In either case, they're still in the middle of negotiations. So it will be some time until a decision is made.

There was much more discussed at the Lab Gab, which will be covered later.

Sources: Modem World, New World Notes, Ryan Scultz

 Bixyl Shuftan

Advertise in the Second Life Newser

Maybe you're starting your small business and want to get the word out. Or maybe you already have a business that's doing okay, but you think you could do better if more people knew about you. Maybe you you're a club owner whom is finding it harder to attract crowds than you thought and you need more people to know about your place and what makes it special. Maybe you're an aspiring DJ whom is looking for top clubs to ask for your services. You need a way to get the word out.

Why not advertise in Second Life's leading newsletter, the Second Life Newspaper. We're a talented team with years of experience with writing about the people, places, and events about the virtual world, and can help get the word about you to the thousands who read our publication. For the price of 1000 Linden dollars, we will do an advertorial article and show what your location and/or business has to offer. We have had numerous satisfied clients over the years, and will be happy to include you among them.

For better value for your money, why not consider a sponsorship? For 15,000 Linden dollars, your name will for three months appear on a banner near the top of the front page where readers will see it when they get their first look at the paper. The banner will link to the webpage or article of your choice. Secondary sponsorships are also available. For a 5,000 Linden dollar fee, the banner will appear near the top of one of the other sections besides the main page, such as "Places," for a three month time period.

While we do occasional advertising for adult-themed vanues, all advertorials must be "workplace safe," and we cannot show nudity or use profane language. Charity events, such as the Relay for Life, are normally written about free of charge.

We look forward to doing business with you, and helping you spread the word about what you have to offer to the exciting wider world of Second Life.

Linden Lab Sells Desura

Just weeks after it announced plans to cease development of its sandbox game "Patterns," Linden Lab announce in a press release yesterday that it was handing over its distribution service "Desura" to Bad Juju Games.

Bad Juju has taken over all day-to-day support, maintenance, and ongoing enhancements to the Desura website and service platform. The Bad Juju team will be reaching out directly to developers with games on Desura and are happy to respond to any questions they may have. Transitioning Desura to a new owner is great for Linden Lab and our customers, as it allows us to further enhance our focus on creating the ambitious next-generation virtual world, while continuing to improve Second Life and growing Blocksworld. Desura is a fantastic platform for game developers and players, and we look forward to seeing it continue to evolve and grow, now as part of Bad Juju Games.

Bad Juju Games described themselves, "Founded in 2010, Bad juju Games has assembled a highly experienced team of veteran video game industry developers and artists to build the next generation middleware technology platform for the Mobile, Console and PC Gaming markets."

As the Gaming industry continues to evolve at a dramatic rate, Bad Juju Games is dedicated to providing solutions for Mobile, Console and PC based Developers that significantly level the playing field and provide many of the core services that Gamers have come to expect from top grossing game titles. Through its acquisition of Desura, Bad Juju Games will be offering its Developers at no additional costs, the core modules and services such as Leaderboards, Achievements, Cloud Storage, Player Stats and Profiles and its Business Intelligence that are also fully cross-platform. (click here for the complete press release)

Linden Lab purchased Desura last year in July 2013, the latest of a number of acquisitions and new products under Rod Humble/Rodvik Linden, the CEO at the time under his strategy of diversifying the company's line of products. After Ebbe Altberg/Ebbe Linden became CEO, one by one, Linden Lab would discontinue these products. With Desura's sale, only Blocksworld remains of them. It has stood out from the others as it's proven to be a source of income.

Others have commented about Linden Lab's move. Inara Pey commented that the sale of Desura was no surprise to her, noting that in his interview by Saffia Widdershins last month Ebbe was talking about the company cleaning up the product line in the present tense rather than the past tense.  Iris Ophelia reminded her readers that when she called Linden Lab's decision to buy Desura last year a great idea, she had noted that it truly would be only if the Lab made an effort to fix Desura's flaws. As it turned out, it was difficult to browse through, and not much progress was made on that until August.

With three products left in Linden Lab's line up, the company has clearly been bringing it's focus back to virtual worlds rather than diversifying. While it means no more sources of revenue outside Second Life, hopefully for it's residents this means the company behind it can focus more on cleaning it's bugs and improving it.

Bixyl Shuftan

Sources: Linden Lab, Bad Juju Games, Inara Pey, New World Notes,

Press Release: Team Sunbeamers Needs Your Help

We need stuff to sell at this years RFL, I personally can build stuff, but I can't script my way out of a paper bag.  So we need ideas for goodies. We need them built and scripted, if needed.  Here are a couple of ideas.

1. Sunbeamer Skunk Doll/Plushie, maybe big enough to lay or sit on?

2. 7 Seas Fishing items (fish, critters, collectables), unique to our area.  The sillier the better.  You can get info at 7Seas HQ on what you need to do.

3. Steampunk items, simple fun stuff, you just need!

Rita Mariner, Team Sunbeamers Captain

BREAKING NEWS: Disney Buys Second Life

* Update - April Fools *

Late Sunday, March 31st, Linden Lab made a stunning announcement. In a press release, they stated that they had sold controlling ownership of Second Life to the Walt Disney Company. It is believed the negotiations were conducted behind the scenes over several months.


"Linden Lab is pleased to have Second Life in the hands of such a prestigious company," Rod Humble stated, "We were happy to run the virtual world we created a decade ago. But as a maker of shared creative spaces, we need to be able to focus on new products. With Second Life being run by Disney, we can devote more time and effort to applications and platforms for today's market."

Disney has been active with online virtual worlds before. It's Internet division, the Disney Interactive Media Group has produced the "Virtual Magic Kingdom" and "The World of Cars Online." Both efforts were considered less than successful and were closed down.

There has been no official statement from Disney, although former president of Disney Online Jake Winebaum, who was involved in the negotiations, wrote on his blog that Disney plans "sweeping changes" to the virtual world, "The company is determined that Second Life and its residents are properly Disneyfied." All sims will be given General/PG status, and all adult content is to be removed from both the land and personal accounts. All human avatars are required to have underwear permanently fixed to them. While nonhuman avatars can still be nude, they must be completely covered in fur, feathers, scales, etc. with no "bits" showing. Adult animations will also banned.

Winebaum stated that there were some concerns about copyright violations. So Disney planned to suspend content creation "temporarily" until a new system could be developed that would ensure "no resident could expose Disney to a lawsuit." Of music and other media broadcasted inworld, "Only those owned by Disney and it's associated companies will be permitted." DJs and theater owners will need a license to continue to play.


For more on this stunning development, Click Here.

Noted Avatar Store “Grendel’s Children” Turns Five, Cuts Four-Sim Area to Two

One of the more noted avatar stores in Second Life is “Grendel’s Children. The venue is well known for it’s selection of avatars and other goods at cheaper than usual prices. Some of the items have been discounted to near-free or freebies. One can come here and get a number of avies. Quoting Tateru Nino’s article in Massively:


There are things on sale here from Thrulls and Liches to Medusae and genetic horrors - and things I don't even know enough about to name. ... There are dragons, gryphons, drakes, spiders, scorpions, birds (legendary, mundane, gigantic, or plush), necromancers, shadow-mancers, plague monks, incubi, succubi, assorted demons and devils, trolls, fae, angels, imps (elemental, and paralegal), treants (all seasons), dryads, myconids, chelonians, molluscs, a certain famous yellow submarine, mermaids, goldfish, therapods, dinosaurs and mammoths, aliens, and Lord only knows what else. Lots and lots of what else.


The store was just part of the fun in the region. Below Grendel’s were four sims: Avaria, Avaria Tor (directly under the store), Avaria Kro, and Avaria Sav. There, residents could engage in roleplay (including some dinosaur RP that I witnessed). They could play games such as “Grungeboarding,” and a resource-gathering game Xymbers Slade showed me that the HUD would take materials gathered and would make them in to various processed goods and clothing. And of course they could explore the various caves and other hiding places.

Grendel’s has been around since 2006, and has its fifth anniversary today. Sept 1, 2006 was the date of the store’s founding. But unfortunately, Grendel’s fans have less to celebrate. The region is half what it used to be.

Prim Perfect reported on August 29th that two of the sims, Avaria Kro and Avaria Sav were sold. A look at the map shows them still there, but offline. Inworld, they are nowhere to be seen.Grendel’s made more than enough for the $14,400 they paid Linden Lab every year. Unfortunately, according to Grendels’ team, the Lab hasn’t been providing the technical support they paid for.


“I can get spam from Cafe Press, but no answers from Linden Lab,” says Flea Bussy, the leader janitor of Grendel’s (and owner of the Avarian sims) wearily. There is no response to his tickets, and having been told “we’ll call you back” by concierge, there are no replies. “They don’t care.” After years of patience with Linden Lab, Flea is disappointed in the failure of the Lab to support what is a thriving business in one of the most important areas of the grid – the development of amazing content. “We took this problem all the way to the CEO,” says Toady, “and it was fixed for 3 days. Then it broke again. We can’t keep going to the top for routine things like ‘we cannot move in our sim’.”


Saddia Widdershins quoted Philip Linden, meeting with Second Life content creators, as saying, “As goes Grendel’s, so goes the Grid.” Of half of Grendel’s now sold because of lack of support from Linden Lab, “what does that say about the Grid?”

At a time when a number of sims have been up for sale or vanishing, it’s a question that more residents are likely to be asking.

The Grendel's website is at http://grendelschildren.net/

Sources: Prim Perfect, New World Notes, Tateru Nino

Bixyl Shuftan

Commentary "What Should I Do About the Land I Own on Second Life?"

Question:

Should I sell it or hold on to the land I own in Second Life and wait out the economy?. And what about Linden Lab restructuring, does it mean they are selling Second Life, if so what can I do?

Basically, in having invested a lot of your time and money, is it still a good investment considering all the recent changes with Linden Lab and the worlds economy?

MY REPLY

The future cannot be predicted and I'm not a 'futures' investor, so who knows but I can say this, in my opinion Second Life is a very successful business but that depends on how you measure it. By Linden Lab's measurement, I think they feel they have failed in their original intent but then they were overwhelmed with the resident/average user's output, so their original goals were sidetracked and they inadvertently switched to the unexpected resident oriented goals and LL got sloppy in going with the flow, so they had to pull up their pants so-to-speak, make new decisions and refocus on what they needed to do. By the time they did that thought, their founder had already lost interest and started a new business. This makes them seem a bit unsuccessful but wait...

After releasing their code source, LL has been successful in spawning a generation of 3d worlds, most of which are flourishing in more ways than anyone could have imagined. Search "3d world" or "open sim" and see what you come up with. Due to the current growth of open sim platforms, LL could feel that they have reached their goals and are now done and ready to move on to bigger and better things but I also think they feel an obligation to its residents and will find a way to insure creators can continue with Second Life, rather it be sold or not.

I think Linden Lab's Second Life, is ripe for sale and they may be preparing for that but they are not saying, so who knows. If sold, whomever buys it most likely will not change it much at first. They may come in with their own ideas about what's good for them and that may mean later changes. If they are smart, they will respect the solid foundation that Linden Lab is now trying to create and leave things as they are.

As for the land you now own. If it is not your sole income and something you enjoy. I would reevaluate it and make a decision to either stick it out and see what happens or sell and get out now. I do suggest you do not make a rash decision because these things are worth waiting out. I've learned that the best decisions are educated ones, so I suggest you read business news regarding 3d worlds such as www.hypergridbusiness.com. They offer credible research for their 3d related business stories. Search 'secondlife' and see what you come up with. Make sure the date is recent because this biz fluctuates everyday.

If I currently owned land on SL, I would not sell it but maybe cut down according to what makes sense to me based on the real world economy because it has affected Second Life. Virtual land sales have taken a big hit but have you thought about marketing differently? When something we do does not work for whatever reason, it means we have to find a different way of doing it - before we even contemplate giving it up - most just give up - will you?

SamanthaS Nightfire

Declining Markets - Ozanimal Bunnies Dropping in Value

Besides writing news articles, Shellie Sands has been raising Ozanimal bunnies in Second Life. So how are things on the bunny ranch? Could be better. Shellie explains things in her story "Declining Markets."

Read the story in People.