Metamorphosis and other stories. Will Second Life finally become a butterfly?

It’s been a long two years but finally the covers are slipping off the revamped Second Life.  Do I like what I see?  No.  Do I think it’s a good business move?  No.  Do I think it has a chance of sucess?  Possibly, but I would never have bet the farm on it.

It may have been a reasonable option in late 2008/early 2009 when the plan was first conceived, certainly it is audacious, but in 2011 I’m not sure this is the way I would have chosen.  The insult to the userbase is large but in Linden Lab’s defence, their userbase does suffer from stockholm syndrome so it will most likely continue to try to work around these new changes.

So, what’s in the pipeline?  Family friendly.  The official Linden Lab position will be that this is a family friendly grid, with no hint of non-appropriate-for-teens behaviour.

http://copperrobot.com/2011/03/is-poor-communication-by-linden-lab-killing-second-life/

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Jennings nails what’s really going on in a metaphor that is both perfect, and likely to be offensive to some people:

In fact, recent mishaps by Linden Lab (Second Life’s owner/maintainer) which I documented here essentially have turned the Second Life community into a battered spouse. “Just *stop hitting us* already! Leave us alone and let us do our thing, OK?”

I recall encountering this exact sentiment in interviews with women who have been seriously battered by their husbands, who have been sent to emergency rooms multiple times by spousal violence. They no longer wish for love from their husbands, or affection, or financial support, or help raising the kids or running the home. And these women know their husbands won’t leave them, or allow them to leave. They just want to be left alone.

And that’s the attitude of the remaining Second Life residents. They’ve given up any hope that Linden Lab will prove to be a competently managed company, they just want Linden Lab to keep the servers running, and not try to change things.

Somebody, somebody’s going to write a fascinating history about how Linden Lab created something as absolutely wonderful as Second Life, and then proceeded to screw it up. How can the same company be so brilliant and so stupid?

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make sure you read the jennings link – here it is again just in case you miss it in the above post http://www.brokentoys.org/2011/03/16/second-life-community-we-really-fear-change/

it has fabulous snippets like

[QUOTE]Failure of vision. Simply put, Second Life has been devolving from the mass media’s poster child for virtuality into a footnote. Linden doesn’t seem to have a plan for turning this around. To its great good fortune, its potential competitors have done even less well, but “hoping no one else looks in our direction” isn’t a particularly sound business strategy.[/QUOTE]

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But whatever is done, it needs to be communicated, and it needs to be communicated well, and that communication will be hard, and uncomfortable. Because, Linden, as even your best friends are telling you – you’re dying.[/QUOTE]

Hey ho.