October 2013 – Ciaran Laval

October 31, 2013October 31, 2013

Linden Lab Should Embrace The Art Of Conversation

“This doesn’t mean there’s been no impact, or that Linden Lab should not revise its ToS to be more fair and transparent — in my opinion, it should — however, it’s also worth keeping this data in mind. Because having consulted for Linden Lab many years ago, I can make a educated guess at what they’re thinking right now:

They see a few thousand people (at best) making complaints, while several hundred thousand continue on as usual. And from their perspective, they’re probably wondering how genuinely controversial the controversy really is.” Hamlet Au in a blog post on New World Notes: Despite Second Life’s Draconian Terms of Service Change, SL User Activity Growing Strongly Since Then

The above quote is from a blog post where Hamlet Au explains that concurrency in Second Life has risen since the TOS changes. Below the article in the comments people point out that this is probably the traditional recovery from the summer slump. However whether it shows the TOS changes aren’t having a negative impact in terms of concurrency or not, it really exemplifies how Linden Lab have lost control of the conversation, we’re back to the speculation nation.

I’ve been a long time critic of Linden Lab’s lack of communication with the community. The TOS issue has really highlighted how much of a pickle a company can get itself in when it does not communicate well. Having read numerous blog and forum posts, as well as looking into old TOS I’m now firmly of the opinion that Linden Lab come in peace. I believe that they wanted a unified TOS and decided the terms of Desura made the best fit for parts of a TOS that covers pretty much all of Linden Lab’s products.

The problem Linden Lab have faced from the Second Life community is that Second Life users are reading this as a TOS aimed at Second Life only. This has caused people to speculate that Second Life is going to be sold, that Linden Lab want to sell Second Life content anywhere they like and that Linden Lab are making underhanded moves. If Linden Lab’s intent was to sell Second Life, they’d have been better off leaving the TOS as it was and allowing the new people to change it, bringing it under the unified TOS suggests to me they have no intention of selling.

However as I said, the lack of communication from Linden Lab has allowed this sort of speculation to grow. They’ve also put themselves in a position whereby other virtual worlds, such as Cloud Party, have been able to make tongue in cheek blog posts giving them a bit of a ribbing and stating how they respect content creators.

Continue reading “Linden Lab Should Embrace The Art Of Conversation”

October 31, 2013

Would A Second Life Game Engine Be Feasible?

Whilst pondering the many theories on the TOS change, I’ve speculated wildly and with absolutely no clues that it may be feasible that Linden Lab could have been working on a Second Life game engine. The thing with wild speculation is that you begin to convince yourself that it makes sense.

Desura, the digital distribution platform Linden Lab own lists a number of game engines for devs to get their hands on. There are big players such as Unity 3D , Unreal Development Kit and CryEngine3. However there are also much smaller players such as Ren’PY for visual novels and Adventure Game Studio for those who want to make point and click adventures. These latters ones are the ones where I think opportunity could knock for Linden Lab.

Second Life is more than capable of being used for point and click adventures. Second Life is not suitable for all action first person shooters, but for point and click adventures it could work. People are still making and selling point and click adventures.

Continue reading “Would A Second Life Game Engine Be Feasible?”

October 31, 2013

TOS – Mods And Rockers

In the interests of fairness and balance I’ve been taking a look at some other Terms of Service beyond Linden Lab. The results are mixed. If you want to create mods for Skyrim you have to agree to this:

“If You distribute or otherwise make available New Materials, You automatically grant to Bethesda Softworks the irrevocable, perpetual, royalty free, sublicensable right and license under all applicable copyrights and intellectual property rights laws to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, perform, display, distribute and otherwise exploit and/or dispose of the New Materials (or any part of the New Materials) in any way Bethesda Softworks, or its respective designee(s), sees fit. You also waive and agree never to assert against Bethesda Softworks or its affiliates, distributors or licensors any moral rights or similar rights, however designated, that You may have in or to any of the New Materials.”

On the other hand, if you want to post your game to Steam Greenlight, you have to agree to this:

“Before you post your game to Steam Greenlight, you must agree to the following:

You own the rights to sell the game you are posting, or you have specific authorization to represent the developer
You agree to the terms and conditions of the Steam Subscriber Agreement.“

Subscriber agreement on user generated content:

“You grant Valve and its affiliates the non-exclusive, irrevocable right to use, reproduce, modify, create derivative works from, distribute, transmit, broadcast, and otherwise communicate, and publicly display and publicly perform, your User Generated Content, and derivative works of your User Generated Content, in connection with the operation and promotion of the Steam site.”

The latter Steam terms are more along the lines of what Second Life users would like. The former terms for Skyrim mods are more along the lines of what Linden Lab seem to want.

Continue reading “TOS – Mods And Rockers”

October 29, 2013

Where Next For Versu And Dio?

Whilst the TOS debate has been raging I’ve been checking out other Linden Lab properties, mostly Versu and Dio. Now one point to note in TOS terms is that Dio is under the same Linden Lab umbrella TOS as Second Life and Desura whilst Versu still currently has its own TOS. I’m not sure what to make of that.

Versu seems to be going well, although there’s still no bloody Android version. Dio on the other hand seems to be struggling for identity.

When Linden Lab launched these products earlier in the year, Versu sounded interesting as an interactive fiction platform with a suggestion that it would be opened up to allow people to create their own stories.

Dio on the other hand didn’t sound too interesting, but when it launched it was surprisingly interesting and had the potential to allow people to create photo albums, interactive stories, text adventure type games, a broad brush but that seems to have changed and it’s now billed as a place to create interactive photo albums. The photo album market is a very competitive area. Dio also isn’t helped by the hard to read text links in the footer, at my age you notice these things!

Of the two Versu currently looks the more vibrant, in August Deidra Kiai announced the release of two new Versu adventures. They were “Office Politics: The Interview” and “Office Politics: The Party“. As opposed to previous Versu titles which were more pride and prejudice era, these adventures are set in the modern day office environment. There’s also a link on Deidra Kiai’s blog to a Dio adventure entitled “Jamey Beanman’s Burrito Quest” which Dio informs me is private or limited access. Maybe you need to be logged in.

Continue reading “Where Next For Versu And Dio?”