Tag: Linden Lab

Posted on

Change Isn’t The Problem, Application Is

Hamlet Au over at New World Notes recently posted a very provocative post , suggesting that Second Life users fear of change could lead to the downfall of Second Life. The problem I have with Hamlet’s post is that it’s simply not true that Second Life users have this great fear of change, but like any userbase, they question the motives and fear the changes will not improve the Second Life experience.

If you go to the Jira, and type the following query in the new query window:

issuetype = “New Feature”

You’ll find 6,591 results, that’s 6,591 suggestions from Second Life Users that will involve in many cases, change. The problems really aren’t a fear of change, they are a fear that changes will lessen, rather than improve, one’s enjoyment of Second Life.

Continue reading “Change Isn’t The Problem, Application Is”

Posted on

Rod Humble in Villa Fan Shocker

There’s a rather spiffing interview with Rod Humble over at Rock, Paper, Shotgun. However, before you head over, a word of warning, it’s a general gaming site, they’re very cynical about Second Life and the comments are particularly cynical, but that cynical nature actually makes the interview somewhat interesting as you get questions from a different perspective to that of the average Second Life user.

There’s the shocking revelation that Rod Humble is an Aston Villa fan, so that’s Rod Humble, Prad Prathivi and me… of course, I’m more suave, sophisitcated, better looking, wittier and conceited than those two, they may have a headstart in the success stakes though, but you can’t have everything! Where was I? Oh yes, the Rock Paper, Shotgun interview, this gives a good sense of Rod being enthusiastic about Second Life.

Continue reading “Rod Humble in Villa Fan Shocker”

Posted on

Facebook is not the best place to find out about cool things in Second Life

This Facebook business is getting out of control, not content with a new widget on the homepage we now have the following rather breathtaking claim from Amanda Linden on the blog post about communication improvements, which can be read here:

“Facebook is the best place to find out about cool things going on in Second Life, share ideas, and get the inside scoop on inworld events, contests, machinima releases, PR activities, fun discussions, and more. Come join over 111,000 people who have “Liked” our Second Life Facebook page.”

You know what, it may have PR activities, fun discussions, machinima releases, contests etc. but there is no way in hell that it is the best place to find out about the cool things going on in Second Life, a cursory glance at the page shows one event listed and a few discussions going on. Twitter has far more chatter, Plurk (thanks Daniel Voyager for reminding me) has an active Second Life  community and both of these places allow you to use your Second Life name, but the best place to find out about cool things going on in Second Life, is within Second Life.

Continue reading “Facebook is not the best place to find out about cool things in Second Life”

Posted on

Support extremely busy

I’m biased when it comes to overworked and understaffed support teams, so when I received an email from support today informing me that they are sorry for the delay in my ticket, but the plain fact of the matter was that they were behind with their workload and trying to catch up, I smiled.

This doesn’t mean I find it acceptable to wait this long for a response but it does mean, I have respect for the honest response and a support person who isn’t trying to spin me a line, I’d much rather hear straight forward truthful answers, rather than stories about someone’s dog eating their homework.

Well done support team, now get back to work!

Posted on

Stagnating but by no means dead

I was ready to move on from Facebook, with Inara Pey frowning at me on her blog, and Hamlet Au covering different angles over at New World notes, I was all Facebooked out, but, in a turn of events not related to privacy and more in line with some of the points Hamlet made in his New World Notes post, there’s a very interesting post over at Gamasutra about virtual worlds, social media and why the easiest pathway often wins.

What’s interesting about both the Gamastura post, and Hamlet’s post, is the numbers, the number of people using Facebook compared to Second Life is quite staggering, this is largely down to Facebook being both cheaper and easier to use than Second Life, but that only tells part of the story, World of Warcraft has something like thirteen million registered accounts, so people will engage with a client based system when the appeal is there.

Both posts point out that at one stage Second Life was considered best placed to capture the largest share of the market, with 3D worlds set to replace 2D webpages, and that will happen eventually, whether Second Life is that 3D platform is a different matter because they were ahead of their time with their ambitions and now have issues with trying to scale. However this will happen one day, and it will be easy to participate and will be the path of least resistance. There was a time when people poured scorn on Amazon for having a website and felt that angle had no legs. Continue reading “Stagnating but by no means dead”

Proudly powered by WordPress
Follow

Get the latest posts delivered to your mailbox: