1920’s Berlin Breaking 2014 News – Rod Humble Leaves Linden Lab

1920’s Berlin chief Jo (Frau) Yardley has broken the news that Rod Humble has left Linden Lab! As this is the second post tonight to throw me off my schedule of writing about the Drax Files Radio hour I’m just going to post the early twitter reactions and grab a beer!

 

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Linden Lab CEO Rod Humble on Second Life’s Tween Years

Thanks to Soda Sullivan for posting the link in a thread over at SLUniverse. Rod Humble has been talking and it’s the sort of talk I like to see. He’s been talking to Eric Johnson of All Things D in an article with pretty much the same title as my post …. hmm, anyway you can read if via the following link: Linden Lab CEO Rod Humble on Second Life’s Tween Years (Q&A).

I found the article interesting and would urge people to read it. Rod Humble talks of Occulus Rift, The Second Life community where he avoids using the word passionate, which earns brownie points in my book. He also talks of commerce, live music, lag, virtual worlds in general and the challenges of mobile and console based versions of Second Life. The interview isn’t that long but it packs quite a lot in.

There are some stand out areas for me, others will find other areas that appeal to them. I particularly like the part of the interview where Rod Humble talks about people making money from Second Life:

Early on, the perception was that big companies would come into Second Life. In fact, the hobbyists won. They came in and said, “I make cars in Second Life, and that’s my hobby.” It became more like eBay than Amazon. There are bands charging for their gigs within the game. Famous bands like Duran Duran, but also a lot of indie bands who accept tips in return for live performances.

I also like his response when he’s asked whether Linden Lab has much influence on ventures such as Duran Duran coming to Second Life:

No, they came to us. We do our very best not to direct content within Second Life.

Which is just how it should be! However he does suggest that when performance is better, they may do more reaching out, so keep an eye on that. I’m a bit torn on an issue like this, there’s potential for Linden Lab to reach out, but not if it’s at the expense of the hobbyists who are already here. I’m a big fan of the idea of Linden Lab doing cross promotional work and reaching out to other companies though.

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Is Rod Humble Doctor Octopus?

So back in August Second Life was talking about expanding to Steam. Back in August, Peter Parker was Spiderman.

Fast forward to January 2013. Second Life announces it has expanded to Amazon, not yet Steam, much to our surprise.

Fast forward to January 2013 and Peter Parker dies and Doctor Octopus is the new Spiderman! Apparently Peter Parker switches his memories and morality into Doctor Octopus and he becomes Superior Spiderman, rather than The Amazing Spiderman. Here in Second Life we have a case where in a battle the Steam deal might have died but the memories and morality have been transferred to Amazon!

Coincidence? Almost certainly but I can’t have fun with it it that way!

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Rod Humble gets it on privacy

Another interview with Rod Humble, another impressive interview. This time the interviewee is Dusan Writer and you can read the full interview here. This is probably the most impressive interview I’ve read so far, with the exception of the soccer references (it’s football!) Rod addresses some of the issues that are dear to my heart.

Mr Humble does address, as Mr Kingdon did, the non sexy things, such as lag and slow rendering and people might groan thinking we’ve heard it all before, but they are issues that need to be addressed. However it’s the beauty of creating within Second Life, Mr Humble’s attitude to privacy and the fact that he seems to get what being in a 3D virtual world is all about that are the interesting features of this interview, and I must say I find it all very encouraging.

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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.

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