Talk of Linden Lab branching out into new areas beyond Second Life isn’t new, but the acquisition of Little Text People game studio is the first sign to outsiders that it’s really happening. I was alerted to this news via Ann OToole’s post over at SLUniverse, which in turn links to a post on TechCrunch about the acquisition.
Then via Inara Pey’s blog post on the subject I discover that Linden Lab have issued a press release on the matter, the question remains, what will come of this, well that’s probably right after the question of who the bloody hell Little Text People are and what do they do?
Little Text People are in the interactive fiction game, which is something I’ve mused over before with regards to Second Life, it’s a perfectly feasible aim but seems somewhat wasted to a degree in a sandbox as rich as Second Life with it’s current character development limitations, which is probably why Linden Lab this see this as a suitable venture for their beyond Second Life line…. that’s not the name of the line by the way!
Little Text People have received positive reviews in the past, as seen here at Digital Romance Lab, where you get some of the background on the people behind Little Text People and also discover that one of the founders is Richard Evans, a former EA/Maxis lead programmer who worked on The Sims 3.
I wholeheartedly support Linden Lab branching out into new areas, it’s a long overdue development. This is a positive move for the company, but is it a positive move for Second Life? Will we lose developer focus? Well considering pathfinding is coming soon, the short term answer seems to be no, we won’t lose focus. Second Life is still developing and moving forward but it does have long term issues due to the nature of its development, that would be the case with or without Linden Lab branching out.
Second Life users will be concerned about this of course, there’s a very healthy debate about this going on over at Tateru Nino’s blog, there are supportive and negative posts but we need to appreciate this is a development outside of the Second Life box, but firmly in the Linden Lab box.
I think this is a positive move, I’d like to see interactive fiction in Second Life with better NPC’s, allowing us to write stories within Second Life to create experiences, but that’s really a different issue and one for different developers, for now it seems to be a sign that Linden Lab are still moving forward as a company, let’s hope Second Life continues to do so.
I found the Evans / Humble / EA connection in this very interesting, although got the info via Evans’ LinkedIn profile.
The idea of interactive “stories” finding ther way into SL through the likes of the new gaming capabilities and the NPC development work is really interesting (and liable to even more heads revolving, should it happen). That’s the thing about diversification – you never know what additional syergies and opportunities might come out of the mix down the road. Which, I’m sure, is something that is bouncing around the back of Rodvik’s mind as well….!
Indeed, it clearly demonstrates that ideas from avenues you thought were for one purpose can become usable in other purposes, although I’m getting a bit too excited about the idea of LL creating us dialogue tools, there’s potential here.
good post! And Inara you said it: SYNERGY 🙂
Thank you, I think there are a lot of positives with this news, including it pointing to Linden Lab not closing up shop anytime soon but also the concepts will hopefully be brought to Second Life.
Hmm 🙂 I don’t think this technology will be “brought to Second Life”. I don’t know, it’s just a feeling. I think it’s really far more likely that LL is truly “branching out” to completely new areas. My big question is how they’ll leverage the brand, “Second Life”, which does have some media exposure, while “Linden Lab”, the company, doesn’t.
Seeing LL invest in technology, acquiring companies, and somehow having “plans for the future” are all very good signs, though. At least they’re good signs for LL, the company: it means that they’re looking for alternative ways to keep afloat and financially healthy. But if these “new branches” will not be based on Second Life, does that mean they see that SL as a product has no future? It’s worth thinking about what that means.
In any case, development of new features of SL hasn’t stopped — which is an excellent sign. We’re definitely not back to the Bad Old Days where all we heard was “stability, robustness, efficiency” which was supposed to diminish lag and make the servers crash less, but there was no innovation. At least, these days, innovation seems to pop up every other week or so, at a pace that I cannot follow 🙂 That’s wonderful! If LL needs to “branch out”, but new companies, launch completely separate products, all that to keep money coming in and continuing to invest in making SL a more advanced, feature-rich platform — then I’m all for it!
It is all speculative as to if / when / how / where such things might have broader applications for SL. But oh, what speculative fun!
That said, reading Emily Short’s blog and playing some of her games – which I did on Friday – I couldn’t help but wonder at her own reaction to a the rich and immersive diversity of opportunities SL presents…
I don’t see the roll-out of new products as impacting SL. Recruitment still seems to be as focused on SL as it does on anything else… Of course, the big crunch may well come a couple or so years down the road when we’re seeing LL products on mobile devices, Kindles, e-book readers, tablets, who-knows-what-else and revenue from them is showing itself to be demonstrably easier to bring-in and far more lucrative than SL… but here I’m once again just speculating in the wildest possible sense :).
Speculation is fun! The acquisition is nothing to do with Second Life but we can speculate merrily about the potential of bringing these concepts to Second Life, this does seem to be aimed at the mobile market.
You’re correct about what happens two years down the line, if the mobile market is still booming and Second Life is limping, Linden Lab may follow the money, but it may be that Second Life itself becomes more suitable for the advancing mobile market.
Oh this acquisition is nothing at all to do with Second Life and everything to do with a new product (codenamed product 3 according to Rodvik, there’s also a product 2).
However, it’s fair to get a bit excited about the concept (rather than the technology) coming to Second Life, I’ve considered scripting interactive fiction before in Second Life, I actually started doing it but comments along the lines of people not being interested in text adventures in Second Life made me halt it, I sort of agree there but getting the dialogue into NPC’s, which with the advances of pathfinding seem to be getting some loving, does have potential but it would need to be done by developers not involved with product 3.
Imagine if we could play Zork I but in Second Life! It would be absolutely immersive and amazing…and done right it could be the culmination of graphical Z Machine games and interactivity.