I don’t think I’ve ever felt that the relationship between Linden Lab and their customers has been so tense. Of course I’ve only been here for just over a year and the veterans tell me that there were times when matters were much worse. I’ve been here for gambling and banking bans and the VAT debacle and yet, there seems to be a greater strain now than I’ve ever experienced.
However we seem to have hit a series of issues whereby Linden Lab simply aren’t getting their vision for the platform across.
Land pricing – Several estate owners left scratching their heads and wondering what the hell is going on. Goalposts being moved, terms being redefined, business models being reshaped, it adds strain to the relationship between business and customer. When the next price change will arrive, is unknown. Questions aren’t answered, confidence is low.
The Viewer – Several residents feeling they’re being left behind because their graphics card that was extemely happy, isn’t happy with the default viewer. They’re asked to tweak this, that or the other or download another viewer. How long that standard of viewer will be supported is unknown. A four hour office hour debate raged. Someone informed me that it was a sad sight seeing the heckling go on there.
Trademarking – Again a case of moving goalposts from previously accepted standards. The issue of trademarking is as important to Linden Lab as any other company and they rightly defend their trademark. However they’ve dug themselves a bit of a hole with the whole referencing business that has left residents fearing a ban if they mistype and they don’t know how to rectify the situation by pointing towards fair use, because now that would muddy the waters too.
Frustrated virtual agencies – Reports of outside agencies being less than happy with Linden Lab and more negative press. Retractions were published, lines were blurred but the underlying message remained the same.
Performance issues – Inworld transactions not working, teleports not working, restricted services and all this on the back of upgrades designed to improve performance has left residents frustrated and asking questions, and the responses are not forthcoming.
Yet despite all this, despite the moans, the whinges, the disappointments and the general complaining, the world still spins. Rumours of the demise of Second Life have been grossly exaggerated.
Which begs the question, do we expect too much? There are many complaints about communication and yet I don’t get to whinge to the vice president of my bank and receive a personal reply. I don’t get so close to the senior management in any other company in which I’m a stakeholder, with the exception of my workplace.
Yes LL is relatively small meaning people need to wear more hats and fulfill more roles. However in terms of communication they do offer many forms of communication, email, blogs, office hours, there was a newsletter at one stage, I’m not sure what has happened to that. There’s the Jira and the Wiki where you exchange posts with the people behind the world. This doesn’t happen in most other business.
In some ways Linden Lab are guilty of being too approachable. The level or richness we expect from them far exceeds what we’d expect from other arenas and yet, part of that is because there’s a feeling of being in this together. Which is why recent decisions leave residents scratching their heads, it’s not supposed to be like that here, it’s supposed to be a forward journey to the promised land of a new utopia.
Should we therefore change our expectations of what this platform provides us with? Don’t we as residents also have a responsibility to ensure that the platform thrives? Pointing the finger of blame at Linden Lab is all too easy, take the mainland price slump. Yes Jack made the announcement that caused bad feeling, but Jack hasn’t flooded the market with land for sale, the residents did. We ourselves can do more damage to this platform than Linden Lab do.
I know that I personally have changed my view of what land is worth here over the last week, I now see no point in seeing it as an asset because Linden Lab will devalue it at the drop of a hat, but I need to take that onboard myself and understand that it doesn’t have anything like the value I placed on it. I need to take responsibility for my own actions.
Yet we the residents seem to look to Linden Lab for answers when some of the answers are within our own grasp. I’m most surprised to see for example that nobody is offering land deals to Europeans. I don’t have to pay VAT on land if I buy the land from someone who doesn’t meet the VAT threshold or someone who will sell that service inworld and let me pay by Linden dollars. Transactions made entirely within a virtual world are not considered services for the remit of VAT, which is why I want Linden Lab to let me pay my tier entirely inworld, but they are not the only supplier of land here. I’m not currently looking for land because of last week’s bombshell and have indeed tiered down half a sim but that’s a different issue.
The point is, do we always need Linden Lab to hold our hands? Do we expect too much from them?