Second Life Can Still Thrive With The Birth Of Linden Lab’s New World

Back in March 2009 Tateru Nino wrote an article for Massively : Give Us More Worlds Linden Lab. The general point of the article was that Second Life should not be the only virtual world Linden Lab managed. Tateru’s idea was that there could be multiple grids running on Second Life technology and that each world could have different characteristics. However Tateru also wrote :

One-size-fits-all doesn’t just doesn’t work in the mass-market. Otherwise there’d only be one kind of iPod. What the Lab really needs is a number of differentiated ‘world’-products, each offering something a little different.

In October 2011, I wrote a blog on a very similar theme : Multiple Linden Lab Grids For More Virtual Worlds. I also talked of Second Life technology being used for multiple use cases and that Second Life did not need to be the only club in town :

This isn’t to say I feel the main grid should close, the main grid is where it’s currently all at and Linden Lab should nurture and cherish what they have, develop it and make that product an appealing product to current and new users who want that level of freedom and creativity, it remains a wonderful idea. However in terms of wider appeal and getting others interested in their own controlled spaces, Linden Lab could well consider making Second Life the technology the option for those who seek it, rather than Second Life being the only product in town on their servers.

Now Tateru and myself were largely talking about multiple grids using Second Life technology, rather than virtual worlds running on completely unrelated technology. However with news of Linden Lab’s new virtual world plans making the news, I really don’t see why Second Life and the new world can’t exist at the same time. They will simply offer different options and appeal to different people. Obviously both worlds will also appeal to people who want to engage with both worlds but this is no different to how things are now with people who engage with one or more of Second Life, Kitely, Inworldz and Opensim. People are also keeping an eye on High Fidelity.

I’m a bit bemused at the reaction in some quarters to Linden Lab’s announcement on the new virtual world. People are talking of how problematic it will be to migrate. They are talking of how they should be compensated for their Second Life land. They are talking of how higher sales tax fees and lower land tax fees will hinder rather than help content creators. The reason I’m bemused about this is because Linden Lab have not announced that Second Life is closing and that people will have to move to their new world, indeed, as Inara Pey reported, they’ve said :

Does this mean we’re giving up on Second Life? Absolutely not. It is thanks to the Second Life community that our virtual world today is without question the best there is, and after 11 years we certainly have no intention of abandoning our users nor the virtual world they continually fill with their astounding creativity. Second Life has many years ahead of it, and in addition to improvements and new developments specifically for Second Life, we think that much of the work we do for the next generation project will also be beneficial for Second Life.

Now I can understand people being cautious about the future of Second Life, especially those who own a lot of land, but I can’t understand some of the outrage at this point in time. I would have a different point of view if Linden Lab were telling people they must migrate, but that is not the case.

Let’s just take a step back here and take a look at an example from the world of games. In 1999 the MMO EverQuest was born. Five years later EverQuest II was born, set in an alternate universe and 500 years later, but it was a different game. EverQuest Next is currently in development and Landmark is also open now, with user generated content to boot. So what happened to the original EverQuest? The twentieth expansion for the game was released in October 2013, it’s still going, as is EverQuest II.

Ok over the years things have changed, subscription models have gone, free to play models have arrived but the point remains that the arrival of EverQuest II did not kill EverQuest and the main reason for that is due to them being different games.

Now Second Life isn’t a game, but the point remains that if the new world has options that current Second Life users don’t find appealing, they will stay in Second Life. Linden Lab are not going to prematurely put Second Life in a cryogenic sleep whilst it’s still earning them decent revenue. That would be absolute madness.

So if the new world doesn’t support LSL, which I doubt it will, then stay in Second Life to sell your LSL products and think about the new world for its other possibilities. The same goes for the land market, which is highly unlikely to be of the same scope in the new world as it is in Second Life. Hey if you don’t like the sales fees in the new world, Second Life will still be there with it’s absurdly low fees for content creators.

Obviously over time some of this will change, Second Life is after all eleven years old and there’s only so much that can be done to keep it running and relevant. Some policies may change in the future, some fees may change too but we’ve seen changes to fees and policies in Second Life in the past and people dust themselves down and keep going.

The bottom line is that Second Life will still be here for some time to come. There’s no need to panic about migrating to the new world, the new world should be viewed as an alternative until such time as Second Life shuts its doors, and that day is quite some way off yet. Second Life and the new world can most definitely co-exist and offer their own attractions to different users.

As Tateru Nino suggested back in 2009, one size fits all just doesn’t work in the mass market, the new world is just bringing another virtual world option to the table, rather than putting one virtual world to bed at the expense of a new one. Options are good.

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