2014 was a year when the Second Life grid shrunk in terms of private regions and yet, the number of adult private regions rose. However there were signs of encouragement in terms of the rate of losses during 2014, especially when you compare the rate to 2013 and 2012.
The person to turn to for more information is of course, Tyche “Statto” Shepherd. The big blow for Linden Lab during the year was an expected one, at the end of July, Tyche Shepherd reported :
As slow as this years losses have been it still means that this weeks changes bring Private Estates below 19,000 for the first time since 15th June 2008. Net Private Estate losses for the year to date amount to 285 regions which is a 1.5% loss.
Tyche Shepherd’s grid survey report for the week ending 28/12/14 gives us the chance to look at the figures for the year as a whole and what we see is a very dramatic slow down in the number of net losses in terms of private region losses, during the year as a whole, although there were more net losses in the second half of the year than the first half.
A note on the charts in this post, they are published here due to the kind permission of Tyche Shepherd, they are Tyche’s work so please respect that. We’ll start with a chart showing the big picture .. well it might look small in this post!
Now if you having trouble reading that the scores on the door are a net loss of 673 regions during the course of the year, or 3.5%. At the end of December private regions stood at 18,600. This is still around the levels of June 2008, the reason for this is because June 2008 was a time of unbelievable boom for Second Life, for example Tyche’s report of 8th June 2008 told us that 613 private regions had been added to the grid during that week. At this time Linden Lab were also still able to auction off new mainland sims and were building new mainland continents. Therefore don’t expect the number of private regions to drop to April or early May 2008 levels any time soon.
Ok, back to comparing this year’s private region net losses with the previous two years, If we look at last year’s stats we see :
A total net loss of 1,719 private regions, or 8.2%. That’s a net loss of 1,046 more private regions during 2013 than 2014. This is demonstrated well in the above chart because you see far more weeks last year where weekly losses were over 40.
If we compare this to 2012, then the slowdown in net losses is even more dramatic :
There we can see a net loss of 2,865 regions or 12.0%. That’s a net loss of 2,192 more regions during 2012 than during 2014. Again the chart illustrates this well as there are quite a few weeks where the week on week losses were over 100. Another thing to note here is that the slow down started under Rod Humble and has continued on a strong path under Ebbe Altberg.
Whereas I wouldn’t expect Linden Lab to be partying in the streets regarding a net loss of 623 private regions during 2014, it does demonstrate a definite slow down in the number of regions being lost, which is encouraging for Linden Lab. Having said that, as many of us know, a big reason for the loss of regions is due to the tier being too damn high!
However there have been changes in the make up of the maturity rating of these regions during the last three years. Please note that the percentage points are rounded to the second decimal place.
Year Ending 2012
- Estate – Adult: 3,444 (16.41%)
- Estate – General: 2,300 (10.96%)
- Estate – Moderate: 15,242 (72.61%)
Year Ending 2013
- Estate – Adult: 4,029 (20.90%)
- Estate – General: 1,949 (10.11%)
- Estate – Moderate: 13,283 (68.92%)
Year Ending 2014
- Estate – Adult: 4,447 (23.91%)
- Estate – General: 1,757 (9.45%)
- Estate – Moderate: 12,391 (66.62%)
So we can see that there has been definite growth in adult rated private regions. Now it should be noted that this does not indicate an influx of adult rated regions, private region owners can choose to change the maturity rating of their regions.
The usual caveats also apply here, just because a region is adult rated it doesn’t mean it’s a den of iniquity. There are those who prefer the highest available maturity rating because it gives them the greatest level of flexibility in terms of content and policing.
Moderate remains, by a long stretch, the most popular choice for maturity rating. When there were only two maturity ratings available, which at the time were PG or Mature, Mature was the rating of choice by a long stretch so this really shouldn’t be that surprising.
2015 is going to be interesting for Second Life, new products are going to start making more noise and the rate of private region losses may well accelerate as people seek pastures new. However I’d hazard a guess that it’s more likely that the slow down in terms of net private regions will continue whilst those new products find their feet. Second Life still has over 18,000 private regions and on top of that, another 7,000 plus mainland regions. That’s over 25,000 regions in total, so it’s not likely that Second Life will be going away any time soon.
For more statistical goodness from Tyche Shepherd please visit http://gridsurvey.com/
I think the reason for the increase in Adults sims might have to do with gaming and you are right some RP Sims are going Adult to keep out younger players it doesn’t mean you will see any nekkid avatars.
Adult rating also by default means you only accept visitors who have ticked to say they are over 18, although the process is easier these days some people find that an added level of security.
I’ve been to plenty of adults sims where I’ve seen nothing remotely adult, I wouldn’t even realise I was in an adult sim if it wasn’t for the indicator at the top of the screen.