{"id":1837,"date":"2012-02-17T18:09:55","date_gmt":"2012-02-17T18:09:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sl.governormarley.com\/?p=1837"},"modified":"2012-02-17T18:13:25","modified_gmt":"2012-02-17T18:13:25","slug":"linden-lab-acquires-little-textpeople-game-studio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sl.governormarley.com\/?p=1837","title":{"rendered":"Linden Lab Acquires Little Text People Game Studio"},"content":{"rendered":"

Talk of Linden Lab branching out into new areas beyond Second Life\u00a0isn’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<\/a>, which in turn links to a post on TechCrunch about the acquisition<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Then via Inara Pey’s blog post on the subject <\/a>I discover that\u00a0Linden Lab have issued a press release on the matter<\/a>, 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?<\/p>\n

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!<\/p>\n

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Little Text People have received positive reviews in the past, as seen here<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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