{"id":3353,"date":"2013-11-02T00:14:05","date_gmt":"2013-11-02T00:14:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sl.governormarley.com\/?p=3353"},"modified":"2013-11-02T00:14:05","modified_gmt":"2013-11-02T00:14:05","slug":"second-lifes-historic-plans-for-world-domination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sl.governormarley.com\/?p=3353","title":{"rendered":"Second Life’s Historic Plans For World Domination"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Our plans for world domination are proceeding quite nicely<\/em>” – Philip Linden September 2004.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“We will not be successful unless we are fully open and the control over the world is in your hands.\u00a0Were we to choose the alternative (as many of the current and former systems have),\u00a0I think we would be rapidly competed out of business by something like SL.\u00a0To get SL to reach across the world and become really big, we will have to give up\u00a0most of our control over it.\u00a0That is a sacrifice we are happy to make to see this thing happen.<\/em>” – Philip Linden September 2004<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/forums-archive.secondlife.com\/3\/c0\/23939\/1.html<\/a><\/p>\n

I’d like to blame this on DrFran Babcock, I really would, but I’ve always been fascinated \u00a0by the history of Second Life and the Second Life Forum Archive<\/a> is a wonderful repository. The archive does not tell the full story, which is why I fully support DrFran Babcock’s SL Oldbie Project, but it does tell a big part of the story. The archive also demonstrates the wonderful concept of Linden Lab engaging with their residents, something the class of 2013 are missing out on. What sort of history will archivers find from the last couple of years in ten years time? Personally, I think it’s going to be bereft of detail and that’s a great shame.<\/p>\n

Let’s hear a little more from Mr Rosedale, this time from November 2005:<\/p>\n

“Well I’ll not take much time before the questions…But I suppose I can give an overview of what it feels like we are mostly debating this week….the changes to ratings stipends,and event support.\u00a0I think it is important to point out,\u00a0that by reducing stipends and supporting less events,\u00a0We aren’t passing any kind of judgment\u00a0on what people should or shouldn’t do with their time in SL\u00a0we are simply making gradual steps toward the state of affairs that Second Life,\u00a0as a platform,\u00a0is designed for.\u00a0The meaning of jobs and games and fun and socialization,\u00a0and everything else here.\u00a0Is created by you,\u00a0not by us.<\/em><\/p>\n

This means that the subsidies that we pay into the economy,\u00a0and the things we support with our work,..they are temporary.\u00a0SL is growing much too fast for us to do them indefinitely.\u00a0I don’t want this to become this huge world where we all do some similar job\u00a0for the Linden Lab ’empire’.\u00a0That isn’t our thing.\u00a0We want the jobs and purpose to come from you.\u00a0I think this may get lost a bit in the debate….<\/em>it isn’t and shouldn’t be our choice…whether clubs or events prosper or wane.\u00a0the idea is you decide it.<\/em>”<\/p>\n

http:\/\/forums-archive.secondlife.com\/3\/6b\/32776\/1.html<\/a><\/p>\n

This is a really important post because it highlights a time when Linden Lab were moving away from supporting the world financially. They were happy with the growth and moving towards a more hands off approach, it’s a landmark moment.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Another pivotal moment appears to have been in July 2005, I do wish Americans wouldn’t do dates arse about face :<\/p>\n

“I think these meetings usually start with some background for you, so let me do that.\u00a0First of all, I wont clam to be very smooth in-world yet, and this is my first town hall.\u00a0There will be some things I may have to go back and spend more time on.\u00a0But this is also a great forum to get a sense for what’s important for you lately.<\/em><\/p>\n

In the questions I’ve heard so far, there’s lots of good ideas for us to spend more time on here after this conversation.\u00a0I have been assisting Linden Lab on its real-world financial strategy, and that of course is tied to a healthy in-world economy.\u00a0With over a thousand simulators and counting, there’s lots to do these days.\u00a0I used to do debt funding (loans) for small companies, and have managed finances for other companies.\u00a0I have met a great number of entrepreneurs, and know how important it is for a healthy economy.\u00a0And though my linden is only a week old, I have been working with the team for many months, spending time on how we get better data for financial decisions, etc.<\/em><\/p>\n

Overall I want to let you know how much we think about the economy over here, also how careful we are not to take excessive actions to curtail the growth in this economy,\u00a0our general rule is to change things as little as possible and allow the economy to self-regulate.\u00a0The growth of the economy continues to outpace the user base growth. We are now over 35,000 accounts.<\/em><\/p>\n

User-to-User transactions are over US 1.5 million per month.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Transactions and Linden dollars in user-to-user transactions per usage hour have tripled over the past year.\u00a0Put another way, the average user now spends 3 times as much per hour online as last year.<\/em>
\nThis means you are building increasingly compelling goods and services, which is very exciting because it means that SL is growing just like a developing nation.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Object” sales have risen even faster, about a steady 5x per year increase.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sales of goods other than land such as this “object” category gives us a sense that the economy continues to diversify.<\/em><\/p>\n

We monitor the level of money supply (stipends and incentives, net of auctions, etc) per new user into the economy and manage it to maintain a stable currency,\u00a0we really have not had to adjust those parameters or programs dramatically to achieve this stability.The currency price has not moved more than 7% in the past month ($3.75-4.05 per 1000 lindens), and that seems fairly typical of recent months.<\/em><\/p>\n

Average land auction price has returned to a more typical $90 per acre in the past week. Resident in-world sales have generally followed auction prices in the past.\u00a0As you know, there is a wholesale market for new land (auctions and island sales). But there is also a larger and diversified resale market for parcels.\u00a0In June we auctioned 300 acres, in-world resident sales were 1700 acres. In general there has been a 4:1 ratio of auctions to in-world sales.\u00a0Currently there are some 60 user-to-user land sales for every auction sale, and there are currently 562 distinct owners of parcels for sale. So there is more diversity in land sales than may first be apparent.<\/em>” – Tbone Linden July 2005.<\/strong><\/p>\n

http:\/\/forums-archive.secondlife.com\/3\/8c\/54736\/1.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Again we see Linden Lab suggesting they want a more hands off approach. Now you may be wondering what 90 acres represents in Second Life, Tbone to the rescue;<\/p>\n

“I quoted $90 per acre – its always confusing – an acre is 4096 m2 and the $90 was US dollars.<\/em>”<\/p>\n

Healthy figures. yet another pivotal moment came in December 2005, when Linden Lab were introducing the LindeX:<\/p>\n

“Welcome everyone.\u00a0This is my first Townhall here as part of the Linden Lab team.\u00a0I’m a software engineer for Linden Lab, and I also currently manage the web team.\u00a0I moved to Linde Lab from working as Live Team Lead on Ultima Online.\u00a0I’m a long time gamer, and an a thorough internet addict.\u00a0OK, enough about me.<\/em><\/p>\n

Let me talk about LindeX a bit then we’ll move on to your questions.\u00a0By introducing a Linden Labs run currency exchange we hope to fuel the in world economy back making L$ more accessible to people who don’t have enough.\u00a0We predict that this should dramatically increase the amount of L$ that change hands in-world every day.\u00a0We wanted to especially ensure that new Residents had easy access to L$ without having to take yet another leap of trust to sign up with a thrid party.\u00a0We wanted to make sure that people could use the same forms of payments that they currently use to pay for their accounts, currenty credit card or Paypal.<\/em><\/p>\n

So how’s it going? So far L$16.4M had changed hands using LindeX. That’s more than US$61,000 at the rates that the L$ were exchanged.\u00a0Nearly 1600 unique Residents have successfully purchased or sold L$ using LindeX.\u00a0We’ve seen the L$ rebound from about L$300\/US1.00 to L$265\/US1.00 (about $US3.33\/L$1000 to $US3.75\/L$1000.)\u00a0Many people are taking advantage of the ability to easily pay their premium, and tier fees by selling currency on LindeX.\u00a0New Residents are purchasing more L$ during their first week.<\/em>” – Lawrence Linden December 2005<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/forums-archive.secondlife.com\/3\/59\/65425\/1.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Now you may not agree with me on how awesome these quotes are, I’m a virtual world history nerd so I get excited when I read though these old post. However the more important issue, the relevant issue, is that these old posts amply demonstrate the wonderful concept of Linden Lab engaging with the community. I appreciate that the world is much bigger these days and that the pitchfork brigade are much larger but the richness from those old town hall meetings and forums is magnificent.<\/p>\n

I know Linden Lab were looking to take a more hands off approach, but they were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off, not leave everyone in the dark. Community engagement is important, I really wish Linden Lab would embrace it.<\/p>\n

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