Op/Ed: New ‘Corporate SL’ - Ominous Sign of Things to Come?
Writing by Green Guy on Sunday, 13 of April , 2008 at 3:56 pm
Losing faith in Second Life
by d3adlyc0d3c, ex-griefer
I was recently banned from Second Life (again) where I had an account as Adromor Wierwight for a period of 3 months. During this time I established a company called ‘Pomilio Enterprises’ where I saw some success as an SL business person raking in over 34k Lindens in the first month of operation without paying a single dime out of pocket. When I was banned I had four stores across the grid and had all of my products listed on OnRez and Apez.
I made some friends of former enemies, established valuable business contacts, befriended employees of Linden Lab and of course made a few new enemies. A few weeks ago that ended when Harry Linden was assigned the task of processing a frivolous AR that had been filed on me. When he discovered my identity (presumably from chat logs on the server) I was immediately perma-banned.
I had correspondence with some LL executives and I promised that as much as I hated this I would keep secret some of the controversial things that happened during my short time as ‘CEO’ of ‘Pomilio Enterprises’ and that I wouldn’t be bothering to return to SL after having spent so much time developing my inventory just to be banned as soon as business began picking up. I promised them this and I pleaded for them to listen to reason to prevent the stagnation of this platform.
I still feel a bit nostalgic when I read the Herald or think about SL. I like Second Life a lot but I hate what is happening here. I have heard the cries of the ‘end is near’ for a good while now and never paid them much attention. I had always thought that it was coming from people who just didn’t understand how complex a platform like Second Life would be to perfect.
Since then I have been noticing a new trend where LL has become increasingly bold, ignoring the outrage of it’s residents and further alienating them. They seem intent on assuring their own destruction by driving away their most loyal user base. It is such a shame that they are ruining something that could be so great.
Complex social structures have sprung forth where there are cliques, gangs, businesses and so much networking. Many of the hardcore users are much more emotionally involved than in any other virtual world there is to date. I often found myself wondering if one day people would write books about the things people did in Second Life. The platform has only been around a short time and already it has such an interesting history. I would love to see SL progress to this point but I am finally seeing what others have already been seeing.
So much potential, wasted
Since the Lab doesn’t seem to have a problem with destroying itself and pissing off millions of users, I figured why not help them achieve their apparent goal? So here I am, I’m breaking one of my two promises today. Today I’m going to have my say about the Lab and it’s shenanigans. Today I finally get critical.
The emergence of ‘trademark guidelines’ was a source for irritation for me as a Herald contributor and a friend to a few other contributors. I still refused to speak out. I think the straw that broke the camel’s back was the announcement of LL’s unveiling of the new ‘Corporate SL’.
When LL announced this I remembered a conversation I had with one ‘Logger Sewell’ one day as Adromor Wierwight where he told me that he knew for a fact that LL was only letting the public ‘beta test’ Second Life and that once it became stable it would be marketed exclusively to real world business. He claimed it would be used for intra-company communications and training sessions, educational institutions and inter-business networking, all for an exorbitant monthly fee of course. At the time I brushed him off thinking that he was only being paranoid. I just couldn’t see any evidence that this was true.
The more I have considered it, the more logical it seems. SL could be the perfect business tool. Business people can conduct meetings and network, they can transfer funds and make deals with each other all within this platform. Established companies usually have more money than the average person so marketing to businesses seems like a good idea. I marketed my products to businesses in SL as Adromor Wierwight and that worked pretty well for me.
Skeptics will of course argue that the free instant messaging programs such as YIM, MSN or AIM offer any of the features businesses would need for networking. If that was really the case though people would be on MSN chatting, cybering, pretending they’re in clubs or going shopping and most of the other crap people do in SL. Graphics play a huge part in a program’s marketability. Appearance is the selling point. Combining appearance and functionality makes for a winner. It appears that LL might just be testing those waters right now and if they feel that they can profit more off of real world businesses SL as we know it could disappear.
The unveiling of this new Corporate SL could mean that the time is very close where LL will close shop on the public. Their blatant disregard for their customers feelings may also signal their intent. It only makes sense if they aren’t planning on keeping you around for them to ignore you. In fact it seems like that’s the ONLY reasonable explanation for what they’re doing. The TOS makes it clear that if and when that day comes, LL can keep all of your ‘Linden Dollars’ and your content and tier and the money you paid for uploading images. This may or may not hold up in court but it seems reasonable to expect them to rip everyone off before they shut them out based on what they’re doing now.
A good friend of mine has referred to Philip Linden as ‘The Prince of Lies’ ever since I met her. I didn’t usually agree with her. Hell, even LL employees who I have spoken to vigorously defended him. Most employees resent their bosses because they often feel underpaid or under appreciated among many other things and the fact that this appeared not to be the case at LL put to rest any concerns that I had. My views have slowly shifted as of late.
I am beginning to see the same Linden Lab my friend does. Her views are becoming more widespread and I can no longer ignore it. They can’t all be wrong, there’s just too many people who are noticing teh Lab’s change in direction. They’ve been noticing it for awhile before I caught on here recently.
Just a few prophetic words of warning from your friendly neighborhood d3adlyc0d3c — watch out, something funny is going on at the Lab and it doesn’t seem to bode well for people who are investing money in this platform. Assess the risks, keep close tabs on LL’s blog and then decide for yourselves - you’ll see the signs soon, too
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