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The Virtual Whirl: A brief history of Second Life, 2008-2010 and beyond
This week, we cover the final installment of our summarized history of Second Life and Linden Lab (check out the first installment or the second, if you missed them). It's only possible to cover a tiny fraction of the events that took place in the space we have here, but the highlights paint an interesting picture. We'll be working our way from 2008 to June 2010, and looking at what future directions we expect from there.
Linden Lab hands down Second Life metrics for Q1 2010
Today, Linden Lab is releasing the quarterly metrics for Second Life, showing overall performance for Q1 2010, and contrasting that with the performance of previous quarters. Linden Lab claims that Q1 2010 was an all-time high for the Second Life economy. We'll drill down through the metrics and see if that's so.
Xstreet wishlists beta for Second Life users
Linden Lab's pushing Valentine's day in Second Life pretty hard this year, particularly the commercial aspects of it. In fact, it feels like it's being pushed hard enough that it has taken on a slightly creepy and embarrassing air, rather like that guy at the Christmas party who won't shut up about the mistletoe. Nevertheless, the Lab's implemented an open beta of product wishlists on their Web-based shopping portal, Xstreet. There doesn't seem to be much that is overtly difficult, weird or special about the implementation, though we'd question the wisdom of launching a public beta of the feature right on the verge of the heavily-promoted Valentine's day. Far better, we'd think, to let it settle a while first and get the inevitable kinks out of it before a major commercial date rolls around.
The Virtual Whirl: Questions from the virtual mailbag
This week, in The Virtual Whirl, we're going to take a selection of reader questions that we've received in comments and in the virtual mailbag and do our best to offer up some useful answers. Join us as we whirl through the mail.
That's not the Second Life economy!
This week Linden Lab published a set of economic data for Q4 2009, and for 2009 as a whole. After going through the data in detail, and discovering at least one important typo and one important calculation error, it looked like we were going to have to recheck every figure before presenting them. That's a lot of work, especially as the data published in the quarterly/annual reports doesn't follow the same definitions as the ongoing statistical feeds or is not represented in them. So we thought, well sod that for a game of soldiers. Instead, let's talk about the report's claim that the Second Life economy has grown 65% in 2009 over 2008, and why that's just rubbish.
Linden Lab isn't daft
It's tempting to characterize Linden Lab as a goofball organization that consistently makes the wrong decisions, driving their premier product, Second Life, into virtual oblivion. Nothing could be further from the truth. Success is hard to argue with (not impossible, as many people do try to argue the fact of it anyway), and Second Life is a success for the Lab. While the Lab is as prone as any organization to making mistakes that can be described as avoidable or boneheaded, all the key decisions that have allowed it to become profitable and maintain profitability and growth pretty much went right. Second Life remains a success. So why does the Lab look like a goof?
Linden Lab to raise Xstreet fees, loses vendors, products
This week, Linden Lab announced that it was going to start charging listing fees and minimum commissions on its Second Life Xstreet Web-shopping adjunct in the near future. Within hours, vendors took down thousands of products, many abandoning the service entirely in favor of alternative services. It's unclear just how many vendors have abandoned the Xstreet SL system, but it apparently was enough to temporarily overload the Web-sites of third-party sites such as Slapt.
Second Life content creators warn about scam site
Numerous Second Life content creators are warning their clientele that the Web-site virtualget.net (which has been apparently been operating for a couple of months now) is a credit-card harvesting scam. Whether that's correct or not, the site appears to be using the product images and product descriptions and trademarks of numerous Second Life content creators without their permission. The original images and text appear on Linden Lab's Xstreet SL virtual goods shopping Web-site. Numerous DMCA notices are reportedly being filed by content creators at present. We attempted to contact virtualget.net (anonymously registered in Singapore) for comment, but none of their email addresses appeared to be functional -- One email address was restored to function when the majority of the site was taken down a short time ago, but we received no response. Linden Lab, who has an intellectual property stake in the matter, was not available for comment either. Users of Kaspersky protection software found the Web-site marked as a phishing site several hours ago, presumably based on user reports. Update: The operation seems to have disabled access to much of the site in the wake of numerous DMCA notices filed by content-creators. Are you a part of the most widely-known collaborative virtual environment or keeping a close eye on it? Massively's Second Life coverage keeps you in the loop.
Linden Lab tightens Xstreet SL rules
This week, Linden Lab announced a move to quash casual infringement of marks, rights and copyrights on their Web-based Second Life goods service, Xstreet SL, among a general tightening of the listing rules. It doesn't come as much of a surprise, really. Linden Lab has, it can be argued, a high level of contributory liability for material on Xstreet SL, compared to any user-based infringement in Second Life itself. Also, goods on Xstreet SL are readily visible to search-engines and lawyers, whereas in-world materials do not generally have that kind of visibility.
Taser International vs Linden Lab: Crack Den crackdown
Taser International Inc have filed a lawsuit against Linden Lab (and others, including some present and some departed) staff. We got a hold of the April 17 complaint yesterday, and have been going through it since then. We've got a summary of the complaint and issues for you, but we won't be linking to the complaint due to the presence of what may be considered to be pornographic images in Exhibit 2. The "crack den" reference in the headline is a recurring phrase in the legal complaint. You'll see why. If you want the one-sentence summary, Taser seem to have failed to do their homework and basic research, but their case doesn't seem to be entirely without merit either.
Linden Lab acquires OnRez, Xstreet. OnRez to close
Linden Lab has acquired the two largest Web-based commerce sites for Second Life. Electric Sheep Company's OnRez and Jay Geeseman's Xstreet were both acquired according to a Linden Lab announcement yesterday. Electric Sheep's OnRez (formerly called SL Boutique) seems to be the their last, lingering connection to Second Life and we don't expect that the OnRez system cost Linden Lab a whole lot, especially as Linden Lab is closing the doors of the OnRez service on Wednesday, 11 February.
