Second Life : A letter to Linden Lab

Linden Lab, the company which owns and operates the popular 3D virtual world known as “Second Life”, announced changes to pricing and policy for its OpenSpace virtual land product on October 27th of 2008.  This may sound familiar, because I have blogged about it before:  “Ethics on Second Life support.”  Users of Second Life, known as residents, reacted with outrage and frustration over the proposed changes due to the drastic increase in price for the OpenSpace product.  The reasons given for the price increase have been called into question, and accusations of misrepresentation and fraud have been swirling arround Linden Lab since the announcement.

On October 29th, Linden Lab released another announcement on their blog stating that they were receiving quite a bit of “feedback”, and would be posting another statement related to the OpenSpace issue in the relatively near future.  In this announcement, they reiterated that the OpenSpace product was not being used as intended, and that heavy usage rather than the prescribed “light use” was to blame for the increase in rates.  What was omitted from Linden Lab’s October 29th blog entry, was that Linden Lab had INCREASED the resources residents had to work with for the OpenSpace product on March 7th, 2008:  “Announcing changes to the Openspace product.”  Take a look:

Finally, we are going to increase the prim count for Openspaces. They will become exactly a quarter of the normal 15000 prim limit for a region, so they will be set at 3750 (to date they have been limited to 1875 prims).

- Friday, March 7th, 2008 at 4:45 PM by: Jack Linden

The heavier usage which Linden Lab describes as being the major factor for increasing the price of the OpenSpace product was enabled by increasing the “prim count” for OpenSpace regions, effectively doubling the amount of objects which can be placed in an OpenSpace region.  Linden Lab has been reasoning that OpenSpace regions are intended for “light use”, and the current use by residents exceeds Linden Lab’s expectations of usage.  What they fail to realize, is that by increasing the prim allowances for OpenSpace regions, they have redefined what “light use” is.  A regular “full region” offers residents a 15,000 prim allowance.  OpenSpace regions currently allow for 3,750 prims.  Wouldn’t you consider 1/4 the allowance of a full region to be light use by comparison?  And if overuse was an issue, why raise the prim allowances in March?

Resident protests have been ongoing since the original announcement, and many groups are working with legal experts to consider possible action against Linden Lab, especially after their latest statement.  On November 5th, 2008, Linden Lab posted a blog entry entitled “A Letter to Second Life Residents,” detailing adaptations which have been made to the pricing and policy change previously announced, in which a new product called “Homesteads” were introduced, and the current OpenSpace product has been modified.  Basically, OpenSpace regions are to have their prim limits reduced to 750 prims per OpenSpace region, and a new limit of 10 avatars will be introduced.  The Homestead regions will be allowed 3,750 prims, with a limit of 20 avatars per Homestead region.  OpenSpace regions will remain $75 per month, with an initial set-up fee of $250.00, while the Homestead regions will cost $95 per month until July of 2009 where the price will increase to $125.00 per month.  The set-up fee for Homestead regions is slated to be $375.00.

Most of the specific details for the new version of OpenSpace regions, and the new Homestead product are in the Second Life knowledge base, which you must log in with your Second Life account to view.  The link to the knowledge base article is barely noticeable in the November 5th blog announcement of these changes, but the knowledge base is where you will find the current breakdown of what each product will be when the changes take effect.  Take a look:

When examining this chart, I noticed two things which I found rather unsettling.  Script Limits and CPU Ratios are left as TBA (To Be Determined).  Both of these parameters will greatly effect the quality of service with each product, and yet there is no indication of what they will be.

It seems that Linden Lab, in response to the community outrage over the proposed changes to the OpenSpace product, has decided to punish the community rather than work with it to resolve this conflict.  Personally, I would not recommend Second Life as a serious option for operating a virtual business, or establishing a virtual location for an existing business.  Over the years, Linden Lab has shown me that deception and disregard are tools of their trade.

Fortunately, there are a plethora of alternative virtual world platforms in development, many of which look rather promising.  I, for one, cannot wait until they begin to reach production quality.

Linden Labs Loses Focus… Again.

Linden Labs announced on Monday that they have partnered with Big Spaceship to “transform the Second Life experience.”

The goals of the project are to dramatically simplify the sign-up stage, ease users’ introduction into Second Life, and quickly connect people to relevant content and experiences in Second Life. Big Spaceship is well known for their work creating compelling online experiences that are approachable and engaging.

- Monday, November 3rd, 2008 at 12:13 PM by: Benjamin Linden

{smartads}

In reading the rest of the blog post by Benjamin Linden, I could not help but feel as though this is yet another pending disaster on the virtual horizon.  Linden Labs is developing a knack for upsetting its user base, and this seems like a prime candidate for doing just that.

Big Spaceship will be working with internal teams at Linden Lab to research, design, prototype and test web sites and user interfaces that dramatically lower the learning curve for experiencing Second Life.

- Monday, November 3rd, 2008 at 12:13 PM by: Benjamin Linden

In other words, they want to dumb down the viewer.  Making the viewer more “idiot friendly”, as it was put over at “Common|Sensible“.  While that may help new residents learn how to perform basic tasks, it may very well add complexity to the features many Second Life users are already accustomed to.  And a redesign of the viewer’s user interface, as well as various websites, will be very costly.  Could this be related to the pending OpenSpace price hike which has sparked so much debate and controversy?

Personally, I would much rather see the existing bugs, issues, and policiy ambiguity addressed before yet another major change introduced.  I am not surprised by this move, of course.  Chaos and upheval are Linden Labs speciality.

Join the discussion over at the official Second Life forums:  http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=290925

Ethics on Second Life support

Earlier this week Linden Lab, the company which owns and operates the 3D virtual world platform “Second Life”, announced that they were making changes to pricing and policy for their “OpenSpace” regions.  In Second Life, virtual real estate can be purchased for a variety of uses.  OpenSpace regions are essentially large areas of virtual land (or water) which one can purchase, which are intended for lighter use than traditional regions.

Many non-profit and education organizations make use of these OpenSpace regions, as they are much less expensive.  Thousands of these OpenSpace regions have been purchased by individuals and businesses as well, using them for public recreation areas for activities such as virtual sailing due to their relatively low cost.  That, however, is about to change:

{smartads}

Beginning 1st January 2009

We will increase the monthly maintenance fee from USD$75 to USD$125 per month. This price increase will apply to all owners of Openspaces on January 1st as well as new purchases after that date. There will be no grandfathering of Openspace maintenance pricing.

For anyone owning class 4 Openspaces on January 1st, they will be upgraded to class 5 by end of January, to further improve the experience people have on those regions.

At the same time, we will be increasing the upfront fee for brand new Openspaces from USD$250 to USD$375.

- Monday, October 27th, 2008 at 6:05 PM by: Jack Linden

This decision has prompted thousands of Second Life residents to organize, staging protests throughout the Second Life world.  Emails, phone calls, support tickets, and in-world messages have been flooding Linden Labs since the pending changes were announced.  Why are they making these changes?  The answer to that question varies depending on who you ask.  Linden Labs offered the following explanation:

Rather than being employed as open areas like ocean with little or no content and traffic, the majority are being rented out to residents looking for a place to live. Because they were never intended for that level of load this is causing problems. For some people this has meant a less than great experience with performance fluctuations. The overuse of Openspaces has also put additional strain on some of our network and database infrastructure at a much higher ratio than is reflected in the current pricing. So higher traffic to and from the servers along with heavier demands on the asset server, both of which impact the overall experience people have inworld.

- Monday, October 27th, 2008 at 6:05 PM by: Jack Linden

This comes as a surprise to many since an increase in the resources allowed to residents was increased in March, allowing residents put the increased load on the servers in the first place:

So what is changing?

Openspaces will no longer have to be purchased in sets of four at a time, as they have been so far. They can be bought singly, for a setup fee of USD$415 followed by a fee of USD$75 per month.

- Friday, March 7th, 2008 at 4:45 PM by: Jack Linden

In addition to the rate hike, non-profit and educational organizations will no longer be given a discount on OpenSpace regions, and as a result, will be hit with a higher price increase than others.  This will force many of them to give up their OpenSpace regions, as well as write off any investment of time money put into them.

Linden Labs may be in for more of a fight than they have already witnessed.  There are reports of groups of Second Life residents raising funds for legal representation, and claims of fraud and misrepresentation are beginning to spread throughout the community.  One thing is for sure, Linden Labs has made it clear that pricing may change drastically, and without warning.  If you plan to purchase virtual real estate any time soon, you may want to reconsider your options and choose another virtual world platform.  Linden Labs appears to have a history of angering the people who funnel millions of dollars every month into their coffers.

Making Strides Against Breast Cancer

Today was the annual “Making Strides Against Breast Cancer” walk in Boston, an event put on by the American Cancer Society.  I am pleased to say that I participated in the walk with my wife and her fundraising team, my daughter, and my niece.  There were two routes which participants could take, either 3 miles or 5.7 miles.  We opted for the 5.7 mile route, and let me tell you… my feet really hurt.  It’s been a long time since I’ve walked that much at once.

The American Cancer Society stated that they expected around 35,000 people to participate in this year’s walk in Boston, and I heard someone state that there were closer to 40,000 people walking today.  I haven’t seen any official indication of exactly how many people were in attendance but there sure were a lot of people there.  It was amazing to see so many people collected in once place with only generosity, support, and charitable donation on the agenda.  A little of my faith in humanity was restored today.

The weather was cool to cold with a bit of light rain, but we remained dry throughout the walk due to good fortune and the natural canopy of the trees along much of the route.  I don’t think many of us felt the cold anyway, with our brisk pace and the inner warmth you can only experience by being part of something truly important.  Those of you who have participated in something like this probably won’t think I am a cornball for saying that, but I can imagine some will.  I suppose it’s one of those things you have to experience to truly understand.

My wife is already beginning her plans for the team’s fundraising efforts for next year, and I have already decided that I am going to help as best I can.  It’s an experience I will not soon forget.

Nearly 13,000 in hospital in China milk scandal

That’s right folks, keep purchasing those Chinese imports.

Of course, it is becoming increasingly more difficult to purchase domestically produced products since Chinese imports are so damned cheap.  But somewhere along the line, we need to stop and think about this for a minute.

Chinese manufacturers are killing their own babies with defective products.  What makes us think ours are any safer from those products? I would like to think that imports are held to the same standards our domestic products are, but as we have seen in the past, that is not the case (Carcinogenic toothpaste, lead tainted toys, etc).

Check out this article by Chris Buckley over at Reuters:

The number of Chinese infants sick in hospital after drinking tainted milk formula has leapt to nearly 13,000 and Premier Wen Jiabao threatened harsh punishment for culprits in the latest blight on the “made-in-China” brand.

Read the whole article here: http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSPEK11155120080922?sp=true

Back to the Future in a 98-Year-Old Electric Car

I came across an interesting article in the New York Times website dating back about a year ago.  It’s a feature about Jay Leno’s 1909 Baker Electric…  yes, that’s right… an electric car that is almost 100 years old.  It had a range of about 100 miles at approximately 25mph.  Check out the article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/05/automobiles/05BAKER.html?pagewanted=all

Imagine how much better hybrid or electric automobiles would be today if the technology was the focus of automobile development rather than the internal combustion engine.  The batteries used were invented by Thomas Edison, and were reusable INDEFINITELY.  No need to throw them out and buy new batteries…  just rinse them out and replace the alkaline.  Jay Leno stated that he regularly uses the ORIGINAL Edison alkaline batteries regularly.

If you would like to see this thing in action… check out this video from Jay Leno’s Garage:

http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/video/video_player.shtml?vid=187711

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