The Alphaville Herald

A Piece of My Heart

by Pixeleen Mistral on 16/11/06 at 9:56 am

“A stupid person can make only certain, limited types of errors; the mistakes open to a clever fellow are far broader. But to the one who knows how smart he is compared to everyone else, the possibilities for true idiocy are boundless.” – Steven Brust

by Eloise Pasteur, European Affairs desk
What is Second Life? It’s one of those dreadful questions that sparks endless debate, because, just like a meat-space life, it’s different for each of us. It’s a game, a platform, a place of work, of opportunity, of socializing, of fun, of commerce, of exploring ourselves and more. The themes, and even beats and tempos of this argument are like an old familiar tune that we mostly ignore through familiarity.

But Second Life is more than that. Second Life is a place we make and share. Look around you next time you’re in world. How many of the places you visit are Linden made, or have Linden made content? The clothes, the skins, the hair, the accessories, the buildings and in many places even the ground you walk on are made by some other resident. Even the way you walk is almost certainly made by some other resident. For the vast bulk of us the place we call home we didn’t buy from a Linden, we bought it from another resident. Even the various Welcome Areas and most of the content on the Help Islands is created by non-Lindens.

That, more than anything, is the thing that makes Second Life unique. Some people with special interests do gripe that some other group get preferential treatment. Some of those claims may even be justified. Whether or not they are justified, let me just reiterate, the thing that makes Second Life special is the fact that, for the vast majority of what you do in Second Life you never need to see or interact with a Linden, or anything a Linden made outside the actual software that you use to connect to the world where your imagination is supposed to count.

A close personal friend of mine described the way Linden Lab is organized and treats some of its responsibilities as “Typcial SoCal Hippy Bullshit.” The SoCal hippies are turning though:

In the last month, in a horrendously muddled way, they contacted some major land barons, but not all, and announced they were raising the prices. Amidst much wailing and gnashing of teeth they finally backed down and came out of the situation with most people knowing the score and making their own decisions and little if any clear advantage to the lucky few.

This week makers of clothes, buildings, jewelry and shoes are kicked in the teeth by the CopyBot. This too passes me by directly, virtually everything I sell is based around scripted items, and CopyBot can’t handle scripts. It doesn’t stop me worrying about its impact though, just like I’m starting to consider the impact of the prices rises to come. The official Linden position for a number of hours amounted to “Tough, live with it.” We, the great unwashed, might never know what made them change their mind, but shifts in Lindex, collapsing sales as more and more shops are closed, threats of class action lawsuits against Linden Lab have all been in the wind, as well as a huge range of angry voices.

It seems there might be a new theme appearing in those discussions of “What is Second Life?” Is that SoCal Hippy Bullshit culture turning into a company that does the minimum it must to avoid court? Is that the kind of place we want it to be? Would we rather have a place where they go the extra yard to do the right thing? Like one of their major investors does?!

There seems to be another new theme appearing too, the beat of “Let’s make money!” No one, well no one that’s stopped to think, really expects Linden Lab to endlessly subsidize Second Life, especially since it’s their only product! But we’re seeing price hikes. We’re seeing posts addressing the concerns of content creators that will cost money and time to address stonewalled and dismissed until the economy suffers. We’re badly phrased blog posts that make people think LL are thinking of introducing a sales tax on each transaction. Obviously they are thinking of it otherwise why even mention it as a possible solution? Linden Lab have never been good about consulting with us, their users, with a small number of honourable exceptions on some occasions. But the tone of those interactions has changed, and changed markedly. Between “Live with it” and “Let’s make more money, now!” we’re not seeing discourse and discussion. We are seeing fiat, dictat and central rule.

Whose world, whose imagination?

One of the ultimate exponents of the SoCal Hippy lifestyle, sang amazing blues, including about how she gave her man everything, and all he did was steal another piece of her heart. How many pieces of how many hearts have Linden Lad stolen over the last month I wonder? How many more will they steal before it becomes ‘last one out turn off the light?’