Second Life’s Slide vs. Everyone Else

by Alphaville Herald on 16/09/07 at 10:57 pm

9 months of losing ground against IMVU, TSO, World of Warcraft

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Trends_1_year_rank
SL web site rank falling since January – WoW, TSO & IMVU rankings rising

By at least one measure, Second Life’s growth since January has not kept pace with other 3D immersive environments – including World of Warcraft, The Sims Online, and IMVU. Comparing growth rates between virtual worlds is a notoriously difficult task. Game companies are infamous for inflating creatively defining subscriber numbers and use different methods for counting players. Even worse – independent, verifiable measures of popularity are simply not available – so PR-driven spin generally rules.

However, at the Herald we have access to an elite team of metaverse researchers who suggested that there IS a way to measure (indirectly) the relative growth rates of the media-darling 3D worlds without the game companies gaming the numbers.

How? Look at the trends in the alexa.com rankings of the various worlds’ web sites. Alexa.com is an independent web site traffic measurement service that charts trends in web site traffic in terms of unique visitors, page views, and a composite “rank”. Of course traffic to web sites is not an absolute measure of 3D world popularity – but assuming a relatively constant number of players visit the web sites for each world, the web traffic trends should be indicative of population trends in-world. In light of this, Linden Lab’s recent de-emphasis of population and dollars spent in-world on their web site’s front page makes sense – no point in advertising trouble.

So, while the absolute number of page views for each game company metaverse service provider’s web site vary due to the design of the sites, the rate of change or long term trends provide a relatively un-biased view of the relative patterns of virtual world adoption.

Unfortunately these trends are not positive for Second Life as compared to other well-known worlds.

Why? Perhaps this is a case of choking on excessive media hype – a tsunami of hype started almost exactly one year ago.

Trends_3yr_reach
Unique visitors to game web sites over 3 years – January 2007 hype peak turns negative — other worlds unaffected

Another possibility is under-delivering on the promise of the brave new 3D metaverse – where nearly everyone is perfect looking – in a cartoon sort of way – but is also subject to random harassment.

Trends_1_yr_reach
Unique visitors to SL’s site falls – while competition rises

Then there is the small issue of priorities and customer fatigue – the Linden game gods love nothing more than adding features to the world – but seldom get around to fixing problems that bedevil customers, such as 1 out of 4 visits to the metaverse ending in a crash. An unhealthy preoccupation with enabling no-exit klien bottle advertislands is not helping either.

Trends_sl_vs_eve
Eve Online holds steady while SL sinks – trading places next month?

If you really want to feel concerned, remember that WoW is a relatively mature franchise and is probably heading into the long tail. Why is SL sinking in comparison? May I be so bold as to suggest the Lindens might put down their limited edition ginger & lemongrass green tea, snuff out the fatties, and engineer another wave of media hype for Second Life? Soon? Without something to turn this trend around the future looks bleak.

28 Responses to “Second Life’s Slide vs. Everyone Else”

  1. Nacon

    Sep 17th, 2007

    …You realize that’s for website, not in-world traffic count?

    You’re not required to use website to log into SL everyday, retard.

    oh btw, secondlifeherald.com’s rank is going down…. that is if it “really” matters to you.

  2. Ruud Lathrop

    Sep 17th, 2007

    I dont know, but a lot off people dont enter the world throw the secondlife.com website. If you are brazilian you enter most of the time throw http://www.secondlife.com.br, or dutch with http://www.secondlife.nl, etc, etc.
    What im trying to say is that measuring trafic on a website is a nice comparison, but for a lot of people secondlife.com is not there main stop anymore, as it is with IMVU and WOW.
    Maybe next time you need to put does up there too, and add them to secondlife.com website stats?

  3. Hamlet Au

    Sep 17th, 2007

    Alexa doesn’t count sub-domains separately, but instead bunches them all together into a single ranking. If you search “ea.com” and “thesims.ea.com” on Alexa, you’ll see they’re both currently 535. In another words, this comparison isn’t really with Secondlife.com and The Sims Online, it’s comparing Secondlife.com with ea.com, the largest publisher in the game industry.

  4. Gwyneth Llewelyn

    Sep 17th, 2007

    Ah well, the trouble with statistics, Pixeleen, is that they reflect only what they measure :)

    Since the semi-death of the SL forums, the number of people actively looking for information on *.secondlife.com has drastically diminished. Why should they? Except for the blog and the wiki, there is not much around to read about SL. The Wiki, I believe, has far less readers than we imagine; thus LL’s urge to get everybody reading it.

    SL residents read the Herald instead, or, well, the whole SLogosphere — they’re not stuck to any “official” *.secondlife.com page. Thus, the Alexa ranking naturally diminishes.

    IMVU and Kaneva are far more clever. Knowing fully well that webcrawlers, spiders, robots, and traffic ranking thingies will look at web pages — and not, obviously, in-world items — they have structured their websites so that all social and commercial activity is handled under their domains: Kaneva has all the Web 2.0 thingies on “their” domain; IMVU has their whole e-commerce site (the one and only authorised) under their domain as well.

    The Sims Online is also not very different in that regard. And, of course, World of Warcraft has a huge forum and their community pages.

    For me it’s no wonder that all these sites get far more traffic than LL’s puny almost-content-less “web portal” (once you read it, there is nothing else to see), a blog, and forums that aren’t read by more than 10,000 users these days. There is simply no way to generate traffic there.

    Notice that Alexa.com also works with relative values, ie. in terms of overall Internet traffic. This is the same reason why people wonder why suddenly Second Life is “only European” and apparently it’s losing US customers — once 75% of all residents, nowadays struggling to be around the 25% mark. It’s not that the US residents are massively going out of SL. What happens is that the total number of US residents grows at a slower rate than the European (or, recently, the Japanese and Brazilian) ones. The same applies to statistics from Alexa: overall, LL’s site might be in fact attracting more page views than before, but, overall, it grows slower than all the other MMORPGs. Again, this doesn’t surprise me — except for World of Warcraft, where Alexa should give similar results; apparently, they’re gathering more people to read their forums! — since, obviously, the rate of growth of all these MMORPGs (except for WoW) is far higher. If IMVU grows 60,000 users in a month, they’re growing 10% per month; if SL gets 60,000 new accounts over a busy weekend, it’s “only” growing 0.6%. Obviously, in absolute numbers, SL is gathering a lot of new users — possibly far more than all others put together! — but in percentage, their rate of growth is far shallower.

    What is indeed more worrying, assuming that LL’s statistics are not broken again, is that we used to have close to 1.8 million users logged in in the past 60 days, and now we have “only” 1.5 million; that, combined with the decrease of the number of Premium users (but not the number of island owners!) shows that a new trend is emerging: LL is generating hype (lots of new accounts) but failing to capture their interest, ie. the churn rate is rising again. This is naturally worrying. We have no way to figure out how the other MMORPGs fare, since nobody publishes statistics, they just publish, here and there, some press releases and that’s all (IMVU stopped announcing the number of registered users on their page a while ago, or the number of items for sale on their online catalogue).

  5. Opensource Obscure

    Sep 17th, 2007

    Second Life’s declining popularity on the web makes sense for me, since I agree with other people about the idea that we are in the declining phase of its Hype Cycle. As an example of this idea, see
    http://www.nevillehobson.com/2007/08/13/the-second-life-hype-cycle

    However, the way this trend is described here doesn’t persuade me:
    - first, I don’t fully agree that virtual worlds’ websites popularity is a good signal of their popularity;
    - second, I would not buy Alexa rankings even if I was interested virtual worlds’ in websites popularity.
    See the above, from
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexa_Internet (follow the link for complete info and more links):

    Alexa ranks sites based on visits from users of its Alexa Toolbar for Internet Explorer and from integrated sidebars in Mozilla and Netscape. In addition to their own statusbar extension, Sparky (released, July 2007), there are several third-party extensions for Mozilla Firefox (…) There is some controversy over how representative Alexa’s user base is of typical Internet behavior. If Alexa’s user base is a fair statistical sample of the internet user population (e.g., a random sample of sufficient size), Alexa’s ranking should be quite accurate. In reality, not much is known about the sample and possible sampling biases (…) A known source of bias is the self-selecting, opt-in nature of Alexa traffic tracking software installation, but the significance of this bias on rankings is not reported. (…) Another concern is whether Alexa ratings are easily manipulated. Some webmasters claim that they can significantly improve the Alexa ranking of less popular sites by making them the default page, by exchanging web traffic with other webmasters, and by requiring their users to install the Alexa toolbar (…)

  6. shockwave yareach

    Sep 17th, 2007

    I would like to see the definition of “active player” as one who has logged in for more than 15 minutes (in one time) during the previous 21 days. Would make it hard to make up a million fake names and accounts. Probably that’s the reason no company will voluntarily do it – not in their best interests.

  7. kathygnome

    Sep 17th, 2007

    That’s a really bad way to measure things. I can’t explain the TSO numbers, but IMVU is very very heavily integrated with their website. All avatars have their own “my space” style page and a lot of communication and meeting people is done through those pages.

    It’s actually a fantastic feature and I’d love to see it added to SL.

  8. shockwave yareach

    Sep 17th, 2007

    Opensource: Any website that requires me to install a tracing program, I leave. Period. There is always someplace else to go on the web to get the same service. My computer habits are no-one’s business but my own.

  9. DaveOner

    Sep 17th, 2007

    So why are you still here Pixeleen? If SL sucks so bad why don’t you go to WoW or TSO or something? There’s no need to quote statistics that actually don’t say what you want them to say to try to justify the “it’s cool to not like LL” craze sweeping the cat people blogs.

    Where are some real stories? You guys almost had it there for a sec!

  10. Alyx Stoklitsky

    Sep 17th, 2007

    if you want more laughs, compare the alexa traffic ratings for secondlife.com, 4chan.org and somethingawful.com

  11. Blinders Off

    Sep 17th, 2007

    Nacon posts: “You realize that’s for website, not in-world traffic count? You’re not required to use website to log into SL everyday, retard. oh btw, secondlifeherald.com’s rank is going down…. that is if it “really” matters to you.–Posted by: Nacon

    We see Nacon posts another idiotic troll post. Just gives us more fun in pulling apart rants from this guy. LOL.

    Web site or not, facts is facts. When SL had 25,000 members, almost all of them were active. In 2006, the number of active users was at 9.6%. As we speak, the number of active users is 5.1%. If you’d do a little research Nacon, instead of just shooting off yer mouth every time the opportunity presents itself, you might see beyond your own ego.

    Second life has been losing members on a ratio demographic, while other boards are gaining. The reasons are obvious: Linden Lab has done little or nothing to fix years-old bugs and solidify platform stability.

    Right now, group IMs don’t go to everyone in the group and they’re glitchy and keep coming up with “you can’t post in your own flippin’ group” messages.

    Group Notices are not being sent to everyone in the group, and as a result group members miss announcements of events and important group issues.

    Permissions in inventory are all messed up, with mod/copy items suddenly switching to no mod, and vice versa, for no good reason.

    We can’t read a notecard within a notecard any more. It takes sometimes TEN MINUTES to load a simple texture or photo… something that any second-rate website can do in half a second flat.

    So Linden Lab needs to get a clue… and Nacon needs get a life. LOL

  12. Hamlet Au

    Sep 17th, 2007

    “I can’t explain the TSO numbers”

    Again, those Alexa numbers cited above are not counting TSO, but the entire Electronic Arts site, in which TSO is but one sub-domain. TSO has basically been defunct for the last few years. A more plausible explanation for Secondlife.com’s traffic decline (or one of the major factors, at least) is the gradual closing of the online forums; one of the last major ones was shuttered in January, as noted in, you know, the Herald:

    http://www.secondlifeherald.com/slh/2007/01/ll_out_of_answe.html

  13. Blinders Off

    Sep 17th, 2007

    Posted by: DaveOner “So why are you still here Pixeleen? If SL sucks so bad why don’t you go to WoW or TSO or something?”

    Always impressed by guys who bring out this argument. Talk about tunnel-vision. We hear that short-sighted argument in RL too. “If you don’t like the United States, leave it!” True red-neck logic. Instead of trying to motivate Linden Lab to fix the system… just go somewhere else.

    Got news for ya Dave, and all the other people who post such remarks. If there was another system like Second Life, a lot of people WOULD be leaving. The only reason Linden Lab is still even in business is because there’s not another system out there quite like it… YET. Don’t expect that to be the case for much longer. HiPiHi is coming, and you can bet there are other projects in the works that will hit the market before too much longer. And when that happens… I foresee a massive exodus from Second-rate Life. But even though there is not another system that lets you build and script and sell and all that… still systems like WoW are eating Second Life’s lunch. When someone would rather spend the day bopping ogres on WoW than put up with SL lag and bugs… that’s a pretty sad statement for Linden Lab.

    Fact is, SL could have been a lot better, and a lot more popular if LL had just paid attention to the core-root needs and bug fixing. If they’d have attacked the lag, had not been so greedy, and had treated their customers with respect, Second Life would absolutely rock. Instead, people complain about performance issues ALL THE TIME. And that’s a fact of life.

    I mean really, $295 a month for 4 sims stacked to a server? Nearly $1200 a month total for a server box that lags beyond belief? That loses inventory daily? That changes object permissions without warning? That crashes every time we’re in the middle of a project… and people actually pay for this?

    There are fools born every minute I guess. LOL.

    Dave, at least Pixeleen has the guts to stand up and say the emperor is nakee. Which is more than I can say for the rest of the bleating hearts. LOL

  14. Plot Tracer

    Sep 17th, 2007

    Perhaps people have capitalism fatigue… “SL is an elaborate pyramid scheme” has been a much used phrase. People talk of the lindens as some sort of evil benevolent dictatorship – liberal wet dreams. I make the accusation that they are cynical businessmen who give people pretendy freedoms (like the WBO and neoliberal Governments real-worldwide), though in reality the free are those who have money or are at the top of the pyramid. At present they are suffering a lack of interest because there is no cheap way to have your own property. A market dies when no-one can get in on the bottom rung – the British property market is showing signs of that as the developers have priced new property owners off the first rung. If it is about dollars, SL is doomed. If it is about creating an online community, the only way to do it is to take the dollars out of it. Google is free to use, yet makes a shit load of money and has shit loads of users(tho i would not recommend people to use Google as it is party to censorship in China).

    SL is a fantastic tool to facilitate education. The only way to ensure its continuance and real freedom, is to keep big business in “big business parks” and allowing residents to freely build communities without having to worry about where the tier comes from.

    In a socialist society, SL and innovation that facilitates development will be available to all without prejudice. True freedom.

    http://slleftunity.blogspot.com/

  15. DaveOner

    Sep 17th, 2007

    “Always impressed by guys who bring out this argument. Talk about tunnel-vision. We hear that short-sighted argument in RL too. “If you don’t like the United States, leave it!” True red-neck logic. Instead of trying to motivate Linden Lab to fix the system… just go somewhere else.”

    What you fail to understand in your quest for trollery is that leaving SL is EXACTLY what would motivate LL to fix things. Everyday you stay online and cry about things is a day they count you as a vote for their current strategy.

    “Got news for ya Dave, and all the other people who post such remarks. If there was another system like Second Life, a lot of people WOULD be leaving.”

    I used to think so but I stopped when I saw Project Open Letter. Most people that have been in SL for extended periods of time have an established mini-community they are a part of not to mention the learning curve of using SL’s viewer. Anyone who thinks the theoretical “competition” will just pick up where SL is leaving off is naive. They might have certain features that give LL a run for it’s money but they’ll have similar problems that LL has had. As was made evident by the failure of Project Open Letter, most of the SL trolls are still in SL because they want the world to change around them instead of following through on anything.

    “… still systems like WoW are eating Second Life’s lunch. When someone would rather spend the day bopping ogres on WoW than put up with SL lag and bugs… that’s a pretty sad statement for Linden Lab.”

    …or a statement that this person isn’t interested in the kind of game experience SL has to offer. This is like saying Splinter Cell stole Tetris’s thunder. Apples to oranges, bro.

    “Fact is, SL could have been a lot better, and a lot more popular if LL had just paid attention to the core-root needs and bug fixing. If they’d have attacked the lag, had not been so greedy, and had treated their customers with respect, Second Life would absolutely rock. Instead, people complain about performance issues ALL THE TIME. And that’s a fact of life.”

    I agree their customer service has fallen WAY off in the last year or so and this will keep people from spending real money, but the rest of your statement is similar to the other trolls that don’t actually understand what SL is actually made of. “Attack the lag”?? I’m glad no one relies on you for any sort of tech support.

    “I mean really, $295 a month for 4 sims stacked to a server? Nearly $1200 a month total for a server box that lags beyond belief? That loses inventory daily? That changes object permissions without warning? That crashes every time we’re in the middle of a project… and people actually pay for this?”

    Again you show how little you actually understand about how SL is put together. Not that it’s prefect or at the cutting edge of what it could be by ANY means…but your complaints listed are ignorant.

    Also, how many of you complainers own sims or are otherwise spending L$ on land of some sort? If you spend L$ on ANYTHING all you’re doing is sending the message of “Hey LL, I am continuing to use your product in it’s current form.” They don’t hear your crying.

    “There are fools born every minute I guess. LOL.”

    …and here you are!

    “Dave, at least Pixeleen has the guts to stand up and say the emperor is nakee. Which is more than I can say for the rest of the bleating hearts. LOL”

    How is writing on a blog that LL ignores an action that requires “guts”? What would take guts is if you tools downgraded your accounts and stopped logging on all at the same time. Don’t sell off your L$ because that counts, too.

    Until you can curb your addiction to this game and do that then you’re just a stooge for LL, my son!

  16. trinity Wright

    Sep 17th, 2007

    Gwyneth is correct about the 60-days user logged numbers and that is possibly the only thing that counts. Given Summer’s lows may only marginally impact those numbers (and the premium account debacle already in progress d2 LL’s own suicidal inability to get paid) we have to conclude retention is not getting better. Stats have not been made public on the new Privatized Orientations but feelings are these are generally performing barely over LL’s average. Few have pointed low retention and SL client’s bizarre and clumsy interface are in fact strictly related. For what matters your wall of hyper-defense is only annoying, Hamlet, and contribute none to a considerate debate. Truth is the current client should be disbanded, the server components reworked by competent developers or being given away as a near-failed attempt, however, obsolete. The impact of Voice on required bandwidth has been underestimated. Call it management’s blindness or must-have insanity. SL was close to prohibitive requirements before, to institutions and educational who now also feel the swords of potential liability on the legal fence, lag these days is near impossible. When we refer to loading of a website we call “usable” loads under 6-seconds. A web presence not loading under 6-seconds is classified a waste. Recent polls cut those 6 seconds to about 4. Explain the young cruisers why in SL it can take 30 seconds or more to load textures on a class-5 sim. They won’t understand. Let’s tell them why griefers are finding increasingly easy to carry daily attacks about everywhere no way to stop them and days to get LL to clean up the mess. They won’t understand. LSL is a toy, we know. Group Notices are broken. Explain to new users, is LL waiting for more votes on these issues? Explain these new users an IM system that is permanently broken despite 4 to 5 subsequent updates and how many rolling restarts? Explain them also LL expects them to file bugs using JIRA. The company that delivers one of the sharpest candidate to a future 3D Web prays for users to vote on something to be fixed? Don’t they know responsibility at LL? Learn to write software and prioritize. You’re not that sharp it seems if it takes IE and a scrap of HTML to sniff out passwords (which you send in the clear). We know SL is not secure. Try to convince any of your clients to login even for a chat. Afraid you’re going to lose your client? We meet them on Skype now. Big news! LL will implode, the signs are clear this is happening, and that somebody more qualified than Philip takes control of the mess. After we bottom down, around February next year or after the sticky Verification/Windlight combo, the slope may invert and restart climbing. This time, slowly, very.

  17. Obscure Doodad

    Sep 17th, 2007

    “After we bottom down, around February next year or after the sticky Verification/Windlight combo, the slope may invert and restart climbing. This time, slowly, very.”

    That can’t work. LL has to pay bonuses around Christmas time and inflation pay increases for the entire staff. Either they fund that by firing people or they raise prices. If they raise prices in an environment where growth is flat or negative, how will that stimulate increase sales?

    It won’t.

    Don’t wave your hand and talk about fixing bugs or taking new approaches unless you FIRST have a business plan in mind to fund it. Nothing happens without funding.

  18. Blinders Off

    Sep 18th, 2007

    DaveOner: Until you can curb your addiction to this game and do that then you’re just a stooge for LL, my son!

    While I won’t disagree with you there, and agree that some of your other points are valid, telling people to “leave Second Life” rather than complain about it is a little short-sighted and unrealistic. I stick by my original post. You call others ignorant but hey guy, seems you can’t see beyond your own opinions… and anyone who disagrees with you is a troll (not you of course, because when you call someone names… it’s the truth, right?). LOL

  19. Blinders Off

    Sep 18th, 2007

    The bottom line here is active user numbers and even more importantly than that, PAID user numbers… which right now is less than 2% of total residency. Again, Linden Lab is chargint $295 a month for a sim when they could charge $95 a month and still retain profitability. When competition comes along that has a clue as to how real-world finances work, LL is likely to find itself suddenly with a very, very thin slice of the market pie. The potential of SL is fantastic. Constant mismanagement by the company has proven to be its greatest hindrance.

  20. Blinders Off

    Sep 18th, 2007

    Obscure: “Don’t wave your hand and talk about fixing bugs or taking new approaches unless you FIRST have a business plan in mind to fund it. Nothing happens without funding.”

    Well, I have a business plan in mind to fund it. Charge people $295 a month, stack 4 servers to a sim… oh wait… THEY’RE ALREADY DOING THAT!

    So since the funds are there, it falls to the next step: get their hands out of the “oh boy toys!” jar and start working on BUGS and FOUNDATION PLATFORM problems!

  21. anonymous

    Sep 18th, 2007

    What they need to stop screwing up the SL economy with unfounded wagering bans. FBI did NOT declare L$ gambling illegal, they told me so themselves, cause if they decided the L$ was akin to a poker chip, then they would be legally bound to investigate and prosecute griefers for causing L$ damages to SL business owners.

    LL is using the wagering ban to drive people out of business so they can repo peoples sims, and repurpose those sim servers (which were paid for by our investments) to offering cheap mainland land, at no capital expense to themselves, undercutting those of us who have made investments in sims.

    Once they repo the private estates, they will then reallow gambling (conveniently around the time the WTO gets around to ruling the US offshore internet gambling law illegal). Thus, LL will have stolen an entire grid from small mom and pop businesspeople.

  22. DaveOner

    Sep 18th, 2007

    “While I won’t disagree with you there, and agree that some of your other points are valid, telling people to “leave Second Life” rather than complain about it is a little short-sighted and unrealistic.”

    I know it won’t happen. Ultimately you (as in the complainers) are consumers and will continue to consume. While I don’t think LL is “betting” on this per se, they are definitely benefiting from your malaise and inaction.

    “I stick by my original post. You call others ignorant but hey guy, seems you can’t see beyond your own opinions… and anyone who disagrees with you is a troll (not you of course, because when you call someone names… it’s the truth, right?). LOL”

    Good straw man there. Your original post was ignorant for the reasons I already pointed out. You’re clearly more interested in complaining about something than actually looking at the situation and figuring out how to resolve it…just like your cronies!

    Again, LL will only change what they’re doing when you stop using their product. It’s naive and silly to sit and hope that another for-profit company will come along and save you from the for-profit company you choose to pay so you can have something to complain about. Quit waiting for a competitor. Take ACTUAL action. Go away and tell them why you’re leaving!

  23. anony-mouse

    Sep 18th, 2007

    LL also told me they invented lag just so regular residents will move slower than Lindens in case there’s a chase on foot.

  24. Blinders Off

    Sep 19th, 2007

    DaveOner: “Your original post was ignorant for the reasons I already pointed out. You’re clearly more interested in complaining about something than actually looking at the situation and figuring out how to resolve it…just like your cronies! Again, LL will only change what they’re doing when you stop using their product. It’s naive and silly to sit and hope that another for-profit company will come along and save you from the for-profit company you choose to pay so you can have something to complain about. Quit waiting for a competitor. Take ACTUAL action. Go away and tell them why you’re leaving!”

    LOL, ignorant because we don’t accept your all-knowing, all-wise opinion? LOL. You have no problems with ego, do ya?

    Tell me oh wise one, how is it that a problem is “resolved” by leaving it to fester? While I agree that a mass-exodus from SL might catch Linden Lab’s attention, that’s just not going to happen without some serious competition coming in, is it? If you truly believe telling people to “leave Second Life” is a viable solution to this situation, methinks you live in a fantasy world of your own devising.

    And sure, the next company that comes along is going to be a “for profit” company. Duh. Shucky-durn that they won’t do it for free. Gasp. But just maybe the next company will learn from SL’s mistakes and be for-profit on a little less ludicrous scale. I’m not holding my breath mind you, but any improvement will be a welcome one. What improvement? Well, like maybe a company that actually has a live support team and a company that actually fixes bugs. That would be nice, even if they (again gasp!) make a profit doing so.

    Come on Dave, stop admiring yourself in the mirror and get down to solid earth. What you propose is an unrealistic “solution” that does nobody no good. And calling others ignorant because they see past such imaginary scenarios is more than just a little pompous.

  25. Blinders Off

    Sep 19th, 2007

    From “anonymous”: “What they need to stop screwing up the SL economy with unfounded wagering bans. FBI did NOT declare L$ gambling illegal, they told me so themselves, cause if they decided the L$ was akin to a poker chip, then they would be legally bound to investigate and prosecute griefers for causing L$ damages to SL business owners. LL is using the wagering ban to drive people out of business so they can repo peoples sims, and repurpose those sim servers (which were paid for by our investments) to offering cheap mainland land, at no capital expense to themselves, undercutting those of us who have made investments in sims. Once they repo the private estates, they will then reallow gambling (conveniently around the time the WTO gets around to ruling the US offshore internet gambling law illegal). Thus, LL will have stolen an entire grid from small mom and pop businesspeople.”

    Geez guy, what have you been smoking? LOL. (Takes out the “blow holes in the fantasy conspiracy-theory shotgun”…)

    Are we actually supposed to BELIEVE that you have spoken to the FBI and they gave you an official statement that gambling in SL is not illegal? LOL. Right. Wink wink.

    And to get to the “let’s talk facts” category… Linden Lab does not “repo” sims. If a sim owner has to close down because (sob sob) he can’t run his gambling establishment any more, you can bet your boots he’s not going to be stupid enough to just turn the sim back over to Linden Lab. He’s going to sell it on the open market, to an independent buyer, so that he takes as little loss as possible. And if he is stupid enough to continue a gambling establishment after the multitude of very plain warnings from Linden Lab– to the point that he has to be shut down and loses his assets… well, I would think that sim owners that stupid are few and far between (well, non-existant really).

    While I wouldn’t completely disagree with the concept that LL would love to see their whole grid go corporate and totally eliminate the “mom and pop” sims (their pricing certainly reflects that strategy, although even that idea falls more into the “conspiracy-theory” category), I think you’ve been listening too much to the anti-Linden Lab propagandists. While there are some serious problems with LL and Second Life both in performance and management, I don’t really thing repo-ing sims is on their agenda of evil take-over-the-world schemes. ;)

  26. Blinders Off

    Sep 19th, 2007

    Oh Dave, one last thing. I am personally tired of you and other egoists calling people “complainers” simply because they voice dissatisfaction with the way Second Life operates. You make it sound like everyone just stands around and complains rather than trying to make Second Life better. I think there is ample documented history to prove that people make constructive and specific suggestions and demands to Linden Lab all the time… about very basic things (such as “fix the group IM problem”, “fix the Group Notices problem”, “fix the ‘can’t read a notecard within a notecard’ problem” etc etc. The truth is, people do more than complain, they actively try to get Linden Lab to fix things. Which Dave, is how problems are REALLY resolved.

    I would venture that someone who stands around and makes unrealistic suggestions such as “leave Second Life” is the actual non-constructive complainer. For while as much as I agree with the sentiment (if a company deals wrongly with you and delivers a bad product, stop using the company), that’s just simply not a realistic or viable scenario here at this time. So if I may suggest, why don’t YOU stop standing around and complaining about the “complainers” and like them, do something constructive to help fix Second Life.

    Or… if you don’t want to do that… why don’t YOU leave Second Life? Put your money where your mouth is? And that means leaving these blogs as well because well, every time you post here, it could draw attention to Second Life (any publicity is good publicity concept) and you wouldn’t want that, would ya?

    See, we’re not so ignorant after all. Of course, there’s the chance you’re simply posting to draw attention to yourself and push other people’s buttons. If so… hey, mission accomplished! LOL

  27. Deanfred Brandeis

    Sep 28th, 2007

    As usual, the Herald shows ignorance of and ambivalence toward the actual facts.

    As many commenters have pointed out, very few normal users have a need to go to the SL website, and the Alexa plugin would not count visits by the SL viewer to its splash page.

    Also–and not to be a LL apologist; they need to demonstrate some progress–LL does not appear to be working on the “new features only” program any more. Before SLCC, all devs were instructed to fix bugs and put new features aside.

    The problems you experience every day? They’re mostly not the fault of devs. They’re the fault of the ops (infrastructure) team.

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