Next Up for Linden Lab: 2D Text Games for iPads?
by Pixeleen Mistral on 26/09/11 at 12:38 am
At AOL's DailyFinance site, Dawn Kawamoto reports that Linden Lab is working on a 2D game platform that seems almost completely unrelated to Second Life as we know it - except for a crowd-sourced approach to content creation.
Citing sources familiar with the plans, Kawamoto tells us
the new gaming platform (which some inside Linden Lab refer to as 2D) has already received the green light, and efforts are under way to develop the first version. The new product is being designed as a mobile gaming platform that would allow users to create or generate games on Apple's (AAPL) iPad or other iOS devices. More specifically, this browser-based design aims to allow users to create text adventure games, a type of genre that incorporates puzzle solving and exploration into a storyline
I can only hope Rod Humble is not totally bedazzled by the siren call of the iOS hordes and will spare a bit of time to address the issues of his current customers before giving in to his iPad ambitions.
Later in the article, Gartner analyst Brian Blau is quoted as saying "if Linden Lab gets into the user-generated games business -- turning Second Life players into game makers -- it would set the company apart" - something Blau has never seen before. Strangely enough, I think I have been watching Second Life players make games since I joined in 2005. Perhaps Gartner analysts don't get out much.
But how will this translate into revenue for the Lab?
Will it really be possible for Linden Lab to tax players' iPad games in light of the Lab's reputation for arbitrary action against the creator class? The Lab's less than stellar reputation for in-world governance may hurt them, and this points to the Lab's fundamental problem.
According to one of Ms. Kawamoto sources, "the company has seen a decline in the number of hobbyists and small businesses willing to pay a monthly subscription fee to rent server space to host their virtual world on the site" and Lewis Ward of IDC states, "the popularity of Second Life has been leveling off".
Has the Second Life 3D cyber paradise been reduced to a cash cow being milked to fund development of a line of 2D text games for phones and tablets? This might explain the curiously detached attitude Linden Lab exhibits toward its current customers - and does align with comments Rod Humble made at the SLCC conference this August where he spoke of a new product and plans for a press tour this fall before he fled the conference a few minutes after his keynote address.
Going forward, look for a series of carefully orchestrated "leaks" to the mainstream media followed by a round of Rod Humble press events designed to hype the Lab's new venture and the possibility that this will lead to a rising tide of disenchantment among the Second Life players if the Lab is unwilling or unable to address both technical and political problems in the current cash cow platform.
IntLibber Brautigan
Sep 26th, 2011
This is as stupid as if Obama was use tax money from the car companies and using it to develop biking and walking trails….. um… well….
Urizenus Sklar
Sep 26th, 2011
“Has the Second Life 3D cyber paradise been reduced to a cash cow being milked to fund development of a line of 2D text games for phones and tablets? ”
That would be a rational strategy, if depressing. You are on a dying platform with lots of content creators. It’s a bit like herding cats, but if you could harness them to make content for iPad you would have some hope for the future. Question is: what’s in it for the content creators given how badly they were treated on *this* platform.
Edna
Sep 26th, 2011
Beautiful. I used to play text based adventure games on my Atari 800xl back in the late 1980′s. It’s thrilling to know computer gaming has come so far in twenty some years. The lab should be proud that they are finally catching up to 1980′s Activision.
AM Oderngrl
Sep 26th, 2011
Oh this brought me out of retirement. The beauty of text-based adventures is that they are so cleanly separated from their authors’ intellectual ownership by EULA, unlike those messy 3D objects which maintain perms and creator’s name. Even if some sort of recognition is given the author. Why on earth would I want to share my words with Rodvik?
Dave Bell
Sep 26th, 2011
This is different enough, at a technical level, from Second Life that any company could do as good a programming job to get this working. Linden Labs has no real advantage on that side.
So what gives LL the advantage? Why would they get to succeed?
It’s a cheap shot, I know, but if I mention customer service, I suppose I should expect howls of derisive laughter.
Nelson Jenkins
Sep 26th, 2011
Text-based adventure games? Here, let’s make one in LSL. I’ll even use SL parlance for the text.
while (1)
{
integer rand=(integer)llFrand(5.0);
if (rand==0) “u walked into zindra and got fucked by a DOG! EWWW LOOOL OMG”
if (rand==1) “*-=~LOL~=-*”
if (rand==2) “$$~HOLLA~$$”
if (rand==3) “xxxsexyxxx696969 wants to be your friend.”
if (rand==4) “~~~~~~~~~~~QUEEN BITCH~~~~~~~~~~~~”
}
Done!
Edna
Sep 26th, 2011
What could be next, maybe LL putting out Colecovision’s Pong game for pad? Or since ipads are hand held, why not go all the way and put out an ipad version of the 1970′s hand held football game. You know the one where you used your line to block your opponent’s dot from reaching the “endzone”.
Paul
Sep 26th, 2011
@Edna… I LOVED that football game!!
Edna
Sep 26th, 2011
@Paul
I have to admit, me too. At the time, those were the coolest things ever.
Yep
Sep 26th, 2011
Go getem Tiger
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF88IYF2MHY&NR=1
Winter Seale
Sep 26th, 2011
So… they’re making an iPad client for a MUSH/MOO (http://wikipedia.org/wiki/MUSH)? Or perhaps they imagine this won’t be multi user… in which case… uh, they’re joining the Inform (http://inform-fiction.org) on iPad/iPhone world?
GG3
Sep 26th, 2011
, “the company has seen a decline in the number of hobbyists and small businesses willing to pay a monthly subscription fee to rent server space to host their virtual world on the site” and Lewis Ward of IDC states, “the popularity of Second Life has been leveling off”.
Gonna kick off the ol suck-life style and into the iPad movement?
AM Oderngrl
Sep 27th, 2011
The best cyber-for-hire writers might hone their craft as escorts in SL but again, why would they write for LL? ZindraMOO?
bubblesort
Sep 28th, 2011
I always got the impression that the purpose of SL was to make money for something else, ever since I saw Rosedale talk about his ideas regarding AI and distributed development models. His development model spun off into love machine, inc. Now I guess Humble has his own designs for the revenue we give him. If LL put their revenue back into SL we wouldn’t have as many problems.
At0m0 Beerbaum
Sep 28th, 2011
“relies on crowdsourcing”
aka, we’ll make some shit and make people do the rest of the work for free and charge them for it!
Axel Oakleaf
Sep 29th, 2011
This just in,upcoming probe on Facebook,news at eleven.
http://www.kitv.com/technology/29333075/detail.html
muzamil
Sep 29th, 2011
Interesting article! Very well done! It’s good to see interactive fiction (also known as text adventure games) get more of the attention it deserves.
In the same vein, there’s a modern day interactive fiction publisher releasing new works of commercial interactive fiction that I think people
should know about. This interactive fiction publisher is Malinche Entertainment. Their website is http://www.malinche.net and they’ve got a
lot to offer anyone interested in interactive fiction/text adventure games.