It seems that Linden Lab is looking for a “Social Media Marketing Guru“. Why, oh why, is it “guru” and not something professional-sounding? I’m pretty sure that whoever gets the position, they won’t find themselves sitting in a Battery Street pod with their name and the word “guru” pinned on the outside; and while terms like this may sound super-cool and west-coast “hip”, they actually come across as a combination of trite, clichéd and outright cringe-worthy.
Or is that just my English sensibilities?
When you get past the hip-speak, the post looks to be a mix of both strategic marketing via social media tools to gather new users, and something of a communications manager responsible for Lab / user (resident) interactions.
The former, I can understand. social networks do have a potential to bring-in users to Second Life, providing it is handled correctly. As I mentioned in Tell me a story… the manner in which LL are currently attempting to leverage Facebook has “fail” written all over it. The entire approach is arse-backwards and as such needs to be redefined.
The latter has me a little worried; we’ve already had Amanda Linden proudly announcing the coming on the new Community Platform – and then promptly pointing at Facebook as “the” way to stay abreast of all the latest news on SL (sure a case of “foot, meet mouth” if ever there was one). Now it seems that we’re going to possibly see a further push of LL-to-resident communications away from their own platform.
I’m not entirely sure that if this is the case, it’s a good idea. Certainly, it is very, very gratifying to be able to Tweet to Linden Lab employees and get a genuine response; it’s genuinely appreciated when someone requests something or raises an issue and sees a positive response, coupled with action from Linden Lab. However, the fact remains that the vast majority of company / user communications should be taking place within the framework of LL’s own platform; the fact that figures show support of the new community platform is declining rapidly among SL users (some are predicting it’ll be as the Dodo within a month, although I personally think the decline will stabilise well before then – but will represent a very low-level of engagement from users) is worrying. However, this should not be interpreted in terms of users all being busy elsewhere. Rather, it is symptomatic of the fact that Linden Lab don’t have the courage or the skill set in-house required to manage a vibrant forum community.
Which is a shame; but it’s no reason to keep pushing communications channels elsewhere.
Returning to the more strategic side of the new position, I don’t claim to have all the answers, but I do hope that whoever comes in will take a look at Tell me a story… and will be savvy enough to understand Jonathan Baskin’s piece on “silly social media” and ineffective social media marketing campaigns. Certainly I hope whoever comes in will be allowed the opportunity to spend a lot of time in-world to understand the platform and the rich diversity of activities that go on in Second Life – and will be able to gather stories from the user base that can more effectively help shape the message to the rest of the world.
Pop Art Lab have announced the winner of their Machinima Expo music video, and the video is amazing. Edits are so precise and worthy of the best today’s video editors can offer via pop and music videos, and the attention to detail is incredible – just look at the way the dancers throughout are on-beat to the music.
Grace McDunnough pointed me (via Twitter) at an interesting little tidbit of thought by Jonathan Baskin about the possible end of “silly social media”.
Before anyone gets too excited, it’s not a piece proposing the end of thing like Facebook; rather it is an examination of various efforts to use social media as a tool for marketing – and why, like-as-not, they fail.
Elsewhere, Tateru Nino offers up a post that starts to examine the new user experience. Leaving aside the fact she’s now gazumped me on two topics I’ve been wanting to blog about; Tateru makes a very valid argument that indirectly ties into the article Grace pointed me to. That observation is this:
“Linden Lab is rubbish at telling its story.”
Rather than constructing any form of consistent marketing strategy, LL seems to jump from idea to idea, randomly seeking something that will somehow, magically work and bring in new users. Along the way, they give the impression they don’t understand either their own product or those that use it.
The SL Facebook page is symptomatic of this – and a clear example of Baskin’s critique on blindly trying to leverage social media spaces as advertising mediums. Slapping supposedly feel-good items on a Facebook page and getting people to “like” it isn’t going to generate a noticeable upswing of new users entering SL; nor is boasting the “like” count – not when it largely comprises people already using SL. This is not to say I think having a presence on Facebook is “wrong” or not worthwhile. Rather, I find using Facebook in this way is akin to preaching to the converted rather than marketing to potential new users.
“A tale in everything” – William Wordsworth
In Business, Collaboration and Creative Growth I suggested there needs to be a renewal of collaboration between Lab and user community; that such collaboration could be used in diverse ways – including PR and marketing. This can be done through the use of a technique called narrative marketing – and it can be used to significantly improve the manner in which LL could leverage a presence on Facebook (and elsewhere).
Simply put, narrative marketing is using stories to promote and market a product – stories drawn from customer experiences, from situations, which can be drawn together into a narrative that engages the audience and draws them into the product; they reach into the heart of human interest and experience. Narrative marketing recognises that marketing is a two-way street, and that engagement with the consumer can be more effective than simply preaching to them or bombarding them with images and text or sending them hither and thither. It resonates with the audience because stories:
Are more memorable, evocative and interesting: they engage the audience
Generate identification and empathy
Are perceived as more unique and personal, thus generating greater acceptance and a sense of believability
Are more viral – we all tell and repeat stories.
The power of narrative marketing is that it is open to developing themes and ideas that can be easily repeated across a marketing strategy incorporating diverse mediums, almost like stringing a necklace. When placed within a common context, many different stories can be gathered and then strung together in any order, like the beads on a necklace, to create a range of experiences that attract several audiences while maintaining the same underpinning message.
The narrative approach can be linked directly with traditional means of brand development (strategy, identification and management), drawing them together into a narrative that focuses on communications and activities. It allows a company to say, “This is me”, with strategy, values and positioning defined by the narrative and channelled as stories that trigger memories, associations, experiences and expectations in the potential customer / user that cause them to say, “I like you. Tell me / show me more!”
“Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today” – Robert McAfee Brown
Second Life is a story-rich environment which can be woven into a broad tapestry of narrative and ideas that can reach many audiences, simultaneously. Narrative marketing provides the means by which tools like Facebook might be used more effectively and potentially generate the kind of response Linden Lab is seeking far more effectively than a count of “likes”.
Consider what is more effective:
A page full of likes and a list of past events with a vague link to an even vaguer sign-up webpage (the current FB-to-SL.com situation), or
A series of stories, drawn from the rich diversity of the SL user community, that illustrate how Second Life is being actively used by role players, gamers, students, teachers, companies, entertainers, etc., the narrative naturally drawing the reader into a strong linking page on the SL website that further encourages them to sign-up and experience things for themselves.
Obviously, quantifying the narrative isn’t easy; let’s be clear on that. It requires a whole new approach to both the platform and the wider market. In this regard, Dusan Writer hit the nail squarely on the head when he stated at the top of his recent interview with Tom Boellstorff:
“During my recent interview with Rod Humble, the new CEO of Linden Lab, I had one major piece of advice: reach out to Tom and spend some time with him (and while you’re at it, hire an ethnographer to work at the Lab!).”
Hire an ethnographer to work at the Lab! Perhaps one of the most insightful suggestions ever given to the management at Battery Street. Hire a “corporate anthropologist” who can plumb the depths of diverse SL communities and activities, drawing out genuine stories which can be drawn into a narrative theme to market Second Life and persuade people to discard any preconceived notions of what SL might be about and come and see what it is about.
Part of the power of Second Life lies in its ability to be “anything you want it to be”; but unless this is quantified in some way, captured in a manner that people outside of Second Life can identify with, then it’s going to remain a nebulous concept. Rather than generating curiosity, it tends to result in a feeling of, “Yeah, so?” Quantify the fact people can be “anything they want to be” in terms of stories from SL itself, and you transform “Yeah, so?” into “Yeah! I want some of that!”
This isn’t actually rocket science; the fact is most people engaged in SL have been drawn into it through stories from others: friends and colleagues who have been a part of SL, or glossy pieces of journalism that have glamorised SL as the place to be. Stories, personal tales of what excites and engages, resonates far more strongly than a wall of miscellaneous photos or out-of-context videos; so why not use them?
“The answer is always in the entire story, not a piece of it” – Jim Harrison
Right now, the process of trying to attract new users, bring them to the SL website and get them to sign up is a series of mismatched steps that can lead to frustration long before the user sets foot in-world. Worse, some of the steps are either misleading in their presentation or – boring.
Tateru Nino, in her article, observes:
“Crafting an effective new-user experience for Second Life starts long before the user logs in for the first time. The Second Life viewer user-interface is not the most important part of a new user’s story.”
Simply put, there is no flow between, say, the Second Life Facebook page and the Second Life website sign-up process. There are no themes or threads that naturally lead from one to the other. The SL sign-up process is devoid of any charm: What is Second Life is at best meaningless as it doesn’t actually fulfil its title. Of the two videos supplied, one is misleading – much of what is shown doesn’t happen in SL, period; while the other (the Welcome Island walk-through) is boring; combined. Neither tells a desirable story; neither encourages someone to click on JOIN NOW.
Developing a narrative flow that runs seamlessly from Facebook to a restructured “What is” page that clearly and succinctly informs and which in turn integrates with the sign-up process could achieve so much more. The stories are the means by which people become intrigued by the potential of SL has to offer; leading people to want to know more, allowing them to be further hooked into wanting to sign-up, enticed by what they learn in What is Second Life. Everything becomes integrated, focused on the single purpose of translating interest into in-world footfalls.
“My major allegiance has been to storytelling, not to history” – Russell Banks
Narrative techniques can be utilised in other areas as well. Gathering stories from both staff and customers can give a clearer understanding of any disconnect in specific customer-facing functions in a company, such as customer services. The use of stories from customers and staff alike removes the inevitable bias and preconceptions inherent in more traditional tools such as surveys, which tend to suffer from interpretations that find what is being looked for, rather than identifying where the issues lay.
The development of narrative requires engagement between an organisation and its users. As such it can clarify where and why communications are going wrong. Want to know why Second Life users are negatively concerned about how Linden Lab goes about implementing changes to the platform? Listen to their stories, and use those stories to build a process of engagement to ensure future changes are properly communicated alongside a means be which feedback can be given and demonstrate it is being heard and addressed. Help them through future implementation dips by letting them illustrate in their own words why it happened before.
Randal Ringer headlines 2011 as the start of the decade of narrative marketing. Second Life is ideally suited for a narrative marketing campaign that encompasses Linden Lab and the positive experiences that have grown out of direct user participation in the platform. Narrative marketing can naturally lead to better and more responsive engagement and collaboration with the user base as a whole; beyond this, it can provide pointers to how Linden Lab itself can better structure itself to deliver the services and support that the users can understand and appreciate.
A little under two months ago, Firestorm, the Viewer 2-based offering from the Phoenix team made its initial appearance, and I gave a brief overview of it then, with a follow-up a few days later. Overall, the Viewer was impressive, despite being a pre-release, and hinted that while there was obviously a lot missing, the Phoenix team were well on the way to delivering a first-rate product.
Today, the “Beta” of Firestorm made its appearance, and it substantially builds on the initial release very positively. A list of key changes has been provided by the Phoenix team, but I’d thought I’d take a little more of a closer look at for myself.
Again, this isn’t intended as an in-depth review; it’s more a personal look at what I like in particular in this release – and what I hope to see down the road!
The installation was as expected: smooth and precise. Once loaded for the first time, Firestorm displays a Viewer 1-style COMMUNICATIONS window and has the Sidebar open – both of which I’ll return to in a moment.
Media Filter
Media Filter pop-up
However, it is on clicking the option to enable media that one will notice the first major change. As soon as you confirm you wish to enable media, (and assuming a media stream is being directed at you), the Media Filter will pop-up a request asking you if you wish to accept the incoming stream.
For those unfamiliar with the Media Filter, I strongly recommend you read the available Tutorials on it – I have one in this blog, and there is also one available on the SL Wiki. Suffice it to say here that the Media Filter helps you to safeguard your privacy when using Second Life.
If there is no media stream available when you first start Firestorm, the Media Filter pop-up will be displayed the first time you click on the media PLAY button, (top right of your screen) and a stream is available.
Sidebar and Tool bar Options
One thing that may confuse Viewer 2 users in trying-out Firestorm is that the default Firestorm skin doesn’t have the familiar Sidebar tabs. It also has a substantially different toolbar at the foot of the Viewer Window.
Both are because the Sidebar options can now be directly accessed from the toolbar. Simply hover the mouse pointer over the available buttons to see a tool tip description of their functions.
The Firestorm toolbar
The more familiar buttons of MOVE, VIEW and GESTURE can be enabled by right-clicking the toolbar and selecting them from the pop-up menu – from which buttons can also be disabled as required. Note that in addition, the Camera controls (VIEW) can be displayed by enabling AVATAR -> CAMERA CONTROLS.
For those who still prefer the Sidebar, AVATAR -> PREFERENCES – > SKINS provides you with access to alternative UI skins that include the Sidebar. Simply re-start the Viewer after selecting your preferred skin.
A nice touch with the Camera (VIEW) controls is that the floater panel can be resized to suit your needs – and is actually a lot more compact than the Viewer 2 floater to start with.
Conversations Window
This is a nice carry-over from Viewer 1.x, and was actually in the pre-release version of Firestorm, although I didn’t mention it in my first post. By default, IM tabs are vertically placed (as opposed to horizontally, as with Phoenix). This gets a big tick from me, as I find the vertical tabs make incoming calls easier to track, and so it’s one less preference to have to set & then restart the Viewer.
The Conversations window is open by default on first starting Firestorm, and thereafter can be opened by clicking the ^ button to the right of the text entry box in the tool bar.
The Nearby Chat tab of Conversations also dispenses with the Viewer 2.x-style headers to chat items by default, again saving one the need to fiddle with preferences, while streamlining the chat tab’s display.
Radar
This release of Firestorm sees an initial implementation of the Phoenix radar functionality. While many see this as a curse, I have to say that from a sim management point-of-view, I’ve always found the radar functionality a great boon when trying to help people in a hurry. As such, it is something I sorely missed in the initial release of Firestorm – and partly what stopped me using it full time.
In the Beta, some Radar functionality has been included – and hopefully it will be built upon over the next few releases. Bullet items regarding it are:
The Radar is limited to a 400m range at present
The Radar information is included in the PEOPLE tab / window and includes an option to teleport to someone as well as the standard Viewer 2.x options displayed when right-clicking on a name
Announcements from the Radar are limited to people entering chat range and / or draw distance, and are set separately via AVATAR -> PREFERENCES -> FIRESTORM -> CHAT.
I’d personally like to see the range of the radar increased – and I know this is being worked on. I’d also like an option to announce when people enter / leave a sim; this again can be useful when monitoring a sim where there has been trouble, but not enough to warrant an outright ban as yet.
Profiles
In a major move away from Viewer 2, Firestorm does not utilise web-based profiles.
Instead, it uses a two-tier approach to displaying Profiles:
Personal Profile
Selecting your own Profile takes you to a modified Viewer 2 Profile tab in the Sidebar. This displays your “1st Life” and “2nd Life” information under two tabs called “Avatar” and “More Info” (which also includes a web link field as well). Currently, there is no PICKS tab, nor does there appear to be a way of getting “out” to your web profile from the display (other than getting to Partner information).
I presume additional functionality will be added here – and that the functionality will include the ability to get out to the web-based version of one’s Profile, should one wish. Not everyone is opposed to web-based Profiles, and as such, the flexibility to choose should be included for those wanting to go in that direction.
Other Avatar Profile
When it comes to other people’s Profile information, a window somewhat similar to those from Viewer 1.x pops-up. This is a huge improvement over Viewer 2.x for two very good reasons:
It’s actually a lot faster – twice as fast on my PC – when loading a profile
It takes up much less screen real estate
There are some very nice touches in this Profile display as well. Take Groups, for example; when you highlight one, a little “I” for information appears, together with a right-point arrow. Click on the “i” and you are given the option of joining the Group, or displaying the Group information. Click on the right-pointing arrow, and the Group information (Profile) is displayed in the PEOPLE tab of the Sidebar.
Other Little Bits
Role players have been further catered to, with MU* poses and OOC options being added
There is now a first pass at a persistent de-render (change Group tags to re-render, although you may need to re-log as well)
Phoenix-style commands are now supported in chat
“Always rez under land group” is a pre-set default
Starlight skin support has been improved
Additional preferences ported from Phoenix
In-chat on-line / off-line notifications for friends.
Under the hood there are a number of bug fixes and various performance improvements as well, giving Firestorm even more polish even at this stage.
Opinion
The pre-release version of Firestorm was impressive. This is even more impressive. Clear inroads have been made into a lot of the functionality that has made Phoenix such a success, and while there is still more to do, that Firestorm has reached this level of capability and functionality in just two releases is remarkable.
For me, the big wins with Firestorm are:
First pass at the inclusion of radar functionality
The Viewer-based profiles for other avatars
The in-chat online/offline notifications for friends
The Media Filter.
Web browser warning
As well as the media filter, use security has been enhanced with the addition of an optional prompt that is displayed when you are using an external browser rather than the viewer’s in-built browser. This gives a reminder of the possible risks involved in visiting other websites directly with your browser. The warning can be disabled, and will turn off automatically if you switch to using the in-built browser in the Viewer itself.
There are some additional elements from Phoenix I’d personally like to see pop-up in a future Firestorm release. For example, right now, Outfits still remains something of a royal pain in the rear bumpers.
There is no means of ADDing clothing / attachments from an OUTFITS folder in Inventory – the only option is REPLACE, and this DOES knock-off pre-existing attachments. The only way to add items is via the OUTFITS tab of the Sidebar
There is no means of adding subfolders (or even displaying subfolders) in the OUTFITS tab of the Sidebar – this can only be done through Inventory.
To be fair, both of these are long-standing issues with Viewer 2, rather than anything specific to Firestorm – but both are bloody inconvenient and need sorting out.
I did notice the text overlay issue remains as well; if you scroll up a chat tab in Conversations and a message comes in for that tab, the text tends to overwrite anything you are trying to read until you scroll back to the bottom of the screen once more. Not a show-stopper, but it would be nice to see someone sort this out.
But, these niggles aside – which are, as I said, more to do with Viewer 2 than Firestorm – it is fair to say that this release moves Firestorm a stage closer to being ready for prime time and potentially becoming the most popular Viewer 2 variant on the grid. While there is still a good way to go before this is the case, Firestorm Beta 2 is pretty much usable right now.
“In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed”
The above quote, often – and possibly wrongly – attributed to Charles Darwin, serves as a worthy bookend to this piece.
Collaboration is a term frequently used in business to denote innovative strategies, projects, products and tools. It is stamped on marketing media and blurb as a hallmark of success. Collaboration indicates a company can create dialogues that can be leveraged into tangible benefits that generate growth for all concerned.
Over the years, Linden Lab has struggled to find a broader home – a workable market – for Second Life. In this they have been hampered by a number of issues, perhaps the biggest of which is the dichotomy of how to actually see Second Life.
On the one hand, it is a digital nirvana-in-the-making that will massively impact and transform the human condition; on the other, it is a commercial exercise. The former view is at the heart of Philip Rosedale’s perception of Second Life, as this comment from July 2010, demonstrates:
“Second Life and virtual worlds are going to profoundly affect the human experience, profoundly, and in a positive way. That is the mission of the company to make that happen and it’s my personal inspiration and dream to see that happen.”
In other words, it doesn’t matter whether or not Second Life makes money. But Linden Lab is founded upon venture capital – and so there is an emphasis on its ability to perform well enough not only to survive and return the initial investment, but demonstrate it can grow beyond it, attracting more capital along the way.
The SL Adventure was just Beginning
Rosedale’s view is firmly planted in the early days of Second Life. Back then the potential of the platform was untapped and no-one really knew what they had on their hands. Users were giving form and substance to the vision, bringing it into a fledgling reality; LL could afford to step back and encourage and tweak without overtly interfering.
During those formative years there were good communications between the Lab and users; policies would be announced, Town Hall meetings would be called; issues put into the public domain, feedback would be accepted and ruminated and acted upon. People had the feeling of participation; that the Lab and the community were on the same side. Where policy intruded – as with the 2003 Tax Revolt, the users made it clear it was the policy that was the issue, rather than making it personal, and issues were generally resolved with a degree of compromise on both sides.
The Undiscovered Platform
In November 2005, CNNMoney ran a piece on money-making in virtual worlds. This was followed a week later by an article by Paul Sloan, focusing on Anshe Chung, whom he referred as a Virtual Rockefeller. It became the story that wouldn’t go away, rolling on for a full year.
Suddenly Second Life was the darling of business hype – without either big business orLinden Lab really understanding why. Businesses leapt onto the Second Life bandwagon without having any real idea why; they all just wanted to tap into this strange and hip new market.
It was an aberration. While it was true that with an enterprising bent and a desire to succeed, a person could make money from within the virtual environment, the opportunities for large organisations to do so were far more limited – if they existed at all.
By late 2007, the initial love affair was all but over. And while all the publicity had generated a significant upswing in user sign-ups, it’s very probable that those sitting in the Boardroom viewed the 2006/7 period as something of a missed opportunity. What exactly had gone wrong? Why hadn’t Second Life proven to be something that big business could recognise as a value proposition? What was missing, where did SL lack relevance? How could it become relevant once more?
Second Life 2: The Search for a Market
Out of this came what can only be described as a determination to refocus Second Life as a tool fit for business. To achieve this, the mystic vision that surrounded Second Life needed to be dispersed and replaced by something far more tangible and appealing that would cause big business not only to show an interest, but actively pursue the platform.
So 2008 started as the “year of change”:
Philip Rosedale’s March announcement that he was stepping down as CEO
The announcement that same month of the new Trademark Policy
The appointment of Mark Kingdon, a seasoned marketing executive, as the new CEO in April.
Kingdon’s arrival started the drive to make Second Life a “killer app” for big business; a drive which saw:
A redefinition of the platform as a service
The start of a drive to radically reinvent the Viewer
Engagement with the likes of RiversRunRed to develop “immersive workspaces”
The development of what would become known as the “out of the box” Second Life Enterprise (SLE) “tool” and Second Life Workspaces.
In moving this way, LL ignored a wealth of history that demonstrated that the best way for a young start-up to grow is to work from within rather than try to reinvent itself. Worse, it completely overlooked the fact that the company’s own working ethos, perhaps more than anything else, made it fundamentally incapable of achieving the desired goal.
Mark Kingdon departed Linden Lab in June 2010, the final admission that the Great Experiment had failed. While there was something of a minor rise in user sign-ups, over all, little changed in that period – other than the steady erosion of user confidence in the Lab itself, as I documented in Change in Second Life.
The Voyage Home
Today LL is in almost precisely the same position as it was two years ago: trying to bridge the gap between early adoption and mainstream use. Even so, rather than accepting the conventional wisdom that the gap is best crossed by leveraging niche areas in the current user base, LL’s eyes have resolutely remained turn outwards, constantly looking for the Next Big Thing to which they can pin their hopes.
And it needs to stop.
The fact is that, far from being predominantly maladjusted individuals, as Mitch Kapor unfortunately inferred in his 2008 SL5B address, the SL user community is highly representative of the audience Linden Lab are seeking. It is made up of gamers, designers, builders, actors, musicians, digital filmmakers, role-players, artists, pundits, educators – the list goes on. What better way then, to actively promote the platform to the world at large than to tap into the wellspring of talent already using it?
That this hasn’t happened speaks volumes about a failure of vision within a company founded upon a vision. Fortunately, it is something that can be rectified. And it starts with LL re-establishing the trust that once existed between themselves and the user community. It needs to return to constructive, two-way communication and demonstrate it can:
Embrace the fact that while it may be a harsh critic, the user community is a loyal spouse, ready to defend, support and promote the platform
Accept that the community might just understand the nuances of the platform, and the hurdles that lay between LL and a wider market share at least as well as LL themselves
Help to better promote events within Second Life to the world at large through, for example, access to the LL PR team for those events that demonstrate they can reach beyond the current user base into new audiences
Work with the community to develop tools the community can use to pro-actively promote activities and events both in-world and out world
Provide the means by which the community can provides gateways from other media into Second Life so they can draw audiences in-world
Help to give the community the ability to effectively crowd source and create buzz
In short, Linden Lab needs to start collaborating with the user community once more and thinking more holistically about their product. Doing so isn’t going to solve all of SL’s woes (would it were that easy); but it will represent a major step in the right direction.
Regardless of whether or not Darwin actually wrote the quote at the top of this article, the truth of the observation it contains is clear: collaboration lends to success and growth.
Jeff Petersen has joined Linden Lab as the new VP of Engineering. Going under the name of Bagman Linden, Petersen is the second major hire the Lab has made from the gaming community, following-on from the recruitment of Rod Humble as CEO.
He’s certainly an interesting choice, as he notes himself:
For me, the challenges and the opportunities at the Lab are a perfect fit for my background. I come to the Lab with over 20 years of experience as a game developer and engineering lead, primarily in the MMO area. Prior to joining Linden Lab, I spent 10 years working for Sony Online Entertainment doing MMO RPG development (with a focus on the networking, servers, and core technologies), along with PS3 and PSP development. Some of the titles that I worked on include: Everquest, Everquest II, Star Wars Galaxies, Planetside, Untold Legends PS3, Field Commander PSP, FreeRealms, and CloneWars Adventures.
Old timers may remember an early entry into MMO gaming that I developed in a game called Subspace, published by Virgin Interactive Entertainment in 1996. The unique relationship I had with the player base of this product mirrors the relationship between the Lindens and the Residents in many ways. If there is one thing I’ve learned about MMO gaming over the years it is that MMO products have a life of their own, and the player investment in the product is a key aspect of that. Second Life is no different in this regard. The Residents of Second Life want to see the product succeed every bit as much as Linden Lab does.
Reading this, one cannot help but think that Humble himself had a direct hand in the recruitment of Petersen: the words may be a little different between the two of them, but the sentiment is the same. It is certainly refreshing to hear yet another senior at the Lab talking in terms of player investment in the platform; something that has been a theme of mine for a while now – and to which I’ll be returning.
Another theme that Humble himself has frequently raised in various interviews is the fact that one of the biggest impediments to people getting to grips with Second Life remains the Viewer; and not just new users. From the comments he has made, it’s pretty clear that Humble would like to see the Viewer overhauled for the benefit of the community as a whole. Given this, it is going to be extremely interesting to see what Petersen brings to the table in terms of Viewer development.
Beyond that, it is also interesting to note Petersen’s extensive background in console game development at Sony. There have been more than a few suggestions made that one way in which SL might reach a wider audience might be through the development of a console-based Viewer. It’ll be interesting to see if, over time, any moves are made in this direction as a result of Petersen’s appointment.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 