In 2012, as a part of efforts to expand their product portfolio, Linden Lab acquired a trio of Nordic developers operating under the name of BoldaiAB and who were building a physics-based 3D sandbox video game.
That game was called Blocksworld, and the three developers disarmingly referred to themselves as being “From the country that gave you Minecraft and the country next to the country that invented Lego”, whilst promoting the game’s initial (limited) release with an equally light-hearted promo video.
A year after the acquisition and in mid-2013, Linden Lab took Blocksworld to a global audience, where it proved very popular among gamers of all ages, and remained so throughout its life .It never made the jump to Android, as the Lab has hoped, but it did get on to Steam Early Access in late 2017 and was also briefly offered in a browser-only option. In fact, Blocksworld remained so popular with players that the Lab kept it going long after the other products acquired or developed around the same time – CreatorVerse, Versu (which reverted to ownership by its original developers), Patterns, and the always oddball Dio – ceased to be.
Fortell’s founder Alexey Menshikov pictured in 2022 for an article on Ukraine’s games industry in GamesBeat. Credit: GamesBeat
However, in 2019, Blocksworld appeared to reach the end of the line when Linden Lab announced a “pause” in its development and promotion, prior to the servers running it going off-line June 2020. Shortly thereafter the game vanished from the Apple Store, and whilst it remained advertised on Steam Early Access, there was no actual game available to load.
After that, all fell silent on the Blocksworld front until around the middle of 2023, when rumours started circulating that the game had been acquired by Fortell Games Inc., a company founded in 2022 by one Alexey Menshikov.
While the name may not be familiar, Menshikov is a games developer hailing from Ukraine, where he originally worked at the country’s first major games studio, Action Games, prior to branching out to establish his own studios. He now resides in Los Angeles, where Fortell Games is based.
Blocksworld on Steam Early Access, December 2023: note the developer / publisher company names
Even so, this all suggests that Blocksworld has been released / sold by Linden Lab (although whether or not “Blocksworld LLC” is the trading name being used by the game’s original developers or not is beyond my ken), with Fortell Game’ at least having publishing rights to for it. More recently, further indications that Blocksworld is in the process of being revived have popped-up.
On November 27th, and after 6 years of silence, Blocksworld’s Twitter account came back to life with an EKG heartbeat gif. The post gained very positive feedback; hardly surprising, given Blocksworld still has an active fan base – so much so that an unofficial attempt was make to keep it going following the original server shutdown, when player-fans established Blocksworld: The Secondary Severfor a time.
The Blocksworld Twitter account updated on November 27th, 2023 – the first post in six years, featuring a EKG gif, suggesting the game is being revived
Then on December 2nd, 2023, the Blocksworld website, which had since June 2020 redirected to Linden Lab’s corporate pages, started displaying a beating heart shape and the tab banner “Coming Soon!” Thus it would seem that indeed, Blocksworld is on its way back – and I’m now quite keen to see where this all goes, even if Blocksworld is no longer part of the Lab’s stable. As such, I’ll attempt to keep tabs on things going forward and hopefully update on this for those also interested.
Now, if only we could see Patterns and its little Dorito Man get some similar love and attention. Oh well, one can dream…
Tilia LLC the digital payments platform created by Linden Lab, the makers of Second Life, is to power VRChat’s new Creator Economy, the first phase of which was launched on Tuesday, December 5th, 2023. In doing so, VRChat becomes the latest in a growing list of platforms and games utilising Tilia’s capabilities, including Second Life, Unity and Avatus.
The announcement came via a press release issued by VRChat and published by numerous outlets including Business Wire, which revealed the first phase of VRChat’s new Creator Economy is called Paid Subscriptions. It allows VRChat users to subscribe directly to their favourite creators and support them financially. In return those creators are able to craft unique, custom experiences for their supporters to enjoy. Eventually, the new Creator Economy is intended to allow the half-a-million creators using the platform to receive compensation for their work.
In particular, the Paid Subscriptions system is closely linked to the VRChat’s Udon custom scripting language, allowing creators to more easily build custom experiences for those supporting them through the service. IT has also been developed to work with many of VRChat’s other systems with the aim of enabling pre-existing communities on the platform to monetize their offerings as the Creator Economy is built-out and enhanced.
We’re thrilled to finally launch the first piece of the VRChat Creator Economy, Paid Subscriptions! Our community is responsible for everything magical in VRChat, and the Creator Economy enables us all to financially support our incredible creators. Our hope is that with more support, our creators can bring even more magical content to the platform.
– Graham Gaylor, Co-founder and CEO of VRChat
As an all-in-one platform and service, fully registered across the United Stats as a licensed money transmitter, together with decades of expertise in dealing with digital currencies and token systems which can be transferred to and from fiat currency, Tilia occupies a unique business space. It is both able to provide platforms like VRChat with unique insight into operating and managing digital economies, and it can supply the core systems and services necessary to do so, whilst meeting all the various compliance and regulatory requirements for digital transactions and money transfers, relieving customers of the need to do so themselves.
Since it inception, Tilia LLC has been gradually building its client base and working to establish strategic partnerships, such as with J.P. Morgan Payments as announced in October 2022, and which saw an expansion of Tilia’s board (read more here). However, within the sector of immersive 3D social / creative environments, VRChat is a name that is probably as instantly as recognisable as Second Life, and represents a major new partnership for Tilia LLC going forward.
Tilia was built to support the unique and complex requirements for creator-based economies. We are proud to partner with such a recognised innovator like VRChat as they seek to further encourage, empower and enable their creators.
On Tuesday, August 1st, 2023, Linden Lab officially announced the release of the first of the Senra brand of starter avatars for Second Life. The announcement came perhaps a little later than had been planned – at SL20B, Patch Linden indicated the hope was to launch them in July – and more than a year since they were initially previewed at the SL19B event in June 2022.
Of course, the release of new “starter” avatars for Second Life is nothing new; there have been several such releases over the years – some of which have been covered in these pages. However, particular excitement / interest has surrounded the Senra project, because it is the first time LL has developed a start avatar making full use of “modern” capabilities within Second Life, including the use of mesh bodies and heads, the rigging and animation capabilities presented by the extended “Bento” skeleton and capabilities such as Bakes on Mesh.
More particularly, the Senra avatars are coupled with a new approach to introducing new users to their avatars and to customising them, using a web-based process integrated into the overall New User eXperience (NUX), which commences with the sign-up process and continues through to bringing new users into Second Life via Welcome Hubs and Community Gateways.
The Senra folders in the System Library
Sadly, I’ve been unable to test this customisation process myself, so for that, I’ll have to direct you to the Second Life University video released alongside the formal announcement (and embedded at the end of this article). What I will say about it is that it is very mindful of that used with Sansar. Whether this is a result of taking lessons learned and replying them or purely coincidental, I’ve no idea; but if it is a case of the former, then I say good on LL for doing so, as the Sansar system always came across as easy-to-use.
For those who wish to try the new avatars directly, then as the official blog post notes, they can be obtained via the System Library. However, and if you have not yet done so (and while it may well be obvious to most) – do be sure to copy the folders from the Library into your inventory.
While it is possible to Add / Wear items directly from the Library, this will result in them being copied to your inventory anyway – but rather than remaining together, they’ll simply be placed in the system folder corresponding to their item type (eyes, shape, object, skin, tattoo layer…) thus scattering them throughout your inventory, rather than keeping them all nearly together.
This initial release for Senra – emphasis here because again, it is important to note that work on further avatars in the range, including anthro, are in development, as per Patch Linden’s comments at SL20B – is referenced as “Beta”; in other words, while it is officially released, feedback and lessoned learned from it will be applied to the new versions of Senra avatars as they are released.
In the meantime, this “beta” comprises two avatars: Jamie (female) and Blake (male).
In keeping with most avatar bodies and heads, they are supplied Copy / No Transfer + No Modify, and each, as supplied with this release, comprises:
A separate body and head. Both use the standard SL avatar UV Map using the universal channels and are fully BoM. Thus, they are reasonably compatible with most skin, tattoo and clothing layers.
A total of six shapes, skins (from bleached to really dark) and nail layers, eight eye colours and nine hair styles (a mix of hair objects and tattoo hairbases).
An identical range of clothing (tops, bottoms, skirts, etc.) for each avatar, sized to suit their basic shapes & with alpha layers for the fuller body forms.
Note that free additional colours of some clothing can be found at the kiosks within the SL Welcome Hubs (at the Avatar area inside the Second Life Academy).
A basic, HUD-style animation system with single-click stop / start capability.
The Blake and Jamie starter avatars
I don’t want to go overboard in discussing these avatars in detail; we’ll all form our own opinions on them over time – and there are others far better qualified to dig down into them than I. As such what I have to say here is somewhat subjective and intentionally limited.
The splitting of the avatars between head and body – given they were originally described as “all-in-one” back around the time of SL19B – is a good move. It allows those transitioning from these avatars to third-party options to split the expense (and learning curve) in doing so over an extended period (e.g. purchase a body first, get used to using it + its HUD, then later decide on a head), rather than having to do everything at once.
Whilst six shapes are provided, these actually split between three body sizes (which for ease of reference, I’ll call “thin”, “medium” and “broad”), and two facial feature shapes (again for ease of reference: “thinner” and “fuller”) to provide two broad sets of appearances: the “thinner” face with each of the three body sizes (shapes 1 through 3), and the “fuller” face with the three body sizes (shapes 4 through 6).
What a difference a skin makes. Left: Jamie with her default shape 4 and skin 4 (l) and the same shape with the skin supplied with the Monique starter avatar (r)
Some have critiqued the avatars – notably the female – for not supporting heeled shoes. While Patch has indicated this may be added as an option in the future, not doing so actually makes sense in the context of new starters: have to reference a HUD system and find the option to angle the foot for a specific hell height isn’t entirely intuitive when the aim is to keep things as simple as possible.
For me, the weakness visual part of these avatars les with the skins, which lack a degree of depth and – for Jamie at least – could have been much improved by the simple application of decent makeup in the texture, as demonstrated in the image above, which uses one of the older starter avatar skins suppled by LL (“Monique”).
Again, I can understand LL wanting to minimise items they provide so as to keep the door as open as possible for third-party content creators to join the Senra ecosystem; but surely something a little more attractive could have been provided for new users when it comes to Jamie; something which lets them feel there avatar is at least reasonably attractive when compared to others. As it is, the blandness of the Jamie skins could leave those using it like they must immediately start spend, spend, spending to “get up to par” with others – or (as bad) feel their avatar is inadequate.
Additional Senra avatar items can also be found at the SL Welcome Hubs
My other niggle is with the animation system; I cannot fathom why LL felt a need to change a term that has been in use for almost as long as SL has been around (Animation Override). True, “Animation Controller is a more accurate term, but it still runs contrary to accepted terminology and could led to some confusion for new users – which Senra is supposed to minimise. Also, could not the animations be a little smoother or more natural?
With regards to third-party creators entering the Senra eco-system, applications for the Senra SDK, intended to allow them to obtain the SDK and do so opened a little ahead of the formal release of the avatars via a forum thread announcement.
This has prompted a lot of feedback related to the design and construction of these avatars which I’m far from technically competent to comment on. However, my own rough-and-ready comparisons using the Improve Graphics Speed floater – whilst not totally ideal in making such comparisons – suggest that overall, these avatars are not that bad when compared to other systems in terms of their overall load, even if they are perhaps not the most efficiently made.
The Jamie head (top) compared with the Lelutka Simone head (bottom, minus its separate eyes and teeth). Note the comparative faces / vertices / VRAM counts which allow for a number of calculations by which to compare the two heads
The thread on the license agreement has also led to a degree of discussion on the extent of the requirement laid out in the agreement and its associated documents. I don’t want to drag this article out further by diving into things here, but I would say that some of the concerns raised (e.g. LL not allowing content for other head / body ecosystems) is born of a misunderstanding of Senra’s function (the system is for those new to SL and intended to offer a simplified road into avatar customisation – and providing multiple items for multiple bodies or heads could confuse new users), and a degree of over-wrought mistrust of LL born of a misapprehension around legal terms. However, for details, I’ll leave it you to to follow the thread and draw your own conclusions.
Conclusion
As with all avatar systems, Senra has its positives and negatives. What these are seen as will largely be a matter of personal experience and subjective analysis by most – as is the case with some of my comments here. As such, I’ll just close with a handful more of personal observations:
Are the Senra avatars an improvement on the “classic” ranges of starter avatars – absolutely.
Could the possibly be better? Well, most likely, yes. The devil is in the details, and I do feel this skimp on the most important detail – the skins.
Would I personally use one? No. But that’s because I have two bodies and four heads to play with on my main account and two heads and a body on my alt account, and they are more than enough.
Would I suggest friends still firmly glued to the the system avatar give Senra a go and see what they can make of them, mix and matching with items already in their inventory? Absolutely.
On Friday, June 30th, 2023 saw the fourth in a series of Lab Gab special events take place for the SL20 Birthday celebrations, featuring featuring Patch Linden and the Moles of the Linden Department of Public Works (LDPW).
Unlike the other summaries in this series, this article focuses on the work of the Moles and the projects they are currently working on and which have recently been launched or will be launched in the near future. Broader questions on individual interests, hopes for the future of SL, subjects (such as the SL20B Sweepstakes) covered in more depth in other Sl20B Lab Gab sessions are not included below. As always, timestamps to the video are included within each topic / sub-topic, allowing comments made to be heard in full.
Short interviews with a number of the Moles covering what they do and how they became members of the LDPW team. These discussions fold-in to them some of the points below.
Who or What are the Moles?
Officially called the Linden Department of Public Works (LDPW), originally formed in 2008, Moles are residents from all over the world hired by Linden Lab as independent resident-contractors to undertake Lab-led projects.
Their work was originally focused on the Mainland, adding the infrastructure – road, bridges, etc., and the landscaping, as noted in the official LDPW wiki page, although they actually do a lot more than this.
Notable major projects carried out by the Moles include:
Development of residential centres such as Nautilus City and Bay City and Bellisseria; development of the Lab’s various games accessible through the Portal Parks.
Involvement in special development projects for both Second Life (e.g. Bento, Animesh, EEP, PBR), and partnership developments (e.g. Zenescope and Motown Experience), that latter under the banner of Second Life Studios.
In keeping with their name, Moles were originally given a mole avatar, complete with hard hat. However, over the years, most have moved to having a more individual and personal look, although some say with their Mole look.
As well as being paid for the work they do, Moles also receive and allowance from the Lab, which is primarily intended to go towards the cost of uploads (texture, animations, mesh objects, etc)., but which can also be put towards developing their individual looks.
How to Become a Mole
Positions in the LDPW are open to application by residents who believe they are qualified to work in the team, and the team may also approach specific residents and ask if they would consider joining them.
Applications are made by dropping a résumé (note card or email) of qualifications / experience (including links SLurls, Flickr, You Tube, etc.) to Derrick Linden (derrick.linden-at-lindenlab.com) or to Patch Linden (patch.linden-at-lindenlab.com).
Applicants have to go through a former interview process.
Successful applicants get to pretty much choose their hours of work – providing agreed tasks are completed on time.
As they are from around the world, this can allow some projects to move forward on almost a round-the-clock basis.
Those who are more fully-rounded in skill sets – content creation, scripting, etc., – are encouraged to apply, but LL will also take on specialists.
Motivated, outgoing, communicative people with a passion for SL and willing to self-teach themselves new skill sets are particularly considered.
Planning for SL20B started during SL19B, commencing with a review of what worked / didn’t work at SL19B, and initial discussions on the 20th anniversary theme.
The initial planning process for the theme (/build aesthetic) and size of the event took around 3-4 months.
The size of the event means there are 321 exhibits – many of them interactive -, compared to 150 just five years ago. The increase in event space has meant some exhibit parcels (around 100) could be offered at 4096 sq m.
The focus for the last few SLB events has been not only to encourage people to share in the theme, but to present exhibits that reflect their passions / interests: art, music, community activities, etc.
SL20B is also the first SLB event to include the Adult community (also at the Shop and Hop as well). To achieve this, there was a lot of direct canvassing / encouraging of Adult communities to come and participate, rather than just leaving it to people to apply. As well as the Adult region exhibits, there have also been events hosted on them.
Discussions within the LDPW team are already in progress to discuss how the Adult presence can be grown in future SLB events, including the possibility of having an “official” event stage within the Adult regions.
Patch Linden:
Given it is the 20th anniversary, the decision was decided to refresh some of the “core” SLB builds (such as the Tapestry of Time) and also the Shop and Hop regions to be more in keeping with the event theme and also to offer fresher designs for future events.
The New Shop and Hop region design will be retained and “themed up” for future events.
Dreaming Mole:
The concept of the Welcome Area was to present a setting which reflects both the theme of the event and suggests important factors for the future – sustainability, etc., whilst also acting as a natural information hub and viewing area.
The landing point was placed so that people would see the structure before them and be encouraged to walk towards it, along the Community Gallery Walkway.
The overall inspiration for the build was modern architecture and the work of architects such as Oscar Niemeyer.
Senra is the brand name giving to the upcoming new Bento / Bakes on Mesh complaint starter / new avatar series specifically developed via the Moles as a Lab project, and which were initially previewed at SL19B in 2022.
Come with a complete set of accessories: hair, skins, clothing, attachments, shoes, etc. All of which will be presented as a full library of content within the viewer (as a part of the overall Library).
The first phase of the release will feature two human avatars + accessories, etc., referred to as Jamie (female) and Blake (male).
The second phase of work has already started and will include anthro, allowing Senra to cross over into “other areas.”
The launch is provisionally targeting middle-to-late-July.
Prior to the launch, effort will be made to get the developer’s kit (devkit – covering clothing, accessories, skins, etc.) and licensing agreement made available to SL content creators who wish to develop content and sell it into the Senra ecosystem.
Screen caps of the Senra Jamie and Blake avatars. Note: as these are screen caps (as I was unable to be in-world for the session), noassumption as to the overall quality / looks of the Senra avatars should be assumed on the basis of these images
Initially grew out of a need to have somewhere to demo the Liden Home themes and styles for those wishing to “try before they buy” a Premium / Premium Plus account.
The grew into an idea to also provide further information on Bellisseria and from there grew into a complete Welcome Hub for new users.
However, the primary focus is to provide information on Bellisseria for existing resident and give insight into Premium Subscriptions via an in-world means.
BelliHub: Linden Homes demo area at the BelliHub
As they were in development at the same time, some of the work put into the BelliHub Welcome Area was used to inform the design within the the Welcome Centre at the new Welcome Hub.
The Welcome Hub with its nine regions is designed to provide a more complete experience for incoming new users, which in part came off the back of the fact that many people coming into SL will go through the older Welcome and Social islands and think that that was all there is to SL, and leave.
So the Hub is intended to both introduce new users to both the viewer and using an avatar and to encourage them to understand there is much more to discover about Second Life and the events and activities which take place in SL, while at the same time not locking them into a specific path or hierarchy of things they have to go through in order to better understand SL.
The above is very much assisted through the presence of mentors and the video and general info boards they can opt to use or skip over, depending on their knowledge and abilities.
The only really “key lessons” within the Welcome Centre of the Hub are moving, talking, and interacting with objects. The rest is intentionally free-form.
[Video: 50:23-51:00] The overall design of the Welcome Hub is intended to be modular in that options, features, areas, can be swapped in / out with others, and the overdesign expanded, etc., as required.
A question was asked about refreshing Mainland terrain textures. There is an off-shot of the current PBR Materials project to allow such materials to be applied to SL, and – with noted caution about ensuring consistency of appearance, etc., – this will include Mainland. Details of the PBT project and the terrain project can be found in my CCUG summaries; also see this official sneak peek. Image credit: Linden Lab
Who is Magellan Linden?
Magellan Linden is The Great Explorer of Second Life (who was once said to have vanished during his explorations, but does pop-up from time-to-time) is a construct, rather than an individual, but as revealed in the session, Abnor Mole loans his voice to Magellan!
Thursday, June 29th, 2023 saw the fourth in a series of Lab Gab special events take place for the SL20 Birthday celebrations, featuring Brett Linden, the Lab’s Vice President of Marketing, and the company’s Chief Marketing Officer, StyFy Linden.
The following is a summary of the session covering the core topics raised. The full video is located at the end of this article.
Please note:
The session was built around questions submitted in advance of the session.
This is a summary, not a full transcript, and the focus is on those questions which offer insight into the world of the Marketing Team.
Timestamps are included against the topics discussed, so that those who wish can listen to the responses in full.
A Little Background
Brett Linden
As VP of marketing, Brett Linden manages the team responsible for developing media campaigns and strategic content partnerships for Second Life.
Has more then 2 decades of marketing and journalism experience, and has been at the Lab for 16 years.
In the past decade, he has produced numerous virtual and “mixed reality” events and panels on various academic topics with an emphasis on legitimising and better surfacing the many cultures and communities within virtual environments.
From Rolling Stone to Billboard, Brett has also written for major publications and managed multimedia initiatives for Amazon.com and RealNetworks. As a co-founding editor at Billboard.com, he interviewed Stevie Wonder, David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, Shania Twain, and Bjork.
Was drawn to Second Life after trying the platform during its first burst of media exposure in 2006 – specifically trying to find the CNN and Reuters bureaux that were active in SL at that time.
At the same time, he received a grant from the McCormick Foundation to run the Virtual Journalism Summit, some of which took place in-world, allowing him to meet Philip Rosedale.
He moved from being a resident to being a Linden in 2007.
He is as fascinated and intrigued – and sometimes frustrated – but always illuminated by the platform, the residents, the diversity of use and creativity, etc., today, as he was when he started.
StyFy Linden
Has been with Linden Lab for 18 months.
Has a broad background in marketing, including client marketing, retail marketing and running marketing agencies, and has also working within some major technology companies.
States that throughout his career, he’s never had as much fun as he is having at Linden Lab.
It has benefitted SL. In 2022,there were some major corporations sucking up a lot of the media’s interest in the “metaverse”.
However, the fact that SL has hit 20 years of open public access at a time when others have really been “flash in the pan” announcements around the “metaverse”, allowing SL to be positioned at the “gold standard” of virtual worlds.
Believes this is being reflected in the kind of press coverage the platform has recently received, and the fact that LL is no longer one “of six” calls reporters might make when writing about virtual worlds – they are the “only” call being made.
Work is understand to update / refresh the SL web properties; thew Destination Guide has received a major refresh, with more work to come [see below].
Notes that the community within Second Life does a lot to help keep SL fresh through content creation, building destinations and experiences, etc., and with their on photography.
The Marketing Team as a whole is expanding with new talent.
All of this is feeding back into the overall media / press interest in Second Life.
Believes that SL Mobile, once available, will offer further interest in SL.
StyFy Linden:
Time has been put into formalising they way in which feedback can be obtained from existing and new Second life users and communities within SL, and even potential SL users.
This is being used to help drive some of the ideas the Marketing Team and others within LL have in moving the platform forward, developing new initiatives, etc.
Marketing is being looked at more broadly; not just as a pipeline to draw new users into Second life, but also how it can be used to assist users during their journey through Second Life: how can Marketing help new users get acclimated to SL; how can Marketing help users to connect with one another; etc.
So the thinking is not longer siloed towards a single goal, but more broadly spread to benefit both the platform and users as a whole.
Brett Linden:
People thinking of Marketing in terms of acquisition only, but the involvement can be broader, as demonstrated with the new Welcome Hub, in which Marketing have played a significant role in helping define how they can help users beyond the pure acquisition stage of their experience with SL.
Very much sees helping to get users to “stick” with Second Life, from having a very good, comfortable initial exposure to the platform onwards, is something in which Marketing can offer considerable expertise.
Can understand why there are misconceptions, as users are not sitting side-by-side with the Marketing team.
Many misconceptions tend to be the result of people’s focus. For example, if they see SL paid ads, they assume the Marketing Team only does paid ads.
The overall strategy is far broader – wrapping into the Public Relations (including the use of an external company), the involvement in user acquisition and retention, etc.
Would also point out that Marketing is only one team within SL. They work extremely closely with Product and Product operations in particular, but this is sometimes misconstrued by users as to which team is doing what; sometimes Marketing will be operating in support of initiatives led by the other teams, sometimes they will actually be leading initiatives which may be perceived as being run by other teams.
StyFy Linden:
Would say the biggest misconception about Marketing is that “all” they do is form pipeline to acquire new users through mechanisms like paid ads, etc.
Marketing touches on many parts of Second life and LL in many different ways, from providing imput through to actively providing solutions for given requirements, and involved across the “entire resident journey”.
Strawberry Linden (as Social Media Manager at LL):
Main goal is to feature as much of the community as possible.
Spreading SL’s presence to multiple social media platforms, as has been the case with TikTok.
StyFy Linden:
Looking to add depth to SL’s current social media presence, particularly where new channels are opening up (as with TikTok, seen as particularly important due to the broadness of its user base).
Brett Linden:
Feels that the social media strategy is an excellent means to celebrate and promotion what the Second Life user community is doing.
Appreciates the ways in which users themselves are using social media to tell their own stories vis Second Life.
In terms of the future, feels video will play more of an important role for SL, giving the growth of platforms like TikTok and Kik.
User Created Content and Its Use in Marketing Campaigns
User created content is one of the biggest opportunities Market has thanks to its richness.
Sees the content available within SL as a cornerstone of those aspects of Marketing’s work geared towards user acquisition.
Would like to have specific feedback / ideas from the community on what Marketing can do to leverage the diversity of content within Second Life to help bring users into the platform / help communities within SL attract new users from beyond the platform.
Brett Linden:
There is a general e-mail address at the Lab which is monitored by Marketing and others to which users can submit general feedback and ideas [not feature request or bug reports – please use the Jira for those!] – feedback-at-lindenlab.com.
Would emphasise that the community is “at the core and heart of all that we do”.
The New Welcome / Community Hub: Goal and Continuing Development
The new hub is very much a “version 1” of the concept. As such it is an experiment, and the Lab is learning from it. As such it will be improved and iterated upon.
It particularly presents an opportunity to observe new users throughout their on-boarding to the platform and through their initial exposure to the world and other users, and take lessons from what is seen over time.
The work is critically important to the overall idea of bringing people into SL and to helping them engage with the platform and thus help ensure its continued longevity.
Notes that there are already community gateways which tackle the new user experience, and sees the Welcome Hub idea as augmenting the work they do.
In terms of strategy, the use of mentors and leaders within the Hub environment is as important as the environment itself, given they provide a friendly, helpful face to SL as new users come it.
StyFy Linden:
Would note that a lot of what is available within the Hub’s regions really flowed out from talking with incoming users about their experience, why / how they are encouraged to stay engaged with SL, who helped them and how, etc.
As with the press, SL was one of a number of “metaverse” platforms brands were looking to engage with in 2022. Now SL is part of a “much, much shorter list” of platforms brands are interested in.
This means SL is attracting a lot of interest; however, LL do not engage with entities simply for the same of creating a partnership; the focus is on partnerships that will add to Second Life and the in-world experience of users.
Because of this, it is likely there will be more partnerships similar to Motown – which itself will be expanded upon – in the future.
Elements of the refresh – such as the additional of search capabilities on the web version – are the direct result of feedback from users on the older Destination Guide look.
Future updates will include “population counts” (i.e. avatars actually within a location); the ability to bookmark / favourite locations, etc.
The architecture for the Destination Guide is actually complex: the version in the viewer isn’t simply the web version presented through the viewer, it is its own entity, driven by the same engine, and DG data touches on things like the official viewer message of the day, the map system, etc.
No timeline on when additional features will be surfaced, but the Destination Guide is “on our roadmap for the next 6 months, let’s say”.
Strategies for Attracting New Users and Content Creators / Artists
Content creation is such a core part of SL, that considering how to engage with the next generation of content creators and bring them in to SL is very much part of the Marketing focus.
Some of the ideas being discussed are “in-world apprenticeships” and partnerships with colleges and universities to help guide students into SL [through, presumably, art and content creation].
Hopefully more of these ideas will be fleshed out throughout the rest of 2023.
Great for 30+ age range. The challenge is 18-29-year-olds.
Feels that reaching this 18-29 demographic is not unique to SL; virtual worlds in general appear to have the same problem.
Time has been spent exploring the challenges involved in reaching this demographic and in looking at the channels through which they can be reached (e.g. TikTok).
There is also a working group “within SL” focus on the subject of growing the user base.
Hopes the platform continues to innovate and expand.
Would love the see SL continue to foster the development and evolution of on-line cultures whilst also scaling to greater numbers of concurrent users and also becoming more broadly available through Mobile.
Most of all hopes SL will continue to be known as a welcoming, creative space that is really honouring and respectful of freedom of expression and people’s individuality.
StyFy Linden:
The power of SL is its users and their creativity, and hopes that remains the cornerstone of what the platform is.
Hope people engage with the platform and how LL will engage with them will obviously change as technology changes, but does not believe what SL is known for is going to change.
On Wednesday, June 28th, 10th, 2023, Linden Lab streamed a special session of Lab Gab as a part of the SL20b celebrations, featuring Linden Lab board member and Executive Chairman Brad Oberwager (Oberwolf Linden), together with Linden Lab founder (and now Second Life Strategic Advisor) Philip Rosedale (Philip Linden).
This is a summary of that session, with the video embedded at the end.
Please note:
The session was built around questions submitted in advance of the session, and as received from the audience attending / watching via You Tube.
In order to try to offer some structure, this summary tries to offer questions and responses in terms of to whom they were directed (e.g. Brad Oberwager or Philip Rosedale or both). As such it does not follow the video recording (embedded at the end of the article) chronologically.
It is not a full transcript of questions and responses, but is intended as a summary. Timestamps are included against the topics discussed, so that those who wish can listen to the responses in full.
Brad Oberwager is one of the three investors who acquired Linden Lab in 2020, together with J. Randall (Randy) Waterfield and Raj Date. Since the acquisition closed, he has been very hands-on at Linden Lab, working alongside members of the management team, and he has also brought-in long-time business associate Cammy Bergren as the company’s Chief of Staff.
His biography, as supplied by the Lab reads as follows:
Brad Oberwager has spent his entire career in technology and consumer focused companies as an entrepreneur and board member.
Currently, he sits on the board of two public companies, Asure Software (NASDAQ: ASUR) and Better World (NASDAQ: BWACU). He is the chairman of two companies he founded, Jyve and Sundia and is also on the board of TEGSCO (aka AutoReturn). He owned Bare Snacks, acquired by PepsiCo in 2018.
Brad was Vice-chair of YPO International, a global organization of 25,000 CEOs [where he met and became friends with J. Randall Waterfield, another of the Lab’s owners / board member].
Brad received his BS from Georgetown University, his MBA from the Wharton School and lives in San Francisco.
Philip Rosedale
Philip Rosedale earned a Bachelor of Science degree in physics and computer science from the University of California, San Diego, and in 1985 he created a video conferencing product called “FreeVue”, which was ultimately purchased by Real Networks, for whom he went to work, rising to the positions vice president and chief technology officer.
Departing Real Networks at the end of the 1990s, he founded Linden Research Inc (functioning as Linden Lab), and commenced work on trying to develop both the hardware and software for an immersive virtual reality system. The company switched to focusing on the software – which it called LindenWorld -, launching it as a publicly-accessible platform under the name Second Life in 2003. As founder and CEO, Rosedale steered the company through until 2008, when he stepped back from the role of CEO to become chair of the board of directors.
In 2009, he founded LoveMachine Inc., with Ryan Downe, which later evolved into Coffer and Power (2011), with Rosedale briefly returning to Linden Lab in 2010 as interim CEO. After two years developing a mobile application called Workclub that helped bring contractors and those seeking them together, he and Downe announced Coffee & Power would become a new company, High Fidelity Inc. (2013), focused on building a fully decentralised virtual reality environments, and the required supporting applications / services. In 2019, High Fidelity ceased working on this platform to focus on one of the key supporting services: spatial audio, with their product subsequently being licensed by a number of companies.
In 2021, High Fidelity invested in Linden Research, brining in both staff and patents that might be used with the platform, and while High Fidelity still very much operates as an independent entity, Rosedale took the part-time position of Strategic Advisor to Linden Lab.
Questions Specific to Brad Oberwager
2.5 Years On From Acquiring LL, How Does He Feel Things Are Going?
While he acquired Linden Research, has come to realise he doesn’t “own” Second Life; the users and the staff at the Lab “own” Second Life, and he feels he is along for the ride.
Has been so welcomed by the user base and the staff at the Lab over 2.5 years, doesn’t think of it as owning and running a company so much as having a moral imperative to ensure Second Life continues for the next 20 years.
As such sees the platform as less of a business in the fullest sense of the word, but as something which must be allowed to continue.
Looking at the metrics, feels that the platform is very stable overall (although there has been a small decline in active users).
Feels the most complicated issue with Second Life is, given its size and overall cost to maintain and run and the limited resources LL necessarily has, how to balance the focus / expenditure between growing the platform’s capabilities to the benefit of its current active user base and bringing-in new users and engaging them in the platform to keep things vibrant and fresh. As such, his major worry regarding SL and his management of the company is – in his words – “don’t eff it up!”
Has It Been Easy / Hard to Add His Own Imprint to the Platform?
Has never intended or tried to imprint himself on SL. Rather, he has always seen his goal as being “releasing the Lindens to do what they love to make Second Life the best for the community”, and to provide the resources required in order for this to happen.
Notes that this is not entirely altruistic: Linden Lab / Second Life both have a business value, and SL is not inexpensive to run. However, believes that this approach is the best path by which to make Second Life more valuable as a business.
Feels that his acquisition of Linden Lab [with J. Randal Waterfield] amounted to a fundamental shift in the company from one being run by venture capitalists [where ROI might be a guiding factor], to a partnership in which a longer-term view could be taken, including the splitting-off of business elements [e.g. Tilia] to allow the available resources to freed-up to focus on the platform.
He hopes this last point has been understood and welcomed by users.
Traditionally, the role of the CEO is to take care of the general running of an organisation – taking ultimate responsibility for things like allocating resources, budgets, setting the culture and tone for the business, etc., on the basis of input from the executive level managers, and to manage the Board from the bottom-up, whilst the Chair of the board manages the latter from the top down.
Insofar as Second Life is concerned, these duties / responsibilities are being managed by a team of individuals called, internally, TOOSL [“too-sol” – The Office Of Second Life, comprising Brett Linden, Grumpity Linden, Mojo Linden and Patch Linden in their various Vice President roles].
Brad himself is Executive Chairman, meaning he is hands-on involved in running Linden Research as a company, as well as managing the board [comprising himself, J. Randal Waterfield and Raj Date].
As Executive Chair, Brad has the TOOSL team reporting into him – a dynamic which works, and which negates the need for a “Second Life CEO”, while his position as hands-on Executive Chair for the company means he is a kind of de facto corporate CEO without actually taking the title.
Given this structure, there are no plans to hire-in a CEO,, but the roles performed by a “traditional” CEO are being performed.
Asks that people remember that he doesn’t look at Second Life primarily as a investor.
However, as an investor, particularly values the consistency of the experience and the loyalty of the users, both of which mark SL as a good business, and the fact he can achieve all his goals as an investor through his active involvement in managing and running the Lab (and by extension, Second Life).
Believes questions on Tilia are born of two things: positive curiosity and unfounded fears.
The fears are based on the idea that having the Lab focus on “non-SL” activities takes away resources from SL. While not commenting on situations prior to his arrival, he would note that Second Life cannot exist without Tilia, because of its management of the financial elements involved within the platform – the ability to purchase virtual goods, to exchange physical world currencies [“fiat money”, to use the technical term] and Linden Dollars and back again, etc.
As such, Tilia is not some spin-off project within the Lab. Rather, it enables Linden Lab to adhere to a complicated series of state, federal and international financial requirements and regulations. If it did not exist, LL would have to go out and obtain the services Tilia provides – and be locked into the structure of those services without any ownership of them.
However, as Linden Lab owns Tilia, it presents added security to Second Life [as the company maintains control of the services] whilst allowing LL to market the services Tilia provides to other interested parties. This has two additional benefits:
It allows Tilia to potentially become self-supporting as a business entity, reducing the financial support coming from it via Second Life.
It potentially allows Tilia to offer Linden Lab (and Second Life) added resources / an inward revenue flow.
As such, any success for Tilia reflects well on Second Life.
In the late 1990s attempted to develop The Rig a virtual reality system, working with Andrew (now Leviathan, since his return to LL from High Fidelity) Linden.
Nine months into this work, the team started developing the virtual world itself – at that time intended to be a physics simulation of an enormous world, rather than an avatar-based world. A place where the laws of physics could be tested an constructs made.
As people within the company started using the software and getting caught up within it, the focus shifted to developing the virtual world itself and presenting it as an immersive experience.
[As many know, that led to the development of LindenWorld, and copies of a 2001 video of that environment, populated by “Primitars” (as they were built from the world’s primitives) can still be found on You Tube.]
Never thought the platform would still be going 20 years on, let alone the rich diversity of activities and content, and is “deeply, deeply happy” with the way the platform has flourished and adopted / adapted by users.
What Worries / Excites Him Most for the Future of SL?
Is excited about the fact that – even without the need for headsets – SL is seen as being a leader within the field, and feels that it is a fundamental demonstration of how people can positively spend time within virtual environments – “the metaverse” (alongside the few other multi-person virtual worlds that have managed to survive), and how a virtual world can both positively empower and bring people from all backgrounds together.
Is also concerned that the increasing AI toolset that is gaining greater use, coupled with the spread of misinformation, could, if mis-applied to virtual worlds, lead to things going “horribly wrong” if there are a lot of people using those virtual spaces.
As such, has spent much of his time of late trying to articulate the positive strengths of SL, and how they could be positive influence within social media, digital currencies, etc.
What is His Role at Linden Lab / Within Second Life?
Notes that the relationship between Second Life and Linden Lab is unusually dynamic, as the growth of each informs the other.
Due to the multiple inputs to and uses of the platform, it doesn’t lend itself to the “traditional” form of reactive, product-led, top-down management, and so support’s Brad’s comment vis the role of CEO.
His own role is that of Second Life Strategic Advisor, being available to help consult on areas where his opinion / expertise is concerned. However, notes that as he is busy on multiple fronts, his direct involvement in Second Life’s development takes the form of “a little of my time and a lot of my love.”
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 