Category: Opinion

Rodvik’s tough future

Posted on by Inara Pey

So, according to Bob Kumin, or BK Linden as LL’s CFO / COO is known “in-world” (I use the latter term lightly, as I believe he’s actually been in-world um, once since his arrival at LL, and even then had very little to say), Rod Humble – potentially to be called Rodvik Linden, according to some – arrived at Battery Street yesterday. This has prompted some (going on the in-world traffic I was privy to yesterday) to start demanding “where is he?” and “Typical…no announcement from him”, etc.

Well…hang on! Give the poor sod a chance.

There has been lots of “free” advice handed out to Mr. Humble since the announcement of his appointment last month. When you push aside all the (inevitable) bitching about this and that, there is to be sure, a lot of sage advice contained within the responses to the announcement.

Similarly, Profoky Neva started a nice little thread in the blogs, urging three-word recommendations for Rodvik to consider. Sadly, I cannot link to the same any more, as it has, in the mysterious ways of the official forums, been deleted for some reason. Again, while there was much hoo-ing and ha-ing among the posts there, there were many replies that had more than a ring of validity about them.

But – and here’s the rub – the fact that both the comments posted to the announcement and Prokofy’s own thread did contain so much in the way of contradicting viewpoints (“Ditch Viewer 2!” vs. “Viewer 2 is great!”; “Forget Mesh!” vs. “SL needs Mesh!”; “Stop making SL inaccessible to older computers!” vs. “SL needs to keep up with technology!” and so on) that, even without the vitriol, one can see the problem Rod(vik) faces even if he merely glances at the replies.

…listening to the users isn’t actually always the best thing…

We’ve all – myself included – repeatedly called for LL to “listen” to its user base (well, I’ll actually redefine that slightly – I’ve been calling for LL to engage and communicate with us – both of which, dare I say, are somewhat more involved (on both sides!), than simply “listening”). But, what exactly does this mean, and how should LL go about it?

As Tateru Nino points out so well, users themselves have such widely varied views on things, that seeking broad-ranging input from them can – whether we like it or not – lead to as much confusion, angst and anger from said users when the outcome is announced, as simply not seeking input in the first place.

Take, for example, two of the most common cries in the responses to Rod Humble’s appointment as CEO. On the one hand people are loudly shouting for the “trashing” of Viewer 2; on the other, people are praising it. Similarly, and more vociferously, we have people loudly proclaiming that Mesh “isn’t needed”, and other citing very valid reasons why it is.

How do you reconcile such entrenched, widely differing views without pissing off at least 50% of your audience?

Of course these two examples are extremes, and to be fair, a large proportion of the “anti” lobby in both comes down to a simple unwillingness to change on the part of those voicing the objections. For example, many of those denouncing Viewer 2 do so on the basis of “having tried it for 10 minutes” before giving up – yet I wonder, when they first joined SL, how long it took them to get to grips with Viewer 1.x? Longer than 10 minutes, I’ll warrant; so why the impatience now?

But leaving aside the extreme position of these views, it does demonstrate the tightrope Humble has to walk, just where the users are concerned – and as Tateru amply demonstrates in her column with a simple little exercise.

Of course, there are “obvious” things that need to be done: stability, performance in general, smoothing out sim boundary crossings, etc., – but these are “easy” as we all see and feel them. What about the more complex? How does LL make SL more attractive, immersive, engaging, exciting – fun – for the “lay” user?

The answers here are far more difficult: ask ten people and get 10 different replies. Add to this the fact that Rod Humble isn’t just “answerable” to the users – he is in his post at the leisure of a Board that at times seems both remote from the realities of Second Life and somewhat hostile towards the user base. As such, he is responsible for heeding their collective will and turning their whims into realities – making any potential balancing act on his part, that much harder (the needs of the few (the Board) will always outweigh the needs of the many, if I might be permitted to paraphrase a certain Vulcan).

All this being the case, I’m not surprised that he hasn’t suddenly bounced into the official blogs announcing this, that and the other. Anyone with any common sense, whether they have been looking around in-world or not, whether they’ve been hopping in and out of the Battery Street offices over the last few weeks or not, whether they’ve been involved at all with the inner machinations of LL or not even from arm’s length – is going to need time to get into the office, settle down and take a studied look at what is going on and how things really work.

If nothing else, the legacy of Mark Kingdon would encourage anyone entering the role to do so with some caution. After all, he was trumpeted in by the likes of Philip Rosedale, who went on to talk about him in glowing terms – sharing the same pod, being of the same mind, etc., etc.,  – and look how that finished up (and don’t go blaming Kingdon purely for the way things went).

Given all of the above, I’m actually not that surprised nothing has been heard of from Mr. Humble as yet (and that’s taking it for granted that he did arrive OK yesterday as the new CEO); he’s going to need time to get properly to grips with things before (one would hope) he starts making massive pronouncements on just about anything.

But, that said, it would be nice just to get a quick “hello!” from him, coupled with a short statement confirming he’s “here” and perhaps asking for our understanding while he does get settled at his desk and takes time to settle in.

Maximum prim size to increase?

Posted on by Inara Pey

I was bimbling about the Beta Grid this week, looking and bits and pieces to do with Mesh, and noticed that the maximum size limit for prims seems to be around the 60x60x60 mark, rather than the 10x10x10 we have on the Main Grid.

I’ve been told this size limit has been changed to better enable Mesh support on the Beta – which sets me to wondering whether we’ll see the size increase enabled on the Main Grid when Mesh goes live.

The 10x10x10 size limit is, like the 15,000 prims-per-full-sim limit, something imposed by Linden Lab as a trade-off between capability and performance back in the early days of the Grid, rather than a limitation of the software itself. Given server-side processing has increased dramatically over the past 6-7 years, and given that the considered use of “legally cut” megas can mean very little in overall degradation to sim performance ), a move to a larger maximum prim size would be exceptionally welcome  among content creators and hobbyist builders alike, and could quickly bolster LL in the popularity stakes.

Communications

Posted on by Inara Pey

Ciaran Laval – as I’ve previously mentioned – raised a post about LL needing to listen to its users, a point of view most of us would agree with. Certainly, it would appear that changes in LL’s communication’s policy are on the horizon.

Said Michael Linden, in one of his recent Office Hours:

OH is to an end because many of them are. Change in communications policy”

No link available. A blog to come out “soon” (by month’s end).

But some OHs are going away/changing, Twitter accounts by individual lindens are losing the “linden” name (so they are not “official comm)

And there will be changes to the blog*

Now…this could be seen as both good and bad.

On the one hand, far to much has, in the past, been “leaked” as “official” communique through the use of Twitter accounts by Linden staffers wishing to gain that extra “cool” factor in their name (and/or possibly build-up a fan base). Stripping the “Linden” last name from these will remove some of the “official” nature of the leaks – although I doubt very much if it will stop such games altogether unless the company’s internal communications policy is also re-written.

That Office Hours are being run down should come as no surprise to many. As it is, many have left LL and few of those who have departed and who held OH meetings have had their slots filled by other members of staff. BUT the OH have always been an invaluable means for residents to put forward constructive and well-founds views and suggestions to Linden staff, which have then been carried back to senior management for review.  Not all have been listened to – much less acted upon – but others have; and this is important.

Of course there is also a downside to Office Hours as well – the temptation for Lindens to play groups off against one another, to drop hints that others are getting a more favoured treatment (something Jack seemed to like doing), and so on. They could also be utterly undisciplined, with residents more concerned with shouting and screaming and being somewhat abusive, rather than taking the time themselves to listen and engage. They could also be draconian – viewed as a means to lay down the law (Pink Linden), by specifying what “could” and “could not” be discussed. BUT – overall, Office Hours have been generally useful and productive – and one cannot help but be concerned as their removal, and is concerned as to what might replace them and provide the same immediacy of input / feedback.

The blog changes are even more uncertain. Does this mean more channels for specific types of communication? This could be a good thing – to a point, but is still no substitute for the immediacy of the OH meetings. Does it mean more actual Linden interaction in the blog post commentaries? This undoubtedly would be beneficial – providing again, we’re not left with a cherry-picking approach: Linden responding to the “positive” posts and largely ignoring the “negative” posts.

Some have theorised that “blog changes” could mean an end to the General Discussion forum. I’m not certain it will – although LL were, when the new blogrum software was introduced, less than favourable towards the idea of including a GD area of the forums. In some respects, one can understand their reluctance to support a GD. The current area has, in so many ways, become something of an ugly mire with far too much in-fighting among egos and people with far too great a sense of entitlement and righteousness when it comes to determining what should and should not be “accepted” by the forum community as a whole.

BUT – despite the drawbacks, the GD forum is a good tool for resident communications at least, and to lose it would, for all its faults, further break a means by which people can communicate with one another where in-world meetings and offline IMs are less than practical.

The worry here is that, overall, these changes are going to further stifle resident-to-company communications. While on the one hand, it will be good to see LL take a more professional attitude towards PR releases, announcements and the like, and properly channel them to the right outlets at the right time (without all the back door Tweeting and the like) – nevertheless there needs very much to be an expansion of two-way communications between company and residents that is both pro-active and immediate. Having a “communications manager” and a “conversations manager” would have been excellent innovations, if only Katt and Wallace had been employed to engage with and listen to users, rather than simply hand down corporate directives, muddy the waters (Katt’s famous attitude of tossing an untoward comment into the forums, followed by a “/me sits back to enjoy the popcorn”)  and confuse issues (a-la Wallace’s foot-in-mouth post on conversational identities)…). But they weren’t, and an opportunity (or two) was lost.

LL don’t have the most stellar record for interaction with their user base, and while one hopes that the indicated forthcoming announcement / changes will be for the better – especially given there is also a new bum about to take up residence in the hot seat – but it has to be said that a major change of heart towards residents on the part of the company seems somewhat unlikely. As such, it’s very probable that any good coming of the changes is going to be adversely balanced by the bad…

As the (virtual) world holds its breath…

Posted on by Inara Pey

We’re once again in that weird state of suspension: the old year is now behind us, the New Year is opening up in front of us, and we’re all getting back to “the usual” routines.

Some twelve months ago, this was a time of Great Optimism within Linden Lab; or at least within Mark Kingdon’s “pod”, as he enthusiastically posted not only about the next year in virtual worlds, but the next ten years. As I reported in my review of 2010, when it came to the 12 months directly in front of him, not all M hoped for came to pass. Indeed, there was much he didn’t – nay, couldn’t – predict.

This year, by contrast, those within LL remain resolutely silent. In around a week’s time, this is liable to change, given that Rod Humble “officially” starts-up as the new CEO around the 17th (next Monday) – so doubtless we’ll be hearing something around then.

In the meantime, the lack of news from LL is weighing on us all; although some are feeling it a lot more than others.  Tateru Nino is theorising that there is more to the silence than meets the eye – speculating that the silence is that which comes before what she calls the “Big Surprise Announcement” and hinting that it may not be A Good Thing. Ciaran Laval is taking it more lightly, pointing out that if there is one thing LL should do in 2011, it’s to listen to its greatest resource: those of us who use their blessed platform. Elsewhere, others seem to be caught-up the idea that the General Discussion forum should go; recently saw a completely useless thread on this very topic started by one of the forum’s regular naysayers & borderline trolls; but others such a Que Niangao – altogether more respectable – have hinted something my be in the offing where the forums are concerned. Where the information comes from, however, is anyone’s guess.

For my part, I’m actually not at all surprised by the silence; there is a new CEO; the company went through a wave of cutbacks mid-year, and the losses are still accruing: Jack Linden went just before Christmas, as did Joe Linden (Joe Miller), and it appears Wallace Linden (Mark Wallace) has gone after a heady time as the Conversation Manager that is equalled only by Katt’s tenure as the Communication Manager…

Ergo, it is unsurprising that little has been said, either blog-wise or, it seems, through the few remaining Office Hours meetings. For one thing, who knows whether the “restructuring” has reached a point of being “restructured”, and for another, people are liable to have one eye cocked pensively on the door to the board room and the other cocked pensively at the door to the new CEO’s office, waiting to see which way the wind is blowing.

The majority response to Rod Humble’s appointment has been positive: whether this remains so has yet to be seen. There are certainly a lot of people who are going to be disappointed – especially those calling for the scraping of Viewer 2.x; sorry, kids, ain’t gonna happen. Equally, those that believe Rod, with the best will in the world, will have a free hand in matters are also going to be disappointed; he’ll no more be able to push and pull LL as freely as Mark Kingdon did during his tenure. There will be requirements from the Board he’ll be expected to oversee, just as things like the Adult Content Changes came from the Board, and not did not spring solely from Mark Kingdon’s forehead.

Doubtless, there is a Big Announcement coming next week – but I doubt it’ll be as earth-shattering as Tateru implies. I also hope that 2011 will bring about a resurgence in LL’s ability to listen to its users as Ciaran states they should. Certainly, Rod Humble is perhaps more user-savvy than the likes of Rosedale, Kapor, Kingdon et al – but whether that is enough to really make a difference is going to be something that only time will reveal.

We have a newsletter?

Posted on by Inara Pey

So… I’m sitting here, hiding from family as January 1st drones on to a wealth of movie repeats on the one-eyed monster in the lounge, when this drops into my e-mail.

Now, firstly, in four years of continuous activity in SL, I have to say I didn’t even know we had a newsletter – I’ve never, ever received a copy in the past. Secondly, I have to ask why what is clearly intended to be largely a marketing tool being sent – a-la coal to Newcastle – to existing users who are certainly savvy enough to know the majority (if not all) of the contents? Thirdly, I also have to ask why no adult roleplay?

Obviously, the third question is easy to answer: the newsletter is going out to *all* of SL’s residents, including 16 and 17 year olds, so we can’t mention the “a” word in front of them. So while it may (for all its multitudinous faults) be a valid form of role-play, Gor cannot be mentioned. Nor can we even have a perfectly vanilla overview of the “adult” rp sims out there. By vanilla, I simply mean a broad, PG-outline, no pictures of nudity and just a series of Surls – given that minors technically cannot access said sims, this really shouldn’t cause upset anywhere – especially if such a section is headlined with a reminder that Second Life is used by adults who are – and will most likely remain – its largest user-base, many of whom do come here for adult-related activities.

However, this issue of “Sandbox” isn’t really intended for the adult users of SL. It is aimed squarely at the teen market, and has been timed to coincide with the transfer of teen accounts to the main grid. As such, it is the second of two causes for concern this issue of “Sandbox” presents – and I’ll explain why in just a moment.

The first item of concern is that it again demonstrates how LL fail to grasp their own platform. For nigh-on two years they’ve pushed and pushed and pushed the idea that SL is primarily a “social networking platform” – right up to shunting users towards Facebook on a number of occasions. During this time, the idea that SL was also an immersive, creative, playful environment seems totally foreign to The Powers That Be. Now everything is canted entirely the other way: SL is just a “game” (hence the appointment of a recognised “gamer” as CEO) – and “social” and “network” now seem to be banned from being linked in the Linden vocabulary. Rather than recognising – as their users largely do – that SL is in fact both a gaming environment and a social networking platform, LL seem only able to pendulum between the extremes of both viewpoints.

The second item of concern is that in focusing on teens to almost the exclusion of everyone else, LL are once again falling into a familiar pattern of “if we build it, they will come” – almost as if the lessons of the past two years haven’t been taken to heart at all. Let’s face it, we’ve seen it all before; witness the New User Experience and Viewer 2 – both of which were supposed to see adults arriving in SL by the truckload. Witness the SLE product and the promotion of SL as a “serious” business tool that was supposed to see corporations the world over flocking to SL to run their collaborative apps, hold virtual meetings and generally put their business to rights.

In each of these cases, LL have repeatedly turned their collective backs on their established user-base, resolutely convinced they’re on to something “big” for SL – and LL as a whole – only to see it all go somewhat pear-shaped within a few months. I seriously doubt that trying to woo-in the teens will go any differently; we’ll see a mild upward swing in the short-term, but overall very little will change numbers-wise. The initial interest will fade and those at the lab will start scrambling around looking for the Next Big Thing that will “turn SL around” – and we’ll be right back (to use a quote from television this time) feeling that “all this has happened before; all this will happen again”.

So, if there is one thing  – OK, TWO things, given I’ve already written to him on one of them – Rod Humble can do when he arrives full-time as the new CEO, it is to get the company to start regarding its existing user-base as an asset, rather than a hindrance.

We – as much as anyone else – have made SL what it is today (and given the staff turnover at LL, possibly moreso than anyone there); we have made the investments in terms of time, effort. It really would be nice to see the new CEO recognise this and take steps to make sure the company actually engages with its users once more, rather than repeatedly patronising us.

An open letter to Rod Humble

Posted on by Inara Pey

Dear Rod,

Welcome to the world of Second Life – the good, the bad and the occasionally ugly, but also the always-quirky.

I’m glad you’re spending time in-world (incognito, presumably) to get a handle on the strengths and weaknesses here. There is much to laud when it comes to Second Life (although far too many of us, as users / residents tend to forget the good things while rending garments and gnashing teeth), and much that is weak (and in many cases justifies the aforementioned rending and gnashing).

It would be so easy to list out all of the latter and point fingers here and there (as some already have); but by-and-large, I’d like to avoid all of that and simply ask that you do one thing as you explore and move closer to officially starting: please take time to look at the forums (official and otherwise) and ponder the manner in which the Teen Grid / Main Grid merger is being handled.

Now, before any eye rolling occurs – let me say that I’ve nothing against the merger; in difference to many of the doom-laden posts, I actually think it will not cause the kind of upheavals and issues many are predicting.

However, what it is doing, as with other policies of a similar nature that came before it – notably the Adult Policy changes that saw the creation of the Adult Continent, Zindra – is exacerbating a growing rift between Linden Research and its community of users – a rift that one might say is already alarmingly wide.

While fears of Abuse Reports, over-anxious mothers climbing the wall over things “little Timmy” or “little Janey” might see on-screen and so forth may well be over-egging the mix – it cannot be denied that the decision within Linden Research to continue to mix both “G” and “M” (for mature) sims in single Mainland environments *is* a cause of major consternation among users – particularly because what is and is not allowed under the terms of use of each of these sim types is so disparate.

These issues could be so easily resolved through the formation of a “G” rated continent. Indeed, this is something Linden Lab’s own users have been requesting for a very long time – dig down a little and you’ll see it even pre-dates the Adult Policy Change / Zindra farrago that severely damaged the company’s relationship with a large proportion of its user base (and not just those forced to move to Zindra).

The principal ideas behind the development of a “G”-rated continent have never been deniable – although they have always been dismissed in what has always seemed to be an entirely offhanded manner by Linden Lab. However, with the merger now underway, and with you embarking on your journey as the new CEO, I would suggest that the time to openly and honestly review the idea once more has never been better, and if you do nothing else during the first few weeks of your tenure, you’ll give free and full consideration to the major benefits of establishing a G rated Continent:

  • It removes all of the angst that residents (rightly or wrongly) feel about the current situation wherein G and M sims are “OK” to be located side-by-side within the Mainland
  • It offers teen users a far more enjoyable SL experience, as they can benefit from a contiguous land mass that will enable them to do everything that helps to make Second Life a fun place: they can race cars, they can enjoy large, urban environments, they can ride trains, they can fly aircraft, they can race boats, they can wander and explore well beyond the limitations of “single” 256x256m sims without having to rely on teleporting
  • It provides a “cushioned” environment in which those graduating from the “sponsored” sims operated for 13-15 year-olds can find like-minds friends and continue their growth within SL
  • It provides a unique (dare I say “captive”?) marketplace for those content creators wishing to specialise in “teen-oriented” goods and services
  • It allows for overall better marketing of Second Life to teens, presenting them with a “world” of their own in which they can create  – and at the risk of repeating myself – is somewhat better than a hodgepodge of “isolated” sims bordered by lands they see, but to which they are denied access.

There are many other benefits to developing a G-rated continent beyond these. A big issue for Linden Research over the last two years has been the desire to make Second Life a “better, more predictable user experience” – and yet, if one is brutally honest, the company’s repeated and continued refusal to openly consider the merits of a purely G-rated continent has actually done much to undermine this stated goal, and indeed continues to do so.

Right now, with the merger, the nexus of a purely “G” rated continent already exists: the former (or soon-to-be former) Teen Grid. Using this as a basis, Linden Lab has the means to develop a “better, more predictable user experience” for adults and teens alike; not only for the reasons stated above, but also because it does nothing that will hinder the healthy and proper interaction between teens and adults on a daily basis within Second Life.

I appreciate that time is short: the merger is underway: the Teen Grid is closing in January – but the mark of a good CEO is a willingness to hold up a hand and say, “hang on a mo’, I’d like to review this before we go too far,” and I sincerely hope you’ll take a long, hard and unbiased look at the idea, and bear in mind that – with due respect to all at Battery Street – sometimes users *do* have good ideas, and equally, users *can* have a better intuitive understanding of a platform’s needs than those that developed it. There is much to be gained from the idea – and next to nothing to lose.

With kindest and sincere regards,

Inara Pey