Category: News-Opinion

Can we please just be adult about this?

Posted on by Inara Pey

On April 21st, Cyn Linden posted an “update” relating to changes to Adult Content in Second Life. As is usual with such postings from Linden Lab personnel there was much talk about about discussions with residents, brown-bag meetings and implementing the changes “in the least disruptive way possible”.

This has amounted to a case of being the good, the unfortunate and the ugly.

  • The good: LL have apparentlybroadened the means of Age Verification to include having Payment Information Used as a means of verification (although this has yet to be confirmed on the Age Verification page) – so as long as you’ve used a credit card to purchase linden dollars in-world, you’re “verified” – the only problem you may encounter is if a sim owner opts to set the “Age Verification” flag on their sim, in which case you will need to be age verified to enter
  • The unfortunate: the Adult Continent is a fact of life (Ursula), despite Linden Lab’s previous assurances the option of a ring fenced PG region would form a part on-going discussions in the matter
  • The ugly: Linden labs seem determined not to engage with those of those active in the SL BDSM community as to what is considered “Mature” – as opposed to “Adult” – content.

That LL have opted to push ahead with the Adult Continent (indeed, have built it) should come as no surprise. Let’s face it, they’d already determined this would be the case before the first announcement relating to “adult content” was ever made – just as they’d already determined their course of action with regards to OpenSpace sim long before the initial announcement relating to them was made last year.

What is of concern, however, is the lack of engagement of the definition of “adult content”. Make no mistake, the current definitions, by-and-lage, are far too broad to suggest D/s and the majority of BDSM activities / products are “safe” from an “Adult” classification. Indeed, so subjective are the definitions, its fair to say that currently, BDSM could be said to fall squarely into the “Adult” category.

  • Representation of intensely violent acts? Well – a whipping would, in most social circles, be regarded as a violent act. As would a kidnap role-play (taking someone ostensibly against their will)
  • Photo-realistic nudity? – yup, tends to occur in both advertising and in the fact many subs prefer to be nude or at least semi-nude at at times
  • Expressly sexual themed content? Hmmm….one might argue that D/s and BDSM is not purely about sex, but within SL few could argue that a large part of BDSM play is related to eroticism and “sexual themes”

Clearly, the big differentiator in matters is that D/s and BDSM are consenual acts – and this is the first thing the current definitions fail to address.

But it goes far beyond this, and right now, the one thing Linden Lab (again) appears unwilling to do is actually engage with people raising genuine concerns. There is much about D/s and BDSM that can be taken outside of the context of either “sex” or “violence” (again; is it really violent if the parties involved are clearly consenting to the actions in which they are participating (using a precept such as RACK)?); so where does it fall in the scheme of things?

Yet Linden Lab – specifically Cyn and Blondin Linden – repeatedly duck the issue when asked for clarification. And even when they do comment, they manage to increase concern and confusion.

For example, on the one hand we’re told “representations of intensely violent acts” are “Adult”, but then Blondin Linden pops into the forum an states that combat sims are merely “Mature”…

Given that combat sims frequently include mutilation, shooting, violent street fighting, knifings, dismemberment and many of the more advanced forms of violent death, it is hard to see how they don’t fall under the banner of “Adult” – yet Blondin open states this is to be the case!

AND….in the same breath Blondin intimates that a stip club will be “Mature” unless it uses certain “adult keywords” for search purposes, in which case it will be classificed as “Adult”. This gets even more confusing given that Blondin also states that while such a “keyword list” is being defined, LL will not release it as they don’t want it “gamed” – but if the list is not published, how are venue owners supposed to know when the have crossed the line from “Mature” to “Adult”?

And this is the crux of the problem: how are we supposed to enter into an adult discussion on and adult topic which will have far-reaching implications for the whole of Second Life when Linden Lab employee cherry-pick the questions they will answer?

Well, for one thing, we should – and must – avail ourselves of the one channel of expression they’ve given us: the forum thread. PLEASE, if you haven’t done so, take 5 or 10 minutes out to go over the thread and add your reasoned arguments as to why LL need to be more open and clear-cut in defining what constitutes Adult Content.

At the same time, to take a leaf right out of Dari Caldwell’s book, IM Blondin Linden and again politely let him know that simply ignoring questions and turning a deaf ear to legitimate concerns is not the manner in which responsible adults behave.

SL has suffered significant setbacks in user trust over the the 12 months (and I’ll refrain from making a major comment on how that “coincidentally” matches the time Mark Kingdon has been at the helm). While there may well be legitimate issues for introducing better “Adult” controls to SL (at least in some measure) the way they are going about it at present is very negative and risks further erosion of their credibility among adult users….

LL to redefine “Adult content”

Posted on by Inara Pey

Adult content has always been a part of the Second Life experience. In this it is fair to say that not only have Linden Lab been aware of it given that the main grid is for “over 18s” – they have tacitly promoted many aspects of adult content in order to increase their user-base (look at the number of adult content references in the welcome areas for proof of this).

But…..sensitivities exists, and not just with regard to protecting minors – there are many users in SL who would just as soon they were not confronted with “adult” activities at every turn – whether those activities are sexual in nature, incorporated BDSM or are “simply” related to combat environments. Therefore, it is fair to say that some level of control to limit the risk of unwanted exposure to “adult” material should be part and parcel of the Second Life experience.

So it is no surprise that Linden Lab today make this announcement. On the surface it sounds pretty reasonable – almost a straighforward tightening of existing controls (we are, after all, already able to remove adult content from the results of searches; there is already something of an age verification system within SL, etc.).

However, appearances can be deceptive. Anyone with even the slightest interest in “adult” content reading this announcement and following the included links should have every right to feel concerned at the alarm bells the Lab’s words set clanging away.

Firstly there is the announcement of the intent to “relocate” those Mainland users with “adult content” to a new region within Second Life. Then there is Linden Lab’s amazingly broad description of the term “adult content”. so broad is it that it is actually hard to see where the line will be drawn, given that even photo-realistic skins could now be classified as “adult”, and thus the creators of such products with Mainland stores could be forced into relocating.

Of course, various individuals within Linden Lab (such as Jeska linden) have been quick to leap in with assurances that only “extreme” adult content will be affected. But where do you draw the line at “extreme”? While I think it fair to say that the majority of us view harsh sexual representations such as gross torture, snuff, gore, etc., as extreme; it is equally true than some people not involved in BDSM find mild whippings or floggings unacceptable, while others view any form of BDSM practice as “deviant” and quite possibly “extreme”.

Then there is matter of combat simulations. Where do they become extreme? Is shooting someone and seeing blood splatter from them extreme? Is decapitation in the field of combat extreme? Some may well say yes – and yet scenes such as this are precisely what is seen in many, many computer games, not all of them rated over 18 and thus not regarded as “adult content”.

And that’s the problem. While few of us would by-and-large disagree on what constitutes “extreme” acts of violence when taken to the obvious extremes of mutilation, etc., there is an awfully big grey area in which one person’s enjoyment is another person’s anathema.

So how then do you establish guidelines that are not going to be equally open to subjective interpretation and could lead to the unnecessary and involuntary forced relocation of Mainland users to a new “adult themed” continent.

And therein lies another rub. Not only would the forced relocation of Mainland users create a huge upheaval in people’s Second Lives (not to mention the associated ill-will towards Linden Lab it will generate) – it could quite possibly start a stampede towards private sims that could effectively kill-off large tracts of the Mainland. Even with the price differentials between Mainaland and private islands, there are doubtless many who will take a gamble and sell-up their Mainland holdings and move to private island sims rather than end-up in a glorified ghetto.

So what is the alternative? Some have suggested that, rather than creating an “adult content mainland”, Linden lab sould move in the other direction – create a wholly PG environment, possibly in the new Ursula content, and restrict all new SL users to this continent until such time as they opt to become Age Verified and/or place Payment Information On File.

However, it is not a complete answer. What about those who already have a stake in the Mainland and who are sensitive to any number of “adult” activities? They’d be unaffected by the creation of such a new PG-rated continent, so it could be argued that such a move fails to address the position in which they find themselves. Again, one of the major arguments roled out by early supporters of this proposed approach by Linden Lab is that it will mean that people are no longer “at risk” of buying a mainland parcel for their home and then finding they suddenly have a sex club as a neighbour – but these arguments are invalidated on two counts:

  1. Mainland is already zoned between Mature and PG: if people opt to purchase land on a Mature rated sim, then they must be aware of the risk they are taking in doing so
  2. Even under the new proposals – if the vague guidelines suggested by Jeska Linden et al are observed, then a move of “extreme” adult content won’t make one itoa of difference to where the majority of Mainland sex clubs are located because they won’t meet the classification of “extreme” adult content as given.

Does this mean that such people are stuck with their situation? No. How to re-align the Mainland to suit all sensibilities is a headache – and it is one of Linden Lab’s own making for failing to properly consider the nature of “adult” and “mature” activities from the outset and defining guidelines that were so vague as to be worthless. Again, one of the simplest guidelines that could have been adapted was that all Mainland residential land must be rated PG. That would have avoided many of the problems people now face vis-a-vis finding themselves with sex clubs sitting next door.

Even so, establishing a G or PG continent for new users offers many benefits over an ill-conceived move of Mainland adult content to its own continent:

  • It provides an acceptable environment for SL users of all ages – this being a particular concern given Philip Rosedale’s statements that he would like to see the main grid and Teen Grid “come together” in the neasr future
  • It provides a suitable environment for those corporate entities who wich to have a presence within SL but who are concerned with the more adult elements of the game with a safe environment in which to set-up shop
  • It could provide an environment where Mainland residents with concerns over Mature content could voluntarily relocate to (OK, this is’nt a perfectly straightforward thing, given the complexities of land ownership and rental, etc., but it could be worked through)
  • It provides a focal point for the who revamp of the “first hour experience” for new users

But it is not perfect. Doubtless there are those who would view such a G/PG-reated continent as the perfect target for mass griefings of the IACFPA* variety, which would totally undermine the function of such an environment. But it has to he said that such a risk aside, this step is infinitely preferably to what amounts to an otherwise forced relocation of what is liable to be – whether Linden Lab and non-adult oriented users like it or not – a very large section of the SL community.

But right now, this matter is simply too important for any of us with the remotest interest in adult activities -whether we engage in BSM, whether we enjoy lumping each other over the head with sharp bits of metal or pumping holes in one another using bang sticks, or whether we simply spend our time as nude models – to remain quiet.

So I strongly urge all of you still reading this blog to follow the link above – read the announcement, check-out the linked FAQs and then make sure your voice is poisitively heard in the forums.

  • It is important that any definition of “adult” content is properly conceived to achieve a genuine balance of interests, rather than a Lindenesque interpretation of “resident’s interests”
  • Whether or not you own land on the Mainland, input into the relocation debate is important if we are to prevent a potentially damaging route march of enforced relocations and the possible creation of a “ghetto continent” and sub-culture within SL.

*IACFPA – the Infamous Ashe Chung Flying Penises Attack, when a press conference with Anshe Chung was disrupted by the appearance of hundreds of flying penises….

Shifting the paradigm?

Posted on by Inara Pey

Yesterday, a rumour started that Linden Lab were making moves on XStreet SL (formerly SLexchange) – the successful web-based “out-world” shopping facility created by Apotheus Silverman.

Some dismissed it as nothing more than a disgruntled employee from XStreet stirring the waters. However, Linden Leb themselves have confirmed the situation – and the fact that they are taking over / shutting down OnRez.

This is nothing short of a major paradigm shift in Linden Lab’s business, and now fully explains why the Alphabet Lindens (M (Kingdon), Z(danowski), T (Hale) et al) have been going on about the importance of content. Simply put: content generates continuous commerce far more than land sales, which rise and fall (albeit with bigger profit margins) depending on such vagaries as rl market conditions, user ebb and flow, the level of trust people have in LL and the most recent farago spawned by LL.

Content, on the other hand, is a steady-state exchange, and while Linden Lab makes money through the LindeX each time we purchase our Linden Dollars, they are missing out on a revenue stream represented by XStreet, where the company takes a percentage of every transaction made – and the transaction figures are pretty impressive. Thus, at a stroke, LL get this percentage – and are free to raise it as “market conditions” demand.

But really, this matter cuts deeper than a simple “money grab”.

  • “out world” sales hs been a booming market, particularly on XStreet, which is approachable, well-laid out, and has three important elements: user feedback, its independent forums and – most critically perhaps from LL’s perspective: a search engine that works. Shopping on XStreet is popular because it is easy. Whatever you want is relatively easy to find. The current tool provided by LL is not user friendly. Shopping using it can be a frustrating mix of keyword experiments and pot-luck Tps. Thus, people use XStreet straight from the comfort of their own (SL) homes. And even if they do visit a store in-world, chances are the SURL came from XStreet more readily than LL’s search tool.
  • XStreet provides LL to “showcase” content. Shopping in SL is very granular. It’s about objects. It’s easy to get individual items – lounge furniture, garden furniture, individual chairs, tables, etc. But what about coalescing products into related groups. For eample: want to buy a house right now, and furnish it? You need multiple searches with the LL search tool, and pot-luck on shop visits to assess item quality. Now, with the XStreet tool comes the ability for them to provide a search tool that lets you readily find houses and all associated content (furnishings, beds, kitchens, etc.), all from a single “high-level” search. In many respects, this is no bad thing – so long as LL don’t start showing favouritism as to which content creators get to be flagged for these “high level”, one-stop searches
  • Xstreet is a “trusted” brand. While nascent opensim grids have a way to go before they are in any way “trusted” or “viable” (although some show promise and could well mature into 2010). Hence, a good choice for content creators from elsewhere to use to sell their wares in the future – thus LL have squarely staked out a claim to potential Opensim “emerging markets” and income they may generate. There’s even a case, as Dusan Writer points out, for the Xstreet acquisition to re-open the doors to LL’s “interoperability” with Opensim grids in terms of service provisioning.

All of the above could spell positive notes for all; so what if LL are taking a piece of the action: a new, properly-granular search engine that delivers results based on criteria / keywords can only help improve our search experience. Similarly – and with certain caveats – the “one stop” searches for related items could go a long way to rerducing user frustration. And having a trusted, viable “out-world” sales channel could well help the more viable Opensim grids get their acts together fiscally and “corporately”.

But there are downsides.

For a start, XStreet is perhaps the last large-scale bastion of free (forum) speech on SL. We’ve already seen how LL have coralled freedom of expression on their blog and their own forums. Expect the same in XStreet – assuming the forum survives. Which I doubt.

Also…content sales provisioning is not an awfully big step from control of content for sale. Zdanowski talks about “exciting times” for merchants, and the opportunities for “partnerships” with LL. And herein sounds a note of danger. We’ve already seen one behind-closed-doors partnership deal suddenly pop-up in terms of the USS sailing deal.

One could argue that that situation was somewhat different – true. But the precedent it set applies nevertheless. It demonstrates that LL will align themselves with whoever they feel is of the most use to them, and the heck with anyone else in the same game. Thus the worry here is that in moving into content sales, SL will seek to leverage the larger, more established (and “acceptable”) businesses to further the attraction of XStreet to SL users – at the cost of the smaller merchants and businesses, who are left struggling to gain visiablity against ill-defined “acceptance criteria”.

Prokofy Neva – in one of her more lucid posts – also raises some valid concerns on the acquisition – and some very interesting points (particularly Zdanowski’s real estate background and LL moving into the “real estate” business). Again, they’ve dabbled in the past with “prefab sims” on a small scale (Mos Ainsley of OpenSpace imfamy and its cousins spring to mind), so one does wonder what is coming next: a move towards prefab sims to compete against private island sims?

“Yes, ladies and gentlemen, LL announces the prefab Homestead! Buy your sim through our online store, and simply choose your preferred house from Column A, lounge furnishings from column B, bedroom furnishings from column C (etc)- and remember! all the merchants listed in this offer are LINDEN APPROVED!”

Sounds fanicful right now…and may remain that way….but the thought is worrying.

Prad Prathivi, writing in Metaversally Speaking puts it most succinctly:

“By acquiring both XStreetSL and OnRez, Linden Lab have essentially wrapped up the monopoly on marketplaces, and have once again showed us who Daddy is. As a company which can already use our content as they please in world (as per the ToS), and now demonstrating that they can acquire such resources as these popular marketplaces, does this mean that the Lab are looking to clamp down on the innovate market, and enforce their control in the name of profit?”

Indeed.

And what of more adult content? We’ve had the age verification farago once….but now even Phil Rosedale is tacitly admitting Teen Grid is a bust and hinting that it may be “merged” with the main grid (his comments that the main grid will be “for all ages” made at the recent Metanomics event). One cannot help wonder whether a darker side of content control is in the offing: who’s to say offerings made to whatever XStreet morphs into under LL’s management will not have to be vetted for “grid suitability”….. and if it fails to pass muster, it doesn’t get to be listed…?

And whither then?

Is that the *clunk* of the other shoe hitting the floor?

Posted on by Inara Pey

John Zdanowski (“Z Linden” – alphabet fetishism rules!), has posted a 2008 Quarter 4 report that makes for some interesting reading.

After waffling on about user hours and logins – figures that have always been highly questionable as a measure of the stablity / growth of SL – Zdanowski drops a corker that is breath-taking in the amount of spin it contains.

He gushes: “Based on Resident feedback and the resulting purchases, conversions and cancellations, we believe the changes we made to the product line incorporated the concerns of the majority of our Residents…”

Pardon?

To exactly what feedback are you referring, John? The 4000+ votes on the JIRA that opposed the changes you were making to Openspace sims? The 3,000+ entries in Jack’s / “M”‘s own forum thread on the subject, the majority of which were against the move?

Or are you chosing to ignore these voices – the voices of those most affected, hurt, or simply downright concerned; going for the age-old falsehood that because people are silent, they must be in agreement?

It’s easy to point at so called “daily log-in figures” of 70K+ and decide that 4,000 voices on the JIRA simply don’t stack up by comparison (it’s less than 10%, after all). But to do so and try to claim that, by extension, the “majority” of your user base is, by implication, “happy” with the switch-over is, well, somewhat disingenuous.

Statements such as this simply provide the unkind with ammunition that Zdanowski’s title should actually be Chief Fanciful Officer, for trying to pretend nothing untoward happened between October and December in terms of a user-base outcry.

If one were bloody-minded, one could also point out the face-slap contained in the statement:

“Only about 300 or 2% of the original Openspaces remained Openspaces, conforming to the limits that the Openspace product was originally intended to support.”[my emphasis].

If OS sims were always supposed to be little more than water and trees, John – then why did Jack et al make such a song and dance over the the prim increase to 3750? Indeed, why increase the primmage at all on the Voids? 1875 is still a LOT of 1-prim sculptie plants and linden (or sculptie) trees, and it is still a lot of underwater “landscaping” in terms of corals, etc. Why also, given it must have been evident that OS simwere being “abused” relatively early-on, did you all spend so much time trumpeting the “growth” in land ownership and use in the months following the release of the Openspace product?

However, while some may still smart over the Openspace sim situation – which has done an extraordinary amount of damage to Linden Lab’s relationship with its active user base, whether Zdanowski, Kingdon et al are willing to admit it or not – the fact remains that it is now history, and thus moot.

What I find more telling in this posting is a line casually thrown in towards the end: “As we continue to refine our land offerings,” Zdanowski says, “we look forward to being able to support a lower priced full region offering along with a premium full region for higher load situations.”

Now, in case you haven’t got it – go back and read it again – specifically the words “a lower priced full region offering along with a premium full region for higher load situations.”

He’s not talking about Homestead sim here. He’s quite clearly talking about a new full sim product, to sit alongside the current full sim offering. Sounds exciting doesn’t it?

Read it again. Note the words, “premium full region for higher load situations“. If that doesn’t set alarms bells ringing – it should.

Speculation has been rife over the last several weeks (couple of months) that 2008 will see a change in tier rates for both private sims and the mainland. In the case of island sims, opionion has been split as to whether tier will be increased or whether it will be dropped (to around $250 USD a month).

At the same time, SL as a whole has run into significant resoucing issues which I touched upon not too long ago. Simply put, we’re all now owning / running so much that we’re gobbling up the essential services contained within the server hardware than is required to support sim operations (memory etc), so much so that on a server running fours sims (1 per CPU), a fair amount of processing time within the server is spent “memory swapping” in order to run all the scripts the four sims use – so much so that overall performance of the sims themselves is being degraded.

So what are we to make of this latest statement when compared to these facts?

It could, as Ciaran Laval suggests. be looked upon in terms of a “glass half empty / a glass half full” statement. On the one had, it could be taken to mean that LL are going to offer up a full sim package that sits between Homesteads and the current full sims in terms of price and capabilities (i.e. a 15K prim sim, but with resources more rigorously throttled than full sims, but not as badly as the Homestead offering looks set to be). On the other hand, it could be so brand-spanking new sim / server set-up that allows massive new usage (increased primmage, perhaps the ability to rez and manipulate default prims bigger than 10x10x10, capability of running more concurrent scripts, for example).

But, however you look at this, the lesson of Openspace is clear, whatever the product offered, any associated pricing will not favour users.

For a start, it is hard to see how such a product can be dropped in between the current “full” sim product and the Homestead product – not unless LL are again playing a little game with us. Why is this? Well for two main reasons (I’ll discuss the game-playing in a moment).

  • If the new product is priced up towards the current “full” sim levels, then it will be stillborn. People really won’t see the point in spending what is “almost” full sim prices and tier for a product that offes significantly less than the existing full sim offering
  • Similarly, if the new product is priced close to the current “full” sim price / tier, and then the latter is raised as a result (thus becoming the “premium” offering Zdanowski mentions), the backlash created will completely dwarf that seen during the Openspace fiasco. Which is not to say Mark Kingdon et al wouldn’t try to shove it in people’s faces….

Of course, there is a third option in pitching the new product between the current “full” sims and Homesteads – and that’s to pitch the price / tier down towards the Homestead end of the scale. But again, this could be risky. Price it too close to Homesteads, and there is a risk it’ll simply kill of Homesteads as a sellable product – after all, why pay $125 USD a month ( as from July 1st), when for (say) $200 a month you can get pretty much everything a full sim offers, and the ability to gain sufficient tenants to recoup a large part of the tier….

Mind you, as I’ve mentioned previously, killing off Homesteads may well be part of LL’s longer-term strategy, as they know full well Homesteads are unlikely to be economically viable after the July 1st tier hike to $125 USD a month (and I seriously doubt we’ll see this new product before that date). If so, then pricing the new product down towards towards Homestead levels could be seen by LL as a means of killing off the lame donkey Homesteads while still maintaining a lucrative income stream.

And if the new product is some kind of “super-sim”?

Well, it’s a no-brainer. With current full sims already hugely over-priced at $1000 USD “purchase” price and $295 USD per month CPU tier (that’s a honking $1180 USD a month per server, an insane price to charge, however one looks at it), then you can bet your bottom dollar any product coming in over it will be equally over-priced. Given we were were all once happy to shell out $1675 USD for full private sims, one can see this figure (or one close to it) hovering in the background, together with a tier price perhaps in the region of $400-$450 a month.

One awaits developments with interest.

Is that the sound of a shoe dropping…?

Posted on by Inara Pey

Jack’s back – and this time he comes (almost) clean…

Remember that back in October, OpenSpace sims were suddenly the cause of much controversy, because in Jack’s words they were being “abused” and were proving to be resource-heavy, and thus adversely affecting overall grid performance?

Well, the good news is, Jack has finally come clean and admitted (as we already knew), that the problem is not restricted to OpenSpace sims (although it could perhaps most keenly be felt on them at times), but is endemic to the entire grid – hence Babbage Linden and others in the Linden camp leading discussions on the manner in which such problems should best be handled, which have been on-going since before Jack created the OpenSpace debacle.

But while it is good that Jack has finally admitted the technical issues are more widespread than he has previously admitted (remember, in his words, this was an OpenSpace issue), and has admitted that LL still have a long way to go before they can address the resource use issue effectively (such as Q2 2009), his comments must be taken as a final, tacit admission that the change in sim status and accompanying tier hike for OS sims had next to nothing to do with these issues, and has always been a clawback manoeuvre.

Furthermore, his posting does little to meet his promise that the technical limits to be applied to Homesteads would be disclosed “well ahead” of January 5th 2009.

Sorry, Jack, a post that says, “we’ll let you know some time in Q1 or Q2 how the resource limits will be applied” isn’t any form of disclosure or discussion, however you try and dress it up.

Indeed, the timeline Jack has revealed in his posting is interesting. Could it be that LL’s strategy is – and always has been – to actually to elminate “Homestead” sims completely over time, while simultaneously milking them as much as possible for tier? Isn’t it rather curious that the new “scripting limits” are due to come into force percisely at the time Homesteads are due for a further $30 USD a month tier hike (to $125 USD a month – something one cannot ever see as being credible or sustainable)?

If we take this latest posting from Jack and put it with the others he has made on the OS situation, then his waffle can really be parred down to three simple paragraphs:

“OK. We have this technical issue affecting the whole grid, and we’ve really, really, drastically undersold the OpenSpace product. Therefore, we’re going to use the former as an excuse to claw back what we see as losses on the latter. However, to dress this up, we’re going to appear to give you a whole new product in the process, although in reality, it’ll be offering you a lot less at significantly more per month. And to cover the fact that we’re using a grid-wide issue as an excuse for doing this, we’ll introduce some basic restrictions on the use of these sim which might help a little with the overall issue.

“BUT, because it’s actually going to take us a lot longer to sort out the underlying issue than it is for us to hit you up with tier hikes, we’re going to take your extra $20 USD a month per sim and give absolutely no guarantees these sims will be sustainable after the end of Q2 2009. Indeed, it’s entirely possible that as of the end of Q2, you’ll find these sims are economically unviable, simply because the new script controls we’ve introduced means users on them can no longer rez their favourite scripted objects, and so are all buggering off to full sims.

“At that point, we’ll give you the option of shelling out an additional $30 USD a month on top of your current tier (which we know is completely ludicrous) – or of getting rid of your Homesteads completely – but thanks in the meantime for the extra $XXX income per Homestead you’ve given us.”

I mean, it is bad enough that LL are essentially asking estate owners to take them on trust for the next 6 months while the resource capping is sorted out and implemented; but do they really believe that come July 1st, 2009, people will actually and happily shell out $125 USD a month for something that in all likelihood they cannot use as an income generator, simply because it is so overwhelmingly limited in capabilities (resource use, avatar limits)?

Which brings me to the second part of Jack’s posting – the tacit admission that there is a much wider issue that is having to be addressed by LL – that of grid-wide resource usage.

To repeat: this is not limited to OS sims, but has been a matter of concern for some time.

Make no mistake, resource usage is a major issue within SL. So much so that the discussions on the subject actually pre-date Jack’s original OS sim announcement. And to be honest, something does need to be done – although whether LL’s preferred solution (essentially treating the underpinning resources available on each server in much the same way as prims are meted out) is the best solution is, I gather, arguable.

BUT…given action is required….why bury the annoucement in an OpenSpace sim “follow-up” posting?

Could it again be because LL are aware that such controls – necessary tho they may be – are going to be perceived negatively, and so are trying to gloss over the “bad news”. If so, they are again doing their users a further disservice. Surely the better way of dealing with this issue is to meet it head-on, with full and clear disclosure to all.

But then, as we know from the Tao of Linden – LL’s management insist that transparency in communications is something that is to be encouraged only between employees – it is not something to be extended to we lowly users.

Which is probably why, in amongst all the confusion surrounding the wider implications of Jack’s statements, one cannot help but hear the gun again being cocked as it is aimed towards another Linden foot…

OK.. waiting for TWO shoes to drop…

Posted on by Inara Pey

Following-on from yesterday’s posting, Jack is out in blogland again, with an announcement which seems to have a lot of people going, “tilt?!”

Certainly, the announcement has lead to a lot of speculation – and even near-hysteria (“favouritism!” “bailout!”).

On the surface, it seems something of a reasonable deal: USS stood to be very badly mauled with the OpenSpace sim debacle, and thus Linden Lab have stepped in to help out and at the same time found a means of bolstering interest in their mainland Nautilus project, while allegedly giving the community as a whole something to enjoy (a new sailing sea – although contrary to the cries of the likes of LL and USS, I’d question just how popular sailing is overall & when compared to other sim-intensive activities like flying…).

But since when has Linden Lab been reasonable? What’s more – what is with the sudden willingness to hand over mainland controls to other groups, as Jack Linden has stated to Prokofy Neva will be the case here? Granted, he hints that the handover may be temporary (thus bringing it loosely in line with the festivals Prok mentions in her post) – but USS tend to have an active events calendar, which could call into question the “temporary” nature of the handover of powers.

Could it be that Linden Lab are themselves loking for ways to hand-off broad management of the mainland to users – thus relieving themselves of the mundane grunt work while charging users for the privilege?

Or could the reason run deeper? Again, while people quickly shout “favouritism” on reading Jack’s post, I tend to side with Prok and some others in the forum thread itself who pick up on Jack’s own reply to this cry, vis:

“First of all, this isn’t something exclusive and it will not be the only such project of its type. In deciding that we wanted to look for ways to involve estates to the benefit of both themselves and the Mainland, someone has to go first…..

“The USS are a particularly good fit because they are large, well established and have a strong theme that is PG in nature and appeals to a wide range of residents. They also happen to be extremely well organised.”

OK… the first part of this comment is reasonable enough inasmuch as someone has to go first in a project such as this….but the second part of this comment certainly hikes my eyebrows, as it implies that LL will only engage with groups that meet some pre-ordained criteria (hidden under the banner names “PG”, strong”, and “well established”).

However you look at it, this does smack of favouritism in-the-making: if your group doesn’t measure-up the the criteria, Linden Lab won’t engage with you, and thus you’ll be left wanting while others get leverage.

And this borders on this being another potential way of LL censoring SL content it would rather not have…since by Jack’s own admission, if you have any group or activity that is Mature rated (and remember, “Mature” doesn’t always mean sexual in nature – or even adult in extent) – then you are immediately precluded from the potential of a partnership.

The flipside to this is, quite simply that perhaps Linden Lab, in striking this deal, really is trying to make amends for earlier upsets. However, if this is the case, then Jack has once again taken the hand gun, cocked the hammer – and royally shot himself in the foot. If LL are indeed looking to leverage partnerships that will both benefit private estate owners and help develop / utilise the mainland – then why not be up-front on things from the start: state the intention, explain the process and aims, and invite submissions? All this announcement has (again) done is stir up a lot of resentment which no amount of spin from Jack is going to undo.

Certainly, given the controversy he has now successfully created, Jack would do well to take heed of Bryon Ruxton’s comment / warning. Although it has to be said, there is a certain genius at work here – at a stroke, Jack and his cohorts and split those protesting over the recent OpenSpace sim tier hikes right down the middle. Leave us not forget, USS were leading the charge on the matter….now they’ve been given a one-sided deal from LL that has left many of their erstwhile supporters deeply upset.

For my part, I’m curious to see what transpires in the future as a result of this apparent paradigm shift on the part of LL. If it benefits SL as a whole – and by that I mean all of us, whether or not we are “strong” or “well established” or “PG” – then it is all to the good.

However, the cynic in me is now waiting for not one, but two shoes to drop as a result of Jack’s announcements….