Category: News-Opinion

Lab Gab 16 summary: marketing Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
via Linden Lab

The 16th edition of Lab Gab was live streamed on Friday, March 6th, featuring three members of the Second Life Marketing team: Brett Linden, the Lab’s Senior Director of Marketing, Darcy Linden, Performance Marketing Manager and Strawberry Linden, who was also acting in her role as the show’s host.

The official video of the segment is available via You Tube, and the following is a summary of the key topics discussed and responses to questions. Note that this is not a full transcript or summary; I’ve tried to keep this summary to the core discussions on the Marketing Team’s work, so be sure to refer to the video as well. Also, items provided below may not all reflect the chronological order in which they were discussed, but have been grouped together where appropriate. Time stamps are provided for those wishing to jump to a specific point in the video, which is also embedded at the end of this summary.

Note that further information on the Lab’s Marketing work for Second Life can also be found in the official blog post, The Heart & Science of Second Life Marketing, which is mentioned on several occasions during the video.

Brett Linden (l) and Darcy Linden (r) joined fellow Marketing team member Strawberry Linden for the March 6th edition of Lab Gab

Marketing Team Goals for 2020

[4:02-5:17]

  • Continue the drive for greater user acquisition (sign-up and conversions to retained users) and grow the active user base.
  • The retention focus is also on existing users – helping to keep them engaged and feeling a part of SL’s very broad “community”.
  • Helping the Second Life economy – highlighting and encouraging creativity in Second Life and the potential the platform offers in terms of creativity and potential income generation.
  • To re-energise the Second Life brand. The platform is 17 years old – no mean feat for any technology product  / platform – but that longevity  and history means that it’s important to keep SL relevant in pop culture, the media, etc., so the fact that it is still thriving is not forgotten.

General Marketing

  • [6:44-7:43] One of the major aspects of marketing material production has been SL related videos (e.g. in-house tutorials and videos exploring different regions in SL, plus the Made in SL series).
    • These have seen a dramatic increase in the volume of available videos for people to see through various channels and many of them have been localised into other languages for ease of digestion.
    • They also feed into market segmentation and efforts by the Lab to probe what resonates with users (potential, new and established) and generate greater interest / awareness in the platform.
  • [9:05-10:22] What is the target demographic LL looks at for SL?
    • LL has done analyses of audience segmentation, communities, themes, etc., and a lot of demographic data has been gathered in respect of this.
      • There is a lot of interest in the platform from the 18-24 year age bracket.
      • Conversely, with users who have spent 1,000 hours or more in SL, the age range is much broader (18 through to 60+).
    • Given the latter point, and  that as a virtual world, SL allows people to do pretty much anything they want and be whomever they wish, the Lab focuses more on breaking age barriers, and focuses on the richness of opportunities and experiences available within the platform, rather than on specific age groups, and helping communities active within SL to grow, regardless of age, race, gender, etc.
    • [46:35-47:22] That said, campaigns that are targeted for older users are being developed.
  • [24:32-25:49] Where to SL ads go, and how are channels selected?
    • Ads go to all suitable channels across the web – Google, Facebook, Microsoft, etc., and more recently Twitter and other social media.
    • Videos go to You Tube and Facebook.
    • LL always willing to experiment with new channels – social media, for example, has given “very mixed results”.
    • All advertising is subject to analysis and time has been put into enhancing the tools available for doing to and which will allow LL to extend their reach even further.
    • Part of this drive also involves identifying active communities in SL that can be used as a focus for ad campaigns.
  • [27:23-28:52] and [37:50-39:48] Is SL marketing work being localised for languages other than English? Yes. The new user video tutorial series, for example, has been translated into around 8 languages.  The same is also being done with SL ads.
  • [29:02-30:29] Why don’t SL users see these ads?
    • The fact the active SL users rarely / never see on-line adverts for SL is testament to the targeted nature of the campaigns and that they are reaching the intended audience – people who are not active in SL.
    • Advertising specific to existing users (e.g. promoting events, etc), goes via different mechanisms.
    • Investment is being made in technologies and capabilities to extend SL’s reach via marketing and potential user acquisition.
    • Most tech-literate people have heard about SL, so a portion of the work is focused on piquing their curiosity to the point where they go from reading / hearing about it to actively taking a look.
    • Some of this has been geared towards encouraging former users to log-in once more.
    • Work is also focused on audiences who may not be aware of SL.
  • [32:22-35:23] What is happening with regards to more organic marketing?
    • LL wants to to curate, create or assist the SL community in strong word-of-mouth marketing, including high-quality social media content.
    • Also looking at possibly using non-paid product placement opportunities with established TV programmes and media channels to more directly pitch SL.
      • An example of this that unfortunately didn’t go ahead, was the potential for Second Life to be placed / referenced within the British-made Black Mirror anthology series.

Marketing Second Life’s Adult Content

[10:28-16:00]

Two core questions were asked on the subject of adult content.

  • Is there any work being done to promote adult content in Second Life, including LL working with adult content creators, bloggers, etc, plus placing ads on other adult platforms?
    • Yes, LL are cautiously looking at how to incorporate SL’s adult content into messaging. But there are major  business implications / issues associated with trying to do so.
    • For example, industry “best practices” as defined by Google, Facebook, et al, tend to be conservative / limiting in what they will allow with advertising, which can impact both how LL can promote adult content and how effective any campaign might be given the restrictions other platforms have in place vis. adult content.
    • There are also serious consequences LL have to consider if they promote adult content through other platforms in the wrong way – such as losing complete access to a mainstream channel for advertising SL as a whole.
      • [58:15-59:24] The reason SL does not have a Twitch presence is because Twitch will not countenance any risk of adult content appearing on their platform. This is something the Lab is attempting to redress via discussions with Twitch.
    • Nevertheless, LL is testing more “provocative” messaging in some of their romance related campaigns – on of the more successful of their promotional campaigns in terms of click-through and possible audience capture.
  • Will adult content be promoted alongside / as a part of major SL events such as the SL Birthday, or promoting those adult regions that are thematically landscaped, or offering adult bloggers blog roll support?
    • For those logged-in to SL, either in-world or places like the Marketplace, it is possible to opt-in to seeing information related to Adult products, places, etc. via search, through the Maturity ratings.
    • There is also a Destination Guide category for adult content, allowing for the rules on image types, etc.
    • In terms of SLB and adult content, Marketing cannot speak for the Product Operations team, but how adult content might be handled vis-a-vis SL17B is something that is on Patch Linden’s radar (see also: Lab Gab #15 summary: the Moles, Patch SL17B and more).

Increasing User Retention

[18:56-24:30]

  • A good part of the marketing work is not just running campaigns and hoping they will draw users, but actively monitoring campaigns – how well / poorly they perform – and carrying out a range of testing (from simple A/B testing through more complex multivariate testing) to provide direct feedback on campaigns allowing them to be constantly refined and improved.
  • Testing also encompasses all aspects of the user sign-up process, landing pages, etc., that sit behind ad campaigns (collectively the join flow that carries an interested party from an ad through the sign-up process and (hopefully) in-world).
  • This has resulted in upticks in both sign-ups and users arriving in-world.
  • Testing initiatives also extends into the active user base (e.g. the rez day e-mail campaign) to see how the Lab can more positively engage with its existing users.
  • In terms of further plans  / activities related to user retention, The Heart & Science of Second Life Marketing provides more information on what the Marketing team is and will be doing.
  • In terms of how existing users can help SL grow, the easiest, most effective way to it tell others about the platform, what you do, invite them to give it a go and be there to help them and help get them involved.
  • [25:50-27:22] Most SL ads focus on a specific genre / theme – so why don’t users following those ads go to a related sign-up process with suitable default avatars and arrive in-world at locations that reflect the theme of the ad?
    • Lab has run several experiments with community matching between ads and sign-in / arrival in-world.
    • However they are dependent on a wide range of factors (time taken to create the relevant avatar type, work with communities in-world to ensure incoming users get the support they need on arrival, resources available at the Lab to make them happen, etc.), and so they do take time to implement.
    • Currently, much of the focus at the Lab with SL is towards other areas / requirements, so such tests are currently on hold, to be picked up in the near future.
    • The aim is very much on having people to traverse a sign-up experience and arrive at an in-world location that meets their expectations based on the ad.

Additional Discussions

  • [5:17-9:04] Lucagrabcr initiated a forum thread on SL Marketing which is mentioned in the segment, with Brett specifically picking up on the idea of “spinning off” communities into their worn worlds (“Tiny World”, for example).  In particular, while making it clear this is not on  LL’s roadmap, the idea does resonate with SL possibly having the potential to offer white label services (e.g. “Tiny World, brought to you by XYZ, powered by Second Life”).
    • Offering the platform as a white label service is actually something I thought Sansar would have been ideally suited – and early in the platform’s history, Ebbe Altberg did point in that direction. Whether it was actually promoted that way, I’ve no idea. If not, then it might stand as a missed opportunity for that platform.
  • [16:02-18:55] and [30:30-32:21] Second Life has had something of a negative stigma in the media over the years. What is being done to reverse this?
    • Negative press must be responded to on many fronts. Much of what is being put out through social media, performance advertising campaigns, the video promotions, etc., will all combine to shift such negative perceptions where they occur.
    • The community plays a role in this through positive videos that are organically created by users, blogs and other resources that help present SL’s richness, etc. user generated videos are seen as particularly effective in countering trolling videos.
    • Lab is aware that more can be done to challenge perceptions and preconceptions, and again, they see telling the stories of those engaged in the platform as a means of doing this.
  • [59:28-1:00:22] Is physical world merchandise being considered as a means of helping to promote SL? Yes, but nothing to announce at this point in time, but a review of potential merchandise, vendors, etc., has been carried out.

 

Marketing Second Life: Brett Linden’s insights

Posted on by Inara Pey
via and © Linden Lab

As both the Lab and I have blogged, members of the Second Life Marketing Team will be sitting down on Friday, March 6th in the 16th edition of Lab Gab to discuss their work and respond to submitted questions (see either Lab Gab Episode 16 Streams this Friday at 11am PT/SLT – Linden Lab Marketing Team! – official blog post) or Previewing Lab Gab 16: meet the Marketing team – this blog).

Marketing work is both an art and a science – and with Second Life, the fact the such is the breadth of potential audience and the rich diversity of opportunities within the platform, it can be something of a an arcane combination of activities that, were truth be told, the majority of Second Life users likely wouldn’t be able to fathom as being part of the ongoing work to attract potential new users, were they to be asked.

So, to help shed some light on matters – and to lay the path towards the Lab Gab session he’ll be attending along with Darcy and Strawberry Linden, Brett Linden has prepared a special blog post, The Heart & Science of Second Life Marketing, that offers considerable insight into the Marketing Team’s work when it comes to promoting Second Life, reaching a audience, and bringing new users into the platform and hopefully engaging them as retained residents. As such, it makes for a worthwhile read.

In particular the post examines a number of channels the Lab users for new user acquisition, some of which active SL users may not be aware of, or may not actually associate with trying to bring-in new users. Take video series like those covering destinations in SL or aspects of SL creativity. While we tend to see them by way of the Lab’s blog, we’re actually not the primary target audience.

Running to around 90 seconds in length, these bite-sized looks inside SL are ideal marketing tools that can be used through the medium of paid advertising campaigns, which are and have been enjoying success such that LL is currently in the process of expanding them, both in terms of the numbers of videos and the channels through which they can be used.

Alongside of this, Brett writes about the concept on performance marketing  – one of the mainstays of SL marketing campaigns. Perhaps two of the most visible elements  of this approach of marketing are the SL ads we me see served by Google, or the themed landing pages I’ve written about five years ago (see Landing pages: marketing Second Life and which have continued to be refined and enhanced since then), while the Marketing Team has continued to build on early experience with performance advertising, also refining and improving their approach and the technologies they use, a Brett notes:

We modernised our acquisition efforts last year by putting into place the use of new technologies that allow us to more precisely target new users across numerous themes, communities and genres. As part of this effort, we’ve identified a few dozen strategically-relevant, high-impact community segments and themes — all of which now have new related display, search and video ad content served against specific matched keyword inquiries and sites. Some ads are also served across social media to those with social profiles that express an interest in some or all of our targeted themes. That means that you might see new sci-fi roleplaying ads appearing on some sci-fi fan sites, social media pages, or new romance ads on long-distance relationship forums – the list goes on…  

Encompassing the extensive testing that goes on around these ads and their associated campaigns, more organic forms of advertising, use of social media, outreach to SL users, a read of Brett’s blog post should – one would hope – dispel the notions that either LL “don’t promote” Second Life or that they “don’t know how” to go about promoting it.

The fact is rather the reverse: the Marketing Team pour considerable thought and action into marketing SL and do so by revealing the incredible depth and breadth of the platform’s potential. Which is also not to say they’re not open to ideas or feedback from users – hence the Lab Gab session the post helps to promote, and the links to feedback forms within the post.

So do take time out to read Brett’s post, and don’t forget to listen-in to the Lab Gab session at 11:00am SLT on Friday, March 6th, 2020.

Previewing Lab Gab 16: meet the Marketing team

Posted on by Inara Pey
via Linden Lab

The 16th edition of Lab Gab will be live streamed on Friday, March 6th at 11:00 SLT (19:00 UK; 20:00 CET). For those who have not seen the official blog post about it, the segment will feature members of the Second Life Marketing team, which is led by Brett Linden.

The Marketing team is responsible for a range of activities related to Second Life, including, but not limited to:

  • Running advertising campaigns to attract interest in the platform, which in turn includes aspect such as:
    • The Second Life Landing Pages where people may get their first look at SL.
    • Involvement in the on-boarding process, and monitoring the flow of incoming users.
  • Producing promotional material about SL, such as the infographics that are sometimes released around SL Birthday events, videos related to Second Life, etc.
  • Producing information specifically for SL users – such as blog posts, curating the Destination Guide, etc.
  • Managing the Second Life social media presence – Twitter, Facebook, Instragram, You Tube.

Brett Linden is the Lab’s Senior Director of Marketing, and has been with Linden Lab for 10 years, making him probably the longest-serving member of the marketing department. He is based out of the Lab’s Seattle, Washington, office, and prior to joining the Lab he worked at a number of music and technical publications – including Billboard Magazine in the case of the former. It was in this capacity he got to interview Philip Rosedale (then still at Real Networks), and as a result, joined that company before joining Linden Lab.

As well as working for the Lab, Brett also teaches as a local university in Washington State, covering journalism, social media persuasion, etc., and while he has never specifically presented courses on virtual worlds, he has included Second Life in some of his teaching. He particularly enjoys the creativity surrounding Second Life, and is very sensitive to the misconception that Linden Lab “doesn’t understand” Second Life or how to promote it, or that the marketing team “doesn’t spend time in-world”, pointing out that (like many Linden staffers), he is in-world both on his official and personal accounts, the latter allowing him to be engaged within the community without being identified as a Linden.

 

Brett Linden (l) and Darcy Linden (r) will be joining fellow Marketing team member Strawberry Linden for the March 6th edition of Lab Gab

Brett will be joined by Strawberry Linden (also Strawberry Singh), one of the Lab’s newer recruits, but a long-time and high-profile SL user famous for her blog, photography and videos. Also joining them will be Senior Marketing Manager Darcy Linden, whom I’m afraid I don’t know, and cannot provide information about here, so my apologies to Darcy.

Together they will be answering questions about the 2020 Roadmap for Marketing Second Life. So, if you have a marketing-related question you’d like to put to the team, fill out the Google Form and submit your question today, and it may be selected!

The programme will be streamed via YouTube, Facebook, Mixer, or Periscope, and if all goes according to plan, I’ll have a summary of the video (and the video itself) available soon after the the broadcast, for those unable to watch live.

Lab Gab #15 summary: the Moles, Patch SL17B and more

Posted on by Inara Pey
via Linden Lab

The 15th edition of Lab Gab was live streamed on Friday, February 28th and featured as guests, Patch Linden, Vice President of Product Operations, and representatives of the Linden Department of Public Works (LDPW), aka the Moles – Notta Mole, Alotta Mole, Squeaky Mole and Mischievous Mole. Together they discussed the upcoming SL17B celebrations, the Linden Homes and Bellisseria, the work of the LDPW and more.

A call was put to Second Life users to submit questions that could be asked of the group, and the the following is a summary of the key topics raised and feedback given. Note that items may not all reflect the chronological order in which they were discussed, but have been grouped together where appropriate. Time stamps are provided for those wishing to jump to a specific point in the official video, and the complete video is embedded at the end of this article.

[0:37-3:15] Each of the guests offers a brief introduction to themselves, their time at / with Linden Lab, and some of what they do.

SL17B – The Second Life Birthday Celebration, 2020

[3:25-12:27]

  • Core dates:
    • Soft opening – for members of the free-to-join Second Life Birthday group: Thursday, June 18th, 2020.
    • Full opening: Friday, June 19th, 2020 – includes the Music Fest (see SL17B music festival auditions applications are open for more).
    • End of celebrations still TBD.
  • Theme: Vacations and Road Trips. Further details to come.
  • There will be more exhibitor parcels available this year (still the standard 32m on a side.
    • Buildings in keeping with the theme are welcome, but exhibitors are not restricted to modelling after it, but are encouraged to show their Second Life activities and what SL means to them, etc., either as individuals or groups.
    • Applications will open in approximately 2 week from this date, and it is important for exhibitors to give as much detail as possible in their submission.
  • There will be an SL17B shopping event to run in parallel with the festivities, and applications will open Soon™
    • There will be more cross-promotion between the SL17B festivities and the shopping event than last year, to encourage people to attend both.
    • The plan is to have “at least eight” regions in the shopping event.
  • Application for the various aspects of the festivities (Music Fest, exhibitors, shopping event, etc.), will likely open over at two week intervals, starting the with Music Fest application. Notifications of applications opening will be provided via official Second Life blog posts and through the Second Life Birthday group in-world.
  • Might the Cake Stage and Stage Left from the community-organised SLB events ever reappear?
    • Stage Left is still there, but has been renamed Main Stage.
    • The Cake Stage may reappear in the future, depending on how well it sits with a given SLB theme.
  • Will there be an Adult section at SL17B, so Adult content creators can participate and enjoy equal visibility? LL have considered this, and it may happen. However, there are logistics to be worked out – e.g. how best to handle different rating of content (Adult and Moderate / General) in close proximity to one another in a public environment). As such, a firm “yes” or “no” is still pending.

Linden Homes and Bellisseria

[12:30-37:44]

  • The fifth Linden Home theme was revealed / previewed on Friday, February 28th. The new theme – Log Homes (or lodge homes, if you prefer), comprises 4 styles of rural house style set within open landscapes and dirt tracks – see Previewing the Linden Home Log theme in Second Life for more details.
    • [21:48-22:48] Modifications to this theme mean that the total number of style that are available in the future may increase to as many as eight, with the mailbox rezzers updated to reflect this. A similar approach may then be taken with the other house themes.
  • How are themes chosen? Are there particular motivations, inspirations?
    • Patch believes the team responsible for Linden Homes is in tune with, and listiening to users and what user might want.
    • The new Log homes is seen as an example of this, being both something the team planned for, and something users requested.
    • Currently, the team has a “huge” list of potential themes, with the first eight either released or under construction and 2 more after those decided upon.
The new Linden Home Log / Lodge theme
  • Traditional Homes and Houseboats: Further releases of both being planned.
  • Campers and Trailers: it had been indicated that campers and trailer might be made available on 1024 sq m parcels as well as the current 512 sq m. Is this still being planned? Right now, the team hasn’t really found a way in which large 1024 sq m parcels and much smaller campers / trailers fit within the overall Bellisseria model.
  • Release schedule: while the schedule officially remains every Monday, Wednesday and Friday (holidays allowing), unofficially the team has started releasing one or more regions a day, depending on what is available.
  • Will there be more water regions around Bellisseria for sailing? There should be sufficient room for moderately-size vessels and sail boats to navigate between Joegeot and Sansara by way of Bellisseria. LL do not necessarily want to create large expanses of of water, but if there are issues, things might be revisited.
  • Is Bellisseria open for anyone to use, and are all avatar types welcome? Yes, the regions are open to everyone, only the homes require a Premium account. All avatar types are welcome, including child avatars, and subject to the normal community standards / terms of service.
  • Are there plans for a children’s playground in Bellisseria? Has not thus far been considered, but an excellent suggestion.
  • Will there be street names in Bellisseria? No. While it is a fun exercise to name the regions, all the names have to be checked for suitability, and trying to do the same for every street in Bellisseria would be too time consuming.
  • Region names come out of group meetings and idea pitching. Some of this may include names that are personal to the team.
  • Is there an opportunity for a city style of theme with apartments and commercial units?
    • This is been batted around by the team, but always tends to end up raising issues (how can you stack apartments in a parcel to ensure privacy and without having to constantly monitor LI use? What would the land layout look like with accommodation parcels vs. protected land to ensure the former have adequate LI? How can 1024×1024 parcels be arranged to allow  town houses to sit literally side-by-side?
    • However, the idea is still being considered, with no promises.
  • How will Bellisseria expand given it now links to Sansara and Jeogeot? Options are open, including working with private estates to move with elsewhere within the grid, if this becomes necessary. Where new Linden Homes regions are placed may also related to the idea of linking continents together (see below).
  • Will LL provide rolling stock for the railway? Short answer: no, not for the foreseeable future.
  • How should Bellisseria covenant violations be dealt with? A) take the good neighbour approach and talk to the violator. B) if that fails, file an AR. It should be noted that if issues are noted directly by Lindens or the Moles, then will attempt to pro-actively resolve matters.
  • [39:45-40:50] What is it with the Back to the Future references that keep popping up? In short, a region on the Bellisseria continent is a partially-completed trestle bridge in homage to the bridge seen in the climax of Back to the Future 3. So, rail travellers beware! There is more to come around this and a storyline for it.

General Items

  • [18:01-18:35] With the Sansara-Bellisseria-Jeogeot link-up, are their plans to link all of the continents together? Maybe. There are more connections coming.
  • [21:07-21:45] Will Premium Plus offer larger land parcels than the 1024 sq m available to Premium members? There are plans to present a Linden Homes offering to Premium Plus members. This is not open for detailed discussion as yet.
  • [28:50-29:53] What is the 5-year plan for the LDPW? For the next three years: Linden Homes. Alongside of this are projects related to the new user process, Premium benefits, cyclical work such as the SL Birthday, a lot of marketing support work etc.
  • [31:27-32:19] When will the Second Life Rail Road (SLRR) get an overhaul? Maintenance of the Mainland SLRR system is constantly in progress. However, any larger-scale project depends on time being available & what is meant by “overhaul” – e.g. going through and updating the entire track layout would be a multi-year project, and so not currently on the cards. There are also some core differences in design with the Bellisseria system (e.g. tightness of the bends) that mean it is not 100% compatible with the SLRR.
  • [36:20-37:04] Will the old 512 sq m Linden Homes be refreshed? No. The intent remains that once a critical mass with the new Home take-up has been reached, the old Linden Homes mini-continents will start to be retired and removed.
  • [38:00-39:43] A discussion on what each of the moles would build if their had free reign to do so: pooled ideas were:
    • An amusement park – Moley World.
    • A water world / park.
  • [42:53-43:55] Are there plans to update the Mainland in general, e.g. high resolution terrain textures, improved landscaping, etc? Has been talked about; could be something that’s undertaken beyond the 3-year plan for Linden Homes.

Previewing Lab Gab 15: Patch, the Moles and the New Linden Homes theme

Posted on by Inara Pey
via Linden Lab

The 15th edition of Lab Gab will be live streamed on Friday, February 28th at 11:00 SLT (19:00 UK; 20:00 CET). For those who have not seen the official blog post about it, the segment will feature Patch Linden and members of the Linden Department of Public Works (LDPW) – the famous Moles, resident builders who undertake Mainland infrastructure and other projects on behalf of Linden Lab, and who have been spending a lot of time over the last 12 months building-out the Linden Homes continent of Bellisseria, and who also provide the regions and infrastrucutre / core builds for SLB event, including this year’s SL17B.

Part of Patch’s responsibilities at the Lab covers the work of the LPDW, although his remit is far wider than that.

Patch Linden. Credit: Linden Lab

Originally a Second Life resident and business owner who joined the platform in 2004, Patch joined the Lab in 2007, initially working as a support agent and then as a support liaison. From there he moved to the Concierge team, eventually becoming that team’s manager.

Following this, Patch shifted focus to the role of Operations Support Manager for a year prior to pivoting away from support entirely to join the Product group, the team responsible for defining the features, etc., found within Second Life, where he developed the Land Operations team, which includes the Linden Department of Public Works (LDPW).

In 2019 he was promoted to Vice President, Product Operations and joined the Lab’s management team. The role continues to see him managing all of the Lab’s user support operations (some 5 teams), including the LPDW. He also forms one-third of the “troika” (as Grumpity Linden has called it) overseeing Second Life’s continued development, working closely with Grumpity and Oz Linden, both of whom also joined the Lab’s management team alongside of Patch.

Patch and the Moles will be responding to questions put forward to them by users – and there is still time (just!) to submit yours.

So, if you would like to know about Patch’s role, how support works, what might be coming to SL as a part of the Product Operations team’s work, how you might become a Mole, or have questions concerning Linden Homes and future plans – including the 5th Bellisseria Linden Homes theme – or what might be coming with SL17B this June, then drop them via the  Lab Gab Episode 15 Questions form!

The programmed will be streamed via YouTube, Facebook, Mixer, or Periscope, and if all goes according to plan, I’ll have a summary of the video (and the video itself) available soon after the the broadcast, for those unable to watch live.

Some of the LPDW moles and Patch, as they appeared at the SL16B Meet the Moles event.

What’s That? “New Linden Homes Theme”?

Yes, one hour before Lab Gab airs, Patch and the LPDW, in conjunction with Relay for Life of Second Life and the American Cancer Society, will be revealing the next new Linden Homes Theme, as announced by ACS:

What might the new Linden Homes theme be? Find out when LPDW and RFL of SL / ACS reveal all on February 28th, 2020

The American Cancer Society is excited to host the 5th Linden Home Reveal as part of the 2020 SL Home & Garden Expo. Residents are welcome to take a tour of the new Linden Home theme that will become available at 10am SLT on Friday, February 28, 2020. Residents can land on the American Cancer Society Island and walk to the Reveal region following the directional signs from there.

“We are always grateful for our relationship with Linden Lab and are honoured to host the Themed Home Reveals,” says Stingray9798 Raymaker, American Cancer Society staff Director in Second Life. “We hope to use this opportunity as a way to educate the residents of Second Life that the American Cancer Society is here to help cancer patients and caregivers from around the world, and to give our Second Life community a means to fight back against a disease that has taken too much.”

This marks the 5th Linden Home theme that will be added to the Bellisseria community, alongside the previous 4 themes: traditional, trailers, houseboats, and Victorian.

– from the official ACS announcement about the new Linden Homes reveal

I’ll also have more on the new Linden Homes theme following the reveal.

Lab Gab: Second Life in 2020 with Ebbe and Grumpity (and Keira!)

Posted on by Inara Pey
via Linden Lab

The 14th edition of Lab Gab was live streamed on Friday, February 21st and featured as guests, Ebbe Linden (aka Linden Lab CEO Ebbe Altberg) and Grumpity Linden, Vice President of Product, who between them discussed the Second Life roadmap for 2020.

As might be expected, a call to Second Life users to submit questions that might be asked of Ebbe and / or Grumpity generated a lot of feedback, so little time was lost in getting down to hearing their responses. Note that this summary may not reflect the chronological order in which questions were asked; however, time stamps are provided for those wishing to jump to a specific point in the video, and a complete video is embedded at the end of this article.

But first – Sansar and Linden Lab

[1:09-5:06]

At the top of the programme, Ebbe confirmed Linden Lab is no longer “sponsoring”, as he put it, Sansar, and are actively seeking a new home for the platform.

So as you might have heard, sadly we have decided that we, as Linden Lab, couldn’t continue to sponsor the project financially, so we’re looking for a plan B for Sansar to continue. I can’t say much, but we’re having very interesting conversations with several parties to help that project move forward, which I’m really excited about. But no deal is done yet, so people will just have to be patient and see what happens with it, but yes  it is true that Linden Lab going forward will focus entirely on Second Life and Tilia. I’m still busy making sure that Sansar finds a great home and that the great work that that team has started can continue.

– Ebbe Altberg

He went on to note that the company is continuing to work with those they have laid off to help their secure their futures, and that overall, Linden Lab remains in a strong financial position with strong confidence in the future, vis Second Life and Tilia Inc.

You can read more on this in Lab seeking a “plan B” to secure Sansar’s future.

Current Technical Projects

Cloud Uplift

[5:51-8:28 and 10:30-11:03 and 27:13-28:41 and 49:47-51:51]

  • Cloud uplift is the term now being employed by the Lab to describe the project to transition all of Second Life to cloud-based provisioning.
  • This has been a long-term project, with considerable planning and preparation work having thus far been completed, and 2020 marking the time when the actual transitioning of services takes place (“lifting them to the cloud”).
  • The work is long-term not just because of the number of services that must be transitioned, but also the amount of operational  / engineering requirements required to ensure that services that are linked by physical proximity and connectivity in a single hosting environment continue to function  and communicate with one another when moves to an environment where they no longer share that proximity or direct line of communication.
  • There are a lot of perceived benefits from the move, most noticeably that hardware / infrastructure renewal will no longer be a significant factor for the Lab, while longer-term the grater spread of geographical options, hardware options, etc., may mean the Lab will be able to offer broader simulator products or reduce latency between physical groups of users and  the servers they most regularly access, etc.
  • The downside of this is that for the time being, the focus for engineers and developers at the Lab is very much on the cloud uplift, and not on developing new features.
  • The hope is that his work will be completed by the end of 2020, otherwise the Lab starts incurring costs (e.g. Cap Ex costs) they’d prefer to avoid.
  • Once the transition has been completed, a further benefit could be with LL being able to experiment with different (and more recent) server types to help with simulator-side performance, and perhaps even offer different product offering based on different servers, with suitable price points (e.g. those running venue that have high numbers on attending avatars can opt to pay to have their regions hosted on very high-end servers capable of managing the script, etc., load.
  • Currently, there are no plans to make private regions an on-demand service in the cloud (that is, only spinning up a region when there is one or more avatars in it).
    • This is primarily because of the persistence model around which Second Life has been built, and the expectations of some of the operations services have around this.
    • However, at some point after the cloud migration, it might be possible for LL to offer a kind of on-demand private region product with a suitable price-point.

Mobile Access for Second Life

[11:13-14:03]

  • Lab is developing a “companion” app for Second Life, that will initially be for iOS devices (see: Lab working on a Second Life iOS client?, Linden Lab confirm Second Life iOS client in the making (both January 2019) and Second Life iOS companion app – mini update (March 2019).
  • It is currently in internal alpha, and does *not* have 3D rendering but does provide chat, group chat, IM, and other core communications capabilities, although additional functionality may be added over time.
  • Development will be iterative, and there will be opportunities for users to help test the app when it is ready to be public-facing. The exact mechanism on how this will work is still TBD.
  • There is no formal ETA for the app, but the hope is some form of (closed?) alpha testing period may be made available in the next few months (or sooner).
  • [54:28-55:15] The focus is on iOS, with the hope that once done, it will not be a major effort to port the app to Android.

Premium Plus

[14:05-17:35]

  • Premium Plus is the upcoming new Premium subscription offering that will sit “above” the current Premium, and jokingly referred to as Premium Plös (“ploos” with a French sounding accent).
  • No formal release date as yet – as LL prefer not to commit to specifying dates so as not to disappoint should things get delayed.
    • It has, however, been stated at the monthly Web User Group meetings, that Premium Plus will not be released until some time after Name Changes has been implemented – so it is in the Soon™ category .
  • When introduced, it will have a pro rata option, so existing Premium users will have any remaining balance on their subscription at the time they upgrade credited to Premium Plus.
  • Premium Plus will have a range of additional benefits – most of which are still TBA. However, it will mean Name Changes will be “around” US $20 cheaper for Premium Plus members (so if the Name Changes fee in US $39.99 for Premium, Premium Plus many only have to pay US $19.99).
  • Focus at present is on putting in place the coding and updates required to support multiple Premium account levels.
  • Lab will continue to add value to both Premium Plus and Premium.

The Marketplace

[23:05-25:53]

  • A lot of work has been put into the Marketplace in responding to a lot of long-standing feature requests, etc, from users and in dealing with some of the low-hanging fruit of MP fixes, etc.
  • More work is planned, but again, the cloud uplift project  – which includes the MP and all of the other Second Life web properties – is the primary focus at the moment.
  • In terms of questionable content on the MP (e.g. the mis-selling of No Copy items), this isn’t an issue that can be solved via any automated means, and is thus resource intensive and does require the support of users in flagging items, etc.
    • However there are plans to replace / update some of the existing processes around these issues, so that issues can be more readily reviewed and dealt with.
  • LL are conscious of being vague on matters like this, but feel they need to be, as saying too much publicly could open the door to those less-than-earnest actors trying to circumvent actions that might otherwise impact them.
Ebbe, Strawberry and Grumpity (+cats!) in Lab Gab episode 14

Performance Improvements

[25:53-31:55]

  • A major cause of performance issues is sub-optimal content  that the viewer has to deal with when rendering (e.g. poorly-designed mesh, heavily tortured prims, sculpties, flexies, etc.), and which impact performance.
  • There’s not a lot that LL can do about this, other than appeal to content creators to consider performance when designing their models, and to region creators to do likewise when designing their regions and the impact overly complex content or the over-use of unique high-resolution textures has on the viewer.
  • In time, the more powerful server options that will be available for running simulators once they have been transitioned to the cloud may help improve server-side performance (e.g. thing like script processing, etc.).
  • In the future, more work may be put into providing better tools to help creators ensuring their content is more performant.
    • As an aside, and as reported in my CCUG summaries, work is already in progress to provide creators and user with better means of understanding the impact various content is having on their system’s performance – remembering that it is the *viewer*, not the simulator , that does most of the heavy lifting.
  • Elsewhere there have been subtle performance improvements:
    • A move of Marketplace infrastructure to a new environment means page loading times are measuring an 11% improvement; changes made to the asset services have improved inventory stability.
    • There are currently simulator updates that are being / about to be deployed across the grid sever channels that should see improvements in region crossings (updates on server deployments can be found in my weekly SUG summaries).

Name Changes

[38:08-]

  • No confirmed date for deployment.
  • Last Names competition has seen EIGHT names (rather than the originally stated five) selected to go into the first list of last names that will be available when the service is deployed: Conundrum, Dismantled, Huntsman, Littlepaws, Nova, Ravenhurst, Wumpkins, Yeatley.
  • These are the only names that will be in that first list, and the winners will be informed via e-mail.
  • The time taken for the project to be implemented is due to it touching every aspect of SL, and thus requires careful implementation and testing.
  • Rather than using a credit card or similar to pay for a Name Change, Premium members can opt to use a USD dollar balance in the Tilia Wallet, including by converting L$ to USD via the LindeX. Note that anyone who has not previously held a US dollar balance associated with their account will have to accept the Tilia Terms of  Serivce, but no identification documents need be submitted, unless any remaining US dollar balance is to be cashed out.

Environment Enhancement Project (EEP)

[44:10-46:45]

  • Again, no confirmed release date.
  • As per my CCUG summaries, the are around a dozen remaining rendering bugs to be resolved, but the hope is the deployment is now weeks rather than months away.
  • There will still be changes in how some region environments are seen in an EEP viewer compared to a non-EEP viewer, but the decision has been made to deploy rather than constantly trying to strive for a like-for-like look in all cases.
  • There is a pending rendering / graphics project that is held-up by EEP, partially prompting the desire to get what is available deployed.

Land

[17:36-19:58]

  • Transfer costs for buy-down / grandfathered regions is to be reduced from US $600 to US $300.
  • No plans for other land price reductions at this time.
  • The aim is[18:00 to continue to balance revenue generation between land and other sources.
  • Overall, the Lab feel that the reductions in land pricing introduced since 2017 (see: Linden Lab announces SL Mainland price restructuring (March 2018), and Linden Lab announces major SL private region pricing restructure (June 2018) for example) have been positive in helping move the land market forward.
  • The Lab also remains conscious of the fact that too many changes in too short a time period can disrupt the economy.

User Retention

[32:07-35:50]

  • Will be covered more in-depth in a future Lab Gab segment with the Lab’s marketing team.
  • The best way for users to help with new user retention is a) bringing friends into SL and spending time with them, getting them engaged and making friends; b) offering support and friendship to newcomers.
  • There has been some success with recent attempts to re-introduce new user mentoring.
  • LL has also invested a lot of time in bettering understanding the traffic coming to SL, allowing for more refined approaches to user acquisition.
  • There is a firm belief within LL that SL’s user base can be grown.
  • [53:54-54:25] There are roughly 5,000 new accounts logging-in to Second Life every day.

Other Items

  • [8:30-10:30] Will LL resume issuing economic stats for SL?
    • The reports were stopped many years ago. Currently the focus is on the cloud uplift, and this together with the work on projects the Lab does have in-hand or planned, means there are no plans for the present or foreseeable future to re-implement reporting economic stats.
    • However, it might be possible to implement some form of “spot” economic reporting via one of the official blogs.
  • [20:00-23:00] Does Linden Lab manipulate the LindeX L$ exchange rate?
    • Short answer: no, they do not.
    • The most LL do is sell into the market if there is a genuine need for L$, but even then, this is kept to a minimum both in terms of frequency and amount.
    • [52:02-53:52] There will be a blog post (/ series?) on how the LindeX works, etc., appearing in the near future.
  • [35:55-] Account security and two-factor authentication (2FA)
    • Yes, there are plans to introduce 2FA.
    • The first step is providing notifications of possible attempts to wrongfully access your account. This is to be rolled out in the near future. However, notifications will only be sent to verified e-mail addresses (see: Important: verifying your e-mail address with Second Life).
    • The next step will be to disallow unverified log-ins from unfamiliar locations until verification is given.
    • There are some complexities in implementing 2FA as a result of SL’s age and design, but these are being worked on.
  • [47:32-48:18] VR and Second Life:
    • There are no near-time plans to revive the work on supporting VR headsets in SL.
    • The requirement for 90-ish fps throughout for a really smooth experience is considered as mostly beyond SL’s reach due to the nature of the content.
    • However, once the cloud uplift has been completed, and after the major rendering / graphics overhaul has been delivered (e.g. 18-24 months hence), the question of VR support in SL may be re-evaluated.