Tag: LL Products

Seeking new horizons: Humble and Short talk new products and more

Posted on by Inara Pey

Games Industry today carries an interview with Rod Humble and Emily Short. Along the way, Humble discloses what drew him to Linden Lab in the first place.

Humble’s reasons for joining the company are enlightening – he’d actually forgotten about the platform and had been thinking of developing something along the same lines when the opportunity to join Linden Research popped-up. A nice example of serendipity in action.

Since joining Linden Research, Humble’s focus has been on the platform’s usability, which the article describes as being “far from perfect” – something many users would doubtless regard as an understatement. While there is still a good way to go in making things “better”, only the churlish would refuse to accept there haven’t been improvements in a number of areas, and that Linden Lab is working to get some deep-rooted issues – stability, performance, region crossings, even (dare I say it) the official Viewer – properly addressed.

There are also some comments that are liable to have users cringing in some quarters. Humble’s comments on gaming mechanics in particular may well offer little comfort to some as to the future of the platform. While SL may not itself be a game, it is a perfectly valid platform upon which users can develop games of their own if they so wish. Indeed, one might argue many have been doing precisely that almost since the platform entered open beta 10 years ago. That LL are now making the capabilities to do so easier to use is demonstration that the company is working meet user demands and provide more effective means by which the platform can be leveraged by users themselves.

As well as wanting to get issues around SL’s usability sorted out, Humble reveals that one of his overall goals would be to expand LL’s portfolio of products – to put the “Lab” back into “Linden Lab”. Reading this, one is tempted to wonder if this desire formed a part of his  pitch for the CEO position, and was thus one of the reasons he was hired. Thirteen years with just a single product is a remarkable achievement for any company – but it is also a precarious position to hold.

In terms of the acquisition of LittleTextPeople, it appears to be something of a natural symbiosis more than a straight buy-out: Humble / LL were working in a particular direction and at the end of last year it became apparent that Short and Evans were working towards the same destination. Thus, the acquisition was to their mutual advantage. It’s also interesting to note that the Humble / Short / Evans relationship is a lot deeper than the EA Games link between Humble and Evans many of pointed to when news of the acquisition broke.

As to the product itself, little is said in detail, but what is mentioned helps frame the product more clearly. It will be primarily text-based with 2D graphics. It will be a story form, but deal with social interactions – how people treat each other and what say to one another. Most intriguingly of all however, is that it appears the product will be capable of supporting user-generated content. “Although it will launch with some very, very well crafted content, the overall plan – just like all Linden lab products – is to democratise the actual creation process. Other people will be able to make things on that platform. That’s really the business we’re in: building platforms that allow people to express themselves in different ways.” Humble informs Games Industry when mentioning the product.

Of the other two products currently being developed at the Lab, even less is said other than the intimation they will also support user-generated content – although Humble did hint this would be the case when the development of new products was first announced at SLCC-2011. However, this is the first time we’ve had it directly confirmed that three products are currently in the pipeline. Again, Humble has only previously hinted at this in a comment on New World Notes, wherein he made reference to the LTP project being “Product 3”, and there being a “Product 2” under way at the Lab as well – although at the time, some did speculate as to whether “Product 1” was perhaps Second Life.

The interview isn’t going to satisfy everyone within the SL community, but for my part, I found it a worth-while read, not so much the for the titbits of information that emerge about the upcoming new products, but because it again shines a light on Rod Humble’s thought processes and some of his strategic thinking where both the company and SL are concerned. Given the company has been pretty quiet when it comes to talking to the community as a whole on such things, it’s refreshing to gain this kind of near-candid insight, and actually does help restore one’s faith that, overall, SL is in a safe pair of hands right now – a perception that has been slipping a little of late.

Obviously, the new tools being rolled-out / developed for SL and the new products themselves aren’t going to lift LL out of the perceived mire, and it fair to stay the company is facing further clouds on the horizon –  particularly around the stormy issue of tier. But taken as a whole, this is a positive piece and carries with it the promise that we may well be hearing a lot more from LL as whole in the coming months – and that in itself will be refreshing.

Don’t just take my word for it – go read the article, and don’t miss the side-bar piece as well.

With thanks to Daniel Voyager for the pointer.

LittleText Prople: Lab acquires, users speculate

Posted on by Inara Pey

It’s been over a year since Linden Lab last put out a Press Release – long enough for most of us to have given up looking at the official Linden Research PR page (I was checking monthly up until December, then lost the will after a year of silence). Fortunately, Tateru Nino has kept a weather eye on things, because yesterday, Linden Research did slip out a release, announcing the acquisition of LittleTextPeople, a move linked directly with the company’s upcoming new products, as the press release states:

Best known for Second Life®, Linden Lab will grow its digital entertainment offering by launching several new stand-alone products this year. Now part of Linden Lab, the talent and technology of LittleTextPeople will support the development of these new forms of interactive entertainment.

LittleTextPeople was founded by Emily Short, and Richard Evans. Short is perhaps best known for her work in Interactive Fiction, starting with her 2000 title Galatea, and her psychology-complex NPCs, while Evans was formerly the Senior AI Architect at Electronic Arts (spot the connection! 🙂 ), where he was involved in the development of The Sims 3.

The press release describes LittleTextPeople thus:

LittleTextPeople explores the gameplay possibilities of nuanced social interaction. The company’s core technology is a simulator able to model social practices and individual personalities. Combine the simulations with the expressive freedom of fiction and the result is gameplay that more closely resembles the rich emotional dialogue of a novel, rather than a fight scene in an action movie.

In breaking the news to a wider SL audience, Tateru’s piece has drawn very mixed reactions, some fairly negative, some speculating on how the acquisition might fit with LL’s plans for the development of NPCs (Non-player Characters) within SL. However, at this point in time, such commentary is only speculation – Linden Research give absolutely no indication that the experience gained via this acquisition will have wider application within Second Life. As Rod Humble himself comments in the press release:

“LittleTextPeople brings a depth and breadth of AI and interactive story development expertise that is a great fit for Linden Lab as we launch multiple new products,” said Rod Humble, CEO of Linden Lab. “The result of this investment will be a new type of digital entertainment that modernizes the novel as a shared story-telling experience.”

Note the emphasis on the intended product – “A new type of digital entertainment” – rather than any overt link to Second Life. However, one cannot deny that the acquisition may have a broader fit for Linden Lab further down the line as products and ideas mature, particularly as NPC capabilities are seen as a major development for SL during 2012 and elements of which are even now entering a test phase. As such, it may well be interesting to see where this relationship leads over time.

The negative reactions to Linden Research broadening its product brief appear to stem from the belief that doing so detracts from on-going development of Second Life. However, there would seem to be little in the way of substantive evidence that this is so. As evidenced by the Linden Research recruitment page over the last few months, the company is clearly recruiting fresh talent clearly aimed at the development of these new products while continuing to recruit talent for the development and support of SL. Similarly, as has been frequently pointed out, currently Linden Research is somewhat exposed in the fact that it does only have the one product – Second Life – in its portfolio. This weakens the company’s position somewhat in terms of attracting wider investment and places a lot of pressure on SL to perform well financially. Over time, and assuming the new products are successful, diversification should be beneficial for the company and Second Life in both of these areas.

Obviously, the main problem here is that, when all is said and done, we actually know very little about the new products themselves and how they will be marketed and their likely appeal. As such, it is possibly easier to voice concerns than might otherwise be the case.

Nevertheless, this is an interesting move, and one is curious as to what comes next where these new products are concerned – and how soon it will be before we do start seeing more substantial information emerging about their development.

Related Links

With thanks to Tateru Nino

More speculation on LL’s new products

Posted on by Inara Pey

Daily Finance carries an article speculating on the upcoming new products from Linden Lab.During his SLCC presentation, LL CEO Rod Humble pointed to the fact that the company would be releasing new products, and mentioned that tablets and mobile devices were of interest to the company.

While little has been formally said by the Lab itself, the article speculates on one of the potential products, stating:

  • Is being designed as a mobile gaming platform that would allow users to create or generate games on Apple‘s (AAPL) iPad or other iOS devices
  • Will be a browser-based design aimed at allowing users to create text adventure games, a type of genre that incorporates puzzle solving and exploration into a storyline.

Interestingly, the article comments that the green light and that “efforts are underway” to develop the product. Rod Humble’s comments at SLCC tended to suggest things were somewhat more advanced on than this.

The article also raises the speculative prospect of an acquisition, using Mr. Humbles ties with EA games as a reference:

“Given Humble’s gaming experience and close ties to Electronic Arts — where he headed the EA Play label, which included popular PC game The Sims — the 12-year-old privately held Linden Lab could make an interesting addition to the game publisher titan EA. (EA recently announced a large acquisition, PopCap Games, that carried a value of at least $750 million.)

“That said, IDC’s Ward notes that for such an acquisition to possibly work, Linden Lab would need to have a large user base for its gaming platform and demonstrate strong forward momentum.

“Gartner analyst Brian Blau says that it’s unlikely that EA will want to pin its hopes on an unproven gaming platform. However, he notes that if Linden Lab gets into the user-generated games business — turning Second Life players into game makers — it would set the company apart, in that he has never seen that type of offering before.”

Read the Daily Finance piece in full.

LL diversifying? What does that mean?

Posted on by Inara Pey
LL CEO Rod Humble

Potentially the most interesting comments to come out of Rod Humble’s presentation at SLCC 2011 were related to the fact that Linden Lab may be diversifying. These started early on when he announced:

“You are going to see Linden Lab working on new products as well as Second Life”.

While he refused to delve into specifics, it has led to speculation that he may be referring to what Hamlet Au refers to as a new “SL Light experience” that will utilise “the web and tablets”.

Hamlet was certainly in a position to ask Rod questions on the matter after the presentation, given he’s at SLCC; and so may have a greater insight than I; certainly, there is no denying Rod indicated that Linden Lab is eyeing-up the tablet marker where Second Life is concerned. However, I cannot help but speculate that Linden Lab is going after something a lot broader than just introducing a “light” version of SL when Rod refers to the growing tablet / mobile market.

Look at his comment, quoted above, for example. It clearly differentiates between Second Life and a product and whatever else Linden Lab has planned. This seems an odd statement to make if whatever is coming down the line is simply aimed at enhancing Second Life’s reach. It’s also a differentiation that came up again during the extensive Q&A session. Here’s what he said:

“The other massive opportunity and massive threat to on-line games and everyone in this room is the rise of tablet and mobile devices; and right now we don’t participate on those devices. So you will see us address for Second Life, but also for at least one new product, the area of tablets in particular and some mobile stuff as well.” [my emphasis]

Again, if Linden Lab are simply looking towards opportunities to extend Second Life’s reach, it seems odd that he clearly differentiates between Second Life and the “new products” in this comment.

So what else could he be referring to? Here’s where the speculation begins.

A recurring theme during the 45 minutes Rod was on stage was what I’m going to refer to “social involvement”, so much so that it is hard not to link them with his comments relating “new products”.To bullet-point some of the references:

  • He was at pains to emphasis the importance of people being able to define their own persona on-line and to be able to set their own barriers as to how much they reveal about themselves and how they establish divides or barriers between what the reveal / how they interact with others according to the environment / situation they are in
  • He also emphasised twice that Linden Lab believes that customer privacy is paramount, and that they will not do anything that betrays this
  • A number of his comments were around LL’s perception that people’s habits are changing with regards to Second Life, people are spending less time engaged in-world, but more time engaging socially about Second Life through various mediums – the new web profiles, Twitter, etc.

In this last point, he specifically points out, “By the way, I mentioned that Second Life was growing earlier…there’s a really interesting dynamic as well, is that many of the new users of Second Life are a very, er, very younger demographic…sort-of a mid-twenties, college age. And they also…they are generally spending less time in-world but more time socialising within Second Life social circles…and I think that’s really interesting.” He goes on to note that this is common in other on-line games and suggests that the onus for LL is to enhance this capability, “for our customers”.

Wen profiles: precursor to LL’s move towards wider on-line social involvement?

This would all seem to point towards Linden Lab moving more into the realm on on-line social involvement. It’s something they’ve tried, albeit on a very limited basis through the acquisition of Avatars United a couple of years back, which was ultimately discarded – which is not to say they ever gave up on the idea.

In many respects, it makes sense for the company to move into social involvement in a more premeditated manner, as a) this is clearly a growing market; b) through Second Life, they have been developing capabilities and knowledge ideally suited to the environment (i.e. through my.secondlife.com). What’s more, they are willing to step away from the likes of Facebook and Google+ and uphold the principles of pseudonymity and privacy, which could make such a move attractive to a broad audience.

Of course, it would be ridiculous to suggest that Linden Lab could in any way take-on the likes of Google or Facebook in the broadest sense; and I’m certainly not suggesting that.

But then, they don’t have to. By providing a set of social media tools that enable gamers, Second Life users and others to remain connected, to “meet” and discuss their interests, passions, plans, swap ideas, link-up with others and so on, they could potentially tap into a huge market, and offer them the ability to leverage technology and capability already developed that would not necessarily impact on their focus of “fixing” core issues and services within the Second Life platform itself.

There’s also the matter of diversification and revenue. Hamlet himself (rightly or wrongly, depending upon one’s standpoint) makes much of the current revenue stream enjoyed by Linden Lab (the “sale” of SL “land”) as being somewhat unsustainable – and over time, he may well be right. Ergo, it would make sense for LL to look at other opportunities and markets in which to generate new income. Although precisely how this might be achieved is harder to define, and worthy of a separate debated in and of itself.

It’s going to be interesting to see what is announced in the coming months and, equally, how Second Life users respond to whatever comes out of the Lab – particularly if it is seen as “taking effort away” from supporting Second Life. In this latter regard, assuming the new products are divorced from Second Life, LL will doubtless have a fine balancing act to perform where user happiness is concerned.