Nu Vibez and Roleplay Guide Magazine - February 2014 | Page 37

An Open Le er to the Lindens, Hypergrid Business Report - p1

Hypergrid Business
Report

Reprinted with permission from
HypergridBusiness.com
Original ar cle here:
h p://www.hypergridbusiness.com/2014/01/anopen-le er-to-the-lindens/

An open le er to
the Lindens
By Maria Korolov

Dear Linden Lab board of directors:
I just heard that CEO Rod Humble is
stepping down. I guess you guys will be
looking for a new chief?
I’d like to suggest some ques ons to ask
yourselves as you decide the future
direc on of the company.
Now, you might think that I’m no fan of
Second Life, wri ng as I do about
OpenSim all the me. But I’m actually a
huge fan. I created my Second Life avatar
in 2005, and was inspired by its founding
vision of a three-dimensional, immersive
metaverse. I don’t want Second Life to
fail.

Is Second Life a pla orm or a social
game?
For many people, the promise of Second Life
was as a pla orm, a stepping stone to the
metaverse, a technological embodiment of
Neal Stephenson’s visionary novel Snow Crash.
There was the release of its viewer code as
open source in 2007. That famed teleport
between OpenSim and Second Life back in
2008. The release of Second Life Enterprise in
2009. For a while, it seemed that the Second
Life grid would be just one piece of a large,
interconnected metaverse.
But work on inter-connec vity with OpenSim
quickly stopped, and Second Life Enterprise,
which allowed companies to host their own
version of Second Life behind their firewalls,
was discon nued in 2010, as were discounts
for educators and non-profits. In 2013, Second
Life eliminated viewer support for OpenSim
and forced creators to give up more of their
intellectual property rights. (But it did bring
back the educator discounts.)
It seemed that Second Life was doubling down
on being a social game. Features were rolled
out that enhanced the player experience and
strengthened Linden Lab as a game company
but turned its back on the broader metaverse.
Obviously, crea ng a pla orm is much more
difficult than crea ng a game. There is usually
only one successful pla orm, but there can be
Nu Vibez Magazine - February 2014 - 37