If LL woke up...

Recently M Linden reinterated the LL goals of creating more Enterprise and Educational opportunities, even if such goals disappoint or upset the loyal fanbase who use SL for entertainment.

This is not meant to be a thread about LL's priorities. IF I thought LL had a real chance of turning SL into the Corporate/Educational platform they aspire to make it, I could unhappily accept this concept. There is far more money to be made in creating such a platform than in creating a pixelated dream factory, and LL is a for profit company.

However, I think LL is in denial of its limitations.

In 2006 there was great buzz over SL and population exploded. Then the media turned against them, and LL began blaming their management for the retraction in growth. They chopped a few heads, and hired new ones. However, they kept the same goals for SL, become an invaluable business and educational platform. It never occured to them that the reason the media decided they were overhyped and well known companies dropped their private islands, was because SL doesn't lend itself to becoming a coporate and educational tool.

It has the technical capabilities to be such, and with a change in direction, a fantastic marketing tool, but how do you respect a guy dressed as a zebra in a three piece suit, with a human slave/partner who works as an escort, enough to do business with him? To those in SL this sounds trivial, but most of those in SL came in with a willingness to abandon conventional relationships and expectations of reality. Even where businesses would control employee avatars and islands, the fantastical and sexually-explicit environment of SL would spook off or amuse too many professionals, a limitation many competing social networking platforms avoid.

SL can't dump all adult activity or fantastical elements or it would loose the vast majority of their population, which would make it impossible to pay the bills as LL recreates SL, as well as limiting its value to business and educational institutions for marketing purposes. If they don't give up the fantasy factory, it might be impossible to ever overcome their unprofessional image.

So, my question is, if M Linden realized the inate problems of LL ever achieving their goal, and was able to convince LL as a whole that SL is not the way to create a fundamental business and educational tool (creating a seperate grid for corporations and educational institutions, using the lessons on learned on the SL grid which would be returned to a pay2play entertainment/dream realization platform, would be a better way to go), what do you think would happen?

Hell would freeze over.
I say this because it sounds like a good idea and those mix with LL like oil does with water.

LL are frantically searching for a purpose for which they can sell SL, basically.

LL fails as a corporate business/education platform because, for the cost and difficulty it adds, it just does not add enough to uses for those platforms. Most educational establishments can buy off-the-shelf software supporting online teaching and interaction between students and install it in their own computer rooms. Ditto with businesses that want to have online mettings. Why should they want to pay $100 a month, plus all the fees for additional traffic, just so that students/delegates can do exactly the same thing except they have to play out walking around, finding a seat, and zooming in on the presentation first?

LL would probably love to sell SL as a dream fulfilment platform, but they can't do that without extensive re-engineering because, well, human societies aren't made to fulful dreams. The whole reason for the "it's not a game, it's a platform" claim in the first place was that if SL is a whole were considered a game, claims of "game balance" could be applied to SL business, and nobody really wants to go there.

Since then it's been an easy content distribution system, and for a while a live music venue.. but they've yet to find their answer any more than any of us have.

Yumi, I nominate you for CEO of LL.. just remember to check your brains at the door, okay?

Now, for the question..

LL will have two ways they could go when they realize that they've got a turkey on their hands. They could make it a family fun place OR they could suck it up and aim themselves for the customers they already have... Right now? Neither seems likely.

I took OP to be saying that SL could only be used as a corporate business/education platform if they moved those things to a new grid designed specifically for them.

My imaginings fallow ...
When a student/employee signs in they are put into a specific seat in the venue. No more wondering around looking for the right place.
Presentations would be very easy to lay out and control with SL's currant programming. Several element of video and graphs are laid out on separate prims or prim faces that the attendees could then zoom in and out of at will. The instructor could use a script similar to collars for "force viewer to this setting" making all the currant participant's viewers show that the presenter wants them to be focused on.

Yes, but why would they be using SL to do that instead of, y'know, Articulate, Presenter, WebCT or any of the other custom-made systems for education that don't bring all the extra load of SL?

SL is too demanding of an average computer used by most businesses and schools. The learning curve of just getting around, chatting, enabling video, voice, etc is too steep. It looks like a game, plays like a game, requires a computer capable of playing a game..........but they insist it's a platform. Hard sell right there.

M Linden seemed to have checked his at the door, its a pity too.

SL will only succeed if they cater to their currant fan base. That does not mean that LL should not or can not move into other markets. I think that the key is seperate grids for each target audience.

A 'family fun place' already exists on the teen grid doesn't it? I've never seen the teen grid so I don't know what it's like over there.

Very true, hence Viewer2.0.

/me flips a coin* TAILS!!??Damn!!
well it doesn't look like it's going to be going so well down the road..

The teen grid is specifically not "family fun" because it won't allow the parents to participate.

I think there is room for everyone. Just like RL earth, it takes all kinds. Except here you can discover your creativity and your need to dress as a zebra and have a slave who finally has a job she/he likes a lot easier.

After all, those corps are made of people...and who says that corp culture is going to remain the same as it is now?

New grid, new viewer.

I'm just saying that LL could do it and in a new way. IMO they are years away from doing it in a marketable manner.

They have one. "Your world, your imagination". It works for enough of the population to make them a popular and successful product.

[yes, I know it doesn't work for you, that doesn't mean it's not working for more than enough people to make it worthwhile]

Personally I disagree with this assumption.

I think the real money would be in making it a pixelated dream factory.

Video games already out money Hollywood. They are where the money is at.

LL should have done everything it could to appeal to and capture the Wii crowd before that crowd had been sold on Wii and myspace. Missed opportunity there. If SL had garnered that crowd, all of the business stuff would have fallen into place on its own - just like it has for myspace.

Myspace / facebook are horrid platforms for anything, but they are -the place to be- because all of the eyes are on them.

If World of Warcarft with its 11 million or so users were to announce tomorrow that businesses could set up stalls in the popular cities that players of that game hang out in, wall street would be all over it. Such an opportunity could have been SL's, with an adult aged audience, but they kept trying to get the business and education before getting the eyes - doing it backwards.

Requires a computer BETTER than most games do.

Although this has become less of an issue in the last couple of years, the median line system SL needs is far more than most school districts are willing to shell out for.

RL businesses will end up being another misguided LL pipe dream. They will sell a few of their SLE boxes, but the overall income from those RL businesses will be comparatively less than what they already receive from the masses. They've had relative success with educational institutions, however the real cash cow, is what they already have now!

They should focus on improving the overall platform and increase their Marketing activities (virtually non-existent at the moment) and grow it's user base. I really don't think M.Linden is the right man for the job to be honest! Just judge what's happened during his tenure.

In all fairness M's taking of the reins for LL occurred almost exactly the same time the bottom dropped out of the US economy.........especially California (we're all but bankrupt at this very minute). Just keeping ahead of payroll is probably a headache........putting money in marketing is one of the lesser priorities I'm sure.

However, for LL's pipe dream (I agree, that's a suitable expression) of becoming a viable, profitable platform for a business never made a bit of sense to me. This is not something new..........it's been a stated goal of LL since I first downloaded and installed my first viewer back in 2005. I see exactly the same problems now that I saw 4 years ago.......mainly centering around how to sell a platform that resembles a game with the same or higher hardware requiremenst than anything a business would be interested in besides maybe a novelty to play with. Online video conferrencing is at a fairly mature stage........stable, proven, and requires nothing more than hardware most businesses already possess. There are also online "meeting" sites for impromptu meetings with any employee with a laptop, internet access, anywhere that employee might be located. I doubt many companies would be interested in a "business" platform that most of the world views as a high end online game. Perception is everything........if it looks like an elaborate game (which it does) it will thought as an elaborate game. Why meet with your employers/employees as a cartoon character when you can meet with them as yourself?

Like I said.........big selling issue here.

You know the old saying "money makes money"....increasing the Marketing budget during a recessionary period is the correct time to do it....especially as its a "home entertainment" product.

65% of the SL audience is outside the U.S, although everyone has had a taste of the recession some countries are now officially out of it.

I just wonder how a company like Blizzard would have marketed SL, if it were their product.

That may be.......if you have the money

And, as far as LL is concerned, SL is NOT a home entertainment product. It's a business platform.

But SL isn't the tool for the job. Sl is a wonderful paintbrush for a creative individual. But it's a lousy hammer, screwdriver or slide presentation system. SL can't possibly hope to compete with the tools readily available and in use today in Business and in Education for doing on-line communicating, training, and publicity.

Agreed. Corporate and education users haven't climbed on board in massive numbers because the tool just doesn't work for them. There are some areas that Education users do like. Some of those universities are clients of mine. But there's a vast amount of potential that they need, which SL is unlikely ever to meet.

I disagree. The limitations on how many people can interact in a sim at one time alone are sufficient to kill SL as anything but a novelty item in Marketing.

Simple enough. Open a separate grid, for business and education and family-friendly activities only, Rated G, open to all individuals age 13 and up. Facebook-style Human-only avatars, tied to real names and info. Direct the business and education users there. Keep the adult and fantasy division as a completely separate entity.

A separate grid for G-rated, non-fantasy activity would solve that, but still won't solve the high hardware cost, the steep initial learning curve just to move, the limits on how many people can interact at a time. The list goes on and on... Nothing short of a series of stunning technological breakthroughs, coupled with somehow vastly lowering the hardware requirements while not sacrificing the visual quality we are used to, would move SL into the "Sweet spot" that would make it a really attractive tool for business, marketing and education.

Sadly, what I think will happen is he won't learn a thing, until it's too late and he drives the company into the ground, or until the investors fire him and much of the rest of the top brass and replace them with people who actually understand the customers and how they use the service. The top brass at LL does not understand their customer base and how their product is actually used, and they don't understand how to deliver good customer service. They need to replace their hired management team with people that are actually trained in providing good customer service, and who are either already active in SL beyond attending closed-doors meetings on a limited access island.

Both M.Linden and Phillip have been bragging about their profitability throughout 2009. I bet they have several millions Cash in their Balance Sheet.

They are a privately held company. They can say anything they want without showing us a single page of their books. They only have to answer to investors and the IRS.............and do you think any of them will tell you what the real balance sheet looks like?

It's over Johnny. SL's best hope is for LL to sell it to a gaming/entertainment company and take the cash. Forget about being the next internet and take their Nebraska project and......

When you look at the millions made by gaming companies you have to realize that catering to the gaming public can make you a lot of money. What's that new game that came out that pretty much beat the movie industry's highest sales? Can you believe that? And those aren't corporate gamers. I mean gamers are the people who would have the hardware needed and have the mindset to easily jump into SL. I'm really not sure what LL would need to come up with to cater to such gamers but I think it would be a step in the right direction.