Second Life Grid(tm)

I took the Pie route as well. I live my Second life day to day, as it comes. All the talk of the Future just give me a headache.

I view this vague news differently.

This year was the first time that LL said they were making a profit. I expect that was largely due to the influx of the corporations (and the sim setup fees).

As the corporations now seem to be leaving in droves, it appears as if LL is trying to court the moneybags. Unfortunately, marketing alone probably won't fix the reasons the corporations are leaving.

This reminds me of the "free account" push of about a year ago: trying to increase revenue by addressing only the demand side of the equation. The reasons that corporations are leaving and the conversion to premium account rate is so low is likely because of the supply side - that is, a non-borked experience for most players.

do you ppl ever get tired of going ot with that infernal pie talk?

Mmmmmmmmmm, pie.....

it was option number four in the poll that started it

I'll gladly stop talking about pie if we can make the usage of "Kewel" a broadly offensive act, punishable by being tied upside down to the top wing of Trouts' BiPlane as he does corkscrews and flat spins. *Can you flat spin a BiPlane?*

Kewel

Numbers?

How many corporate sims were set up this year?
How many (??droves??) have left?

Trout can. But he's more likely to plant it ten thousand meters beneath the sea floor.

Trout, I am SO getting you a leather flying helmet for Christmas.


As for this "Grid" thing, I've got mixed feelings. My first thought was, Just another example of LL trying to woo the corporate market. After all, if BigCorp has their own little partitioned-off Grid, they don't have to worry about the griefers and the escorts and the adfarms, which could make an SL type world more attractive to them.

Thass OK...but what happens if LL concentrates all their attention on the new Grid product and leaves us Residents mired in an old, unstable metaverse? Not good.

I thought it very interesting that 40% of new Residents are coming through the third party portals. Further confirmation that LL is failing to offer the potential SL Resident what he or she needs in order to give SL a try. And I'll say it again...it's the individual Residents that LL should be pursuing as customers. SL is made for the individual, not the organization.

The poster who mentioned that the corporate types aren't comfy without a suit on their avatar rang a bell, too...we had one guy come to OI Public whose main concern was finding a suit for himself.

Hmm...if LL wants to be so tight with the corporate johnnies, why don't they include a Suit in the Library/Clothing folder? In fact, why not make The Suit the default Avie, instead of poor Ruth?

Aw. forget I said that. Who'd want to go to SuitFest?

I do not see this as good news. Lindens have realized that SL is tanking and are despirately looking for new sources of income. It is a hastely and ill devised plan at best. It will ultimatly fail, but not before it has drained the very last of development and captial resources out of SL. Leaving nothing for you and I. You think things are bad now, just wait as service and reliability degrade further.

This past Labor Day I spend the afternoon doing a walk-about of all my old favorites spots in SL. To my dismay there was desolation everywhere. Many, many business of all kinds, gone, closed, boarded up. For Sale signs everywhere. Doom, death and destruction approach.

I think they need a no-nonsense client that just launches users directly into SL. Everything should be very simplified too. Simplified character creation. Give them several default business dressed avatars to choose from. Disable the ability to change one's avatar. Stop people from being able to teleport out of the sim. Disable flying. Disable IMs. etc..

You blaspheme teh Kewelness of teh pie?!!

There is only one Grid; LL has only one product. The corporations are being sold a presence on the current grid. In fact, the existing residents are part of the benefits that LL is selling; possible target markets.

Far downstream there may be partitioning, but that is not spoken of in the current offering.

ok ...so what exactly will these Corprorations be offereing, that i cannot get in SL, or RL already?

Right, Maggie. THis is why I say:

You should be punished for your insolence, but you shall be spared by virtue of your being a defender of Pie.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/14/will-the-last-corporation-leaving-second-life-please-turn-off-the-light/
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-secondlife14jul14,1,3135510.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

ok didnt see that post, to busy defending the pie.

ok my take on it this thus far: they will come, the will build, the will hoot n hollar, they will leave disappointed.

now where is Ann? we running outta Pie!!!

"All Their Pie Will Belong To Us"

/goes back waiting for friendslist to load, items to be rezzed and allowed to delete items with permission of the asshat servers...


Prediction of the week:
Gonna be a fun weekend this weekend as we`ve started the runup to it last night

Try Sleek. You can't see a thing either.

The Techcrunch piece begins with a reference to the LA Times article, and then goes on to say
"Wagner James Au at GigaOm has a set of figures worth looking at. " - which is at
http://gigaom.com/2007/07/12/debunking-5-business-myths-about-second-life/

Quoting from that article:
]]]]]]]]]]]]]]
Myth 3: Real World Advertisers are Linden Lab’s Main Revenue Source

Not by a long shot. About a hundred real world for-profit companies maintain an SL island, most for marketing purposes; some own several islands, so let’s be generous and estimate 500 advertising-related islands. By last month, however, Linden had sold 8336 islands, most to private individuals. So corporate advertising is roughly 6 percent of the existing isles– hardly a central cash flow. (That’s not even counting the vast acreage of Linden-controlled continents, which have little or no corporate leaseholders.)
[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[


I won't read the LA Times pieces as the site requires registration.
Did it supply any relevant hard numbers?

If we accept Au's "about 100 .. for-profit companies" and "be generous and estimate 500 advertising-related islands", then it is hard to get at all concerned about corps leaving.
I would guess that the disenchanted corps would be those that assumed that SL was akin to some sort of hosting of a corporate web site, and measured success/failure by traffic levels.

http://secondlifegrid.net/why ... promotes a more realistic set of deliverables, although unfortunately it does end off with that ridiculous "millions of users" nonsense.
LL would do themselves and their target market some service by losing that very misleading verbiage.

James Au is a former employee of LL. When he worked for them his role was to paint the rosiest picture; to my eye, his stance hasn't changed. Morever, I have no reason at all to belief he now has access to LL financials - as far as I can tell he's a guessing pundit like all the rest.

The L.A. Times article that you declined to read had largely anecdotal descriptions from some corporate customers, some "we'll market in SL for you" types, some industry analysts, and the reporter who correctly observed that the corporate islands are chronically deserted and even have empty schedules of events. Why second hand anecdotes? Probably because no marketer wants to go on record as saying "yep, we really made a mistake on this endeavor".

I expect - but have no evidence - that LL charges far more for corporate islands than for consumer land. But that is something we'll likely not ever know. I also took a brief look at the secondlifegrid.net site and see nothing but a new coat of paint slapped on the same old grid. Hope it works for them.

Heretic! BLASPHEMER!!!

Talk of the future is pretty simple really:

If Linden Lab changes anything, it is a stupid, boneheaded wrong move and the beginning of the end.

If Linden Lab leaves things as they are, it is proof they are apathetic and complacent, and it is the beginning of the end.