What is Linden Lab's Goal?

Okay, let's lay the background of major buisness choices by LL. Forgive me if I miss any, or do not know of some that happened prior to my joining of the SL Community.

1) LL enacts Open Registration to boost Population numbers for PR purposes. Positive/Negative impact of this open to debate, but it did get LL noticed by more. The "disposable alt" also increased "griefing" across the Grid.

2) LL begins reduction of Stipends to stabilise the value of the L$. Removing Basic Stipends while lowering the Premium. L$ stabilised, but Premium account value reduced to having on the perk of owning land. Many Residents now staying Basic as there is no incentive to go Premium.

3) Voice implemented. I list this feature, not so much that it is, or is not, a problem, but that it caused so much contraversy. From my viewpoint, I'd say this feature is only used by a very small minority, but had a large amount of resources at LL for some reason. Resources that could have been fixing known issues like inventory loss, or even just the embedded notecard bug.

4) Wagering banned. Due to RL laws as well as continued use of credit companies. While a nessicary item, still one that impacted SL in a large way with large sums of L$ and USD being cashed out.

5) IDV testing/implementation begun. While verifying age is not adversly looked upon by the majority of the Residents, the slipshod, worthless mannor in which LL is proposing it be implemented is. Many not upgrading as they wait, and even a few just leaving over it.

6) VAT taxes. From what I can gather, these are required by EU law (I'm American, so forgive me if I've misunderstood that part). As with IDV, it is more the implentation, that the actual act that is causing a stir. If LL had given any warning/notice, then I doubt there would have been much of an uproar. The sudden slam of the payments causing RL budget issues as well as sending more for cashout and tiering down.

4 & 6 could not be avoided, but could have been handled vastly more copentently.

The others are LL's decisions alone (Yes, the IDV thing is from "ageplay" but we all know the proposed system is a smokescreen to the media), most of which have adversly effected the Community. By doing that LL cuts their own profits because people cash out, tier down, cancel Premium Accounts, or simply stop comming to SL to spend money here.

My RL buisness is there to make money. As LL keeps cutting their own profits, what the heck are they in buisness for? Just WHAT is LL's goal as a company?

~Jessy

Disneyfication ...

make it chock full of freebie accs, restrict anything offensive to US advertisers and sponsors, eliminate 'adult content' and prepare it for massive share sell off to a bigger player so that P Linden et all can retire zillionaires and move on to another project where they dont make the same mistakes again and make even more money...

as for you and me... bye and thanks for all the dollars, your virtual worlds creative dream is just a financial strategy... we dont count and never will..

local taxes prove that.... see my predictions in another thread, it's all coming true..

I think the LL Employees want the grid all to themselves. They're tired of us mucking up their system.

I gotta think the big sell out is coming. Phil's envisioned world has gone to shit, so now it's time for the Providers to grab all the Quatloos they can.

You forgot

Ageplay (except for a side mention),
The Prim Tax (before my time)
Failure to regulate in world financial "institutions"
Introduction of the LindeX (a move which possibly invalidates LL's claim that the $L is an "in-game token of no value"
Insane credit card policies
Moved banking overseas (part of the VAT fiasco, but has other implications)
Removal of in-world Help
Delays in certifying Volunteers
Overall failures of communication
Failure to regulate use of bots
Failure to enforce terms of service (griefers, copybots, etc.)
Inability to insure inventory and protect intellectual property of Residents
Institution of "class warfare" between private estate owners and mainland owners due to differing policies on tier, restrictions, etc.
Failure to curb adfarms and their various abuses (adcutting, land extortion, etc.)
Failure to provide a stable hardware and software platform for its users

Older residents could add a lot more to the list, I'm sure.

The overall point is: Linden Research HAS no overall coherent business plan, other than possibly to make SL look attractive to a buyer via large numbers of "registered users" and dollar turnover. I'm not at all sure that LL really understands how the virtual world they created works. If they understood what it is that makes SL so attractive (despite all of its problems), they would not be trying so hard to push it as a corporate communications medium, something for which it's not well suited. They would be pushing it as a platform for individual self-expression and social interaction...which it is.

And they left poor Strife alone here, trying to keep us all in check!

http://lindenlab.com/about

And I think they truly mean it.



The people in charge of this have money on a scale that most of us will never truly understand.

It's about a legacy, for them.

LL is in a sticky position right now. On the one hand they have to cope with an ever growing platform and the political implication, on the other hand they run full speed forwards or they will be overtaken by one of their new more limber competitors.

LL's setting the path for virtual worlds, and if they stumble a competitor will take the lead. Right now the race is for an overarching 3D Web standard. Whoever writes the first unified 3D World / 3D Web standard wins. The first accepted standard will cause all competitors of it to writhe and wither. I think it will be 3 to 6 months before someone publishes a standard.

that's why I have faith in this place.

I appreciate the views of those of you experienced in online stuff and who have been here a long time, but to someone new off the street like me, they haven't shown me a lot, at least on the business side of the house.

I agree on the all-ahead or lose to competitors (though really, the competitors I see are SADLY lacking yet).

It's intriguing that you set such a near timeframe for it, Strife. 3-6 months is not that long off, though things do happen at a rapid pace in the tech races.

However, I still think stability verses "shinies" workes better in the tech field. Case in point; look at Windows Vista. Brand new shiney that sucks eggs. People are moving away from Windows because of it (I know I was looking at Mac and Linex the other day). Making the Grid, inventory, sim-crossings, etc more stable would be things to put SL far above the competition.

And no one can dispute the power of Communication (which LL lacks). If LL had/has the goal of integrating to a 3D Web, then flat out telling the Residents would go a long way in achiving that. Not only for understanding, but in assistance. Most of us who enjoy our time in SL would do all we can to keep it the best there is so it remains to be there tomorrow.

LL may be a company of only @200 employees, but they have the resources of @50,000.....if they'd just use that resource. I would have thought the Open-Sourcing of the Client would ahve shown them how much we could help. Perhaps someday LL may realise that by talking and listening(both) to the Residents, we can all make SL into something we all love, and that is very profitable for all.

I can only hope.

~Jessy

Yes ... and ... winning. Startups are always a game. And the type of people who do this sort of 'big vision' startup really love to win. They want to be proven right.

They have already proven the basic paradigm's appeal ... that may be why they don't care as much now about SL the game.

LL has one big advantage over newer competitors, in that it is the First in this particular market segment. Not the 3D games segment ... the 3D internet platform segment. They have to make the platform robust and feature-rich enough that other companies can build things on it, quicker than any meaningful competitor. Which means a new architecture for many parts of the system.

Also, keep in mind that, when evaluating a startup, actual revenues still mean little. That is why they are not tending to the pennies. Their current revenue stream is about the right order of magnitude, if they say the word investors will throw more money at them. Judging by the information that is public, they have spent relatively little venture capital (of course, no clue how much private capital has gone into it). So from a valuation point of view ... which is all that matters in an acquisition or run for IPO, they're probably in pretty good shape. Despite the plethora of stupid decisions.

I agree with post 7-10 and even at times with #4, but 500,000 regular users is not much and selling it in the state its in might not be too easy, still a lot to work on.

They have to comply with Laws, what a headache for new territory, many of them new and more to come, US thinking of taxing virtual properties, here in Canada hear stories also and on and on...

How would one market a virtual world to a RL company, is that the holy grail??? Maybe virtual worlds can only be what they are now, albeit it with millions of more people?

And as always the Hot story of the week in the forums will fade, but I must admit they are all starting to add up!!

Purely speculative:

Say LL goes public and say each and everyone of us regular users buys stock.

I honestly wonder what the votes for direction of the company would be.... corporate platform? Individual platform? Shinies? Stability? I think I know which way MOST people in the forums would vote, but what about all the other regular users?

Their goal is to replace the intarwebz without having to get all techie, profitable, or professional - cuz that stuff's a real buzzcrunch, ya know?

What the difference between an eccentric with delusions of grandeur and a crackpot?

the hippie dippy Tao of Linden Management style in action!

What is this that you speak of?

Quite simple really. They invented a tiger, got on it for a ride and now realise they haven't got the business nuts to know how to get off or steer it in any direction without running into trouble. If you are riding a tiger the only safe way to get off is to kill it while you are riding it (well they've nearly done it) or to tranquilise it (the Disney option). Seems to me they have chosen the latter but have used too much dope and are nearly risking the former happening.

They have always charged the rules as they went, either for the better but mostly for the worse at times. 6/6/2006 was not a good moment for us on sl. But those that had the chance to play here due to not having the funds it was plus. But on the other hand SL with now a population reaching 10,000,000 but only 4,000,000 ( if that are unqie Sp?) Shows LLABS cares only about numbers ( not caring about how many alts a user has ). But what is inmortant is the support. If we can get a support system that works i say we be in good shape.

Too late for the big sell out. Google is working on their own version of SL as we speak. Its all over the net. If anyone can build a better SL its Google. They have the money and the people to do it. I mean SL could still sell but the more they destroy SL the less they are going to get in the end.

Right now they wouldnt be able to sell at any price till investors see Googles SL
LL has WAY to bad a rep for any real investor to throw cahs at them... all they have is a broken toy..nothing more

I am really worried about LL's competition. If Google really takes a serious crack at this, they would probably be the first out of the gate. In 6 months if mountains haven't moved, LL will have wasted it's head start, if they can't leverage it, it won't matter. After 6 months the other platforms will have enough market share that they won't be crushable; they may linger on for years. For me, keeping LL on top means that SL will prosper. If the standards get properly written, there is no reason why they couldn't incorporate the competition into the grid and then things get really interesting.

You missed the Architecture Work Group blog post. It is the task of the ArchWG to design the specification. The first meeting was about understanding the architecture, LL's goal for the architecture and starting the dialog as to what should be in the specification.

LL already is utilizing the Open-Source community for ArchWG. The people who attended the meeting in meat space were all very intelligent and articulate, and only a few were Linden employees. A number of large companies were represent but not in a official capacity... IBM, Samsung, Apple. The people who attended this meeting were engineers and programmers. We discussed many of the topics critical to the task and what needed to be done. Social implications were not something we spent much time on.

There will be social change in SL as a result of opening the grid, there will be introduce entirely new dynamics. The new domain system will result in domains acting like countries. Domain politics is going to be an entirely new beast. Some time in the next 5 years we are going to see domain wars fought in court room revolving around breach of contract. The tail will wag the dog.

It's going to be like Frankenstein's monster but who will be Frankenstein? Linden Lab or some other company? Whichever monster can terrorize the town first and most effectively won't have to retrofit their monster to be compatible with everyone else's.

Now you know what I'm doing when I'm not on the forums, I'm on the Wiki trying to make sense of this (or reading a book ).

http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/09/19/slgarchwg1/

I am with you on this one Strife. If anyone can build a better mouse trap its going to be somebody big like Google. Time will tell I guess. Maybe this will be enough to get some Corp people off their rear ends at Liden Labs and start getting things in shape before its too late.

Little fact is known about what Google "My World" will be; there is only rampant speculation.
http://www.internetnews.com/commentary/article.php/3702376

From what I have personally observed, Google and LL are on speaking terms; I am going to assume they are good terms because, you may not have noticed but, SLurl is powered by Google Maps.

I don't think "My World" is the next SL, it's going to be something different. I think Google is aiming for a niche market, possibly education related. Maybe they want to make an educational 3d wiki of the world? It would explain why they approached a college for beta testing.

I still have high hopes for one of these big names to justt buy out Linden Labs. At this point I really think it would be the best move for all. It would be neat to see what kind if any, the offers Lindens Labs has got in the past.