Is the Demise of Second Life Nearing?

/me wonders if the author of the article referred to has found out that his source of inspiration has gone bust.

Apparently Valleywag kept getting their predictions so wrong, that what few readers they did have left in the end, also gave up in disgust at their incompetence. And went back to getting a way better line on the future by using far superior sources of information. Like crystal balls, magic circles, frogs intestines and stuff like that.

I have just one thing to say here. Whether you're packing up and leaving early for the end of SL, or getting set for the RL end of days in 2012... can I have your stuff?

I don't really believe in what will happen to the world in December 2012. It's just prophecy. Just like people fearing Y2K back in 2000. People were fearing the worst would occur at the stroke of midnight on January 1, 2000. Needless to say, nothing happened. Same thing will likely apply for December 21, 2012. Wake up that morning, it will be a normal Friday for many on this planet.

And I think the blog post about SL nearing its demise is sort of like "prophecy" on his part. Wake up on February 24, 2014, SL will still exist.

In other words, never buy into these prophecies for any reason.

Nobody sane has actually said that anything will happen to the world in 2012 except for the positioning of the stars and planets and that it marks the end of the Mayan Long Count.
There is much speculation about all sorts of things that might happen though and that is where you are right to be sceptical about it

Aside from the OP's class envy - what exactly is his or her position on SL's supposed impending demise? I might be wrong but it seemed one minute they're saying the end is near and the next that SL will survive anything- /me shakes head and runs back to the Thread - at least there the insanity is predictable.

It was undoubtedly a herculean task for the Forbes junior journo to come up with the 'Second Life Deathwatch' phrase, and he was obviously mentally drained thereafter. I wonder though; the last official blog entry was made on 13 Feb with an update about the new blog being delayed to early next week. Would that be early last week or this week?

Probably October.

I think that anyone who tries to breathe any sort of legitimacy into that 2012 end of the world bull should commit suicide that year.

2012 is the year the milky way lines up with the sun and SL titanium patch comes out..
it'll be nice to finally be stable..can't wait

Don't you think that is more than a little extreme and harsh?

I"m sorry. I really meant to say that they need to have a gasoline filled tire placed around their torso and set on fire.

All because they have a belief or two? I seriously hope you are joking. If not what the heck did they do to piss you off?

I take any claim that the world will end in 2012 as a threat to myself personally. A person who claims that is saying ,"I believe that you, Bree, will die in 2012". No wait. It's actually much worse than that. They are basically making a death threat to every single person on the planet. Such a person is either a psycopath if they really mean it or a deeply ignorant moron if they didn't. I mean how can a person do that and think they can get away without any consequences when nothing happens in 2012?

Wow, just wow. I thought you were merely intolerant, now I think you are a total nutcase as well, more so in fact than people who beleive the world will end on 2012.

WOOT! this means SL V2.0 must be on it's way with new avatars, working sim crossings and an end to infinite anoymous alts!

Ah, Nostradamus, where are you when we need you most!

Pep (He's been right about the three Anti-Christs: Napoleron, Hister and Alus)

If pressed for a prophecy, yeah, I'd expect that SL will survive the economic situation, but that some of the biggest names in the land market won't.
I don't know the particulars of that case, but a lot of sims are getting swapped, sold, or abandoned as part of the OpenSpace product and price changes. Of course, private sim ownership has always been volatile: many Estate renters end up with nothing when the Estate owner just decides to pull the plug without warning, and it's been that way for years.

Some of the well known names have already gone, Sarah Nerd Estates stopped dealing recently and sited the openspace fiasco as a reason. I don't know much about it but there was a notice posted on her blog.





That is a problem with renting from a private estate and why I stick to the mainland.
Linden Labs and SecondLife would have to fail as a business before mainland tier payers loose their plots.
The cost of mainland is so much less at the moment than the 10L/sqm it used to be in the past, I wonder if others are leaving the estates and coming to the mainland.

LL need to do something about mainland management though, because so much of it is cut up or just left in a mess.
The cutting still continues even after the new rules were implemented, due to LL's failure to take any real action and make examples of the perpetraitors.

One thing I am sure of, is SL will die if a suitable replacement platform appears which is well managed.

people leaving because of the OS 'debacle' is their own choice, they will be replaced by other or even new businesses.

SL will continue to change and grow, sometimes a more stable growth can be achieved better by taking a step backwards.

if your in SL to make money, imo you will have to be aware that your strategy of today could be outdated/obsolete tomorrow (whatever sector you are in)
When this happens, you can cry & leave or adapt/rethink.

sl is a very complex cutting (bleeding) edge technology (there will always be trial and error), with no competition, sure some are trying, but are a long way from providing the freedom and economy SL has.

SL is here to stay & will never die im sure


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How come Nostradamians always pop out of the woodwork after the fact? Where were they in June of 1939, or Sept 10th, 2001? C'mon guys, get your head out of your quattrains and get those predictions out.

SL isn't dead. We are. And have been sent to Hell.

Oh, I knew that Alus was l'USA in the late 70s and I was confidently expecting lunatic American presidents to get involved in middle Eastern wars around the turn of the century.

Pep (So what's difficult about predicting that?)

Well, the "great" American companies that have a sim somewhere in SL aren't as much as you think.

There are so much sims owned by individuals, so much linden dollars to spend in non-existing goods. and Linden Labs simply has a better economy going that any country today. They create real money out of copied pixels, made by someone who pays Linden labs to create them.

For them it's a win win situation and they only spend money on keeping the servers alive that host them.

Bandwidth is practically free these days, and what does a good server cost these days anyway.

SL is dead? In a sloppy Dutch newspaper they had the same thing about Dutch companies quitting SL because it costs too much.

So what if major companies quit SL? who ever joins SL to visit a Coca Cola sim anyway?
All these company sims suck, badly build, and full of campers.
Not to mention there is absolutely nothing to do there.

The best sims are residential, where someone actually takes time to create a non-profit land for fun and to sell items they create out of pixel dust in a sandbox.

Maybe Linden Labs should focus more on attracting good artists that make sculpts and make residential sales a little more profitable.

Major companies, as usual, just abuse the world a bit further, and think they are the ones running it.

So while all the griefers abuse newbies and make them leave, I tend to save these, because newbies want to see the potential of this enviroment, and eventually start buying Linden dollars. It's the people who play the game that keep it running.

Not just some lame sim nobody visits, and nobody ever changes.

Not to mention, live music, DJ's, clubs and other stuff where lots of money is spend.
So all you freeloaders out there. You want to save SL? Start buying stuff and have fun.
Buy a land, build a house, and roleplay your way into the night.

It's what I do.

And you sat on it all this time?

I guess it wasn't that hard to imagine...just followed in the footsteps of the lunatic European leaders who got involved in Middle Eastern wars around the turn of the previous century.

I thought everyone knew that.

Pep (electing various Bushes make it kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy)