Does anyone feel ...

... like me, that Second Life is at a crossroads?

It seems to me that for the last couple of months the Lindens have been taking the wrong path, and that now we are in a situation where, unless drastic action is taken, Second Life will become yet another casualty of corrupt management.

If I were a Linden I would be calling for an emergency meeting in order to develop a policy that will restore customer relations.

Numbers of residents are not a marker of anything, although obviously they help when it comes to corporate sponsorship. But bearing in mind that the real numbers are probably less than a fifth of the claimed total, the apparent popularity of Second Life is an illusion. And when the underbelly goes rotten, then the time will come when the whole thing collapses in on itself, as has happened in the past to many organizations, both on the web and in the 'real' world.

What is needed now is a slow and steady growth, and this can *only* be achieved if the Lindens and the residents are working in harmony. We are so far from that situation now, thanks to recent Linden actions, that I wonder whether the situation is even capable of repair.

Time to put the brakes on, Linden Lab, and stop everything. Look around. Try to build a few links. Apologise where apologies are necessary. Be honest and open. Try to involve your paying customers again. I believe that only by doing this can you assure the survival of Second Life.

One thing you have to remember. The survival of Second Life is what we all want. We should be working in the same direction.

To see things happening in Second Life that I have already seen (and written about) in another virtual world, is not a happy situation for me. So this plea is heartfelt and genuine. For a short time forget about bugs, new features, office politics, everything. Consider how you can undo the damage you have done. Try to set things right again.

If you do that, then perhaps when the next virtual world comes along you will retain your customer base. People can be very loyal. At the moment you have dissolved the bonds that have held most of us so strongly to Second Life. You really need to try to repair them, before things reach the point of no return.

Your style of benevolent dictatorship worked really well for about two years. Now you are imposing your will on us, and taking a more repressive approach. Try to remember that we are paying customers, not criminals.

Bring us back on board, and there is no limit to what Second Life can become. Ditch us, and you become a footnote in the history of dot com companies.

That is exactly how I feel.

i couldnt have said it better myself

even with cuss words

thank you

In MMOGs I've always been for good relations between gamehost and player. That always produces better results.

These days word-of-mouth is powerful. Most so because of websites and blogs. Customer goodwill goes a very long way, but so does customer abuse.

Linden Lab has to make a decision as to whether Second Life will make money or build the metaverse by churn or by loyalty.

Slow and strady growth isn't the sort of thing that's likely to appease the corporate investors, though. Ultimately, if you go down the VC route, it's they who really count.

And without the funding we wouldn't be a fraction of the way down the road we are, so...

Adding my stamp of approval.

I would just add that it is vital for SL's survival that the needs of its residents be first and foremost at the centre of all Linden Lab decisions, over and above that of large corporations that just see SL as another advertising medium, and most likely a relatively inexpensive one compared to the alternatives.

There is a very good reason that most of us have "ad blockers" or "pop up blockers" installed on our browsers; we do not want advertising everywhere we go. It's just the same in SL; I want to have fun and enjoy the creative possibilities that SL offers with some great people, not just end up walking round seeing real life stores and products everywhere screaming "buy me"; if I wanted that I'd turn the PC off and go to the local mall.

Unfortunately there is no "ad blocker" in SL unless you buy your own island and never leave it, thus destroying most of the reasons that most of us play the game in the first place.

As already stated, most residents want what Linden Lab wants - success for Second Life. Instead of fighting us, work with us, listen to us... and respond. There's enough trouble and strife going on, we don't need more.

Lewis

Ditto trice over.

I don't think they count at all. To them, SL is just another investment, another moneymaking opportunity. They don't have any real investment in our world like those of us who create, in fact it would be simple to say that they are supporting Linden Lab, not Second Life.

I wonder how many of those throwing millions at this game have actually spent any time in-world that wasn't part of a Linden controlled presentation? I would guess very few.

It may be true to some degree that thier money is what enables SL to keep going - but without residents, and content, SL is just another rack of servers in a datacentre somewhere.

Lewis

The forums are an hangout for a bunch of jaded residents. I doubt it really matters what Linden Lab does. Those residents will always be here whining.


* whines *

\signed

IMO what makes a good mmo is community involvement. For SL this is even more important than usual, because it relies on the community to create the world. There is no backstory, aside from the history created by residents. The community is the game designer, Not Linden Lab. Let me repeat this for emphasis.
Linden Labs does not make the game, they only provide servers and a programming environment. SL is an IDE. An IDE is supposed to make it easy and convenient to create content. If it wasn't for IDes we'd all have to cope with 1s and 0s.
Fundamentally changing functionality so as to break content without warning is not good practice.
Rushing updates with a few hours public testing is not good practice.
Ignoring customer requests is not good practice.

It is possible to make a great game and good profit by working with customers, right now, Linden are treating us like dumb little children. 'Listen to us, we know best'
That's not a good way to educate a child and it's certainly not the way to treat customers.

Ask yourself why these residents feel that way. Especially those of us who have been around a while, and pay Linden Lab a lot of money for that privilege.

If it was one whining resident, then you can put that down to someone who is upset about something.

When you have large groups of people, including people who tend to clash on most issues, standing together with one united voice saying "enough", then that certainly should identify that there is a problem somewhere, to those that follow the forums. Several have in fact commented along the lines of "whilst you and I normally disagree, I support you 100% on this issue".

Lewis

I echo Lewis' feeling.

When people who normally disagree (very violently at that) agree on something strongly, there must be something to it, and it's worth a listen.

The only thing that brings people who can't stand each other together, is something important.

...

I'll see to it that LL sees this thread. What would really help LL right now are ideas on how to make things better, specificly well hashed out ideas.

I would really like to hear how people want the forums, how to achive it; what rules it would require. What is acceptable, what isn't. The tricky part is balancing what is good for the community and what is good for the individual.

This cannot be left up to LL to decide, it needs to be a joint effort. Lets give LL a push in the right direction.

You will find one suggestion posted on the Answers forum. It's a Request for an Exploit reporting procedure that will prevent CrisMid cases (dare I coin the term?).

www.eve-online.com

Note the posting of devs, the clear marking when a mod/dev/community guy posts in a thread, The easy acess of dev blogs, including linking in the main forum, the existance of a newbie forum etc etc.

Also there are several well used help channels ingame, one for players under 1 month, one for the rest, both are staffed with volounteers to answer questions, in addition to the residents answering questions there.

New player support and interacting, not just looking at, the community are the two most important things imo.

I think a lot of improvements would be covered simply by adding accountability to the resmods, a complete rewrite of the moderating system so that when warnings are issued you actually do hear what you are accused of - and most importantly, for the appeals process to work so that when there are problems, those of us innocently affected can get bad decisions overturned.

I think most people's concerns are not based around the fact that there is moderation, but more about the uneven application of the rules, the lack of transparency in the system, and procedures that are in place not being followed when "discipline" is being handed out.

I mean, some of them might simply be a misunderstanding. I am in the UK, and am only too well aware of the difference that words can make, and wonder how many of these 'warnings' are simply a cross-cultural error? An obvious one that springs to mind, although perhaps not used much on the forums is 'fag'. In the UK, it is a slang word for a cigarette, whereas in the US it is a derogatory term for a homosexual. You see how I could get in trouble for discrimination when I'm talking about smoking?

I have spent some time in-world talking with Robin on forum related issues so she is well aware on my thoughts on these matters. Hopefully some of them will be implemented, and I have offered to help her as much as I can based on my experience of moderating another busy gaming forum.

Lewis

Thank you for that, Strife. It's not just the forums. The problem runs through the whole of Second Life. I would feel a little better about your initiative if I felt that the Lindens had the slightest interest in the views of their customers.

I understand what you say, Lewis. I'm just pointing out that whenever the need to increase shareholder value enters the equation (be it VC, or IPO), then commercial concerns become paramount for an organisation - so it may very well be that the "increase registrations" and "add features" at any cost initiatives are being driven by those shareholder needs.

I've been in this situation as a company director before. A good organisation has to weigh the needs of the customers with the needs of the shareholders and come up with a balanced way forward.

This is where Linden Lab constantly finds itself torn now.

Like everyone else, I hope and pray that it goes well.

Working in harmony...putting the brakes on...heading in the right direction.

What a load of management-speak bull.

Musuko.

Well, I have never been in corporate management, I am glad to say.

Perhaps you should look into what the terms actually mean rather than criticising the way they are expressed.

Because they have a very specific meaning, that I feel most people grasped.

I just want to add.

Several Lindens need a reality smack. Stop talking to your customers as though we are retarded children incapable of grasping the mysterious technology of Second Life, or completely clueless about best management practices.

The range of skills and real life experience amongst the residents is staggering. You can't know which resident is a corporate manager, or software dev, or attorney, or professional graphic designer just by what they play in SL. Some of us come here to relax and do something completely different from RL.

The lindens really do want to know but they are stretched really thin. The devs never post because they are working on new features & fixing bugs. The liaisons have to grapple with an ever growing community that needs support.

LL may not be asking directly but they are asking for input. They have already asked us (the resmods) and Second Views for input. I cannot speak for SV but we haven't had to many ideas. If we can give LL a well thought out plan; it would help convince them that the forums do work.

Obviously to build a better plan we need to examin how the forums currently function.

The rules:
The rules were designed to server the community then the individual with out much thought being put into alternate accounts.

The punishments:
The punishments range from warning to banning. Currently LL is working on a graduation model. Repeat offenders are treated more harshly. The more repeats the worse the punishment. The punishments are intended to be punishments; so a ban from the forum also effects in SL.

The volunteers:
Added on after the rules were writen; as such the rules do not provide them adequate protection.

---------------------

The problems:

Repeat offenders, old & new, basic & premium - AKA favoritism
The question is: Does age or investment buy entitlement to break the rules and not be punished?

Tools:
How should abusive posts be delt with? We cannot put every single one of them up for Linden Review.

Transparentcy:
How much? What sorts of things do you want to know?

heres how I feel....

I feel... that I have read this exact same thread, in every single game I have ever played in my life.... and it was always pointless then too.

Go to any major MMO and hit their forums, you will see this thread there with a different name attached to it.

Usually the points are

X doesn't care about the customers

X always implements features before bug fixes (note that most places including LL probably has two different development teams, and its a lot easier to add then it is to fix)

X doesn't care about my class (Clubrat/texturedesigner/clothing designer/weapons designer)

X doesn't do enough to prevent ________ (griefing, trolling, wearing bad hats, wearing rank bad hats)

X isn't visable enough (theres a reason for this, but I won't fill you in because its fairly obvious)

and so on and so forth. And rarely is any of it really true....

I'd like to see communication between the residents and LL increase and for us to be kept more in the loop about what's coming down the pike with new features and whatnot. One thing I think needs to happen though is for the community to start giving more respect instead of simply demanding it. It really needs to be a two way street and a lot of the complaints these days aren't respectful at all. It's possible to speak out about our concerns or things we think weren't well thought out without treating LL like they're staffed by morons. I think people who routinely take that tone lose the right to demand much of anything. If a customer routinely came in to your place of business and delivered screeds about your incompetance and ignorance, would you be inclined to treat their concerns with respect, or even to listen? Chances are you'd be more inclined to introduce their posterior to your footwear.