I am writing this while the Grid is up, though in geological terms, grids are transient and being up, or down, is only a matter of interpretation. I mean, I am not writing this with the blindfold of blood red anger for being denied the service I have paid for. I have been giving Second Life a serious degree of thought, for a number of reasons.
The concept and practice of Second Life is heartily addictive for me. If I were given the chance to have someone look after my physical needs, I could probably stayed glued to the keyboard and monitor for the whole day, night, week, month!
As with any addiction, understanding that I am addicted is a great step and allows me to formulate a plan to enable me to evolve a better work life balance, bring the addiction under control and then, then make a solid plan to move forward with. So, for me, the question is, what is the platform of my addiction, a drug, a state of mind, a cultural issue, or is it simply that I can be ‘successful’ in the pixel world of the video screen, thereby compensating for a lack of success in the real world?
Does it matter? I am a rational, intelligent and reasonably well educated adult female who has enjoyed a full career in the armed forces, a spell in the financial sector in the US and now work for a government establishment as I wind down for a well earned retirement. How did I become addicted? What are the implications?
Well, first of all, the owners, manufacturers, or creators and distributors of the cause of my addiction share some of the guilt. Just as with the tobacco industry, the alcohol manufactures and other drug related or pharmaceuticals companies own some degree of guilt when a user of their product becomes addicted to the cost of a normal well being life. When a product becomes detrimental, there are serious concerns to be addressed. Banning cigarettes does nor cure smokers of their addiction, restricting liquor sales on Sundays does not reduce the number of alcoholics nor does any denial of product ease any addiction. Depriving me, without warning, of my access to Second Life only serves to get me angry.
Unlike cigarettes, I cannot simply drive to the nearest 7-11 to obtain a further supply.
Second Life is at best, fraught with problems, yet it is not a game, though some may see it as such, it is not a commercial venture, though some make a real chunk of money from it, it is not a tool, though it can be demonstrated that having the creative ability to make and form and then sell things, it can be seen as such. It is a collection of software routines that enable me to interact with other real people around the world in real time, to talk about the weather at the weekend, a pop concert, dress making, recipes or what kind of earrings we prefer. We can do it in the comfort of our own homes and our age, gender, religion, disability, blindness or deafness, our wheelchair or our children have no impact on how we move around, what we communicate about, or how we are perceived by others probably very much like us. It is almost a utopia, something that can be taken for granted in this very fast high speed interconnected world. Having learned how to be good, how to build and how to make the very best of whatever computer system we have at home, for some tyke to snatch away our life with barely ten seconds notice is without doubt, incredibly unfair. My generation like to say ‘bye’ at the end of a conversation, we are not naturally rude or arrogant and we appreciate similar facets in others.
Simple courtesy seems to become lost when our online experience is taken from us without warning. I imagine a young person might over-react and work in what is perceived by another as ‘in our own best interest’ at times to maintain the security and continuity of the immersive environment to which we have become used to. The lack of timely updates, progression news, how things are going, a rough forecast of the return time, are all things we need if we are going to retain our interest in the product, and sadly, for me anyway, seems to be an attribute the Californian Linden based Company seems to be very ignorant of in the extreme.
So far, after many postings, the Company simply refuses to acknowledge that many of the users exist in other countries, not just outside of San Francisco, or even outside California, but outside the United States. Some users, such as myself, actually live in a completely different time zone and on another continent, and one, I fear, being a completely unknown factor in the daily running of the Linden Money Making Machine.
At two twenty in the afternoon it is annoying to be welcomed with an announcement starting off with ‘Good Morning everybody’, It is galling to be advised by a Linden Representative, that there is a possibility of a malfunction, so the system has been closed down, completely. Not an attack, or a failure, or a house being burned down, or a life at risk because of kidnappers, or a meltdown due in part to an earthquake, but, a possibility, of a permissions system, might pose a risk? The phrase ‘knee jerk reaction’ seems to come to mind, and that I am afraid, is not something I would expect from an International Company with active customers around the globe. It is the reaction I might expect from a small American Back Street Software House that employed children and hoped that one day; their ship would magically come home for them.
The issue of attempting to continually fix ‘band aids’ to a system this is inherently vulnerable to attack, in any other situation, would be laughable and the resulting failures would lead to the obvious questions and dissertations, some focusing on the need to be responsible to customers and perhaps, creating a stable platform that could be used effectively irrespective of the location of the customer.
The lack of a well honed Linden Philosophy regarding Customer Service, rings alarm bells and suggests from experience, that without decent customer service skills, one of which, incidentally, is the ability to listen and positively act upon customer complaints and suggestions, the Company will fail, more than likely sooner, than later. I cannot imagine the CEO of the Linden foundation is not incredibly aware of this simple fact, and either has already accepted that the company is en route to failure, not so much of when and how, but more in line with not making any IPO considerations in the near future or booking long term holidays. Knowing the CEO is possibly gambling on the failure being after the return on the original investment fills me with the dread that the thousands of fee paying customers are, more than likely, going to face a worse time before it gets better. I have looked at some of the alternative offerings to Second Life, such as ‘There’ where the avatars exist in a childlike cartoon environment, and I have to admit, Second Life can be a terrific way of spending a couple hundred dollars a month for entertainment purposes.
However, if you take Second Life, or SL as it known as, there is nothing to replace it. Those, not unlike myself, are going to have a hard time getting used to the real world again. Sad huh!!
The money aspect is intriguing. Some people are making thousands of Dollars annually from ‘buying’ and ‘selling’ land in the ‘in world’ environment. Lindens primary income I feel is from registrations and land sales. Though the land might only exist in some computer lab somewhere, the effects of the activities based upon those digital pixels are resulting in real world money changing hands. I acquired the rental rights to a beach side property on a island for $80 US a month. Real Money spent on feeding my new habit. If I quit, walk away, give up, then my fee won’t get paid, and the owner to the land I rented will rent it to another player. There arte lots of people wanting to play, and only a few places offering land at affordable rates. So this to me now sounds like a business, a business chartered on the buying and selling of real estate. Not even the US government can walk into a business and suggest they are closing it down while they investigate a possible discrepancy than might exist with out regard for the day to day activities of the employees or customers of that business. Lindens, on the other hand, seem to adopt a cavalier attitude that it will all be ok.
A feel from my interactions with others, good many users are children and many of whom are yet to enjoy the thrust, challenge and struggle that real life presents, being possibly still ensconced in the back bedroom of Mom’s house and getting mediocre grades at school in the warmth and certainty of the Californian Sunshine. Many comments on the companies Blog, suggest that the Lindens are doing a Great Job, and to ‘chill out’ because it will be back when it’s ok! It all begs me to ask the question, who is the Linden Company aiming their product at, and how have they let it slip into the chaotic format it currently enjoys. I know that when I and given poor service in a shop, I can go into a host of other shops to get the product and hopefully find one that gives a better kind of customer service. The ability to sit back, after paying for my product, to wait an untold length of time, with no updates or information is extremely unrealistic. The saving grace for the Linden Empire is that it is a one of a kind at the moment, with none of the competitors approaching anything near the same, but that, will only last so long.
Fundamentally, Second Life ‘could’ be the beginning of a whole life and business form using the Internet, making purchases by talking to actual customer service reps, or meeting business colleagues on line while we all work at home are among the possibilities. Conferences in real time using nothing more than a cheap domestic computer is for some, a real and possible attractive suggestion. But, when the conference meeting place van be taken down because some Californian kid has suddenly realized that something might not be quite right, suggests to me that the Linden Plan is not fully thought out and that there are so many possibilities that are going to die completely unexplored. Sad really. All it would take is a kick up the pants and the acceptance, the over-riding acceptance, customer service skills do matter, even on line.
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