LL possible motive??

Is it possible that LL are letting things get crazy/buggy/convoluted in order to stem the tide of new accounts?

**Please note that this hypothosis was formed using the theory that the huge influx of users with free accounts is the main reason for SL slowdown and general dissapointment with the SL world**

I hypothesize that LL may be letting SL get worse and worse in an effort to effect "damage control" over the massive overload of their system.

We know that LL knows what they are doing (or, at least, we *assume* so, based on past productivity).
We assume that since there has been such a large outcry in both the forums and in messages sent to LL by users, they *must* be aware that there is a massive problem.
We know that while little tweaks and fixes are being done with frequent updates, the large problems are not being addressed in a manner which satisfies the majority.
SL residents are constantly wondering *why* these larger issues have not been addressed, as it seems obvious to us that they need to be fixed.

Could LL be unwilling to force all the current free accounts to go to premium and therefore be letting SL stagnate in order to cull the herd, so to speak? Are they, perhaps, going to unleash a larger, more effective update once useage has declined to a level more in line with what SL servers are equipped to handle? Would they then reinstitute a pay-only system of useage?

Please understand that this I am NOT saying that this IS what is happening. Note that this is a hypothesis and NOT a theory. I would be very happy to hear from anyone as to their thoughts on this matter.

In the spirit of full disclosure, let me say that I have a free account (with payment info on file) and would most likely have to quit SL if free accounts were eliminated. This does not mean, however, that I'm against this course of action. I am totally neutral on this subject, and am really just trying to figure out what my opinion should be.

I don't think this theory is very plausable. If LL wanted to stem the tide of new accounts then they could just cancel free membership until their infastructure catches up to meet the current demand. It's rediculous to think that any company would sabotage their own product in order to discorouge customers form using it. Whats more plausable is that SL is growing too fast and that LL are just pushing forward and hoping that they can manage the situation before it gets too out of hand, and they are doing ok I think, yeah SL is a pretty buggy/laggy place right now and customer support is tentative at the best of times, but they have already introduced measures to restrict logins when the Grid is overloaded and have ambitious plans to extend their capacity to accomodate millions of online users at the same time. I see it like this... If you are not happy in Second Life then go away. If you think SL has potential then stick around as we are participating in somthing revolutionary here and I believe LL are 100% commited to making this world work.

Porky, please re-read.

"Please understand that this I am NOT saying that this IS what is happening. Note that this is a hypothesis and NOT a theory."

I did not state that I thought LL were sabotaging their product. I merely wondered if the lack of fixes was involed in making SL less attractive to free account users.

I also never stated that I was unhappy with SL.

I agree with Porky. ticking off the paying customers in order to rid yourself of the non paying ones would be counter productive.

One thing is for sure -- those playing SL not for freebies (like FL was essentially) are much more valuable customers for LL. First of all, these customers tend to outlay more money bringing LL greater revenue and second of all, players with more disposable income are a more desirable target market for the large companies and investors in SL.

Hi Vinsette, I realise it was a theory and I was just attacking your theory as it was wrong (in my opinion). No offence intended

Interesting hypothesis, and not without historical precedent. On the surface, while it does seem counter-intuitive, it does in fact work.

In college, I took a Naval History course because of who the professor was that taught it.

I remember learning that in WW2, ship captains whose ships had been torpedoed, would sometimes blow a hole in the opposite side of their ship and on the opposite end, to act as a counter-balance to the weight of the water rushing in and killing their ship slowly. This counter-balance frequently saved their ship from sinking unless the torpedo damage was too great.

To think of this analogy in SL terms, the ship is the SL network. The flood of water are the rush of new players. The torpedo... various things; some might say the now infamous 6/6/6 day, while others might cite other reasons for the damage. At this point it no longer matters what cause the damage, only that the damage exists.

The historical precedent would say to cause or allow to happen an equal and opposite amount of damage to counter balance the flood. Network & Asset server problems would and do indeed cause a slowdown to the flood pouring in.

Vinsette, thank you for your inciteful posting. I hadn't thought about that class in years.

Nah, they aren't doing this.

Seriously.

If you wanna stem the tide of new accounts, you just raise the minimum price from free, to a little more than free. Rinse and repeat until at desirable levels. It's a lot easier than ticking everyone off, mmm?

Second Life is very complex. In their efforts to make it better, they've made it worse. They definitely don't intend to degrade performance. It's just the way things happen when you have something as complicated as Second Life.

The First Look client for example. They're trying to improve rendering performance, and for some people they seem to have managed it, but for others, they've just made it worse.

The same goes with the sim performance. They've been making lots of changes to the server code to help improve performance. Yet unfortunately, they've just made it much worse. Physical objects are now moving terribly and the client is constantly stuttering while trying to communicate with the server.

Let's see what today's maintenance brings us. Just don't build your hopes up. Linden Lab are now alchemists rather than programmers. These days they just mix things up and then wait to see what happens.

This sounds like a job for Hanlon's Razor...

"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity"

There's no way this would be the case. SL has no interest in their platform appearing buggy - that hurts all the customers, not just the new one.

About the only "secret conspiracy" view I've heard that's still tenable is that Linden Labs are trying to become like NCSoft - not running a game/world themselves but just providing the technical hosting. The theory is that they're planning to convert from a huge mainland where LL do everything, to a set of private archipelago communities, each run by a large landowning company, where those companies deal with all the complex social issues (zoning, griefing, justice, help, etc.) and LL just concentrates on keeping the servers running and the technical side evolving. It makes a lot of sense when you think about it: if they're being overwhelmed and can't handle the social issues, that will divide them; and if you're a user and don't like the mores of the society you're in or think it's unfair? Just fly off to the one owned by some other company.

I've heard some information about some features in testing that might actually assist with this. On the other hand, the fact they just added a huge number of new mainland sims kind of contradicts it...

I think that this is a fair statement.

There's a lot of LL bashing going on, which is understandable to a certain extent.

What people need to understand, though, is that SL is something BIG and something INNOVATIVE. Of course they will get things wrong, both in terms of technology as well as policies.

If you don't like it then you can always leave - no one is forcing you to participate. If you're a business owner... I admire you and believe you are a pioneer, but you know very well that you are taking a risk. INcidentally, I am not referring to anyone specific in this thread

The reason I am sympathetic with LL is that I believe that they are being open about their objectives and genuinly trying to build a product that works for everyone.

I'm going to take it easy, be patient and limit any investments in SL. If LL don't sort things out someone else will either pick up the pieces or build a better alternative.

Vinsette, I am aware that you were hypothesizing and i was criticizing your hypothesis



In my opinion, the notion that Linden Lab are making no effort to fix the technical issues and allowing the bugs etc to increase in order to stem to influx of free accounts is the equivalent of them sabotaging their own product. I am sure LL spend thousands of man (or woman) hours per week trying to improve SL.




Yeah, you are right there. I just went on a rant to the general whining population and it wasn't directed at you. I found your thread interesting.

Considering LL started on the hardware side of things - this becomes a very interesting idea.

I'm always rather flabbergasted by the venom directed at LL by people who harbor rather unrealistic expectations for the technology of SL, as well as the management of LL.

I work in a small IT company, with products that are considerably less complex than SL and platforms that are much more mainstream and stable, and we STILL are plagued with stubborn code bugs and server failures and all the other ills that are both within and outside of our control. A programmer changes one simple line of code to fix a problem and something else breaks because there is no way one person, much less a team, can remember all the ways in which code interacts throughout the system.

There is no malice nor rampant stupidity involved -- just an incredibly, unbelievably intricate mass of code that continues to grow.

I also have a deep well of sympathy for the management growing pains because we're experiencing the same kind (though not the same degree) of growth. Hiring new people and expanding your production staff is not as easy as residents seem to think. Finding programmers with exactly the right skill set for a particular job AND a personality that fits in with the company as a whole, take time. Even when you find the right people, it takes time for them to learn the particulars of the projects, not to mention the practices and processes of production.

There are precious few standards in this industry, and a lot of us are making it up as we go because we're the first ones to do something. If you're not on the cutting edge, your company is already behind. But that pressure means everyone is continually coding in new territory. And by the time our programmers -- who are top notch, btw -- really understand a system, it's on the verge of being abandoned anyway, or radically modified.

Rather than bitching about how SL isn't working right, I'm more likely to be amazed that it's working at all considering the explosive growth of the resident population.

Hey Regan, let's get real here......
If LL hadnt have brownnosed the investors by advertising more and creating alts to pump up the numbers , which was what the investors,(ones being brown-nosed and laughin all the way to orgasim), and if LL would have sold SL when Google when they offered them 5 billion for the game, we would be in SL having fun right now, not here!!!!!
Get a grrrrrrrrip! =)

I am sorry to say that this topic does not fit in this forum or any other SL forum here. Sadly this thread will have to be locked. There are third party forums where such discussions are on topic.