My Free Home

I mentioned, a couple posts back, that Second Life was offering free homes to premium account holders. I took advantage of the offer, even though I already own some land, so I could experience the new communities and see how they develop. It took me a couple days to look at the options before I decided on one of the models in Elderglen.

To their credit, they have done a great job creating some lovely houses with fewer than 100 prims and laying them out on 512 square meter lots in a way that does not look like a trailer park. And they have created a variety of home options so that choosing is not an easy task. With the First Land program of several years back, you were allowed only 117 prims for the house and furnishing. With the new program, the house does not appear to count and you have 117 prims for your furnishings. So, at first glance it all looks good. Linden Labs clearly has some artistic as well as technical talent.

Where their shortcomings lie are in their business and social skills. I have ranted enough about their business skills so I will focus on their social skills here. The first thing you notice as you look around the new neighborhoods are the ever present ban lines. Ban Lines, for those who don't already know are the red lines that pop up when you attempt to enter a piece of land for which you do not have access. It makes a stroll through the neighborhood very difficult and quite unpleasant as you have to continually navigate your way around restricted areas. Last night, as I was looking at the various models, I inadvertently stumbled into somebody's private property and was immediately ejected. This does not make for a friendly neighborhood.

There does not appear to be any criteria for acceptance into a neighborhood. I suspect, overtime, that plonking people down in close proximity without any concern for their social organization, commonality of interests, or shared values is going to create problems. And, I suspect, that the impact on Linden Labs of the Free Homes program will be an exponential increase in Abuse Reports. But, all we can do is wait and see.

Second Life as Art

When I first visited Second Life back in the late Fall of 2006, I ran into a resident from an even earlier era who appeared as a mermaid and lived in a cave behind a waterfall. She explained to me that the first generation of Second Life residents were there to create art. That was all they cared about - creating beautiful art. The did not care about commerce, gambling, pornography, land sales, or numbers of accounts. They just wanted to create beautiful places to visit.

Since my brain was on fire, at the time, with the business potential of Second Life technology, I only half listened. How could you make money just creating beautiful places to visit? Would you charge admission? Would you clutter your art with shops to sell virtual products? I just couldn't see how it would work and didn't think much further about it.

Since then, I have visited many, many beautiful places. I am always impressed with the creativity, the detail and the level of effort that the land owners invest in their creations. It is like visiting a three dimensional painting in a virtual art gallery. I still don't know how they make money. I suspect they don't. They probably pay month fees to exhibit their art. But whether or not these creations are economically viable, they certainly have great value. So, I thought I would take a break from the business of Second Life for a few weeks and highlight some of these lovely places.

Visiting the Free Homes

I took a peak at what I believe are the free homes for premium members. I have to qualify this because like everything else in Second Life it is poorly documented and word of mouth. I received a landmark through a group I belong to and went there to look. But there were no signs to confirm I was in the right place. Nonetheless, I will go with the assumption that I was in the right place.

Molly Linden has created a set of new homes and laid them out on a piece of land. I have to give her credit for good taste in both the home design and he layout. The homes are quite nice and the layout, despite being somewhat dense, does not feel dense. There are enough models laid out with enough variety that it doesn't have that ticky tacky feel of suburban sprawl. So far, it is promising.

I counted the prims in one of the house and came up with around 80. This could be a problem because it leaves the resident with only 37 prims for furnishing. However, I don't know if they plan to hold to the 117 prim rule. So I can't say for sure if this will be a problem.

Most of the homes have huge picture windows which makes them feel bigger and more airy. This is good, but since you can see into everyone's home, there won't be much privacy. This will either hurt the pose ball trade, or force residents to put up curtains which will take up prims. But, I am willing to see how it all works out. My initial impression is quite positive.

I do see two potential problems, though. The first is whether or not residents will be able to modify the builds. Since Second Life tends to inspire one's creativity, residents may be unhappy if they can't make changes to customize their homes. On the other hand, few residents have the good taste that Molly has and if allowed to make changes they are likely to junk up the neighborhood.

The second problem is how neighborhoods are constructed. A hodgepodge of people is worse than a hodgepodge of houses. If neighbors are not selected based on some sort of compatibility it is easy to see how the situation could deteriorate rapidly. Having had neighbors who rival the Saturday Night Live Church lady for moral superiority on one hand, and other neighbors who plumb the depths of depravity on the other, I know what it is like to like in a hodgepodge neighborhood.

But, I don't want to identify problems that have not yet occurred. The houses look nice and the neighborhood looks nice. Hopefully, things will continue along in this positive direction.

Houses For Premium Members

I received emails for several of my alternative accounts stating that Linden Labs is going to be offering free homes in Second Life for premium accounts. On the surface, this seems to be a good idea. Yet, I can't help but wonder if LL has thought it through. It is a good idea because it addresses several problems with premium accounts in Second Life. First, there is little incentive for people to become premium account holders. Very few people are seduced by the lure of being able to buy land. Basic account holders who want land can rent if they really want a place to call home. So, the 'right' to buy land, especially given the softness in the virtual real estate market, is little incentive. From this perspective, the premium membership is little more than just an added tax on those who want to buy land anyway. Second, showing up in Second Life without knowing anyone is a lot like showing up in New York City without knowing any one. It can be a cold and lonely place. Having homes in communities can provide a sense of belonging that current does not exist.

There was a program several years ago refereed to as 'First Land' where premium residents could buy a 512 square meter piece of land for L$512 and put a home on it. However, it failed and was terminated. The main reason for its failure is that many, if not most, people who bought their first land for L$512 turned right around and sold it for L$9000 feeding the speculative bubble in virtual real estate. The speculators got what they deserved, however, as land prices crashed and are still about half of what they were at the time. And Linden Labs got what they deserved for not having thought this through a little more carefully.

First, consider the math. L$512 is roughly $2 US. L$9000 is roughly $36 yielding a profit of $34. A one month premium member ship cost around $10. So one could spend $10 and make $34. While this is not a huge profit, it is a profit. And when you consider the hype at the time along with the fantasy elements of Second Life, a lot of people felt good (in their fantasies) about making money in virtual real estate. So, the idea that most people would simply buy and sell was entirely predictable. Further, the notion that this buying and selling would create a real estate bubble was also predictable. And the consequence of the bubble bursting at some point was also predictable. So, the First Land initiative turned out to be an unqualified disaster. But, money was not the only reason why it failed.

There were at least three other reasons why this initiative was doomed to failure. First, most new residents do not know enough about building to build a home on their first land. So, nearly everybody put up one of the freebie homes. This was fun for the 45 seconds it took to rezz the freebie home but not much fun after that. Second, 512 square meters with 117 prims is not enough to do anything with. This is like selling somebody a bite of a prime steak for $2 and telling them the second bite (and every bite after that) is $36. Finally, without any kind of a development plan, the hodgepodge of First Land plots gave Second Life the feel of a trailer park without any zoning restrictions.

Hopefully, this new initiative will be thought through a little more careful although I am not optimistic about that prospect. Nonetheless, I will look into some of the key issues next time.