Caught Up in their own Fantasy

I was reading an article yesterday about Pathfinder Linden leaving Linden Labs. The article was a bit sketchy so I don't want to draw too many conclusions from it. But it did occur to me that one of the problems that LL may be having is that too many of their people have gotten caught up in their own fantasies. Allow me to explain.

First, it is not new for a high tech firm to get caught up in its own fantasies. During the dot com expansion, it was standard operating procedure. People began to ignore conventional wisdom about price earnings and began to believe that the old rules of economics no longer applied. It was a classic economic bubble mentality and the economy stuck back, as it always does, in the dot com crash.

The problem in the case of Second Life a little different. For example, I believe that virtual land and virtual products have real economic value. And, I believe that virtual worlds represent an opportunity for economic expansion not unlike discovery of the new world. So, that is not the issue at hand.

The fantasy that so many residents of Second Life get caught up in is how easy it is to do things. You can fly. You can make friends. You can dress well. You can own your own business. If you want to be a scholar, actor, counselor, or world class lover, just put a group tag over your head and Bang! you are what you want to be.

This fantasy of ease has led many residents astray. They buy islands and set up businesses or speculate in virtual real estate with the fantasy that they will become the next millionaire. While a few do manage to eek out a small profit, most leave angered, disillusioned, and disgusted. Some even abandon their thousand dollar investment in order to avoid future tier fees. Unfortunately, the old rules of hard work and good business sense still apply. And you cannot make a go of it, even in a virtual world, without following those rules. I had a class of mine several years ago interview business owners in Second Life. They found, not surprisingly, that nobody really had any idea of how a business operates.

It did not occur to me until I read that article that the employees of Linden Labs might suffer from similar illusions. And, further, that may explain why this amazing technology has not done any better than it has. Next time I will make the argument for why I believe that may be case.