The new Second Life viewer is now available for download and I have very mixed feelings about it. On the positive side, they are clearly making an effort to make Second Life easier to use and the new look has some positive features for new users. The most significant positive feature is that you can fiddle around with the interface and figure things out. With the old client, you nearly always had to ask someone how to do something. The second positive feature is that much of the unnecessary functionality (at least unnecessary to new visitors) available in the old client is now hidden.
On the other hand, the new client is somewhat frustrating to veteran users. I am constantly trying to figure out how to do something that I already knew how to do using the old client. Some times I just give up and relog using the old client.
I've also noticed a new Welcome Island and a new Discovery Island. Apparently these islands replace the old Orientation and Help Islands. Personally, my favorites were the ones a few generations ago that had a Disney Land feel to them. But, critiquing the new client and the new islands seems to miss the point.
There was a hit movie in the late 1960's called Midnight Cowboy staring John Voight and Dustin Hoffman. In this movie Hoffman played a homeless character in New York City named Ratso. One day Ratso steals some items from a sidewalk stand and takes them home for dinner. The items are just whatever he could grabs so he makes a makeshift salad out of coconut, green beans and yellow squash or some similar hodgepodge. Later on in the movie Ratso falls asleep and dreams of being the star of a cooking show. With great fanfare he makes his salad of coconut, green beans, and yellow squash. It is both sad and funny because he has no idea how to cook and thinks whatever he does had appeal if he can just get it out in front of the right audience.
With the new client and new islands, Linden Labs is once again offering its coconut, green bean, and yellow squash salad to its customers. I suspect that the reception will be no better this time than it has been in the past. If you want to be the star of a cooking show, you need to learn how to cook. And if you want to offer software applications in an application dense environment, you need to learn how to design them.
Showing posts with label retention problems. Show all posts
Showing posts with label retention problems. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
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.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
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.
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.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
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.
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.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Is Second Life Empty or Just Not Happening?
Numerous articles have appeared recently discussing the question of whether or not Second Life is empty. I know from personal experience that students of mine report rarely encountering other people when they visit Second Life. Since Second Life is largely a social technology, this is a problem. Linden Labs counters these claims with statistics that show the number of hours spent in Second Life along with the amount of money spent is increasing. All these statistics show, however, is how out of touch LL is with everything.
It isn't how many hours or Linden dollars are spent. It isn't how many accounts there are or how many islands have been created. It is the perception of the average person of the Second Life experience. This perception can be first or second hand. Both are important and neither is captured in the statistics.
First hand experience is when someone creates an account, logs into Second Life and does something. If that something is exciting, rewarding, interesting and memorable it is positive and the person will want to return. If it is frustrating, boring, and confusing it is negative and the person will probably not want to return.
Second hand experience is when someone reads something in the newspaper or overhears someone else talking about Second Life. It is the 'buzz' as they say. When there is a lot of buzz, people believe that Second Life is happening. When there is no buzz, people see it as a failed technology.
The statistics only matter to the extend that they reflect the first hand experience and generate second hand experience. So, the problem here is not whether or not Second Life is empty. The problem is whether or not Second Life is happening. In the next couple of posts I will explore this question further in terms of first and second hand experiences.
It isn't how many hours or Linden dollars are spent. It isn't how many accounts there are or how many islands have been created. It is the perception of the average person of the Second Life experience. This perception can be first or second hand. Both are important and neither is captured in the statistics.
First hand experience is when someone creates an account, logs into Second Life and does something. If that something is exciting, rewarding, interesting and memorable it is positive and the person will want to return. If it is frustrating, boring, and confusing it is negative and the person will probably not want to return.
Second hand experience is when someone reads something in the newspaper or overhears someone else talking about Second Life. It is the 'buzz' as they say. When there is a lot of buzz, people believe that Second Life is happening. When there is no buzz, people see it as a failed technology.
The statistics only matter to the extend that they reflect the first hand experience and generate second hand experience. So, the problem here is not whether or not Second Life is empty. The problem is whether or not Second Life is happening. In the next couple of posts I will explore this question further in terms of first and second hand experiences.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
A World Created Entirely By Its Residents
Imagine a restaurant that advertised meals cooked exclusively by its customers. Would you go there to experience fine dining? Probably not. In fact, we have a name for this sort of dining experience. We call it a pot luck dinner. Pot luck dinners are not without merit. They provide a social experience. There is usually plenty of food. And the food is generally tasty and filling (meaning high in salt and fat). And people enjoy pot luck dinners, as long as they don't go very often. The problem with pot luck dinners is that ordinary people create relatively ordinary food. If you are going to go to the trouble of getting dressed up and go out, you really would like to experience something extraordinary. You would like food created, not by your neighbor who clips coupons, but by a chef.
Consider another, parallel, example. What if a Hollywood movie studio boasted that its line of movies was entirely made up of home movies. Last year's big success was Sally's Surprise Party and this year they are betting on The Travails of the Bar Mitzvah Band. Would you expect this studio to produce classics of the caliber of The Godfather, Jaws, The Terminator, or Fargo? Probably not. There are television shows that rely entirely on home movies and they are fun to watch. They are the pot luck dinner of the movie industry. But, their cultural contributions are nil. And their enduring value is nonexistent. If you want to see a movie of enduring value, you have to see one that is produced by professionals.
Now imagine a virtual world created entirely by its residents. Oh, wait, we don't have to imagine that. It is Second Life. And while the residents of Second Life do come up with some interesting things, they are the virtual world equivalent of Aunt Betty's creamed tuna over noodles. No matter how good that creamed tuna may be, you get to a point where you can't stand it any more.
I suspect this is the reason why the retention rate is so poor. And yet LL continues to redesign the orientation islands and reorganize the volunteer groups. What is that old line about rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic?
Consider another, parallel, example. What if a Hollywood movie studio boasted that its line of movies was entirely made up of home movies. Last year's big success was Sally's Surprise Party and this year they are betting on The Travails of the Bar Mitzvah Band. Would you expect this studio to produce classics of the caliber of The Godfather, Jaws, The Terminator, or Fargo? Probably not. There are television shows that rely entirely on home movies and they are fun to watch. They are the pot luck dinner of the movie industry. But, their cultural contributions are nil. And their enduring value is nonexistent. If you want to see a movie of enduring value, you have to see one that is produced by professionals.
Now imagine a virtual world created entirely by its residents. Oh, wait, we don't have to imagine that. It is Second Life. And while the residents of Second Life do come up with some interesting things, they are the virtual world equivalent of Aunt Betty's creamed tuna over noodles. No matter how good that creamed tuna may be, you get to a point where you can't stand it any more.
I suspect this is the reason why the retention rate is so poor. And yet LL continues to redesign the orientation islands and reorganize the volunteer groups. What is that old line about rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic?
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Are They Neurotic?
Many years back I saw a show on television about pet store practices and how animal were mistreated. One of the specialists being interviewed said that you could tell how adverse the circumstances were for the animals becasue they developed neurotic behaviors. How can you tell an animal is neurotic? - I wondered. And they answered the question as soon as it popped into my mind. Pointless, repetitive, ritualized behaviors that do not produce a desried result are, according to this show, neurotic behaviors. Well, I thought, then who is not neurotic?
This seems to apply a lot more often than it should to people in corporate settings who attend meetings, fill out status sheets, and have ritualized discussions with their peers, but who do not actually achieve any desirable results. It also occured to me that it was a good description of Linden Lab's product strategy.
LL seems to be stuck in a rut of neurotic behaviors. They revise the website. They redesign the orientation islands. They reoroganize the volunteers. Nothing changes. So, they revise the website. They redesign the orientation islands. And they reorganize the volunteers. Once again, nothign changes. So, I have to ask - Are They Neurotic?
This seems to apply a lot more often than it should to people in corporate settings who attend meetings, fill out status sheets, and have ritualized discussions with their peers, but who do not actually achieve any desirable results. It also occured to me that it was a good description of Linden Lab's product strategy.
LL seems to be stuck in a rut of neurotic behaviors. They revise the website. They redesign the orientation islands. They reoroganize the volunteers. Nothing changes. So, they revise the website. They redesign the orientation islands. And they reorganize the volunteers. Once again, nothign changes. So, I have to ask - Are They Neurotic?
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Time Out to Bitch
I get very frustrated at times because I see so much potential in this technology and Linden Labs seems so unequal to the task of exploiting it. Recently, it appears, they have begun a new policy regarding adult content. I say 'it appears' because I've had to piece this together from conversations that I've had with various people and note cards I've collected from unhappy vendors. I'm sure they would say, "well the policy was stated in..." some unclear statement on some obscure page on some obscured blog or forum. If I wanted to get clarification of the policy the chances of talking to a live human are so infinitesimally small that it would not be worth the bother. So, I have to go with what I have garnered.
Apparently, adult content is being moved to a separate area. This is a good idea. I wrote earlier about the need for zoning and this seems to be a step in that direction. And they are requiring age verification for people to visit those areas. This also seems like a good idea on the face of it. It will help ensure that minors are not exposed to adult content. But, when you think about it, the logic quickly begins to unravel.
First of all, minors have access to adult content all over the web already. So, the notion that protecting minors from exposure to these things is a red herring. Second, people who have fantasies involving adult content are the most likely to want to protect their anonymity. So, a lot of these people will be scared away by age verification. The claim is that age verification is anonymous and it may well be. But, people who are doing odd things anonymously in Second Life are not going to want to take the chance. So, this move will have a chilling effect on the red light districts of Second Life.
Some may feel this is a good thing and others may feel differently. I am not here to judge the morality of it. I am only commenting on the business strategy. A while back they banned gambling which seemed to have a serious impact on land prices. I suspect that age verification will have a similar negatvie economic impact.
I have also written in previous posts about the problem of anonymity. People who are in Second Life to conduct real business want to know who they are dealing with. This was part of the zoning discussion. So, I support user authentication.
However, the current policy, as I understand it, will require a measure of authentication from those most likely to desire anonymity and require no authentication whatsoever from those who would most likely benefit from it. So, the current policy seems to achieve exactly the opposite of what they would want to achieve.
I am reminded of a comment once made by ex president Lyndon Johnson. I believe he was talking about the UN when he said "these guys couldn't pour piss out of a boot if the instructions were written on the heel." This quote comes back with a special resonnance every time I hear about another business decision from Linden Labs.
Apparently, adult content is being moved to a separate area. This is a good idea. I wrote earlier about the need for zoning and this seems to be a step in that direction. And they are requiring age verification for people to visit those areas. This also seems like a good idea on the face of it. It will help ensure that minors are not exposed to adult content. But, when you think about it, the logic quickly begins to unravel.
First of all, minors have access to adult content all over the web already. So, the notion that protecting minors from exposure to these things is a red herring. Second, people who have fantasies involving adult content are the most likely to want to protect their anonymity. So, a lot of these people will be scared away by age verification. The claim is that age verification is anonymous and it may well be. But, people who are doing odd things anonymously in Second Life are not going to want to take the chance. So, this move will have a chilling effect on the red light districts of Second Life.
Some may feel this is a good thing and others may feel differently. I am not here to judge the morality of it. I am only commenting on the business strategy. A while back they banned gambling which seemed to have a serious impact on land prices. I suspect that age verification will have a similar negatvie economic impact.
I have also written in previous posts about the problem of anonymity. People who are in Second Life to conduct real business want to know who they are dealing with. This was part of the zoning discussion. So, I support user authentication.
However, the current policy, as I understand it, will require a measure of authentication from those most likely to desire anonymity and require no authentication whatsoever from those who would most likely benefit from it. So, the current policy seems to achieve exactly the opposite of what they would want to achieve.
I am reminded of a comment once made by ex president Lyndon Johnson. I believe he was talking about the UN when he said "these guys couldn't pour piss out of a boot if the instructions were written on the heel." This quote comes back with a special resonnance every time I hear about another business decision from Linden Labs.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Virtual Meetings in Second Life
I have been talking about the creative and artistic potential of Second Life in recent posts. Now, to talk about using Second Life for meetings, I seem to be going from the sublime to the profane. And I apologize for that. But, if this technology is going to see its potential, it has to begin with some basic but important applications. Don't forget that the earlier adopters of the web did not see it as a commercial environment. And it wasn't until all the dot coms started showing up that the web started becoming a technological force to be reckoned with.
We can safely and fairly divide people into two groups with regard to virtual meetings. Group One feels that you can have virtual meetings in Second Life today so there is no need to consider meetings as a special application. Group Two is unwilling to log into Second Life because they find it bewildering. And there in lies the problem. The functionality needed to attract Group Two is considered too trivial to think about by Group One. But we are going to think about it nonetheless.
What kinds of thing would you have to do in order have a successful meeting in Second Life? Well, first of all you would need to get people to the meeting. One way to do this would be to have default accounts for people to log into that would automatically place them at the meeting. Another way is to have a feature that would automatically offer a teleport to the meeting to an avatar when it logs in. A third possibility would be to set the avatar's home to the meeting location. And a forth possibility would be to develop a meeting object, say a lapel button for the avatar to wear, that would automatically teleport it to the meeting when touched. Now, let's stop and think about this for a minute. People from Group One might say that this functionality could easily be developed. And that may very well be true. But somebody who wants to hold a meeting in Second Life does not want to have to develop it just to have a meeting. They want it to be available already and they want it to be easy to use. So, Group One already has a lot of work to do in order to attract Group Two.
Assume that a Group Two person managed to get their avatar to the meeting location. What next? Well, depending on the person they may want to go directly to the meeting. They may want to look around and get used to the virtual environment. They may want to pick up meeting materials. Or they may wish to pick out some clothes for their avatar. Again, Group Two people would probably say that everybody already knows how to do those things. But that is not true. The Group One people, who make up the vast, vast majority of potential Second Life users, have no idea.
Let's just consider the problem of finding new clothes for one's avatar in preparation for the meeting. In order to find clothes, one has to search for clothing places; they have to teleport to a store; and they have to buy a set of clothes. In order to buy the clothes they have to have money. When they buy the clothes, they usually get an object that needs to be dragged to the ground and opened. Frequently, they cannot do that at the store and need to go to a sandbox. Once they drag the container to the ground and have it rezz, they need to it and copy the items to inventory. Then they drag the items to their avatar. If dressing in real life where this difficult, most people would just walk around naked.
Instead, imagine a room with a row of pictures on the wall showing various outfits. A person can click on an outfit and have it immediately put on their avatar. If they don't like it, they can press a reset button or try on another one. If they like it, they can give it a name and put it on again later by simply typing in a command like "/wear gray suit" in open chat. The point here is to make the Second Life environment easy enough for a normal person to use. Normal people are not excited by the possibilities of Second Life. They just want to go to their meeting as painlessly as possible. And it is the snorts of derision from Group One people that are keeping the Group Two people out and keeping Second Life from fulfilling its potential. If the computer were kept in the hands of Group One people, it would still be computing missile trajectories and I would not be writing this blog.
Next time we will consider functionality to make the meeting go more smoothly and after than we will consider some fundamental changes that would need to take place in the base technology to support these kinds of applications.
We can safely and fairly divide people into two groups with regard to virtual meetings. Group One feels that you can have virtual meetings in Second Life today so there is no need to consider meetings as a special application. Group Two is unwilling to log into Second Life because they find it bewildering. And there in lies the problem. The functionality needed to attract Group Two is considered too trivial to think about by Group One. But we are going to think about it nonetheless.
What kinds of thing would you have to do in order have a successful meeting in Second Life? Well, first of all you would need to get people to the meeting. One way to do this would be to have default accounts for people to log into that would automatically place them at the meeting. Another way is to have a feature that would automatically offer a teleport to the meeting to an avatar when it logs in. A third possibility would be to set the avatar's home to the meeting location. And a forth possibility would be to develop a meeting object, say a lapel button for the avatar to wear, that would automatically teleport it to the meeting when touched. Now, let's stop and think about this for a minute. People from Group One might say that this functionality could easily be developed. And that may very well be true. But somebody who wants to hold a meeting in Second Life does not want to have to develop it just to have a meeting. They want it to be available already and they want it to be easy to use. So, Group One already has a lot of work to do in order to attract Group Two.
Assume that a Group Two person managed to get their avatar to the meeting location. What next? Well, depending on the person they may want to go directly to the meeting. They may want to look around and get used to the virtual environment. They may want to pick up meeting materials. Or they may wish to pick out some clothes for their avatar. Again, Group Two people would probably say that everybody already knows how to do those things. But that is not true. The Group One people, who make up the vast, vast majority of potential Second Life users, have no idea.
Let's just consider the problem of finding new clothes for one's avatar in preparation for the meeting. In order to find clothes, one has to search for clothing places; they have to teleport to a store; and they have to buy a set of clothes. In order to buy the clothes they have to have money. When they buy the clothes, they usually get an object that needs to be dragged to the ground and opened. Frequently, they cannot do that at the store and need to go to a sandbox. Once they drag the container to the ground and have it rezz, they need to it and copy the items to inventory. Then they drag the items to their avatar. If dressing in real life where this difficult, most people would just walk around naked.
Instead, imagine a room with a row of pictures on the wall showing various outfits. A person can click on an outfit and have it immediately put on their avatar. If they don't like it, they can press a reset button or try on another one. If they like it, they can give it a name and put it on again later by simply typing in a command like "/wear gray suit" in open chat. The point here is to make the Second Life environment easy enough for a normal person to use. Normal people are not excited by the possibilities of Second Life. They just want to go to their meeting as painlessly as possible. And it is the snorts of derision from Group One people that are keeping the Group Two people out and keeping Second Life from fulfilling its potential. If the computer were kept in the hands of Group One people, it would still be computing missile trajectories and I would not be writing this blog.
Next time we will consider functionality to make the meeting go more smoothly and after than we will consider some fundamental changes that would need to take place in the base technology to support these kinds of applications.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Linden Labs and the Failure of CRM
A concept that has become increasingly popular in business circles over the past decade is customer relationship management, or CRM. The idea is that it is cheaper to maintain an existing customer than it is to recruit a new one. In order to maintain existing customers you have to understand who your customers are, and how to keep them happy. In an earlier post, I ranted on about how Linden Labs does not seem to know who their customers are. So I won't go into that again. But, clearly, if you don't know who your customers are, it can't possibly know how to keep them happy. And yet, Linden Labs still attempts to do that through two misguided efforts which I will refer to simply as customer service and volunteer management.
Customer service in Second Life is abysmal at best. Polite follow up responses to emails in place of positive actions and good answers do not make good customer service. Solving customers problems does. I, personally, have had several completely frustrating interactions with their customer service. But, my stories pale compared to the one's I've heard from others. I have contacted customer service on some issues that should have been fairly routine. For example, I deleted an account that I wished to recover. The website, at the time, said you can recover deleted accounts for $9.95. I was willing to pay the amount for the specified service so it should have been fairly straightforward. But, after several email exchanges I gave up in frustration. Another time, I was interested in setting up a collection of accounts to use for workshops. Since the policy that was espoused on the website limited the number of accounts, I thought I should contact them and get permission. You would think that it would be in their interests to have people teach workshops in how to use SL. But, I received no response. When I asked in-world mentors (and even an in-world Linden), I was referred back to the website. Eventually, I just gave up. These are relatively minor instances but reflect the inadequacy of customer service. These were opportunities to engage with a customer and develop loyalty. Instead they managed to turn it around and develop alienation. So much for customer relationship management.
Volunteer management is an attempt to engage customers in-world. A team of Linden's called the Vteam manages a group of volunteers called Mentors. The idea is that by engaging volunteers you kill two birds with one stone. The volunteers have something useful to do while in world which increases their enjoyment. And they, in turn, help other, newer, users, which makes it easier for the newer users to become acculturated. In concept this is a great idea. In implementation it is sorely wanting. Over the next couple posts, I will continue ranting about customer service and volunteer management. And, then, I will turn it around and start making some suggestions on how they could do things better.
Customer service in Second Life is abysmal at best. Polite follow up responses to emails in place of positive actions and good answers do not make good customer service. Solving customers problems does. I, personally, have had several completely frustrating interactions with their customer service. But, my stories pale compared to the one's I've heard from others. I have contacted customer service on some issues that should have been fairly routine. For example, I deleted an account that I wished to recover. The website, at the time, said you can recover deleted accounts for $9.95. I was willing to pay the amount for the specified service so it should have been fairly straightforward. But, after several email exchanges I gave up in frustration. Another time, I was interested in setting up a collection of accounts to use for workshops. Since the policy that was espoused on the website limited the number of accounts, I thought I should contact them and get permission. You would think that it would be in their interests to have people teach workshops in how to use SL. But, I received no response. When I asked in-world mentors (and even an in-world Linden), I was referred back to the website. Eventually, I just gave up. These are relatively minor instances but reflect the inadequacy of customer service. These were opportunities to engage with a customer and develop loyalty. Instead they managed to turn it around and develop alienation. So much for customer relationship management.
Volunteer management is an attempt to engage customers in-world. A team of Linden's called the Vteam manages a group of volunteers called Mentors. The idea is that by engaging volunteers you kill two birds with one stone. The volunteers have something useful to do while in world which increases their enjoyment. And they, in turn, help other, newer, users, which makes it easier for the newer users to become acculturated. In concept this is a great idea. In implementation it is sorely wanting. Over the next couple posts, I will continue ranting about customer service and volunteer management. And, then, I will turn it around and start making some suggestions on how they could do things better.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Linden Labs and the Failure to Understand Their Customers
Sometimes it is difficult to figure out who your customers really are. Universities, for example, will often have vigorous debates over whether their customers are their students, their donors, the employers who hire their students, or the society in which they function that needs educated citizens; just to name a few possibilities. Consider the following two perspectives: 1) Our students are our customers. They pay tuition and receive education in return; or 2) Our students are a raw material that goes into our final product which is an educated person. Our customer is society. Just how different would universities operate under those two scenarios. As it turns out, most universities do not resolve the customer issue. Diversity and richness are far more important to universities than efficiency and effectiveness. And education is so fundamentally important to society that we cannot walk away from these institutions no matter how unfocused or inefficient they may be. But a business such as Linden Labs with a product such as Second Life cannot afford the unfocused approach that a university takes. Their product is not fundamentally important to society. People can walk away. And they do.
Just who is the customer for Second Life? Let's lay out a few possibilities and see how each possibility would have different needs and demand different responses from Linden Labs. Consider the following possibilities: 1) The customer in Second Life is the Basic Account holder; 2) The customer in Second Life is the land owner or business owner; 3) The customer in Second Life is the real life business who wishes to sell their product or service through a virtual world; or 4) The customer in Second Life is the corporate research and development group who is using Second Life to develop new ideas and new products. This list is not intended to be exhaustive. It is only intended to show how these stakeholders have very different needs. Let's consider each in turn.
1) The customer in Second Life is the Basic Account holder: We can dismiss this one from the start. Basic accounts are free accounts which do not yield any direct revenue to Linden Labs. They may yield indirect revenue if advertisers are will to pay based on traffic or if Second Life businesses make money off of them. But, in those cases, the customer is the advertiser or the Second Life business. So free basic accounts are, at best, a means to some other end, although that other end is not entirely clear.
2) The customer in Second Life is the land owner or business owner: This is a possibility. Linden Labs earns revenue by selling and taxing virtual land. If this is the customer then LL would want to provide services to support Second Life businesses and would want to attract high quality residents who are likely to spend money at these virtual businesses. Neither of these goals is met particularly well. While Second Life businesses can down load spreadsheets of their business transactions, that is pretty much it for customer support. Issues like security, performance and reliability, all of which are critical to Second Life business is wanting. Further, the basic account policy in conjunction with anonymity tends to attract low quality traffic thus limiting the revenue potential of the businesses. The basic account policy is like going to a homeless shelter to generate traffic for your shopping mall.
3) The customer in Second Life is the real life business who wishes to sell their product or service through a virtual world: In the previous scenario the customer was a Second Life business. In this scenario the customer is a real life business looking to sell products through a virtual world presence. You can think of this as having an island as an alternative to a web site. While this scenario has promise there are three major flaws. First, as sited above, the basic account policy tends to generate low quality traffic. So revenue potentials are limited. Second, the learning curve for Second Life is very high and customers who are used to the ease of using the web are not going to switch very readily if shopping in Second Life requires a big investment of time in learning how to get around. Third, the Linden economy works well for a fantasy environment; but only for a fantasy environment. Paying L$250 ($1 real money) for an item of clothing encourages one to dress up their avatar and enjoy the fantasy. However, an inexpensive book in a Second Life store would cost L$5000 while a computer would cost L$250,000 and a car would cost L$5,000,000. This scale benefits inexpensive products like virtual clothing but prohibits sales of more expensive real world items.
4) The customer in Second Life is the corporate research and development group who is using Second Life to develop new ideas and new products: This is another, and very different, possibility. These developers would be attempting to use Second Life technology for distance education, business meetings, virtual conferences, virtual tourism, and so on. These are all very promising ideas. However, if this were the customer, then LL would be investing a great deal more in infrastructure, development tools, performance, reliability, training, consulting and so on. And perhaps they are. But, if they are, it is a well kept secret.
The point here is that you cannot be all things to all people. Different potential customer groups have different needs which are often at odds with each other. If you try to satisfy all of them, you land up not satisfying any of them. In order for a business like Second Life to be successful in the long term, they have to figure out who their customers are and make sure that they are keeping those customer happy.
Just who is the customer for Second Life? Let's lay out a few possibilities and see how each possibility would have different needs and demand different responses from Linden Labs. Consider the following possibilities: 1) The customer in Second Life is the Basic Account holder; 2) The customer in Second Life is the land owner or business owner; 3) The customer in Second Life is the real life business who wishes to sell their product or service through a virtual world; or 4) The customer in Second Life is the corporate research and development group who is using Second Life to develop new ideas and new products. This list is not intended to be exhaustive. It is only intended to show how these stakeholders have very different needs. Let's consider each in turn.
1) The customer in Second Life is the Basic Account holder: We can dismiss this one from the start. Basic accounts are free accounts which do not yield any direct revenue to Linden Labs. They may yield indirect revenue if advertisers are will to pay based on traffic or if Second Life businesses make money off of them. But, in those cases, the customer is the advertiser or the Second Life business. So free basic accounts are, at best, a means to some other end, although that other end is not entirely clear.
2) The customer in Second Life is the land owner or business owner: This is a possibility. Linden Labs earns revenue by selling and taxing virtual land. If this is the customer then LL would want to provide services to support Second Life businesses and would want to attract high quality residents who are likely to spend money at these virtual businesses. Neither of these goals is met particularly well. While Second Life businesses can down load spreadsheets of their business transactions, that is pretty much it for customer support. Issues like security, performance and reliability, all of which are critical to Second Life business is wanting. Further, the basic account policy in conjunction with anonymity tends to attract low quality traffic thus limiting the revenue potential of the businesses. The basic account policy is like going to a homeless shelter to generate traffic for your shopping mall.
3) The customer in Second Life is the real life business who wishes to sell their product or service through a virtual world: In the previous scenario the customer was a Second Life business. In this scenario the customer is a real life business looking to sell products through a virtual world presence. You can think of this as having an island as an alternative to a web site. While this scenario has promise there are three major flaws. First, as sited above, the basic account policy tends to generate low quality traffic. So revenue potentials are limited. Second, the learning curve for Second Life is very high and customers who are used to the ease of using the web are not going to switch very readily if shopping in Second Life requires a big investment of time in learning how to get around. Third, the Linden economy works well for a fantasy environment; but only for a fantasy environment. Paying L$250 ($1 real money) for an item of clothing encourages one to dress up their avatar and enjoy the fantasy. However, an inexpensive book in a Second Life store would cost L$5000 while a computer would cost L$250,000 and a car would cost L$5,000,000. This scale benefits inexpensive products like virtual clothing but prohibits sales of more expensive real world items.
4) The customer in Second Life is the corporate research and development group who is using Second Life to develop new ideas and new products: This is another, and very different, possibility. These developers would be attempting to use Second Life technology for distance education, business meetings, virtual conferences, virtual tourism, and so on. These are all very promising ideas. However, if this were the customer, then LL would be investing a great deal more in infrastructure, development tools, performance, reliability, training, consulting and so on. And perhaps they are. But, if they are, it is a well kept secret.
The point here is that you cannot be all things to all people. Different potential customer groups have different needs which are often at odds with each other. If you try to satisfy all of them, you land up not satisfying any of them. In order for a business like Second Life to be successful in the long term, they have to figure out who their customers are and make sure that they are keeping those customer happy.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Where Did They Go Wrong?
Looking back on the meteoric rise of Second Life and its almost total failure to meet expectations, I think we can point to four areas of weakness on the part of Linden Labs: 1) a lack of strategic focus; 2) a failure to understand their core customers; 3) a failure to understand basic business principles; and 4)a failure to understand products and marketing. Each will be expanded, in turn, in this post, and further in subsequent posts.
Lack of Strategic Focus - What is Linden Labs trying to do with Second Life? Are they creating a big chat room? Is it a vehicle for self expression? Is it a harbinger of the 3D web? Is it a social interaction technology? Is it the latest thing in distance learning technology? Is is a workflow, meeting, or conferencing technolog? Is it destined to be an open source technology? Nobody seens to know the answer to any of these questions. While it may have the potential to be any of these things, it cannot be all things to all people all at once.
A Failure to Understand Their Core Customers - Who are the customers of Second Life? Is it the large companies like IBM, or CSI NY who buy up large chunks of virtual real estate? Is it the thousands of individual sim owners who own one or more islands? Is it the business people who rent or buy land in order to create a business in Second Life? Is it the premium account holders who pay $6-$9 per month for their Second Life accounts? Is it the basic account holders who pay nothing but populate the world and hopefully spend a little money in support of Second Life businesses?
A Failure to Understand Basic Business Principles - In order to run a sucessful business you have to have a product or service that people want to buy. You have to understand your customers and what they want. You have to know what factors are critical to your succcess. You have to know where you are trying to go over the long term. That is to say, you have to have a business model. Linden Labs fails in this area at two levels. The business model for Second Life is entirely unclear. And they attempt to attract businesses into Second Life who are equally as unclear regarding their business models.
A Failure to Understand Products and Marketing - Linden Labs created a huge amount of hype in the Fall of 2006 with the explosive growth in basic accounts and the news stories about virtual world millionaires. Many very hopeful and now bitter people came to the virtual world attempting to make money and lost money instead. One of the biggest fiascos was speculating in virtual real estate. People who bought land for $L5000 per plot and sold it at the peak for $L10,000 per plot did OK. But people who bought land for $L10,000 were left hold the bag. In order for this scheme to continue working, it would require that there is always a bigger sucker further down the line. And this comes dangerously close to a Ponzi scheme. You have to have a product with inherent value. Selling a product whose value relies on finding a bigger sucker is not a viable marketing strategy.
Over the next few posts, I will elaborate further on these ideas.
Lack of Strategic Focus - What is Linden Labs trying to do with Second Life? Are they creating a big chat room? Is it a vehicle for self expression? Is it a harbinger of the 3D web? Is it a social interaction technology? Is it the latest thing in distance learning technology? Is is a workflow, meeting, or conferencing technolog? Is it destined to be an open source technology? Nobody seens to know the answer to any of these questions. While it may have the potential to be any of these things, it cannot be all things to all people all at once.
A Failure to Understand Their Core Customers - Who are the customers of Second Life? Is it the large companies like IBM, or CSI NY who buy up large chunks of virtual real estate? Is it the thousands of individual sim owners who own one or more islands? Is it the business people who rent or buy land in order to create a business in Second Life? Is it the premium account holders who pay $6-$9 per month for their Second Life accounts? Is it the basic account holders who pay nothing but populate the world and hopefully spend a little money in support of Second Life businesses?
A Failure to Understand Basic Business Principles - In order to run a sucessful business you have to have a product or service that people want to buy. You have to understand your customers and what they want. You have to know what factors are critical to your succcess. You have to know where you are trying to go over the long term. That is to say, you have to have a business model. Linden Labs fails in this area at two levels. The business model for Second Life is entirely unclear. And they attempt to attract businesses into Second Life who are equally as unclear regarding their business models.
A Failure to Understand Products and Marketing - Linden Labs created a huge amount of hype in the Fall of 2006 with the explosive growth in basic accounts and the news stories about virtual world millionaires. Many very hopeful and now bitter people came to the virtual world attempting to make money and lost money instead. One of the biggest fiascos was speculating in virtual real estate. People who bought land for $L5000 per plot and sold it at the peak for $L10,000 per plot did OK. But people who bought land for $L10,000 were left hold the bag. In order for this scheme to continue working, it would require that there is always a bigger sucker further down the line. And this comes dangerously close to a Ponzi scheme. You have to have a product with inherent value. Selling a product whose value relies on finding a bigger sucker is not a viable marketing strategy.
Over the next few posts, I will elaborate further on these ideas.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Creating Your Second Life - Part 2
In the last post, I discussed the capabilities that Second Life provides for creating objects in the 3D world through a processes called building. This is by far the most impressive feature of Second Life. You can create interesting things for others to see and you can see the interesting things that they have created. It is a public and synergistic sharing of creative imagination; sort of like a global 3D art show.
However, not far behind that is the ability to create your own persona in Second Life. Instead of being all that you can be, in Second Life you can be MORE than you can be. You can be better looking and more interesting. You can dress better and be more adept at business and technology that you ever could be in real life.
If you are short and fat in real life, then you can be tall and slim in Second Life. If you are unpopular and socially inept in real life, then you can have a long friends list and belong to lots of groups in Second Life. If nobody takes you seriously in real life, you can teach a class or start a philosophy discussion group in Second Life. If you can't hang on to a job in real life, you can start your own business in Second Life.
This ability to create you own persona has many significant implications. It builds confidence. It helps you explore the possibilities in your own personality. It can help you over come a variety of social anxieties. It can allow you to see the world from the perspective who are not like you in real life. Whereas the building capability in Second Life allows you to imagine and then create a new world, the various means of altering your persona in Second Life allow you to imagine and then create a new self. Once you have created a new world in Second Life, you can live in it. Once you have created a new self in Second Life you can experience that new world through that new self. It is no wonder that people get so addicted.
So, to sum up what Linden Labs got right with Second Life, it is the ability it provides for its users to create possible worlds and then experience those possible worlds. This is stimulating to the imagination and satisfying to the emotions. The question is - how can this amazing capability be put to best use? And that is where Linden Labs starts dropping the ball. In the next post we will begin to look at what Linden Labs did not get right.
However, not far behind that is the ability to create your own persona in Second Life. Instead of being all that you can be, in Second Life you can be MORE than you can be. You can be better looking and more interesting. You can dress better and be more adept at business and technology that you ever could be in real life.
If you are short and fat in real life, then you can be tall and slim in Second Life. If you are unpopular and socially inept in real life, then you can have a long friends list and belong to lots of groups in Second Life. If nobody takes you seriously in real life, you can teach a class or start a philosophy discussion group in Second Life. If you can't hang on to a job in real life, you can start your own business in Second Life.
This ability to create you own persona has many significant implications. It builds confidence. It helps you explore the possibilities in your own personality. It can help you over come a variety of social anxieties. It can allow you to see the world from the perspective who are not like you in real life. Whereas the building capability in Second Life allows you to imagine and then create a new world, the various means of altering your persona in Second Life allow you to imagine and then create a new self. Once you have created a new world in Second Life, you can live in it. Once you have created a new self in Second Life you can experience that new world through that new self. It is no wonder that people get so addicted.
So, to sum up what Linden Labs got right with Second Life, it is the ability it provides for its users to create possible worlds and then experience those possible worlds. This is stimulating to the imagination and satisfying to the emotions. The question is - how can this amazing capability be put to best use? And that is where Linden Labs starts dropping the ball. In the next post we will begin to look at what Linden Labs did not get right.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
The Staggering Ineptitude of Linden Labs
Albert Einstein once said "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe." I think the staggering ineptitude of Linden Labs is giving human stupidity a run for its money. Yes, I am beginning a rant, if you haven't figured that out already. To paraphrase another quote that I have no idea who to attribute to, Second Life has enormous potential and always will. That is to say, that the prospects of Linden Labs actually exploiting the potential of Second Light grow dimmer every day. It will remain, forever, a promising technology with unexploited potential. Why? Because of the staggering ineptitude of Linden Labs.
If I sound a little angry, I suppose I am. I came to Second Life just a little over two years ago and was astonished, as many people were, with the future potential of this amazing technology. Over the past two years I have invested an enormous amount of time believing that when this technology catches on, playing catch up would not be an option. And now it looks like this technology might never catch on the way I thought it would. And that is because Linden Labs has just dropped the ball. They simply do not know what they were doing. They created a gold mine and had no idea how to mine the gold.
In my early days on Second Life, I added some pages to my website to discuss my experiences. Way back then, I wrote "I am fully aware of the fact that by the time this technology becomes mainstream the name of Second Life might be little more than a historical footnote like the name of the first PC operating system (CP/M) or the first electronic spreadsheet (Visicalc)." As I was writing that, I had no idea how prophetic that might become. So, I thought it might be worth while to digress on a new thread to explore just how they managed to screw up so badly. What did they get right? What did the do wrong? What should they have done instead? Stay tuned.
If I sound a little angry, I suppose I am. I came to Second Life just a little over two years ago and was astonished, as many people were, with the future potential of this amazing technology. Over the past two years I have invested an enormous amount of time believing that when this technology catches on, playing catch up would not be an option. And now it looks like this technology might never catch on the way I thought it would. And that is because Linden Labs has just dropped the ball. They simply do not know what they were doing. They created a gold mine and had no idea how to mine the gold.
In my early days on Second Life, I added some pages to my website to discuss my experiences. Way back then, I wrote "I am fully aware of the fact that by the time this technology becomes mainstream the name of Second Life might be little more than a historical footnote like the name of the first PC operating system (CP/M) or the first electronic spreadsheet (Visicalc)." As I was writing that, I had no idea how prophetic that might become. So, I thought it might be worth while to digress on a new thread to explore just how they managed to screw up so badly. What did they get right? What did the do wrong? What should they have done instead? Stay tuned.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
The Mall vs the Red Light District
In real life we have a wide variety people pursuing a wide variety of interests. And, in general, this is a good thing. Within reason, people should be able to find socially acceptable vehicles for their self expression and need fulfillment. But, we also realize, in real life, that one person's pursuit of well being might conflict with another person's pursuit of well being. So, we segregate interests. You would not expect to find, for example, an adult book store next to a church, nor a half way house for pedophiles next to a high school.
These are extreme examples but more subtle examples are not hard to find. Most cities and towns have zoning restrictions. So you cannot place commercial establishments in residential neighborhoods. People need to live and people need to shop so both are legitimate needs. But, most municipalities feel that orderly development is preferable to letting anyone do whatever they wish where ever they wish. In fact, a town or city who followed that philosophy would deteriorate and become unlivable in very short order. And that is exactly the problem that has occurred in Second Life.
Linden labs makes a faint and almost perfunctory effort at segmentation by marking islands as PG or Mature. However, this is grossly inadequate for the variety of activities found in Second Life. The answer, somewhat glibly, is that Second Life needs zoning. Actually, the answer, somewhat more seriously is that Second Life needs to develop a segmentation scheme so that conflicting interests do not collide. Using very broad strokes their needs to be areas in Second Life where you go for business or education, and other places you go to explore personal expression and needs. I would characterize these broad strokes as The Mall vs the Red Light District. And over the next few posts we will explore the possibilities and pitfalls of segmentation.
These are extreme examples but more subtle examples are not hard to find. Most cities and towns have zoning restrictions. So you cannot place commercial establishments in residential neighborhoods. People need to live and people need to shop so both are legitimate needs. But, most municipalities feel that orderly development is preferable to letting anyone do whatever they wish where ever they wish. In fact, a town or city who followed that philosophy would deteriorate and become unlivable in very short order. And that is exactly the problem that has occurred in Second Life.
Linden labs makes a faint and almost perfunctory effort at segmentation by marking islands as PG or Mature. However, this is grossly inadequate for the variety of activities found in Second Life. The answer, somewhat glibly, is that Second Life needs zoning. Actually, the answer, somewhat more seriously is that Second Life needs to develop a segmentation scheme so that conflicting interests do not collide. Using very broad strokes their needs to be areas in Second Life where you go for business or education, and other places you go to explore personal expression and needs. I would characterize these broad strokes as The Mall vs the Red Light District. And over the next few posts we will explore the possibilities and pitfalls of segmentation.
Friday, December 5, 2008
What ARE These People?
Imagine, for a moment, that you are a socially alienated individual. For some reason, life has not gone well. Perhaps, you were mercilessly bullied in Junior High School. Perhaps, you have a physical limitation that prevents you from fitting in as well as you would like. Perhaps you grew up in a majorly dysfunctional family. Perhaps you are driven by compulsions that you cannot fully control and do not fully understand. Most people grow up with some sort of adversity and overwhelmingly most adjust. However, some don't. Some just become increasingly more alienated and increasingly more angry. In real life there are behavior traits that might tip us off to be wary of such a person. They may avoid eye contact. They may have very limited social interaction or poor interaction skills. They may dress or behave in ways that reveal their underlying rage. We cannot totally avoid such people in real life, but we do get warning signs.
What is such a person comes into a virtual world? What if they purchase a very normal looking avatar and dress is in a moderate and acceptable way? What if their entire purpose for being in a virtual world is to get you to lower your guard so they can punish you for all the insults that they have suffered in their life? Or worse, what if they wish to make you miserable just because it is fun?
I was told a story once, by someone who was visiting my Academy. They had gotten to be friends with someone they met in a chat room long before the days of Second Life. At one point the friend appeared to be becoming despondent and talked about committing suicide. Then, the person simply stopped appearing in the chat room. The person who was relating the story was frantic and contacted the chat room administrator. As it turns out, this person 'faked' a suicide to disturb (or 'mess with') the person who was relating the story. And this person, from the chat room, had done this a number of times before.
I don't know whether or not the anecdote is fully true, partially true or made of whole cloth since I did not investigate the incident myself. However, it rings true based upon experiences that I have had. And it certainly represents, if only anecdotally, a malicious form of griefing.
Why would somebody do a thing like this? How could they enjoy such a thing? The problem, of course, is that when you are dealing with anonymous people in a virtual world, you never know, for sure, who is at the keyboard and what there motives might be. And all you need is one bad experience with this sort of thing to put you off of virtual worlds for a long time.
So, anonymity has some major benefit and some major drawbacks. If you prevent anonymity you limit the ability of basically good people to explore who they are and express themselves in ways that they may not be able to express themselves in real life. On the other hand, anonymity can be a hiding place for psychopaths, sociopaths, and all manner of maladjusted individuals. Is there a solution? Yes, there is. And that will be the topic of the next post.
What is such a person comes into a virtual world? What if they purchase a very normal looking avatar and dress is in a moderate and acceptable way? What if their entire purpose for being in a virtual world is to get you to lower your guard so they can punish you for all the insults that they have suffered in their life? Or worse, what if they wish to make you miserable just because it is fun?
I was told a story once, by someone who was visiting my Academy. They had gotten to be friends with someone they met in a chat room long before the days of Second Life. At one point the friend appeared to be becoming despondent and talked about committing suicide. Then, the person simply stopped appearing in the chat room. The person who was relating the story was frantic and contacted the chat room administrator. As it turns out, this person 'faked' a suicide to disturb (or 'mess with') the person who was relating the story. And this person, from the chat room, had done this a number of times before.
I don't know whether or not the anecdote is fully true, partially true or made of whole cloth since I did not investigate the incident myself. However, it rings true based upon experiences that I have had. And it certainly represents, if only anecdotally, a malicious form of griefing.
Why would somebody do a thing like this? How could they enjoy such a thing? The problem, of course, is that when you are dealing with anonymous people in a virtual world, you never know, for sure, who is at the keyboard and what there motives might be. And all you need is one bad experience with this sort of thing to put you off of virtual worlds for a long time.
So, anonymity has some major benefit and some major drawbacks. If you prevent anonymity you limit the ability of basically good people to explore who they are and express themselves in ways that they may not be able to express themselves in real life. On the other hand, anonymity can be a hiding place for psychopaths, sociopaths, and all manner of maladjusted individuals. Is there a solution? Yes, there is. And that will be the topic of the next post.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Who ARE These People?
In the last post I discussed the problem of griefers and trollers in Second Life, and how they can seriously diminish the enjoyment of others. And yet, however annoying these people might be, they rarely rise above the level of 'annoying'. A much bigger problem is the friends you make in Second Life, who might not be as good of friends as you think they are.
When we meet people in real life, we usually evaluate them in some sort of social context. We gravitate towards people who are similar to ourselves in terms of values, education, and social status. This isn't to say that we never venture outside of our social circles. It is only to say that a friendship or a relationship has a much better chance of succeeding if you share similar values. In fact, dating and matchmaking websites often use this premise as the basis for finding matches.
Unfortunately, when you meet an anonymous person in Second Life, you do not have access to this information. If you met this same person in real life your warning alarms might go off and you might well get away as quickly as you can. But, since you don't have this information, you lower your guard and get to know the person a little better. This is not entirely a bad thing. You get to meet some lovely people that you might otherwise never get to know in real life because they have some social markers that would cause you to avoid them. However, some social markers can be very important.
At a superficial level you may get along fine. You might even find it very interesting to get to know somebody who is unlike anyone you have ever met before. You might even become very good friends. And then once you have invested in a friendship or a relationship you find out that this person is nothing like you thought they would be. They may not even be a 'bad' person. They may just hold different values than you hold with regard to simple things like loyalty, trust, obligations in a friendship and so on. Before you know it, they have done something horrible, from your perspective, like betrayed a confidence, talked behind your back, failed to hold up their end of the relationship, or some similar violation.
I have heard time and time again from people who have read my note cards at Cosmos Academy and IM'd me about this kind of experience. This can be innocent and benign and yet painful. Two people may have very different standards of acceptable behavior. Their guards were down. The values collided and somebody got hurt. This is unfortunate and unpleasant. And it arises from not knowing who you are dealing with.
But, it can be much worse. What if the problem is not just a collision of values. What if the other person is bitter about their role in life; vindictive from past failed relationships, sociopathic, or just has an axe to grind about life. Then it can really get ugly and that will be the topic of the next post.
When we meet people in real life, we usually evaluate them in some sort of social context. We gravitate towards people who are similar to ourselves in terms of values, education, and social status. This isn't to say that we never venture outside of our social circles. It is only to say that a friendship or a relationship has a much better chance of succeeding if you share similar values. In fact, dating and matchmaking websites often use this premise as the basis for finding matches.
Unfortunately, when you meet an anonymous person in Second Life, you do not have access to this information. If you met this same person in real life your warning alarms might go off and you might well get away as quickly as you can. But, since you don't have this information, you lower your guard and get to know the person a little better. This is not entirely a bad thing. You get to meet some lovely people that you might otherwise never get to know in real life because they have some social markers that would cause you to avoid them. However, some social markers can be very important.
At a superficial level you may get along fine. You might even find it very interesting to get to know somebody who is unlike anyone you have ever met before. You might even become very good friends. And then once you have invested in a friendship or a relationship you find out that this person is nothing like you thought they would be. They may not even be a 'bad' person. They may just hold different values than you hold with regard to simple things like loyalty, trust, obligations in a friendship and so on. Before you know it, they have done something horrible, from your perspective, like betrayed a confidence, talked behind your back, failed to hold up their end of the relationship, or some similar violation.
I have heard time and time again from people who have read my note cards at Cosmos Academy and IM'd me about this kind of experience. This can be innocent and benign and yet painful. Two people may have very different standards of acceptable behavior. Their guards were down. The values collided and somebody got hurt. This is unfortunate and unpleasant. And it arises from not knowing who you are dealing with.
But, it can be much worse. What if the problem is not just a collision of values. What if the other person is bitter about their role in life; vindictive from past failed relationships, sociopathic, or just has an axe to grind about life. Then it can really get ugly and that will be the topic of the next post.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
The Blessing of Anonymity
It is easier to be yourself in Manhattan that it is to be yourself in a small town of a few hundred people. Overwhelmingly, most people in a large city do not know who you are and do not care. So, if your behavior is a little quirky nobody even notices. When everybody knows you, the pressures on you to conform are much, much greater.
Everybody has quirks in their behavior, most of which is harmless and only some of which would be cause for real concern. So the anonymity of a large city where the boundaries of acceptable behavior as less confining provides individuals with greater freedom to just be who they are.
Carry this a step further, and consider the anonymity of a virtual world. In a real city, you have a physical presence. People might know where you live. They might know some of your friends. They might even know some members of your family. So, even though there is a great deal of freedom, it is not unlimited freedom. In a virtual world you can change your appearance, your ethnicity, your social class, your age, and even your gender. Try doing all that in a big city. You’re short? No problem, just make yourself tall. You’re aging to fast and want to recapture your youth. We can handle that too. You are lower class and have always wanted to be a refined aristocrat? No sweat. It is within your reach. People come to a virtual world to be whoever they really want to be and your wildest imaginings cannot cover the full range of possibilities.
And one of the elements of a virtual world that makes this possible is anonymity. So, anonymity is a blessing, a real contribution to individual freedom of expression.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Who Are the People in Second Life?
Another problem with retention in Second Life is the cast of weirdos and oddballs that you are likely to encounter. These pathological misfits show up in a variety of forms. The most obvious instance is griefers. Griefers are people who come to Second Life for the sole purpose of diminishing the enjoyment of others. They have some fairly standard tricks. Perhaps the most common is a particle generator that floods a sim with pictures that range from annoying to deeply offensive. Another instance is trollers. Griefers generally do not mind get Abuse Reports. They are pretty flagrant. But, Trollers are more subtle. They like to annoy people but carefully stop short of getting reported. They may act like newbies and ask a lot of questions that may or may not be offensive depending on how you interpret them. They act confused and ask the same questions over and over. They just want to be annoying. Since a lot of people, especially in Welcome Areas, try to help others out, this can be not only annoying but frustrating and upsetting. Many a good mentor has been turned off by trollers.
The problem here, of course, is that Second Life allows anonymous free accounts. This is a HUGE mistake and I cannot imagine what was going through the heads of the people at Linden Labs who made this decision. I know why it initially seemed like a good idea. They wanted the press they would get from having millions of accounts. And, I suppose, that did work in the short run. But, in the longer run they have subsided a lot of non paying customers to come to Second Life and drive away potentially paying customers. There is no way to justify a strategy that pays people to drive away your business.
But, it isn't just griefers and trollers that create problems. Anonymity is a huge problem for other reasons. And I will turn to that next time.
The problem here, of course, is that Second Life allows anonymous free accounts. This is a HUGE mistake and I cannot imagine what was going through the heads of the people at Linden Labs who made this decision. I know why it initially seemed like a good idea. They wanted the press they would get from having millions of accounts. And, I suppose, that did work in the short run. But, in the longer run they have subsided a lot of non paying customers to come to Second Life and drive away potentially paying customers. There is no way to justify a strategy that pays people to drive away your business.
But, it isn't just griefers and trollers that create problems. Anonymity is a huge problem for other reasons. And I will turn to that next time.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
How Do You Learn in Second Life
In the last post, I stated that the most serious problem for Second Life with regard to retention was the lack of structured activities. I suggested that quests might be a way for people to structure their time while getting familiar with the environment. Following on the retention theme, I think the second most serious problem in Second Life with regard to retention is the learning curve. People show up in this virtual world and are swamped by the number of things they don't know. Granted the Orientation Islands attempt to address this but they fall way short of what is needed to keep people engaged. I guess the people at Linden Labs had to learn all this stuff the hard way and feel that new visitors should learn the hard way as well.
Second Life is a lot like a 3rd world country. If you know the right people and you know the right questions to ask, you can get things done. But, if you don't spend endless hours making contacts, or hanging out at Welcome Areas waiting for tidbits of information to be dropped, your chances of making any progress are very low. For example, if you happen to be hanging out on Help Island when there is a greifer attack and a knowledgeable mentor handy, you might learn that you can suppress the particles by simultaneously pressing ctrl-alt-shift-=. I think it is fair to say that the SL interface is not intuitive.
What they need to do is to organize the things you need to know into categories and develop usable tutorials in each of those categories. I know there are people who would say that there are tutorials on building and scripting. There is even a place where you can learn about particle generators. However, if you really believe those tutorials are adequate then I can only assume that you know absolutely nothing about either education nor normal people.
Second Life is a lot like a 3rd world country. If you know the right people and you know the right questions to ask, you can get things done. But, if you don't spend endless hours making contacts, or hanging out at Welcome Areas waiting for tidbits of information to be dropped, your chances of making any progress are very low. For example, if you happen to be hanging out on Help Island when there is a greifer attack and a knowledgeable mentor handy, you might learn that you can suppress the particles by simultaneously pressing ctrl-alt-shift-=. I think it is fair to say that the SL interface is not intuitive.
What they need to do is to organize the things you need to know into categories and develop usable tutorials in each of those categories. I know there are people who would say that there are tutorials on building and scripting. There is even a place where you can learn about particle generators. However, if you really believe those tutorials are adequate then I can only assume that you know absolutely nothing about either education nor normal people.
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