New World Newsfeed: Brazil Game Portal To Drop Second Life (But How Will That Affect Brazilian SLers?)

Abril: Second Life fecha as portas no Brasil (Portuguese)

Kaizen is a major online portal for Brazilian gamers, and up until very recently, acted as the Lindens' Second Life outreach in that country, which counts a large portion of the active metaverse population. (According to the Lindens, 65,797 Brazilians logged into SL last May, which would constitute roughly 8% of the total active user population, making it the fourth largest user group by country.) According to the above report, however, Kaizen is dropping Second Life from its offerings, and iG, a company that maintains Second Life's Mainland Brasil entrance, ended it contract with Linden Lab last March. None of this means, however, as the headline above translates, "Second Life closes the doors in Brazil." At least according to the Lindens, who I contacted earlier this week:

"[W]e have not lost a 'distributor' in Brazil, and Second Life remains available there," a Linden spokesman told me by e-mail. "Mainland Brasil is still an active Community Gateway for registration; Residents can register and download the Portuguese version of the official Second Life viewer either via the Mainland Brasil website or via SecondLife.com, all accounts registered via KaizenGames are still valid, and Brazilian Second Life Residents will still be able to login to Second Life as always."

Still, it's likely the loss of Kaizen will mean a growth plateau of new Brazilian SL Residents, while the existing community may alter its in-world activity. (I believe Kaizen handled revenue transactions between its users and Linden Lab, though not being fluent in Portuguese, I'm not certain.) Fairly or unfairly, Brazilian SL Residents are sometimes accused of being disportinately responsible for content theft in Second Life, though I strongly question that belief -- it's at least as likely that they're simply more identifiably conspicuous, due to their use of Portuguese.

In any case, I'll be following the aftermath of this news closely; meantime, I turn to readers: have you noticed any significant activity changes among Brazilian Residents recently?

Much thanks to my Portuguese translator/correspondent Tonjampae Amat for helping translate the Abril article.

Comments

[Gwyneth Llewelyn]

The many serious and honest Brazilian content creators I've talked with are actually very happy about this :)

But I guess that the million registered users with Kaizen Games might not be...

[Frans Charming]

Why are they happy about this Gwyneth? Less riff raff?

[spyvspyaeon]

As a brazilian user (resident) I must say that the Kaizen getting out of the grid (this is a great news), since January I am watching some issues, related to Kaizen business and brazilian residents (following the Second life new Brazil created by Patou Dumont). Indeed the title on the photo isn't true Second life portal still up and all brazilian residents still there. As far as I notice from ever, the massive brazilian residents are honest and they do their work and development (I have myself a huge list of content creators, universities, research and others. I we to agree that there are some of them without good intentions, but this doesn't means they are all. Acording do Idgnow http://idgnow.uol.com.br/internet/2009/06/22/second-life-brasil-passa-por-restruturacao-apos-venda-da-kaizen/ they report some of the issues beetween Kaizen and residents. The most significant behavour I saw this last weeks Is that some of my brazilian contacts, disapears, but I'm not sure if it is related to Kaizen, or if they are doing their duty. I will also track this to give a feedback asap.
Stay cool

[Ayu]

OMG, the copybot sellers will be devastated! Who will they sell copybot to now?

[Account Deleted]

There have been many reported issues concerning to the Brazilian partnership KaizenGames/iG, which explored Linden Lab services in Brazil.

Kaizen has never provided Brazilians with a properly support -- they did not answer phone calls from Residents, or submitted Tickes, no help in-world. Linden Dollars were not delivered in-world at a fashion time, land prices were disproportionate, and so on and forth.

Another big issue was concerning to the Kaizen's credit systems, which hiper-inflacionated the currency. Buying Linden Dollars from Kaizen was a lot more expensive. Meanwhile, those Brazilians who were able to make money in SL, were unable to convert it into the Brazilian currency. Kaizen only accept to buy a small fraction of it, something around US$ 100 per month.

Therefore, from now on Brazilian SLers will have a more enjoyable SL experience dealing direct with LL. As for customers support in their own language (Portuguese), the Brazilians can still have it from the Second Life Mentors, who are always keen to provide all help they need at the Public Help Islands.