Embracing Second Life as a Game Platform, Linden Lab Selects EA Exec & Game Developer Rod Humble as New CEO

Rod Humble is the new CEO of Second Life developer Linden Lab, the company just announced. Humble is a veteran of Electronic Arts, where he was Executive Vice President for the EA Play label, which included work on Will Wright's The Sims franchise (a game that Second Life is often compared to, and has inspired enormous amounts of user-generated content online.) Previous to that, Humble was Vice President of Product Development for EverQuest, from Sony Online Entertainment, which in the late 90s was the first MMO to gain a relatively large subscriber base for a 3D online world. (At peak, about 400,000.) This announcement comes after Linden founder Philip Rosedale stepped down as interim CEO position last October, a role he took after previous CEO Mark Kingdon was removed in June following 30% of the staff being laid off. All that tumult happened roughly a year after Linden Lab attempted to position Second Life largely as a tool for enterprise use and education. Since then, however, the company has hired Electronic Arts/Activision vet Kim Salzer as VP of marketing, who has been re-branding Second Life in part as an animal-raising sim.

I generally refrain from commenting editorially on Linden Lab management decisions, but in this case, I'll say this is probably a good move on the company's part, and repeat the point I made last Summer:

[W]hat really matters is making Second Life fun, developing it to serve the extremely large market of consumers who already use virtual worlds for play and games, not real world work. Only then will Second Life gain a mass market, and only then may it be feasible to turn SL into a full-fledged platform for real world work that people who are not already well-versed in SL can use.

Humble could be the man to make that happen.  Here's a video of Humble (while he was still at EA) discussing the power of user-generated content (including praise for Minecraft):

Please discuss in Comments!

Comments

[Noirran]

YES! This gives me hope.

[Botgirl Questi]

Really great clip, especially considering it's from before the new postion was announce (when it could be construed as PR spin.) Lots of nice ideas, including software as toy vs. game, and the emphasis of bringing users into development and an appreciation for user-generated content. All in all, very promising!

[Crap Mariner]

"Embracing Second Life as a Game..."

Wrong.

Watch the video again, listen for "Toys, not games."

Yes, this is the right guy.

-ls/cm

[Mitch Wagner]

I like it.

I'm pretty critical of Linden Lab's management and direction during the boom and afterwards, but I have to give them credit for persistence and hard work. The car has three flat tires, half the cylinders on the engine are shot, the roof and doors are torn off, but they're still driving and determined to win the race.

I know that sounds like damning with faint praise, but I mean it as sincere, 100% praise.

[Toxic Menges]

<> This made me LOL - sounds so ridiculous, is this really all she has managed to do so far?

Welcome Mr Humble. Best of luck sir.

[Arcadia Codesmith]

Welcome, Rod.

The goodwill may last as long as a week or two.

Beyond that... we'll see. If you engage the community as partners in our little joint venture, we can do great things together.

[Ignatius Onomatopoeia]

Hello Rod Linden!

Mitch Wagner mentioned cars...but where he was metaphorical, I'll be literal (or at least virtual): when I can drive my fake car competitively on those Linden roads against another driver, it will be a good game.

In terms of physics and combat systems, SL does not yet stack up. Make it do those things well, with its potential for good RPing, and it could again be a winner.

See you on the fake road in 2011.

[Laetizia Coronet]

Good. I thought the business approach to SL was laughable right from the beginning. And it has cost us dearly in clampdowns on things which might scare businesses away.
This actually looks good. I don't think I have ever said that before about an LL decision.

[Marianne McCann]

@Ignatius Onomatopoeia

Good luck with even sending one car down those roads now. One resident has taken them over with her own physical vehicles.

[Seymore]

Good Luck, Rod.

[Fleep Tuque]

I'm cautiously optimistic. Sounds like the new guy has a great attitude about UGC and lots of experience with making fun, playable games, and that's a big plus.

I hope that the wide variety of uses isn't overlooked though. If the pendulum swung too far in the business and enterprise direction under M, I think it would be equally a mistake to swing too far to the other LET'S ALL BE VAMPIRES direction, too.

Balance and for god's sake fix what's broken for starters, that's what I hope for.

[Ann Otoole InSL]

I have hope now. Enough to start finishing some projects.

Mr. Humble needs to watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMhBiu0YJ3s
It is important. Worthy of some metaverse blogger coverage too. And the unspoken message is equally important.

[Lili]

I, for one, welcome our next Second Life clueless game industry overlord. I am sure whatever his attempts at further monetization of Second Life will be more than agreeable to all of Linden Lab. Seriously though, I do wish him well and hope he can understand that the users don't want more toys -- we want the toys we have to function.

Please, no more great housing or marketplace projects. Just fix the things that the people who pay to keep this place going need.

Happy Holidays

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[Valiant Westland]

It's no surprise that LL has hired a gaming-oriented CEO. There is clearly a ton of money to be made on games.

There is also a ton of competition in the MMORPG space. Does LL think SL can really go head to head with the top MMORPG games (http://www.gameogre.com/topmmorpgs.htm)?

I just fired off a cover letter and PowerPoint presentation on how LL can/should develop a VAR channel to target the SMB (Small to Medium-size Business) community, including SMG (GOV), Technical Training, JITE (Just In Time Education), Continuing Education and Association prospects. I continue to believe that a truly immersive virtual experience, coupled with appropriate levels of support & training, can be a valuable business tool for many organizations.

Linden Lab should hedge their bets by creating an offering for the SMB market that is at LEAST as competitive as Teleplace http://www.teleplace.com/solutions/index.php However, without a channel distribution model, with appropriate marketing, sales and support to the channel by LL, it will never happen.

Throwing the baby (business) out with the bathwater (Enterprise) is a knee jerk overreaction to bad management, marketing and execution. If Linden Lab puts all its eggs in one basket again and throws all its efforts into yet another highly competitive, high cost of penetration market (gaming) and fails, SL will be gone forever!

[Angie Mornington]

Welcome Rod, you said that you like to be 'hands on' and that you like to put the game 'in the hands of the player'. Those are two things that give me hope. Please get to understand SL residents from across all sectors of SL, ask them what their needs are and what could be done to keep them creating in SL. Then you will have a full understanding of what needs to be done from our point of view. Immerse yourself in SL.

[Garrett Larkham]

Second Life as a game/toy? No way!!
Now THIS is the way to market SL, oh ye with blurred RL/SL "lives". Perhaps you'll finally get your priorities straight.

[Ciaran Laval]

I agree with Crap Mariner, "Toys, not games", it's a great tagline but also shows that he gets it.

[Scarp Godenot]

Second Life as an 'Entertainment Platform' or a "Play Platform" are both true and defendable statements. BUT don't confuse those ideas by using the word 'Game'. A game and a gaming VR world are very specific and defined things that are NOT like Second Life at all.

So If you want to confuse new users, continue to insist against all evidence to the contrary that SL is a game.

But this does noone any good.

Try to define it as what it IS, and that is a 3D virtual world that contains MANY forms of Entertainment, Social Networking and Informational Display, as well as many forms of Play and even some of Work -- in which you can choose to do entirely different things on different days.

Also try to emphasize the REAL TIME aspect of Second Life. People meet and interact and events happen here ONCE only, and in a timely manner.

Sell SL for what it IS, and not for what it is clearly not.

[Hamlet Au]

I changed the title to say "Game Platform" since that better conveys hiring Humble as a CEO, the recent marketing of Ozimals, hiring a game marketer, etc. But I'd be very surprised if we didn't see more explicit game mechanisms added to SL too -- i.e. achievement systems, leader boards, and so on.

[Ciaran Laval]

Achievements should be location/experience specific, not Second Life specific. If LL want to put in place tools that assist people to build their own achievement and leaderboard systems that would be great, but they shouldn't be employing a gridwide solution.

[Syd Loon]

Looking forward to the realization of the true potential of a tool, with truly endless possibilities; with even the possible end of tyrannical reasonings stunting the growth of this potential. Hope to see great things in 2011.

[Arcadia Codesmith]

SL can and should appeal to gamers, businessmen, educators/students, politicians, artists/musicians, and strippers.

That's what makes this world a world; it's not just a toy, nor a game, nor an enterprise solution, nor a political medium, nor an artistic medium, nor a XXX thrill ride. If we lose ANY of those pieces, even the pieces we are apathetic or actively hostile towards, we lose a part of what makes SL unique.

The gaming piece of SL has been too long neglected, and enhancements to it can hardly help but spill over into the other areas of virtual endeavor.

But for crying out loud, repeal the hike on educational rates. I'm neither an instructor nor a student, but the education sector is important, if for no better reason that a few of our best innovators and commentators have come from education projects. They are worth wooing.

[Rock Ramona]

I had the pleasure of working with Rod while he was at EA.If they actually let him get hands on and fire up the staff that he has to work with,we will see some amazing things.I have this bad feeling that the staff he has to work with will not be able to keep up with him.Lets all hope that he will be able to have the power to hire and fire the people he needs.../mejumps up and down!!!

[Emperor Norton]

Speaking of broken game features will I able to get to second level in SL now?

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