Linden Lab is planning to create mobile apps for Second Life and re-brand the virtual world -- at least to judge by the Help Wanted ads the company has been posting, and blogger Tateru Nino has been following with an eagle eye. The senior software engineer candidate as the company job description here states, will "[b]uild robust mobile applications for several platforms," including iOS and Android, and "define clear requirements, deliverables, and milestones for mobile applications." Which strongly suggests Linden Lab isn't already working on mobile apps, or is planning to significantly re-tool its existing efforts. (What, there's no milestone list already?) Meanwhile, the Global Director of Communications (job listing here) will "plan and execute a broad PR strategy for communicating Linden Lab’s industry leadership and rebranding efforts."
It's great Linden is finally looking to develop smartphone apps for Second Life and re-brand the outside perception of the world, both of which have been desperately needed since, well, roughly 2009. If they were to ask me (and they're not), the first mobile app should be a light social game using SL assets (much like what Blue Mars has done with its own iOS app), and the re-branding effort should involve a campaign to stop referring to "Second Life" (with all its many negative connotations) and from here on out, replace any and all mention of the world with, say, "SL3D". (Much like Kentucky Fried Chicken moved away from the image of a vaguely creepy old guy with possible extremist views by re-branding as KFC.)
Pictured: Pocket Metaverse for iPad, a 3rd party app which came out over a year ago.
I thought they changed the name to get rid of the "f-word", i.e. "fried" and its unhealthy connotations. To be sure, they definitely redid the Colonel's image to make him look like he hung out with Jack LaLanne and matched him push-up for push-up, but that was later.
The name change didn't change the wretched gravy (which those who ate at Harland Sanders's original restaurant said was so good that you'd throw away the chicken and just eat the gravy, but which later owners turned into something like brown library paste), or prevent catastrophes like their "rotisserie" chicken which left your mouth coated with a horrid substance that only toothbrushing would get rid of. Similarly, a name change won't change anything about Second Life, but will make its current residents that much more convinced that they're being thrown under the bus.
Posted by: Melissa Yeuxdoux | Friday, July 08, 2011 at 12:58 PM
from a branding and marketing point of view, putting the word "second" in the name of the product was not very well thought out.
so i'm glad to see SL3D... when talking to people about SL, the minute they hear "second life' they think "what's wrong with your first???" and down the road it goes...
i've always wished it would be called something else from the beginning and so this is cool in a way...
maybe they can do a new logo too SL3D and get rid of the whole word "second" perhaps changing it to
"super", "splendid", "sweet", "superb" or a bunch of other "S" words that wouldn't bring up the negative of coming in "second"....
think about it...
second fiddle
second chair
second place
even second base isn't as good as a HOME RUN!!! lol
nuff said :P
Posted by: callie cline | Friday, July 08, 2011 at 01:12 PM
oh i agree with the poster above me too,
FIX IT TOO WHILE RE BRANDING AND EXPANDING...
thanks LL...
Posted by: callie cline | Friday, July 08, 2011 at 01:13 PM
Melissa, I don't understand your point about current residents feeling like they are "thrown under the bus." I understand the need to continue to improve the actual technical SL experience while rebranding, but LL has been doing that too more now ever.
Why do you feel "thrown under the bus"? If anything, all of the recent changes, improvements and the possibility of a rebranding campaign suggest to me, a current resident, that my needs and my investments are being taken seriously for the first time in years.
Best,
Ehrman
Posted by: Ehrman Digfoot | Friday, July 08, 2011 at 01:54 PM
Funny thing is Apple are working on similar ideas - they're trying to patent iOS gestures and features specifically aimed at avatar or object creation and manipulation within 3D environments. More here : http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2011/07/apples-wild-new-3d-gesturing-is-aimed-at-cad-avatar-creation-more.html
Put the two things together and the future could get interesting...
Posted by: Eris | Friday, July 08, 2011 at 02:04 PM
PrimCraft.
Posted by: Damien Fate | Friday, July 08, 2011 at 02:16 PM
LL has been doing a good job lately.
Posted by: Osprey | Friday, July 08, 2011 at 02:16 PM
"Kentucky Fried Chicken moved away from the image of a vaguely creepy old guy with possible extremist views by re-branding as KFC."
So when's your Avatar gonna stop looking like a young version of the Colonel? ;)
Posted by: Kristian | Friday, July 08, 2011 at 02:17 PM
Cool iDevice app in the works.
But I'm going to call it SecondLife forever.
Posted by: Adeon Writer | Friday, July 08, 2011 at 02:31 PM
They shouldn't adopt Blue Mars' strategy whatsoever. The moment Blue Mars walked away from make-of-it-what-you-want virtual world towards hot-or-not social game is when they lost whatever forward momentum they ever had. Now apparently Blue Mars is embracing augmented reality.
Linden Lab should stick to whats made Second Life successful and keeps it successful and not chase the buzzwords in any kind of way that Avatar Reality has.
Considering they've waited this long to begin thinking about what kind of application they're going to create, I think that they will do something well thought out that expands the Second Life experience to people on the go, rather than perverts it into some separate standalone buzzword experiment.
Posted by: Ezra | Friday, July 08, 2011 at 02:31 PM
This is interesting. I think implementing SL as it is effectively on iOS would be an extremely tough challenge as an app design. Not just in technical performance, but conceptually.
To me, all of SLs unique and powerful experiences were about immersion in a separate virtual environment. I think iOS devices are a much more suited to a mobile augmentation of your physical reality.
If Linden are seriously considering the investment of developing for iOS, other than a lightweight access app to superficial aspects of the SL toolset, it would imply to me that they are rethinking this fundamental concept of SL itself. Now that would be interesting.
Posted by: Dizzy Banjo | Friday, July 08, 2011 at 03:28 PM
"The moment Blue Mars walked away from make-of-it-what-you-want virtual world towards hot-or-not social game is when they lost whatever forward momentum they ever had."
Actually that's not accurate; Blue Mars' app has been getting pretty good traction, especially from just social media promotion, and SL has a much larger user base to market such apps to. Also, Blue Mars apps are meant in large part to better expose user-generated content.
Posted by: Hamlet Au | Friday, July 08, 2011 at 03:41 PM
"Actually that's not accurate; Blue Mars' app has been getting pretty good traction, especially from just social media promotion, and SL has a much larger user base to market such apps to. Also, Blue Mars apps are meant in large part to better expose user-generated content."
"pretty good" how? The Blue Mars app has gotten traction in that its gotten more than 0 downloads, 0 ratings obviously but I don't know what milestones beyond that its hit.
Know of any important milestones of note? Has it made AR a profitable company for example? As far as I can tell by the number of ratings its seen (just 40), its free and still less popular than the third-party for-pay apps that connect to Second Life right now like Pocket Metaverse (286 ratings).
I'm glad though you pointed out Second Life already has a user base and it needs to cater to that user base first and foremost. The new AR CEO stated in the last in-world meeting I witnessed that the Blue Mars app's purpose was to drive traffic into Blue Mars. No idea how hot-or-not augmented reality helps with that, and it isn't, but thats the stated goal. Linden Lab should go the IMVU2Go route and extend the core experiences of what we already do in Second Life and they'll have a successful app on their hand.
Posted by: Ezra | Friday, July 08, 2011 at 04:37 PM
I can understand some people wanting to be in SL on a little teeny tiny IOS device. Great for when you are out and about, however, based on my experience, Second Life is much better when you are fully immersed in it.
There is nothing quite like SL when it's running on a 6 panel display with a decent processor and a nice video card set-up. I'll take that over an IOS device any day of the week...except Tuesdays.
Posted by: Little Lost Linden | Friday, July 08, 2011 at 06:22 PM
I agree LLL, this will work for me as an option, when I'm afk and need to send messages or chat, but not to live my Second Life. This is a virtual world where we can build and explore and experience things in a unique way, not just chat and look, and I hope it always will be.
Posted by: Juko | Friday, July 08, 2011 at 06:53 PM
Does anyone remember the November 2010 experiment by The Lab to have Second Life run in an ordinary (Flash-enabled) Web browser (http://bit.ly/qzFnuy)? I think it worked rather well and if they code it in HTML5, it would work on an iPad or an Android device. Ta-daaaahhh! You have a tablet app. Well, you would if The Lab had a sense of priorities and the vision they started out with 8-9 years ago.
Posted by: Uccello | Saturday, July 09, 2011 at 08:07 AM
KFC rebranded because the State of Kentucky started charging for use of the word "Kentucky". The Kentucky Derby is called something else now for the same reason.
Posted by: Johnny | Saturday, July 09, 2011 at 09:00 AM
Sanders professed many extremist views that he did not personally hold as a form of revenge against KFC, and an attempt to end the company's exploitation of him.
Prince did much the same through the 1990s.
Posted by: Tateru Nino | Saturday, July 09, 2011 at 10:30 PM
Sex Life.
Now that will be a good rebrand!
Posted by: foneco zuzu | Monday, July 11, 2011 at 05:48 AM
Developing seperate apps for SL to run (even partially for messaging or something) seems a bit redundant to me at this moment in time. There are already developers working on apps to make your mobile devide a sort of remote control for your PC or Mac, where the screen displays what's on your big screen and mouse and keyboard are controlled via your mobile device's touchscreen.
And this wont only work via WiFi, but also across the mobile networks, so you can control your 'puter at home from wherever on the planet you are.
Get this running fast and smooth enough, and voila, you can play SL on your I-pad or Android phone.
@Eris: the patents that Apple has in the works for the character creation as you linked to, doesn't mean Apple are working on anything at all.
Recently they have been applying for patent after patent with the sole reason to be able to sue any touchscreen device manufacturer for 'their' patents. Things even like swiping data from your main screen to your mobile device screen, like we saw Tony Stark do in Iron man, and in Avatar as well, have now been patented by Apple. Or 'bumping' your mobile device to your colleagues' to pass him/her your digital calling card.
Never mind that they didn't think of it...
The only thing that this patent points at, is that Apple is playing it dirty to 'earn' money without having to actually sell any products. They just let competitors sell products, and receive a nice share of the profits.
Posted by: Darkfoxx | Monday, July 11, 2011 at 08:23 AM
Good to hear and let's crossing fingers then. BUT.. but the first real need for SL or any other virtual worlds at the moment seems to be a motivation for its potential users to.. use it!
SL is great, and has still a good potential, allowing to create your own contents (and selling them too). But in the world there are about 800 milions internet users, whom are not creators, not all of them at least (maybe a very small niche of them, say some tens thousands, many of whom already known SL). So they still have to find a good "user proposition", a viable business plan, some good technical developments and.. well, of course, a really strong (and new) brand! ;-))
Posted by: Luca Spoldi | Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at 02:01 AM
Does this mean I'll need permission from the lab everytime I want to use the number 3?
Posted by: shockwave yareach | Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at 02:28 PM
And while we are discussing the suitability of a phone as a device for augmenting my reality, let me ask two questions: What could a VR on my phone offer me that would augment my real world, and why would I want nonReality intruding into my Reality in the first place? Just what problems can SL on a phone possibly solve?
Finding a restaurant on a phone with Google -- Useful!
Finding a restaurant by having to wander a 3d representation of the area for two hours and hope I can find something that isn't fried in Orphan fat -- Useless!
Posted by: shockwave yareach | Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at 02:38 PM
SL on a large tablet might work if you could achieve the same graphics, speed (zero/low lag) and immersive aspect.
Actual SL on phones -- you're in need of a 12 step program... when you need to be in SL 24/7, you have crossed over into No Life.
SL and VR worlds are about IMMERSION... and even on the biggest screen hi res phones, you'd need some banging graphics card and a high speed connnection or you'd be in Jello Life.
Maybe it's me -- I don't like to look at movies or media intended for large screens on teeny screens -- I find it really annoying because that's not what the media was created to be viewed on.
Now all the studios and networks and cable stations and the web are desperate for any revenue sources they can exploit so they don't care if the world goes blind trying to watch AVATAR on a 3.5" screen as long as they get some money from it somehow.
The only SL phone apps that might seem plausible and have some benefit as far as extending certain aspects of SL might be
** to catch a live streaming music concert (with minimal graphics) though you might be able to do this directly from the stream source,
** real time IM chats,
** other streaming events like lectures (again, you may just be able to tap into the stream directly without going thru SL),
Another app I see useful and profitable for LL and content creators and convenient for shopaholics is access to the marketplace which, again, you should already be able to do via online web access. So for the inherently lazy, there could be an app that connects buyers directly into the marketplace and does all the heavy lifting in the background like activating their net access browser, logging in, etc.
There could be apps to check inworld stats perhaps from various visitor devices but most other stat info you can get from your SL online account which you should be able to access via online capability. And alot of the scripted visitor tracking gadgets in SL already send you a daily email so that can be forwarded directly to your phone so no app needed for that.
Maybe creating the SL toolset on a phone app to learn about building in 3D using the SL building tools could be fun but not connected to SL inworld, just a standalone way of creating content that could then be ported into SL.
Apps that provide updates on upcoming events at places inworld you are interested in such as concerts by specfic performers or exhibitions by specific artists at specific art sims or galleries, etc.
I'm sure someone will come up with some saucy adult related SL apps. I can see the SL escort biz using this concept. If one were able to port their avatar into a minimal simulation environment, but the av was full res and had acess to inventory or a limited one and could change outfits/costumes, could see the exotic dance element of SL working a virtual pole on a phone. Yes, there's a def double entendre in there. :-)
The showcase aspect of the search window could also be useful so you can see what's new in SL. Same for destination guide thought the DG is accessible via the SL website.
List of SL bloggers catagorized by their specialty perhaps..
With so many apps already in existence, then add to that specific SL related apps, really, when does anyone have time for RL?
I've yet to get a "smart" phone. To me a smart phone is one that takes my calls and handles them for me, does my laundry and reminds me when I'm out of beer.
:-)
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Posted by: Build Church Mobile App | Thursday, September 13, 2012 at 05:41 PM