Why Linden Lab Didn't Tell SLers About Little Text People

You probably read last week's news that Second Life creator Linden Lab acquired adventure game company Little Text People on TechCrunch and other big blogs, but there's one place you didn't read about it: on the Second Life website. I was curious about that, and put the question to company spokesman Peter Gray in this way:

Y U NO tell SLers?

Heya Pete... how come you guys didn't announce the Little Text People purchase to SLers? Is the game being made intended for a totally different audience?

And to this, Mr. Gray did say:

"We announced the news to everyone with the press release; we didn't also blog about it on the SL blog, because the acquisition is Linden Lab news, rather than Second Life news."

I understand his point, though I have to think the SL community does want to know about Linden Lab's non-SL projects, and know about them straight from the Lindens on the SL site, as opposed to an external press release. For one thing, there's a large number of adventure game/interactive fiction fans in SL -- witness in-world communities like Midian, which are basically large collaborative 3D interactive novels. For another, the SL community is going to be the primary market for any Linden Lab market, because the company is most well known by the SL userbase.

What's your sense, NWN readers? Are you interested enough in Linden Labs' non-SL activities that you'd like to know about them on your usual SL channels?

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Comments

[Saffia Widdershins]

To be honest, internally I'm rather keener on hearing about Linden Lab's solutions to problems like this: https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/SVC-7653? than about new areas of the Lab.

Pete's right - I can find out about that externally. And hearing about exciting new non-SL projects Linden Labs are developing on the Second Life blog would just re-enforce the sense of frustration about problems like Angus's.

[Pussycat Catnap]

I'm leaning both ways on this.

First its not SL direct news and would just set off panic from corners worried about the direction of things...

But second since its not SL and yet still part of LLs not saying anything to the 100% of your customers that are SL users rightly sets off panic...

:D

The solution though, is to engage the panic head-on, rather than let it fester. Engage with it, so you can diffuse it, understand it, and work with it.

NOTHING is ever better when left to fester.

In the words of De La Soul's new song: Don't put off tomorrow what you can do today.

- Which is apt for engaging customers as well. Come at them head on, embrace the panic. The only place you can control a storm is right in the middle of the eye of it. If its got a hold of you there, at least then, you've also got a hold on it.

[shockwave yareach]

Oh goody. A new product line for LL, rather than FIXING the problems in their existing product line...

And they think anybody with an ounce of sense will buy whatever Snakeoil V2.0 they come up with, considering how they've treated their existing customers so far and how so many problems dating back over 9 years are still unrepaired? If the fixes need a major grid mod, then make it. You've had no compunctions about stealing people's virtual land and destroying mainland just to bring teens into the main grid -- why should doing the same to fix the avatar limits and the simcross problems stop you?

[Stone Semyorka]

Yes, they should include SL folks in their PR activities since we are LL's main squeeze. It makes it look like they have something to hide. They either need to hire someone savvy about PR to handle their various publics or else fess up to the real reason they didn't tell their main customer base directly.

[Vanadis Falconer]

I´m not surprised. Linden Lab entered into a joint venture agreement about a year ago. They are forced to start showing a profit. The investors want at least 10% return on investment per year in their capital. Linden Lab dedicated simply to diversification of risk

[Claus Uriza]

There was a time and somehow still is.. lot of independent devs in SL. Hands out the tools and benefit from a once extremely dedicated userbase.
Instead we've faced dev outside SL last 2-3 years.
Depends on businessmodel and tao.
Current one obviously needs growth.
Then again if tools are cool they'll be useful and spotted.

[shockwave yareach]

And now, with the ISM being held for ransom by Linden Labs, do they honestly think anybody will buy anything they have to sell?

I'm beginning to discern little difference between the words Linden and Mafia.

[Rocket]

I think it's irrelevant Wayne. You have to stop thinking that the total population of SL is by any comparison a "market". When Linden Lab, a public company, makes an announcement or a press release to the general public (hundreds of millions of people world wide) they are making an impact of their product or service. The whole idea of a press release is to make something known to as many people on this planet as possible, and I am sorry to say, the resident population of SL is not the way to do it.

By comparison it's the same as Linden Lab going to the Amish, or pro hockey players association, or the association of people who grow avocados for a press release they intend the world to know about.

[Hitomi Tiponi]

Whilst on the subject of missing news Hamlet, do you know what happened to the Q4 figures for SL? These are very pertinent to SL yet don't seem to have appeared.

[Tateru Nino]

The Q4 figures are still in the works, Hitomi. They're quite often delayed. Once, we didn't see them until Q2.

[Tateru Nino]

@Rocket Linden Lab is not a public company. They're a private company. The rest of your point is well taken, though.

[Canoro Philipp]

if it has nothing to do with the product "Second Life" than is not of the interest of Second Life users.
altought i suspect that is going to be about the product "Second Life" in the future, since Rod Humble is interested in bringing AI, and Richard Evans from LittleTextPeople was the Lead AI Programmer of The Sims 3.

[Emperor Norton]

Now we know why our Tier is so damn high - so they can finance the product diversification.

This is like M Linden increasing the Homesteads by 50% because he know the increase revenue and the same time lower operating costs as people dump their sims.

[Pussycat Catnap]

"By comparison it's the same as Linden Lab going to the Amish, or pro hockey players association, or the association of people who grow avocados for a press release they intend the world to know about."

If I were in the business of making those hats Amish men wear, and I'd acquired a new division that made nun and priest clothes for Catholic clergy... but before that my entire company had made nothing but hats for Amish men - I'd tell them. They're a small set, but they'd still have been my core customer base and I'd want them aware of what I was up to, before they started panicking and looking for a new supplier of hats.

(Besides you never know where the links in your customer base can lie: One relative recently became a priest, and a good friend lives in an Orthodox Jewish community that wears the same clothes as the Amish are known for - so I am personally a good example of a link between two seemingly different markets - Imagine me posting to Facebook: "Hey, Ami-wear just bought out Nunly-Habbits" - my friend buying from Ami-wear would reply with a lolcat, but my relative who was just ordained would say 'oh, do they have good discounts on robes, I'm doing a baptism next month and I've gained a few pounds...?').

- Never leave out your core customers. At least in public posting.

This is not the same as say, mass-mailings/emailings, where you segment your list before sending. A company announcement of a major acquisition should be posted to all the public spaces you control. At the least, it should be on your core website(s).

[Pussycat Catnap]

Another angle on the above: Its not just about some 'duty to inform'.

That's a completely wrong way to look at publicity.

This is all about an -OPPORTUNITY- to be see and heard.

A company should be craving for chances like this to make a statement to the public that as many folks as possible will -WANT- to read.

Leaving out a vast array of folks who want to hear it is just poor marketing.

You seek out chances like this to say something and be read. Not hide from them. A normal company looks at something like this as a golden opportunity to 'wax poetic' at folks, existing customers and new opportunities alike.

[Ciaran Laval]

It's not Second Life specific, so I can see why it wouldn't be a headline post on the Second Life blog, however surely they could have made a blog post about Second Life and linked it in, there's a reach and discussion issue and they have eyes on their blog.

[bobo]

right....lol how much..10 thousand Romney dollars does one want to bet that when the "new game" is released..itll be plastered all over/inside/ and email listed to anyone who ever allowed linden a proper email addy.

[Qie Niangao]

I would assume that they're targeting a mobile device audience so much larger than the SL user base that they don't especially care whether any SL users ever try the new product. Oh, they might clue us in on the actual product announcement, eventually, but not expect enough response to matter.

And I sure hope these other products are a big success. We'll need that revenue to bankroll the huge changes needed to keep SL viable after there aren't enough tier-payers left to do it organically.

[Hamlet Au]

To be brutally honest, here's roughly what 90% of average people think when they read about "Linden Lab, maker of Second Life": "Oh, that virtual reality Sims thing that was on *The Office* a few years ago? What happened to it?" And roughly 9% who are more familiar with tech will think, "They must be making new products because SL failed or is failing."

The other 1% are in SL or have been in recent years, and are far more interested than the average reader. But that's actually a lot of people, six to seven figures worth. That LL could reach with an announcement on their blog.

[Tateru Nino]

The Lab *did* notify the SL bloggers on its PR list, and that probably meant that more SL users saw the news than would have if it had been posted on the SL blog alone.

[Cio Koba]

Tat, your perfectly right.

[KR]

The sense of entitlement and ridiculous assumptions by SLers here is hilarious. I'm glad LL are diversifying, for their own sake, given what a fickle bunch of whiners their core customers are.

[Mac]

How can they afford in buying a new company if they closed down all of there support in over-seas????? This doesn't make sense to me...