Why Linden Lab Likes Blocksworld as Much as Second Life

If you're wondering why Linden Lab's announcement of its new CEO put just as much emphasis on its new iPad game Blocksworld as its legacy product Second Life, this AppAnnie analytics chart will tell you why: Since launching last August, the LEGO-like creation game has been in the top-grossing chart among iPad apps in the Education and Family categories, both of which are pretty big for Apple's tablet, which has become a popular device for keeping kids occupied (and quiet, and not hitting their siblings). Notably, the game has remained close to the very top of those categories over the six or so months since its launch, which is extremely rare for apps. That suggests lots of hardcore fans of the game not only playing over many months, but paying.

It's likely Blocksworld still isn't making anywhere near the revenue that Second Life makes, but given the current trajectory of both that game and SL, this could eventually change:

After all, while Second Life's revenue base erodes, essentially due to waning user growth, Blocksworld revenue so far remains stable, and more key, has a potentially unlimited and renewable audience of kids able to become potential players, basically from the moment they're able to pick up an iPad. Second Life by contrast still hasn't found a new audience to maintain its revenue base, and because it was conceived to run on desktop PCs (a dying category), it will need to find that audience on new platforms. (Including, of course, the iPad.) Fortunately, those platforms are coming soon.

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Comments

[Ezra]

I think it's great that you're optimistic, but shining a positive light on Blocksworld still ranking high in Family and Education (what does it teach anyway?) is a far fall from that linked blog post of yours showing Blocksworld beating Candy Crush Saga on the Games chart (where the money is) for a short amount of time.

How does Blocksworld rank in the Games chart today? It is a game isn't it?

It's great that any Linden Lab product other than Second Life is having any success at all, but I'm not sure the company should be motivated to spend another 3 years experimenting with products such as these.

[Metacam Oh]

All this says to me is that they have continued to let Second Life erode while turning attention to games and products that may have fraction of the success of Second Life if all goes well. Let's not pretend they've done anything to reverse the Second Life's slide into oblivion. Seems are are perfectly content milking it until it's dead.

[Jess]

Blocksworld & Patterns are both great games I hope they are smart enough to keep all the work Rod did because its the future but just not SL's future but that's ok they need more then one product.

Blocksworld is very smart because it allows the creativity of minecraft without the famous minecraft griefers with its own spin on things.

Just like any other product these games are also a marketing system to help create future brand loyalty as these kids today playing blocksworld might grow up to be SL Residents
It helps any long term strategy,

I hope rod is able to work the same magic at his new job in high fidelity ..smiles

[Baal]

You are a creator of High Tech washing machines. One day someone with a clever marketing gimmick starts a resurgence in sales of washboards. What do you do. Keep on(or at least appear to keep on) supporting your successful machines. Or do you, like a sad follower of gimmicky fashion, abandon (or appear to abandon) your long suffering clientele in favor of a sort of Lego Armageddon. Personally, I, like many thousands of others have paid disgustingly massive amounts of money into the company. Why then do I feel like they have no idea who I am, or care one single pixel if I come or go.

[Adeon Writer]

I just hope Linden dosn't turn their attention away from SL, I can't think of a larger waste of potential. Second Life needs some fundimental graphic updates, that's all.

[Iggy]

Baal, Blocksworld might fade away in a fickle market faster than April snow, but it's SL, tied to the desktop or high-end laptop and tethered to a fast connection, that is the washboard.

On my campus, just about 0% of students now bring desktops to campus. That is Z-E-R-O and my source is our I.T. department. The college kids all have laptops and many have a tablet, too. At my wife's elementary school, the K-3 grades will get tablets next year in place of laptops.

The future for the masses is mobile. We might not like that, but there it is. Adeon, SL needs more than graphics updated if LL wants that mass market, though such a market may not be needed for continued profit as a niche product. If the Lab wants BIG numbers, however, they can't focus on SL as much as they did: whatever its merits, SL does not play well on a small screen or with a relatively slow connection. And that is where the market has gone, whether we like it or not.

I can't speak to making SL work on consoles. If it did, that would be a another big market and Adeon would be correct. SL would need better graphics to lure in gamers.

And please don't tell me we should just put a new video card into our PCs. I'm going to phone the 90s and see if they'll take you back with them.

[CronoCloud Creeggan]

Iggy, Sony already has something SL-ish on the PS3, "Home". It's actually more Blue Mars-ish than SL-ish but has aspects of both:

http://ccslfashionista.blogspot.com/2013/09/playstation-home-what-blue-mars-wanted.html

But I think those "mobile millienials" you go on about are an outlier, because universities are artificial environments. Check on them a few years later, once they have jobs and houses...they won't be near as mobile.

[Adeon Writer]

The future of SL is not mobile. Thinking mobile trends effect sofa entertainment is a mistake.

[Sockpuppet of Jess]

@ Others

Well I'm starting to come around to the idea of
High Fidelity being a good replacement for SL
even forgiven phil for his past of being a bad grid father.

Linden Research trying other possible revenue sources is not a waste and they gain new technology's / patents / emerging talented developers.

The biggest mistake linden lab could make is to pump $500 million into a platform whose coding
architecture is 11 years old also that is fragile as butterfly wings
If SSB Cost $45 million including the new hardware and a very scared development team who feared the worst because they had no faith in the poor past coding then a complete rework that allows modern code advances would cost $500 to $1.1 billion dollars!

SL needs a lower cost fresh start and High Fidelity fits that bill and phil still owns 15% of linden lab so you know its going to happen.

Blocksworld and further cutting edge tech only helps and they have the right to do what's needed to survive

When people get old that does not mean they have to act old or live in the past and be stuck in their ways, just get over it people life is about change nothing ever stays the same.

[Sockpuppet of Jess]

@ Adeon Writer

The Futare is a mobile world and SL future is so I disagree and by not staying current they live in the past, 2003 to be exact with coding architecture that dates all the way back to 1994.

SL only hope now is it goes pop retro and people visit it out of nostalgia like buying tin lunch boxes and 1950s style kitchen appliances..smiles

[Iggy]

@Crono, you may be correct. What we see around us does bias us. I concede when Millennials do settle down, they'll be less mobile. That does not, however, augur a return to the desktop computer as the centerpiece of their home-lives.

Otherwise, desktop sales would not be declining so. Folks settle down all the time, and we need not wait for Millennials to stop all that ramlbin' for a trend-line to change direction. Microsoft would not have a new CEO focusing on the consumer / mobile market, if desktop boxes with Windows 8 and Office sufficed to ensure the company's future long-term.

In an unrelated question, how well has Sony's Home done?

[Iggy]

That should be ramblin'

As in "stop all that ramblin' young feller" from a folk song. The older Millennials I teach have settled. Guess what? They have game consoles, laptops, and smart phones. Not a desktop box in sight.

[Hamlet Au]

Always good to have data to back up anecdotes, so:

PC SALES FALL FOR SIXTH CONSECUTIVE QUARTER AS THE SHIFT TO TABLETS AND PHONES CONTINUES

http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/pc-sales-continue-to-fall/

Quarterly Shipments Drop 14% as Windows 8 Fails to Stem Advance of iPads

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887324695104578414973888155516
Computer Sales in Free Fall

[Metacam Oh]

PC Sales are declining Hamlet because they are made so much better you don't need to upgrade every year - 2 years. One of my desktops is 10 years old and still runs great.

As for people who keep crying about mobile, im sorry to say if you think you're going to be doing virtual worlds on the go you miss the point of virtual worlds. Is XBOX or Playstation worrying about this "mobile trend"? No because they have a product that is insanely popular that is not meant to be played on your crappy cell phone or on tablet in the back of your car. Some things are not meant to be mobile.

Augmented reality, that is mobile. Virtual worlds are not, and if we keep up with this notion that SL or any virtual world for that matter will not be successful or worth it if it's target customer isn't everyone on the planet, is ridiculous.

You think the people at Occulus Rift give a shit that you can't use Occulus Rift on your cell phone while reading the paper in a cafe? No because it's not meant for that.

[Ezra]

Oh I love this blog. One week Oculus Rift and virtual reality is the future, now we're back to because of mobile, there's no place for desktops. Will next week we be discussing Second Life for Facebook via cloud rendering or something again?

Can we look forward to a blog post about how Linden Lab is dumb to invest in an Oculus Rift supporting client since desktops are on their way out? Yes yes, the Rift will support Android, but it won't support iOS where most mobile success is.

[Hamlet Au]

"One week Oculus Rift and virtual reality is the future, now we're back to because of mobile"

It's not a contradiction, because it's not a matter of either/or. I said "it will need to find that audience on new platforms" -- plural. Mobile is one. Oculus Rift is another.

"the Rift will support Android, but it won't support iOS where most mobile success is."

This is factually incorrect -- Android has much more of the market share than iOS. (See link.)

http://appadvice.com/appnn/2014/01/googles-android-continues-to-lead-apples-ios-in-terms-of-market-share

[Iggy]

I think some respondents miss my point. SL can continue to be profitable, but unless some fundamental change occurs in how computer users go online, Linden Lab needs to consider their flagship as appealing to a niche market with ample disposable income. Meanwhile, Blocksworld and similar can offset the decline in revenue from SL.

Lots of niche products make enough money to remain viable. Apple sold Macs for years to graphic designers, in a world dominated by Windows OS desktops, before iOS devices changed Apple's business model.

SL simply can't "go mobile," as several of you correctly note. Imagine trying to build on a phone or tablet screen. Nor can many profitable and richly imagined games, with large user bases but little UGC, go mobile.

The new CEO needs to decide what SL is going to be nowadays, get ready for the Rift and its like, and stabilize the loss of revenue as SL bleeds private estates at 2 or 3 daily.

[Ciaran Laval]

There's some absurdly misleading data around about the death of the desktop.

Yes PC sales are falling and mobile devices are on the rise, that's because mobile devices have improved.

However people still plug their laptops into interactive whiteboards for presentations, they don't all huddle around the laptop or mobile phone.

The desktop experience isn't just about the PC, it's the visuals and they have greater richness on larger screens.

[Ezra]

"It's not a contradiction, because it's not a matter of either/or."

Oh I know its all hyperbole. I just don't get the point of it. The PC is neither a "dying category" as you put it nor is the iPad a product with an infinite renewable source of children.

I get the need for optimism; Blocksworld has tumbled from the top 10 in the Games category to somewhere in the 300s and still falling, so let's point out how it's still in the top 10 of Education where it probably shouldn't even be listed.

You're right that there's largely no either/or with desktop or mobile, which is why I disagree that Linden Lab "needs" to do anything when it comes to targeting new platforms for Second Life. A mobile Second Life would be a nice extra, but it wouldn't be a cure to Second Life's problems.

Let's not forget that Second Life still receives 10-20k signups a day. Second Life doesn't have a problem obtaining an audience, it has a problem keeping it. I know it's boring to discuss and dwell on new user experience and pricing issues for the 10th year in a row, but it's the conversion funnel between 10-20k signups a day and long term users that's always been the problem, not whether Second Life is on mobile, Facebook, or Steam, is cloud rendered with Gaikai or OnLive, has Oculus Rift or Leap Motion integration, or anything else unrelated to the conversion of a sign-up to a long term paying user.

"This is factually incorrect -- Android has much more of the market share than iOS. (See link.)"

I wasn't talking about mobile success for Samsung, but for companies like Linden Lab that tend to do better on Apple's app store than the many Android app stores.

Oculus Rift isn't coming to iOS, and I doubt you've been championing Oculus Rift for Android only. It must mean you've been championing Oculus Rift for the desktop, so it's rather confusing to see you blog that PC is a "dying category" that Linden Lab "needs" to find new audiences away from. But again, I know it was just hyperbole, so I'm just teasing.

[Ezra]

@Iggy

"I think some respondents miss my point. SL can continue to be profitable, but unless some fundamental change occurs in how computer users go online, Linden Lab needs to consider their flagship as appealing to a niche market with ample disposable income. Meanwhile, Blocksworld and similar can offset the decline in revenue from SL."

Where does reality fit into this though? I remind you of one of many interviews where Rod stated exactly what Second Life's user problems are:

"How do you get complete outsiders who have never played Second Life onboard? What’s the pitch?

Usually, we don’t have to convince anybody to try it. This [400,000 new accounts per month] is organic. The challenge is, when you’ve got a world that’s entirely created by other people’s imagination, what do you pick? So we’ve added a destination guide and some editorial picks, highlighting cool places to go. One of our biggest problems is, when people get in, we don’t know their interests. But people who do find something they like, boy, do they stick."

Source: http://allthingsd.com/20130705/fifteen-questions-for-linden-lab-ceo-rod-humble-about-second-lifes-tween-years/

Without even trying, Second Life gains 400,000 signups a month. It just can't keep them. Targeting multiple platforms solves customer acquisition problems, not customer retention problems. At least not the quit-almost-immediately retention problems Second Life has. Unless you're of the belief that people download Second Life and go "Oh hey wait, I'm on my Windows PC! This isn't mobile! I quit!"

[crandal]

Yes, many (not all) college students like me take a tablet to classes. It's easy to carry. But I don't write my papers or do hundreds of hours of research on a tablet. I'd go blind.

People don't take their xbox to school - that doesn't mean the xbox is dying. People who have tablets also have phones and laptops and even xboxes and more. There's no reason to think people are going to use only one device in the course of their day. Why be so limited in your thinking?

[thenicesociety]

SL needs to do a better job of finding what a new person likes and getting them to a good place in SL to find it. The gateway programs were great for that. Bring back the gateways. Retain the people who come to visit. It's not rocket science - it's respecting and helping the user and trying to help them.

[Iggy]

Ezra, excellent point about the 400K signups per month. I'd not considered that at all. Grid Survey bears out these numbers, but how to retain more of them?

[Metacam Oh]

Would be a perfect time to rebrand Second Life. The name is awful, is a barrier before you even get to the web site, it is unappealing, the opposite of main stream, whatever you call that. I can't imagine changing the name would hurt at this point considering current customers are pretty much die hard to begin with and relaxed customers could care less what the name is. A new name would ease the stigma, especially for young people who don't want to be the kid with no life who needs a second one.

[Desmond Shang]

X signups per month, but have you even heard just *once* what the likely percentage of people rolling alts, or bots, griefers, or any other "nonauthentic new resident" might be?

It's a shockingly high percentage of "new" signups. I know this from personal experience. Just talk to the new avatars onboarding, and it's absolutely stunning the number of people who say "I'm not new, I'm just making an alt."

Even back in the early community gateway days, nobody spoke much about it ~ I'm not entirely sure why, other than drinking their own kool aid.

Even Worse ~ yes, people *have* heard of Second Life. Lots and LOTS of them. It's not exactly unknown! "Yeah, been there, done that maybe five years ago, I don't go there any more." The odds of getting those customers back, is about on par with getting people back to classic Everquest or Ultima Online. They would need a rather compelling reason, and aren't seeing one.

And as for the millenials and younger, for those used to hanging out on nearly infinite, nearly free minecraft servers ~ Second Life is just... not something they are likely to do in any great number. It's full of older people (from their perspective) and they are very, very, *very* sensitive to that. Many of them are about as likely to enter Second Life, as we are to go to a Bieber concert.

Just something to think about. I'm heavily investing off~platform now.

[Ezra]

@Desmond "X signups per month, but have you even heard just *once* what the likely percentage of people rolling alts, or bots, griefers, or any other "nonauthentic new resident" might be?

It's a shockingly high percentage of "new" signups."

You have zero proof of that.

Second Life has 1 million active users a month; 400k are the new signups, meaning 600k are legit users. For 600k users to generate the extra 400k a month, we'd have to average each a new alt every other day.

Based on your personal experience, do you have hundreds of alts, or know any single person that does? Who has that many email addresses to link the accounts to?

As for the possibility of bot sign-up. I think Rod would've mentioned if Second life had some huge issue with bot sign-ups. He's discussed the conversion funnel towards long term users quite often, and "high percentage" of bots seems like a meaty caveat to leave off.

http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2013/07/linden-lab-second-life-oculus-rift-rod-humble.html

That post states 20% of the 400k sign in at least once a month later. Second Life's problems are user retention, not acquisition.

[Jess 2.0]

@ Ezra

(Quote) Without even trying, Second Life gains 400,000 signups a month. It just can't keep them. Targeting multiple platforms solves customer acquisition problems, not customer retention problems. At least not the quit-almost-immediately retention problems Second Life has. Unless you're of the belief that people download Second Life and go "Oh hey wait, I'm on my Windows PC! This isn't mobile! I quit!"

I disagree because retention was much better when we had mentors and lindens inworld,

Now days if your new they dump you in some poorly made new resident orientation region filled with 1 day old bloodline vampire alts stealing souls from noobie combined with scammers waiting to make a new friend so they can hack their account once they add a credit card
The new people get dumped into a killing field!

"Egge" that's what I nicknamed the new CEO I bet he logged in as a new resident the first thing he got was a vampire bite request...SMILES

They need to stop seeing bloodlines as a business partner for the grid and see it for what it really is a giant spam machine that has drove thousands of people both noob and long term residents away.

Nothing like wanting to join SL and being excited only to find out someone stole your SOUL!! and you can never get it back! EVER!=)

Many people lose the dream right at that point the magic is dead so they never return.

[Jess 2.0]

@ Ezra

They really need to start targeting overseas demographics with china and other nation states

Korea has a very high amount of its population addicted to online gaming so these could offer much new residents with high income

South America should also be a target population
with brazil as the main target followed by argentina because both just did massive overhauls to their internet capability's with a population flush with spendable income

This was looked at in the past with satellite offices the lab had overseas but was closed under the dark period of M.Linden
I think now is the time for the lab to really try to grab some market share in these billion dollar markets.

[Desmond Shang]

1) Yes, I've known a few people with literally thousands of alts. They were botrunners. More commonly, I'd say the average active user makes a new alt something like every month or two. Does that shock you? And how would I know? On top of the community gateway stuff I'm a land baron, and I've had well over 10,000 avatars renting from my estate, and as such I *specifically* get to deal with people's alt habits (and issues).

2) I have solid enough proof of what I'm claiming. I would hang out by the new resident gateways and *talk* to people for years, which actually took into account just the 'real human' population. When you've dumped 11,000 dollars into a community gateway, you tend to keep an eye on it for a while! I offered free housing, too, there. Even if someone is lying and says they are brand new, you can tell in about 10 seconds the moment they start building, or setting up stuff. Users churn alts like *mad* and create them like they are going out of style. For every person that doesn't, there's someone else that made several a year for the last six or eight years. Meaning that actual users are over represented by about a factor of maybe 25 to 50, compared to accounts.

3) There are a TON of old 'just sign in and get your stipend' accounts from back in the day. This system was *specifically* gamed. For a while many years ago, every alt was worth $L 50 a week if you logged in on it. Think for just two seconds and figure out exactly what *that* caused.

4) 400k new signups / 600k stable users is fairy tales. Think about it really, really carefully. On just one point, how could this scenario be even remotely stable? Just one answer: it's typical active user activity, bots, and some (far smaller) fraction of actual new signups.

5) Rod didn't even know what a community gateway *was* for far too long. He had to be told that they even existed. Even after the program ended, the 'successful' gateways still had residents aimed there for many years. It's finally different, nowadays.

6) Yes, bots *are* a huge problem, and yes for a long time you could game the picks system (to mention one former method) by generating huge quantities of avatars. There are people who generated thousands upon thousands of alts just because it made them a lot of money. A few have admitted it over the years; one was a guy that did land bots also.

7) Admitting stuff like this is exactly *not* in the interest of a platform that wants to seem relevant.

[zzpearlbottom]

Why the constant need of being, HUGE!
Let it be a niche, all it matters is the community!
I rather prefer to be one in a million then being just one in the million!

[Ezra]

Desmond, you're suggesting 600,000 people are adding 400,000 new bots and alts to Second Life a month. Furthermore, that Linden Lab hasn't figured this out and has spent Rod's entire tenure trying to make a new user experience for not-new-users and add improvements like Interesting and Sunshine for bots.

There's two possibilities here:

1. A majority of signups are human users new to Second Life that quit almost immediately for reasons like not knowing what to do or the viewer performance and usability being bad.

2. You know better than Linden Lab about what their sign-ups are composed of, because you talk to people which is something only you're capable of, because you're a land baron which gives you special insight Rod Humble himself or any of us don't have, that Linden Lab lied about the 1 million active users a month, 400k average signups a month in their SL10B infographic.

For reasons of common sense, math and available evidence I'm going with possibility 1. Sorry, but "I would hang out by the new resident gateways and *talk* to people for years" isn't solid proof. It's grounds for a pessimistic guess at best and not at all useful information in how to fix Second Life's true problems.

[Ezra]

@zzpearlbottom

Linden Lab is a business with a board stocked with investors looking for returns. They'll want as much of a market as they can get, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Every market is niche in a way. Even Twitter is niche when compared to Facebook. The problem with calling Second Life users a niche is that we're usually just describing a minority amount of people who've tolerated viewer performance and usability issues, and tier costs.

But market means more than existing customers, it means potential customers as well, and Second Life has the latter to the tune of 10-20k potential new customers a day. That's not as small, eroding, must-move-to-new-platforms as some would put it. It's just a boring problem to have had for so long and so if nothing else, it becomes more exciting to talk about new avenues to take Second Life.

Unfortunately, a poor conversion rate on one platform will likely be as poor on another platform. There's nothing inherent about mobile that'd fix Second Life's performance, usability and pricing issues.

[CronoCloud Creeggan]

@Des

I'm going to have to disagree with you a tad a bit on the number of new signups that are alts. While some are obviously alts (that are easily spotted as you said), most are not.

From what I've seen it's about a quarter alts, and 3/4 actual new people. That's not great, but it's not all doom and gloom either.

I find it hard to understand why some have so many alts. I only have 1 utility alt, just in case, who I freely admit is an alt. (the name is similar and I mention it in the profile)

But god how I wish the community gateway program was restarted.

I still think LL should focus more heavily on the 25-45 year old female market with their marketing efforts. They're among the most loyal and hardcore users AND they spend money.

[Jess 2.0]

@ CronoCloud

Bloodlines big players create 1000's of alts everyday to harvest the souls then sell souls for $400L TO $600L then use the alts to go to regions both mainland and private and spam residents that are under a year old that way the harvester will not get their account banned
then they transfer the soul to their main account to up their game points.

They hold on to the accounts for a few years aging them like wine until enough time on the account gives them leverage to sell them in backroom deals between major bloodline kings and queens now they sell the souls and accounts
FOR $1200L to $1500L

Bloodlines has been doing this so long older residents are passive.
They just let it go because it has gone on so long but it is killing new residents first impressions " they steal peoples souls"

Linden lab has even cross promoted it with vampire avatars like its a good thing even advertisements in 'Want to be a vampire. ?

They have stole every good resident name with these harvest accounts most new residents have to create using poor name choices again hurting first impressions.

It's a pyramid scam only those at the top win and gain.

"EGGE" if your reading this our dear leader you must kill this so called roleplay game as it is killing your short term profits and our dreams!

[Desmond Shang]

>>"Desmond, you're suggesting 600,000 people are adding 400,000 new bots and alts to Second Life a month. Furthermore, that Linden Lab hasn't figured this out and has spent Rod's entire tenure trying to make a new user experience for not-new-users and add improvements like Interesting and Sunshine for bots."

No, I'm *not* suggesting it's 400k bots and alts. I don't believe the 400k number, flat out. Am I just cynical? Let me put it this way, I've sold literally millions of $L a month on Lindex since 2006. I *watch* when I sell them, often, and see how many little purchases add up, and how often. Hey, guess what... nowadays the rate and speed of $L sales is about as high as ever it's been! Two possibilities: SL is still in the best of boom times and no one on the grid seems to notice the contradiction, OR, something's fishy here, and the Lindex has been tweaked to give an illusion of liquidity.

Notice how all the other stats disappeared, except this one *really awesome* 400k a month in signups! HMMMM. I'm literally in the business about being right about what's going on with this platform, and I smell a rat there. If that number is real in any way, shape or form, I do not think it means what you think it means.

* * * * *

About 1/4 signups being alts would be on my conservative low estimate end. I'd guess closer to 1/3, maybe half. But I haven't looked in a while. They are *not* necessarily alts of the steady userbase, another absolutely dead false assumption. But often people back from college, or off for the summer, or those that show only when it's freezing and dark. That kinda thing. They may have been regular users in the past, but quite a number, especially among the younger people, are seasonal.

* * * * *

As for the bloodlines scam ~ Jess I really *didn't* want to say *anything* about current, active reasons to game account making. I'd rather 'lose the argument in the comments.' But now that you have, I'll gently suggest: your suggested reason to make thousands of alts is far from the only reason. A second hint: while I do agree that there are special agreements re: land, your characterisation of such was fantastically wrong.

Please, people, before you all assume various claims as fact, cross check your facts a bit, and especially, don't put words in my mouth or quote out of context. I don't expect journalistic thoroughness, but the stuff I read in the comments on here is often wildly counterfactual.

[Jess 2.0]

@ Desmond~ Jess I really *didn't* want to say *anything* about current, active reasons to game account making. I'd rather 'lose the argument in the comments.' But now that you have, I'll gently suggest: your suggested reason to make thousands of alts is far from the only reason. A second hint: while I do agree that there are special agreements re: land, your characterisation of such was fantastically wrong.

I disagree with you regarding bloodlines its a fact its just another dirty issue linden lab has refused to address as of recent and years since they last did, while I respect your view on the topic as a compromise to your view I offer a short term help solution.

" All new avatars come with the garlic necklace preinstalled that way new residents have a chance to think about the choices they make once they learn more and understand better "

-In a nut shell have those starting out already wearing the necklace-

Instead of the first day they land 2 minutes later they get a pop up on their screen..

*Fangs Hud*

-VampireSh*tForBrains- would like to animate your avatar

* click Yes or No * to respond

[Pussycat Catnap]

I'm going to disagree with Desmond in order to agree with him.

I disagree that the 600k number is fake, because I actually think we do get that many bot signups.

Why I think this is that I have worked in analytics and I have managed professional online forums.

I have seen how fast bot signups happen, in my own work logs - if you lack checks to ensure your signups are human.

I've seen a forum go from 1000 users that it had had little change in since the late 1990s, to half a million, in a single 5 day period - because it became SEO relevant.

I do not think all these bots download an SL viewer. I'd say for every 600k of them, 599,953 don't even know SL has a viewer or even is a '3D game/virtual world'. They just see a website, with social-media hooks, a registration form, and SEO relevancy. They are coded to find that online, and sign up. They then go idle until sold on to spammers or activated by the spam company that created them - and post... Mumbai XXX stuff... or other random garbage... into which they insert specific words in order to have their customers ride the coattails of their victim's SEO.

SEO Parasite Bots...

That's what they really are.