Survey: Will Linden Lab's Upcoming Virtual World Change How You Use Second Life Now?

Now that the news of Linden Lab's upcoming virtual world is out in the wider web (as on Gamasutra here, and on Massively here, and with a very old screenshot on Polygon here) with CEO Ebbe Altberg telling The Next Web that it'll be available for beta use in 2015, it's time to ask to ask the most obvious question: As Second Life's successor is developed, what happens to Second Life's existing userbase? Let's frame the survey question this way:

Results shared at the end of the week. And please discuss in Comments below!

Comments

[Ares Shoreland]

I'll use Second Life more. This news have inspired me, and I want to see and experience everything SL have to offer before the new world comes out. I won't migrate straight away, but I think word of mouth will make SL users migrate. Once you are there, you'll likely tell your SL friends to go with you because it's better.

[Tesla Miles]

Hmm, it's interesting. I was discussing with a friend the other day about time and monetary investment particularly for creators. I think as soon as a working beta of the new virtual world comes out for testing, SL's skin creators will be jumping on board first, firstly because of the length of time it takes to create a skin (remember this will be a brand new avatar mesh with hopefully improved UV distribution), and secondly because it won't be worthwhile to keep creating skins for a world that will eventually be phased out. You can be certain that there will be a large selection of skins available as soon as the new world launches, no skin creator wants to be left out as the initial demand for skins in the new world could be very lucrative for those who get a headstart. I think all the new content would be enough to kickstart a new economy in no time, quickly drawing all the talent onto the new platform.

[Timo Gufler]

Technical architecture of SL1 is not so modern anymore, but the strength of SL1 is its community and content. If we are expected to leave that all behind, when the SL2 is opened to the public, it may be a better option to either stay in SL1 or move to another virtual world like High Fidelity or an OpenSim-based grid.

Also, the closed-source nature of the new world means, that we won't have innovative community-made viewers like Firestorm (assuming that SL2 relies on viewers instead of web browsers).

It also depends on the world model. Sailing, aviation, driving, riding and other vehicle sports don't work that well in SL1, and the needed space is limited and expensive too.

If LL listens to the current concerns of the residents carefully, recognizes its past mistakes and tries learn from them, maybe we will end up with a win-win situation. That will be seen.

[irihapeti]

wont change my use of SL at all really

2015 is not all that far away for first look. Ebbe promise on the SL GD forum that we will be regularly updated on progress

so I am happy with that answer and I will have a go on the BetterLife as soon as I am able to

[JimM]

I'll probably spend about the same time in-world, but you can be sure I won't be spending much money there, if I won't be able to transfer the content to the new setup.

[zzpearlbottom]

I'll be using SL more and if the new world will be one that will exclude Adult content, then for sure ill never be there, no matter how wonderful it will be in terms of graphics, wish i doubt as the obvious aim will be to reach the Facebook mainstream community that uses smartphones and plays farmville.
And when/if , Sl is shut down, then Open sim will see me back as before, missing some i love (Mainland SL continents, another thing i doubt will exist on that new world, places where we can travel,as they will learn from kitely and will make sims servers down if empty!)but not trading the freedom to express myself as an adult for being part of a mainstream, aseptic, headless community.

[Wilhelmina Hinchcliffe]

I don't know about SL but I'll be using Versu a whole lot more...

Oh wait, that's right, after all that fanfare LL pulled the plug on Versu didn't they?

I'm not saying that Whatever Life version 2.0 won't come to pass or that it won't have an impact on Second Life version "working and making the Lab money right now.0", but at this stage it seems to be a little early to be deciding "I'll use Second Life more"

[Adeon Writer]

I'll be using SL more. Need to get my avatar in an optimized state where I can port it elsewhere. Means converting sculpts to mesh and doing some serious clean up on the model.

[A.J.]

I don't think it will make me stop using SL as much as it will stop me from allowing myself to be used.

Land value, in my mind, has tanked.

I'm thinking about how much I could save every month in sim costs and account fees. I'm thinking of putting those dollars in a savings account and saving a nice nest egg for the new world and we'll see if it's worth it.

Linden Lab has grossly undervalued it's mom and pop sim owners. I can make a monthly car payment to Toyota and they treat me as a valued customer. I get emails, surveys, letters, and phone calls asking me if I'm a happy person with their product. And yes, I'm happy with their product.

I can make an equivalent payment to LL and I'm completely invisible. They don't inform me on anything other than what I owe them. They build walls and make me dig and claw to find them when I need help. They treat me like a nuisance and unworthy of their special circle of attention.

So if $300.00 a month, year after year after year, doesn't even qualify you for an email saying we want your business and care about your future with us and these are our plans...

Let their precious bloggers pay for their new world. It could be a bumpy ride for the Lab and they deserve to hurl at every turn.

[Pirate Russell]

I won't buy as much merchandise in SL, pending what the 'Next Gen SL' will be.

I just hope Linden Lab$ don't keep making more and more hardware demands. I've watched friends leave SL as their computers fall behind, and even before this economy nosedived, they couldn't keep up.

[Pep]

I am old enough to remember Wordstar. Ebbe obviously isn't.

Pep (Perhaps he'll draw upon his experience managing the development of Vizact2000.)

PS Surely you remember Vizact2000? Ebbe spent 11 years on it!

[2014]

I choose other, I'm not holding my breathe on a new platform. I'd love to see it, but realistically LL has failed across the board to update/upgrade SL, so what makes me think SL2.0 will ever happen.

[Iggy]

Having not logged in to SL for months, I will be in a bit more now, since in the Fall I will try to be a regular again at our educator meetings. I suspect the new platform will lure some away.

Hopes: LL finds a better, less creepy name this time for SL 2.0; LL supports fully the current mix of desktop and mobile OSes (you can bet on that last one); SL 1.0 persists long enough for the remaining educators to reverse engineer their builds, since I doubt importing content will be possible.

In the end, LL had to do this or perish slowly @ about 2 private estates lost every day. SL as it exists now is simply too limited for those with top-notch 3D and scripting skills. Yet for those like me, who lack such skills and have already moved on beyond SL and are doing other academic work, LL's next Big Thing does not mean much.

Good luck LL.

[Echo Kinsella]

I have to say that after almost 10 years of investing time and a lot of money, this announcement saddens me. I feel like it truly is the end of SL. I know for me I won't be wasting my money in game any more. As a breeder I will sell off as much as I can to recoup and then watch its slow death. The only way I would move to the new platform is if I can transfer ALL of my inventory.

[Cube Republic]

Asking this question demonstrates what a strong product Linden Lab have with Second Life.

It was inevitable that something new would be released. This is the nature of technology. They either stay and patch and old tech, or they start fresh.

On the bright side, surely this upgrade is a good thing. Imagine what would have happened if they had just decided to stop supporting SL and closed shop.

Second Life is a paradigm which will benefit hugely from modernization. It's often said that land is too expensive, and the CEO has expressed how this will be 'different' in its next carnation.

With eleven plus years experience behind them, and a clean slate to start with this could be an exciting prospect.

As for backward compatibility; most content these days is made from mesh. Mesh is industry standard, so I'm sure it will be possible for content creators to export from their 3D apps to whichever format the new world supports. I don't see it as an issue though. Who uses content from 2 years ago?

I have a wish list:

Big spaces, at least 4 times the size of SL sims.

Beautiful shaders

Animated mesh

No need to make LOD and physics meshes

Decent NPCs

In-world build tools

Please keep the land and map paradigm

Themed mainland continents

[Metacam Oh]

On one hand I applaud them for finally realizing they need to build SL's successor. On the other hand I hear closed source and I see the way they have operated and still operate Second Life and leads me to believe they really have not learned a thing from the first iteration, not sure the 2nd one is going to be run much better. I mean even if they solve all the technical issues that have plagued the first world, the actual part where you have to take care of customers and understand them and so on, I'm not sure what would lead me to believe they are suddenly going to be better at that.

A successful virtual world is not going to be closed source. One company is never going to be able to create and give the features needed for something as robust as a virtual world. When I hear closed source I just shake my head. Sure I'll check it out and wish them well, but like I said, I don't think they've completely learned many lessons from their past failures.

[TribeGadgets]

Well initial reaction was 'the same' but second thoughts lead to 'perhaps a little more'. Where better to work on my (somewhat rudimentry)creation skills? With the added bonus that every thing I make are belong to me, to mangle a phrase, and there are the other grids where 'stuff' could in all probability still be viable - if I make the effort.
And if the Lab ever do open a new shiny world I hope to be in as early as possible - a great excuse to finally get around to learning something new.

[Dirk Grantly]

I asked myself why was/am I in SL in the first place? The answer was and still is "community". This may be similar to many residents - we've gotten to know people and venues, some of us have done research on what goes on in SL and its added to our careers, and so on. I would definitely try a new SL, just as I have with Utherverse, Opensim, Kitely and Inworldz. Why I keep coming back to SL is the volume of people and the events and the creations.

I also agree with some of the other posters - I pay monthly for what is effectively very expensive server space and get little in return, not even a "how's it going".

[Sweet Valentine]

way to early to decide

[Ciaran Laval]

@Wilhelmina Hinchcliffe "I don't know about SL but I'll be using Versu a whole lot more...

Oh wait, that's right, after all that fanfare LL pulled the plug on Versu didn't they?"

They did pull the plug, but recently they plugged it back in, Versu is alive and well.

[Teal Freenote]

Well I don't use SL much anymore, since joining InWorldz 4 years ago - I have 4 sims over there for a total of $280 - less than the price of 1 sim in SL - and each of my InWorldz sims has 45000 prims ... so I have 180000 prims to play with there for slightly less than Sl would give me 15000. And I didn't have to pay an exhorbitant set up fee. And uploads are FREE... my creativity has exploded. The people who run IW are of high integrity. So... if the NEW SL is still the same overpriced kinda place, I may play in it a little bit but unless pricing becomes more affordable and customer service regains importance to the company, no I wouldn't be there much.

[Jaqua]

If I had to choose between SL 2.0 and HiFi, I would go with HiFi, due to the fact that I like the idea of using my own machine and personal server to create my own land and property rather than relying on server space at a crazy high price with little or no customer service. Also, I find it kinda primitive and ass backwards to create a new platform that is in essence a closed garden with no backwards compatibility, whatever to the maxim of "building the Metaverse" which in my mind means some form of inter-connectivity with other virtual worlds. In other words, Make Mine HiFi

[Tesla Miles]

It's annoying how misinformation can run rampant amongst those who have a penchant for confirmation bias... Let's get this straight, Ebbe NEVER said that the new virtual world would be closed source, he said that it would BEGIN as a closed source project so that it would not be "constrained to be less than what it should be" - Which makes perfect sense, as no opensource project ever started as opensource in the development phase, until the initial groundwork has been built, then there wouldn't be much opensource to work with anyway. So please, stop touting this misinfo about the new world being closed source.

[Melissa Yeuxdoux]

Hard to say. Will the new virtual world allow the kind of anonymity that SL does? Will Linux be supported?

[Vic]

Yeah, LL gets a lot of genius plans. Too bad they can't spare the effort to keep the one that actually worked from rotting while they try them out.

[webspelunker Ghostraven]

For me, it's too soon to tell.

I'm not against change or progress but I'm very concerned that the communities that have been built up over eleven years will be broken up and lost forever. Do we become like characters in Longfellow's "Evangeline?"

The casual disregard for the feelings of the community by LL is not a good sign!

[theg0t]

I never use it again, I been a user sense 2006 owning islands and investing in high price adds for years I have found it a waist of my hard earn money in 2014 with years of stolen product passed from noob to noob.The population of SL ruined it self with their lack of morals and poor standard off conduct.I say ban kit makers and any type of re sell products and return back to good creation and not a sea of the same crap a different color.I sell both my islands and walk away to the new world the minute I can.The rest of you can sit around crying in your little girl accounts afraid one day some one might find you have a weenor in RL.

[Flashing Merlin]

To say I'll use it less is an understatement. I expect to be so outraged that my builds no longer work, my scripts no longer run, my vast inventory no longer works, and that I have to use the official viewer, that I'll abandon all my land, cancel my premium memberships for all my alts, and move to OpenSim, never to set foot in SL again!

[Cyberserenity]

I have wanted a new world for a long time. Where scripting and physics work. But it is not that easy to make one. I have tried. SL is still the best we have. The best of what technology can produce today. Many worlds have come and gone. Sl is still here. Linden lab have a lot of work to do to create something better.

[Daniel H]

Wow. Lots of high emotion here. As someone who used SL for years before becoming a creator, and now creates both there and in various Open Sims, mostly Kitely... I am looking forward to seeing what the new one is like, although I have no plans to give up my Open Sim home. I create because I love to create, not because I am under any illusion I will pay my rent that way in the real world. So the idea of "OMG, I might lose all my old stuff! I hate the idea of a new world!" just doesn't compute for me. For one thing, it might all be something I can transfer in one way or the other--we don't know. For another... gee, my old inventory and products no longer work. So what? I'm a creator. It's what I do. I will make... new things!

I moved to Open Sim from SL specifically because, at the time, there was very little content. That forced me to learn to make MY OWN THINGS rather than just buy what was out there. To me, having lots of stuff actually inhibited my creativity. I actually think it'd be a fun challenge to have to create a whole new body of work from scratch. It's not about the sales for me. It's about a whole new and clean slate to be excited to learn.

[zzpearlbottom]

Daniel H, You are a rare brand and like you, less then 1 pct of Sl users, even if 99 pct of open sim ones.
I can say cause i passed by the same, we are a minority and the majority of Sl users will not move unless some content is provided to them.
And Linden lab knows that, they know that if they just use the Tos to move all Sl content to the new world they will get more users then content creators.

[Fauve Aeon]

I will use it more. We had already made the decision to revisit SL as a creative hobby and working, learning and building inworld more and working with programs directly related more will catch us up closer to where we want to be when the new world lands. I started to write and blog a little about SL as a new aspect of the hobby interest and I'm finding that it's all just really fun.

[RULosingHair]

I will be using SL less, and I will switch to using Linux under VirtualBox. This enables using SteamOS and SteamBox and cinema-class Garry's Mod 13 (GMod costs only one-time 20 Euros, AND no monthly tiers, because Steam provides a free dedicated server).

More Value-Add > Besides there are more 2014+ opportunities available by taking the Linux path, like 3D holographic presentations and 3D printing.

How to Reduce Total-Cost-of-Ownership in #VirtualWorlds AND How to Embrace 2014+ ROI Opportunities http://ht.ly/yqsK0

Immersive Worlds & Linux
https://www.facebook.com/groups/immersiveworlds.linux/

[Gwyneth Llewelyn]

I won't be using Second Life at all... it will be shut down!!

Sure, I read what Ebbe said. But let's do a reality check here: Ebbe is like a politician in a campaign saying that he will not raise taxes. Then he gets elected, looks at the big hole in the budget left by their predecessors, and, in a panic, raises taxes. Was that politician 'lying'? No. He was being honest (but naïve) while he campaigned, because that's the data he had at the moment he was on the streets. When facing reality, he had no choice but to go back on his word.

In 2016, SL will not be able to sustain LL any longer — thanks to this announcement, which might be well-meant, but completely ill-timed and badly worded. When that happens, Ebbe has either the choice of shutting down SL (which costs way too much to maintain) and keep SL2 and hope against all hope to increase the number of users there, or, well, resign... and eventually the Board might have to liquidate LL.

My assumptions for that dark future are based on a lot of things:

1) Linden Lab has never found a way to make grow SL — except for giving access for free. All announcements since that decision always shrunk SL more and more. No matter what theories they tried to put into practice, SL always shrunk. It was almost reaching an equilibrium now, when they made this announcement — and the rate of shrinkage will accelerate.
2) If they can't attract new users and keep them inside SL, why should they suddenly be able to do that for SL2?
3) SL2 will, undoubtedly, attract thousands of early adopters. All VWs launched since 2005 managed to do that. All were seen as potential competitors to SL. All failed — after attracting thousands of early adopters. Why should SL2 be different?
4) If there was 'nothing else' besides SL2 out there, then perhaps LL would have a chance. All Ebbe needs is to get a few thousands of content creators and 100,000 users willing to spend money in SL2. That's what he's gambling on. Sadly for him, in 2016 we will have High Fidelity and possibly Facebook's VW competing with SL2. Both will have dazzling, shiny, new graphics. Both will attract thousands of early adopters. Many will come from a ruined SL.
5) It took years and years for SL to develop the exciting society, economy, and complex community we have now, with millions of users (many of those gone already, of course). Even if the open beta version is around for, say, a year — how does Ebbe expect that a few thousands can replicate in a year what millions have done over a decade? Even assuming there was no competition! Look at OpenSimulator: it has been around for 7 years now, and has probably 30,000 regular users. While it's possible that SL2 can grow a little faster than that, the problem is pure economics: will LL's board be happy with a company making thousands of dollars a month instead of the millions it gets now?

[Kara]

I am not sure asking how much you will use SL now is the right question. Rather how this will impact how you use it. For example, will you continue spending as normal or will you cash out constantly? Will you put as much energy into building a lot of new content vs just socializing?

[Tesla Miles]

So basically, this is a lose/lose scenario based on Gwyneth's observations - these are the possible outcomes for LL's decisions...

1) LL doesn't do anything except continue on it's course of never having "found a way to make grow SL" (PLUS can't compete against new VWs)... Outcome = SL dies.

2) LL creates a new SL2, but it can't compete against High Fidelity and Facebook's VW... Outcome = SL dies.

So maybe Gwyneth is right; it IS the end of SL...

[GoSpeed Racer]

I am using SL 1.0 less and less as the months go by anyways. It's just not as fun or engaging as it used to be. Socializing is fine but with Facebook, G+, Twitter, Plurk and what have you I can socialize in many different outlets. If SL 2.0 can be entertaining and fun like a game then yes, I'd hop right in. Give us those cars, planes and boats that can sail for kilometers on end without hitting a barrier and use a decent physics model, and I'll come running. Blue Mars showed promise. It looked gorgeous, the maps were large, and the physics engine was superior to SL's. Sadly it lacked content and that is why it failed to gain any traction. They didn't listen and they failed. I would hope LL learned from BM's mistakes.