Second Life Sees Spike on Google Trends After Ozimals Outrage

Correlation does not prove causation*, but since news of the Ozimals lawsuit/bunny extinction in Second Life broke last week, the virtual world has seen a strong and significant spike on Google Trends. I would not be surprised in the least if there was also a spike in new user sign-ups. Because if content creators are making enough money in SL that they're getting into real life legal disputes, maybe there's much more money to be made in there. Or alternately, it could be how, after Second Life was hit by black hat hackers who breached the database, new user sign-ups grew by 300 percent.

Similarly, we could see a spike of new users who've come to see... the silence of the bunnies.

* Correlation does not prove causation, but writing about correlation provably causes people on the Internet to angrily write "correlation does not prove causation!" in comments.

Comments

[Patchouli Woollahra]

We need a cell with Anthony Hopkins in it, asking why is the bunnies silent.

But srsly, it has been said before that no news is bad news. this seems to correlate that (whether it causes that is a different debate), and if the irony of this is that we get a third wave of major interest like the previous two, I will think of Ozimals less as a tragedy and more as a price to be paid. And if it sticks this time, somehow? Cheap at the price.

This is not to trivalise what has happened to thousands of bunnyparents - it was a darned mess - but kintsurugi is actually a thing.

[savannah edge]

No bunnies dies or were silenced geesh! And how long are you going to try to carry this story. It's over can we move on already.

[Patchouli Woollahra]

It's not the story I would have chosen to lead interest into Second Life with. but it is what it is, and Hamlet can't really be faulted for events occurring the way they did.

[Whispers Magic]

The only outrage I see is from the media.

[sirhc deSantis]

I know its early in the year, but 'the Silence of the Bunnies' has to be a contender for line of the year.
And hell yeah keep covering this!

[Fuzzball Ortega]

I never knew Ozimals was still around, to tell you the truth. The bunnies were never present in the original Steelhead sims, and when I've checked out auctions, market sims, or fundraising events, I've seen Amaretto's, Fennics, Kitty Cats, Meeroos, dragons, even breedable shoes, but I've never recalled seeing Ozimals at these places.

Were the Ozimals really outselling all these others, which would more or less also require owners of some of these breedables to rent land? I only heard the name once a few years back, and hadn't heard anything else until Hamlet started writing about this.