Sansar Shifting Emphasis Away from VR (To Judge by Updated Homepage)

Linden Lab launched an updated homepage for its new social VR platform Sansar over the last few weeks (see above), but maybe we shouldn't even call it "social VR" anymore. On the new version of the site, the term "VR" is only used twice on the homepage, and in both cases, alongside "PC" -- i.e., as above, "Bring fans together on PC and VR for Q&As and meet-and-greets." This is a very smart move on Linden Lab's part -- and a major change in positioning.

Seriously. Here's what Sansar's homepage looked like less than 3 weeks ago:

Sansar.com homepage

What happened in the interim? Little to no user growth despite a major movie tie-in, for one thing. But probably just as much, the mass growth of VRChat, driven not only by its PC optional client, but its popularity with top Twitch and YouTube streamers. Likely the reason Linden Lab just partnered with... a top Twitch and YouTube streamer. (Also note the new promotion of Sansar as a platform for social media influencers.) 

Can Linden Lab successfully follow VRChat to become a cross-platform with a VR side option? They have a lot of money to make that new branding stick (because, somewhat ironically, its PC-based Second Life is still quite profitable). But also somewhat ironically, the reason I even noticed Linden Lab changed its homepage is precisely because an MMO guru was just telling me it was too late to make that change: 

There's a phrase in game development - "you only ship once."

You only get one impression, and then you're done. No matter how well you iterate, how much you fix -- you can't beat that first impression. The first impression will be everything.

For the vast majority of people, Second Life's first impression was reading a Time writer speak quizzically about how someone gifted him a working penis.

This is actually why Sansar is a thing - it's Linden Lab's attempt to make "Second Life, but with KANGAROOS!" To get past the expectation of everyone that oh, this is that game with detachable penises.

The problem is that Sansar hit headlong into another completely unrelated problem - that VR is a very unproven technology that will sometimes make people throw up, ESPECIALLY women, who tend to for various reasons get motion-sick and reject first-person shooters, VR, and anything else trying to cram too much in not enough frame rate.

Note well: A majority of SL's user base is female, and thus a majority of THAT majority will nope out of any VR implementation because it's hard to have fun in a game when you immediately want to throw up.

But as I wrote back then in mid-April: "Sansar hasn't really reached much consumer awareness outside tech news sites, so Linden Lab could re-launch the Sansar website as a cross-platform virtual world for PCs, Macs, and mobile, as well as VR, then plow lots of advertising dollars to back that message up." That already seems to be happening now.

Comments

[sirhc desantis]

Partnered with a twitcher - the place that has SL on its banned list. Hilarious. https://tinyurl.com/hwatm8l

(Out of curiosity when does Sansar cease to be 'new'?)

[Medhue]

As someone that has puked because of VR, I will state that it is not even remotely common among anyone I know in VR to need to puke. I'm not sure if my own experience was just about getting used to VR, but now I can spend hours doing just about anything without feeling sick.

[Sapphiroth]

In this case LL need to seriously take care of Sansar avatar before all things.

[Ennui Resident]

Sansar VR made me throw up just from watching the demo video of it on youtube. I went into Sansar and it feels like you're locked inside with no freedom. The interface is claustrophobic and the avatar movement is really limited. You do not feel free to move about in that world. It feels like a closed off box. They need to fix that fundamental issue.

[Grid Famous Games]

All they have to do is make Secondlife but better and rename it something so people don't associate detachable penises. I guess asking "Is that so hard?" is simplifying things too much. Instead of going into Mouse View, you can go into VR Goggle view. Just one big streamlined thing. Who cares if the graphics aren't cutting edge, didn't stop Namco from getting people all across the planet from being afraid of 4 ghosts using only 6 colors.

Make it work flawless.

[Brayla Sana]

The insane GPU prices might have to do with the slow adoption of VR.

[Mondy]

It's about time. There is a slow shift of users visiting experiences in desktop mode like myself and using chat, or chat with voice and not VR as well as the full VR users. All of those I've met have no problems with sickness and are regular Sansar users in the same way I'm a regular SL user. There are some AMAZING experiences in Sansar now as well as some frankly bad ones, just like there are good and bad sims to visit in SL.
One thing that's helped in Sansar is that now VR users can see what non VR users are typing. Yes, until this recent change they had no idea what people in desktop mode were saying if they weren't using voice! I can now interact much more with people than before. Sansar is still a beta product and improving weekly (I still prefer SL) but I wish people would give it more of a chance by exploring more.