My Take & Reader Reaction to New World Notes' Chat With Linden Lab CEO Ebbe Altberg -- Three Good & Not So Good Takeaways

Results from my survey of readers asking how they felt about the future of Sansar and Second Life after watching my interview with Linden Lab CEO. (Which you can watch below, if you missed it, or watch again because why not.) With 79 people voting, almost 51% said they were more confident after hearing Ebbe Altberg speak, with less than a quarter saying they were less positive. Voters also submitted several really good questions, which I'll follow up on with Linden Lab and his communication team.

Now that readers have weighed in, here's my own take: I was definitely impressed by Altberg's passion and deep dive knowledge about managing and planning for the future of Second Life and Sansar, and overall, his ebullient Swede engagement. (Linden staff tell me his enthusiasm has boosted internal morale, which floundered as CEOs before him came and went.) Some key pros and cons and stood out to me:

Positive:

• Openly admitting SL land tier is Too Damn High: Specifically saying, "We've been over-monetizing land". Previous CEOs and Linden staff have been loathe to admit the obvious, even as sims disappeared all around us. 
• Acknowledging that launching Sansar as a VR-centered product was fueled by hype: We were at hair-pulling levels of frustration when it looked like Sansar was being promoted as a VR product even when VR sales prospects were so small (as they still are).  During the peak, Palmer Luckey-on-the-cover-of-Time hype period when Sansar launched, Ebbe says, "It was all hot and hip and interesting to talk about VR so we kinda rode that a little bit". Hopefully there's still time to change Sansar's focus to be PC -- similar to what Philip Rosedale just announced with High Fidelity. 
• Announcing plans to add game mechanics to Second Life's first time user-experience: Something I've been pleading for, for fricking years. I'm a bit disappointed the apparent plan is to confine those mechanics just to the first-time user experience, instead of applying them to all users. But it would be a good start.

On the negative side of the ledger, in my view:

Downplaying Second Life's branding problem due to Adult content, especially from extreme fetishes: Either Ebbe hasn't visited much of Second Life's many Adult-rated regions, or he's being disingenuous about how much really extreme content exists in there (3:00-5:15 above).

To take his "Broadway in San Francisco is Adult-rated" example: Yes, there's scantily clad women hanging outside strip clubs on Broadway in North Beach. But there's not, say, "Bukkake Bliss" or "Bondage Ranch", which were two of the most popular SL regions for a time -- not to mention "Yiff Spot" (i.e. beastiality fetishism), another popular destination. Or at the farthest end of the extreme, what's described in this Wikipedia link with no images that's still possibly Not Safe for Life that, yes, mentions Second Life as hosting that content. Ebbe can "beg to differ" on this point, but the Internet never forgets, and without a conscious rebranding, all of this remains indelibly marked on the current Second Life brand.

Indifference to how poorly optimized mesh hurts Second Life as a social virtual world: When I pointed out that popular mesh bodies are so poorly optimized, they almost become (as one Linden vet put it) like a DDOS attack, Ebbe ultimately shrugged and said, "Users are going to do what users are going to do." Even if that means Second Life has largely become a solo activity. Which may be fine for him, but then the company can't also honestly promote Second Life as a social world in the same way that VRChat or other worlds can.

De-prioritizing a cloud-based streaming option for Second Life: As we said at the time about 5 years ago, the OnLive streaming service was among the best things to come to Second Life (though it sadly went) and the pricing options back then seemed sustainable. So it's disappointing for Ebbe to put streaming into a "we may get to that someday" category (21:55 above). Since they're putting all of Second Life in the Amazon cloud, why not making it available by cloud streaming, too?

So those are my top personal takeaways -- what were yours?

Comments

[Ephemera crawford]

If they don't care to address the Wild West aspect of sexuality in SL (it would definitely affect their financials) they can at least quarantine it better. Sometimes I cant even show shopping pages or event searches to friends because of graphic ads and borderline illegal content showing up (Rape Racks and sexualized hairless pubescent girls are the latest offenders in my Marketplace front page.

THey need to create some sort of better filters to segregate it from the casual users, or even a separate log-in to the sex grid. They can charge for that one, and leave the rest of us to socialize without the porn onslaught. They can call it SL Classic or somesuch. SL.2 can be born, now with 100% less rape and vore!

[Harriet Habsburg Forbes]

I'm delighted we finally have the courage to sensibly address restriction. Lust is a powerful tool to entice the masses into delivering their treasures to the marketplace, but their unbridled exploration of unnatural filth treads on the liberties of the civilized. Until these unsanitary animals are evacuated to the darkest corners of their cellars and huts, upstanding society will be shackled in gloves and veils.

Avatars should not be permitted to attach anything below the neck in public. Body parts should be limited in proportion and fabric transparency should be forbidden. It's beyond time that the crude Kardashian fetish is extinguished Avatars should never be permitted more than 7% exposed skin and vulgar language and slang should not be tolerated. There can be no freedom without chains.

[Ephemera crawford]

I'm confused, are you conflating torture porn, rape rooms and prepubescent sexualization with Kardassians? It doesn't make sense. But then again so little in SL makes sense, so there you go

[Darci Leibowitz]

I think I understand where Harriet is coming from. Essentially, we are all playing for the same team. It's a slippery slope from sex tapes today to rape rooms tomorrow. If we are going to draw the line for decency, it's extremely important to keep out the riff-raff.

[Wagner James Au]

Well I wouldn't put it in moral terms, as that's not my main objection, it's really about making the brand mass market and having the chance to go after a truly large userbase. As I've suggested before, the extreme Adult stuff could go on another, completely separate Linden-owned grid with a completely different brand, one that's accessed through a completely different site, maybe with the Linden Dollars the only portable thing between the two grids.

https://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2019/03/second-life-linden-lab-video-branding-lexy-neven.html

[seph]

"Downplaying Second Life's branding problem due to Adult content, especially from extreme fetishes"

On adult content, what more can they do ontop of having adult content completely invisible by default? That's how it is now. We have to opt-in to adult content in Second Life by changing our maturity settings. We don't see adult content in Second Life unless we look for it.

This blog found "Bukkake Bliss" and "Yiff Spot" not because it flew in Hamlet's face when he logged into SL, but because he fixated on it. In reality those popularity charts showing tens of avatars of difference in average population mean nothing. There's not a huge difference between a dead region averaging 0 visitors and "most popular" averaging 62 users. At least not enough to state that a Bukkake Bliss can create a branding problem for a service with nearly a million active users.

Adult content is totally opt-in.

"Indifference to how poorly optimized mesh hurts Second Life as a social virtual world"

I mean, he spent quite a lot of time explaining the avatar render complexity system to you. We each individually have an option of how much we let others avatars bog down our system. It's a solved problem for people that care.

"De-prioritizing a cloud-based streaming option for Second Life"

I thought he explained this well too. It costs too much to do. Bright Canopy was charging 3 cents a minute and still went out of business. SLGo originally wanted to charge 5 or more cents a minute before creating an unlimited monthly plan..which didn't help save the company so it's worth assuming that price point wasn't healthy for them.

[Mondy]

Oh seriously. Unless you set your mature and adult ratings for marketplace and in world search incorrectly then most of the "naughty" stuff is hidden from view.
People find the mature clubs, groups and sims because they *want* to.
If you are seeing unsavoury results in MP under general settings then report those items for having the wrong tags or classification.
As for inworld, let the people into those things get on with it and just keep clear yourself. I've yet to see anyone forced into visiting or doing anything they don't want to. Except for illegal activities like ageplay it just smacks of prudishness

[Wagner James Au]

Second Life’s reputation is not a community of cool free spirits having lots of non-prudish sex — its reputation is a place for weirdos unable to get sex in real life who go online to have pixel sex instead. Mean and unfair, but that’s the real branding problem.

[MySchoolBucks Login]

Nice post..very much informative..Thank you so much

[Soda Sullivan]

I am in the 50% who came away feeling positive about the interview. I think the adult content issue is a total non issue. For me the big negative of the interview was Ebbe's statement that "Users are going to do what users are going to do" in regard to the mesh issue. If mesh bodies are indeed the equivalency of a DDos attack, then something HAS to be done and i think creators would be happy to do that if SOMEONE will tell them what to do. I don't think the creators are setting out to break SL, but are making the best product they can with the knowledge that they have. Clearly you can make a very realistic body at a much lower poly count and if LL brought someone forth to say "here is how you do it" creators would happily listen.

[Aliasi Stonebender]

Hamlet, if they did things the way you want, Second Life would just become Tumblr. And, I suspect, with the same ultimate result.

[Aeon]

I've lived in a lot of location in SL. Right now I'm in mainland. I never see sex content being any more visible in SL than RL. It's less actually. When was the last time anyone was raped in SL? It's not rape if you are willingly participating. Nothing in SL is real. It's thought, imagination, and animated artistry. If people are so vulnerable and scared of what other people are thinking, then they should be adult-enough to sequester themselves instead of demanding the world be their own personal cocoon. SL provides plenty of support to build your own Private Idaho. This place isn't for children. It shouldn't be. They do their best to provide age guidelines, but they can't save every adult child. Why would you really want to cater this world to people who are so scared of simple "thoughts". We have RL for that.

[Mondy]

No one is trying to be a cool free spirit, Wagner.
People are trying to be adults, just as they've always been.
SL has always been an adult place to be except for the teen grid, with different levels of content depending on how adult you wish to behave.
As far as I'm concerned, Ebbe has the right attitude. Except for illegagle content and activity it doesn't matter what anyone else gets up to.
there is enough generalcontent that can be promoted for those that don't want to engage in the more adult content.
Who knows, perhaps with Strawberry's appointment we might see some new ideas in how SL gets promoted just as we do with the great ideas Drax has.

[Fauve]

I think the adult content vs (non-resident) people’s perception of SL is a big branding issue, but regardless of my own preferences, I don't consider anything legal as problematic just by the fact that it's there. Period.

I haven't had any trouble avoiding anything but I have had much frustration attempting to explain SL to other RL artists, dancers, business people, and even friends. The Sex World thing does come up more often than not. I'm building a more truly representative YouTube playlist and also practicing filming some things on my own to solve that problem for myself. The RL/SL connection is vital to some of the work I'm doing and want to do in the next year or 2 but I am trying to take a firm upper hand in how I present it to outside people, heavily weighting it in favor of highlighting all the things I value it for rather than coming from the position of continually spending energy to push the river away from the other things.

To me, every time there's another article about ’the problematic SL weird sex thing’, I see it as another article calling attention to the weird SL sex thing. With accompanying tags and web search terms linking them yet tighter together in the um...sordid embrace?

Regarding SL content quality; I'm learning. My own preferences still sit smack in the middle of wishing for the best looking things but knowing about optimised content....but guess what? Aesthetics is still winning. And LL loud and clear gives each user the abilities to selectively render.
So...in a user-created world, ALL levels of quality will be presented, including lots of unoptimised content and just as many uneducated consumers. Many of us aren't gamers, lots of people aren't into modding, few came to SL as 3D game asset makers, right? So I'm not even sure where this expectation of ’oh you hobby makers need to learn to abide by low-poly game asset creation rules and standards in order to be allowed to import or sell your things’ comes from?

LL is never going to impose that standard, SL is mostly a hobby world, indulged in for fun. The Lab is more fairly weighting things as far as their cost to render etc., even dimpled hollow spheres are no longer 1 LI...and fair enough...but IMO much of the choice of what to make and how to make it (AND also what to render or not) needs to stay with the individuals. What if my world, my imagination is not low poly? What if I'm not that skilled yet but given the practice and freedom to learn, I may be one day? What if I'm Premium and I want to wear my 2 allowed animesh things 24/7? What if I'm more into sculpting the things I like and want to see and less into making sure that they meet someone else’s standards?

[Irony]

Good evening, Virtualworlds. Allow me first to apologize for this interruption. I do, like many of you, appreciate the comforts of every day routine- the security of the familiar, the tranquility of repetition.I enjoy them as much as any bloke. But in the spirit of commemoration, thereby those important events of the past usually associated with someone's death or the end of some awful bloody struggle, a celebration of a nice holiday, I thought we could mark this November the 5th, a day that is sadly no longer remembered, by taking some time out of our daily lives to sit down and have a little chat.
There are of course those who do not want us to speak. I suspect even now, orders are being shouted into telephones, and men with guns will soon be on their way. Why? Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission.

How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror. I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn't be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you, and in your panic you turned to virtual worlds, VR. It promised you order, it promised you peace, and all it demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent.
Last night I sought to end that silence. Last night I destroyed the Old Bailey, to remind this country of what it has forgotten. More than four hundred years ago a great citizen wished to embed the fifth of November forever in our memory. His hope was to remind the world that fairness, justice, and freedom are more than words, they are perspectives.

So if you've seen nothing, if the crimes of this government remain unknown to you then I would suggest you allow the fifth of November to pass unmarked. But if you see what I see, if you feel as I feel, and if you would seek as I seek, then I ask you to stand beside me one year from tonight, outside the gates of Parliament, and together we shall give them a fifth of November that shall never, ever be forgot

[vwfan]

The optimized content issue isn't just an avatar issue, though. It's also an issue with the content used to build sims. That's not as easy as jellydolls are to find out what's lagging you unless you want to inspect a sim with 100's and 100's of assets, working in debug windows, or toggling wireframe mode (which is only one aspect of the problem).

[Bukkake Bliss Bob 'aka' BBB]

Forget it Hamlet! ....you'll never take away my overscripted sculpted penis attachment! ...you'll have to pry it out of my cold dead hands first!

[Fauve]

The content people set when they own or rent the land is thankfully, also up to them to make, choose and use as they like, as long as it is within the rules. They are the ones paying the bill for the stuff (and the sim) to be there in the first place. To some people, catering to visitors with lower end or medium graphics capabilities is a very important priority.
To others, it's simply not.

As a beginner mesh maker, my content is not going be optimised yet. I'm still going to upload stuff and enjoy my hobby as I learn 3D modelling as a new method for making my art. As I get better at it, my meshes will improve. If someone finds them ’unoptimised and laggy’ in the meantime, they can leave my areas. I have had the good fortune to have had amazing landlords who generously welcome, support and encourage builders and makers of all skill levels.

Whether jelly dolls or ’laggy sims’, I do not believe that trying to force the issue by expecting LL to impose stricter limitations on others’ creative hobby endeavours, learning processes or preferences is the correct answer here.
No one promised people optimised content on signup, rather a world created by all kinds of users, from game pros to beginning mesh makers to good old fashioned prim bangers...so the minimum and optimum system requirements are good guidelines. I learned SL on a not-so-great laptop with no mouse, and have used it on a variety of machines and internet speeds from bad mobile wifi to a lit desktop with pretty fast internet so I maintain it's up to each of us to make the best of our own situations without expecting to impose our limitations on others.

[SannyYoshikawa]

I made a Japanese summary for readers in Japan.　自分が読んだついでにざっくりと要点をまとめました。対訳ではなく要約です。

LindenのCEOインタビューの後、SansarとSLの将来についてどう感じたか尋ねた読者調査に79人が投票した。そのうち約51％が記事を読む前よりも信用が高まったと答え、あまりポジティブな印象を受けなかった人は1/4以下だった。そして筆者自身もCEOの情熱や知識に感銘を受けた。インタビューで聞いたことの中から筆者が考える良い点と悪い点を挙げる。

良い点：
・SLの土地の維持費が高いことを公然と認めている。特に「今まで土地を過剰に収益化してきた。」という発言があった。以前のCEOとリンデンスタッフは、SIMがどんどん減ってもそのことを認めようとはしなかった。
・SansarがVR中心の製品として発表されたことを大げさな宣伝だったと認めた。当時、VRが売れる見込みはそれほどなかった（そして、いまも同じ）。筆者はPhilip Rosedaleが最近High Fidelityで発表したのと同じように、SLがPCのパフォーマンスを焦点にすることを願っている。
・SLの初心者向けユーザー体験にゲームの仕組みを追加する計画を発表した。筆者は、初心者だけでなく全ユーザー向けの体験にゲームが追加されたほうがいいと思うが、とりあえずは良い傾向だといえそう。

悪い点：
・極端なフェティッシュのアダルトコンテンツにより、SLがブランディングの問題を抱えていることを軽視している。SLのなかには色々な（本文参照）フェティッシュの世界があるが、EbbeはSLのアダルトエリアにほとんど行ったことがないか、そういう場所に極端なコンテンツがあることを分かっていない。（ので規制ができておらず、ブランディングに悪影響を与えている）
・メッシュが最適化されていないことでSLがソーシャルバーチャルワールドとして上手くいかなくなることに無関心。人気のあるメッシュボディが最適化されていないことに筆者が触れると、Ebbeは「ユーザーは、ユーザーがやろうとしていることをやる」と肩をすくめて言った。彼にとってはそれでいいかもしれないが、それでは企業として公正に、SLをVRChatやほかのソーシャルワールドのようにプロモートできないだろう。
・クラウドベースのストリーミングオプションの優先順位が下がった。5年前にストリーミングサービスのOnLiveにSLが入るという話が盛り上がった（が、残念ながらなくなった）。価格設定的にも問題ないようなのに、Ebbeが「いつかやるかもしれない」と消極的なのはもったいない。SLはAmazon Cloudに全部入っているのだから、クラウドストリーミングもすればいいのにと思う。