Survey: What "Heavy Hitters" Did Linden Bring Back to Improve Second Life?

Linden Lab's confirmation of recent layoffs last week included this incredibly intriguing line:

[W]e had to say goodbye to a few employees, but at the same time we also strengthened our team by bringing back some heavy hitters who will help make Second Life better than ever. 

Assuming this phrasing is accurate, it's two or more people formerly with Linden Lab, or currently with Linden Lab but working on another development team, such as Sansar, Tilia, or Blocksworld. Or perhaps it might even include a Second Life content creator who has since left the platform. And "heavy hitters" implies that an announcement will be made, and that many/most SL users will know who they are.

But who? Hence this survey! I hesitate to speculate openly, but a few obvious candidates come to mind:

SL founder Philip Rosedale, of course, briefly returned to Linden Lab in 2010 as interim CEO after Mark Kingdon left that position. And he still visits Second Life from time to time, as recently as early this month. So that's a possibility. Then again, it's supposedly "heavy hitters" plural.

Personally I hope those heavy hitters include Alina Lyvette, the Russia-based developer who created Lumiya, the wildly popular Second Life app for Android who has seemingly gone from SL in recent years. 

In any case, hopefully we get an announcement soon. I'll run the results of this survey then or at the end of this week (probably), to see how well readers guessed!

Comments

[More Censored then Ezra]

Well on the SL Forum all the cheerleaders do there best to downplay any mobile viewers chiefly Lumiya! they say's no one wants it or needs it but the reality is mobile is here to stay.
this is not 2004 were everyone thought they had to buy a 1000 PC for the home, most homes don't even have landline phones anymore.

They are bringing in four people.
two developers who left to build high fidelity early on,
two developers from sansar for the render engine & marketplace.

Philip has always been in the background being he still is part owner, we just don't need to know all the boardroom stuff otherwise feelings might get hurt about hard choices not ready to be be made public.

[Adeon Writer]

Hearing that Qarl Linden is back would make me sit up straight in my chair. That guy knew how to get things done right.

You've got that dude to thank for so much in SL.

But I'm sure he's moved on to bigger things.

[Fionalein]

My fear: some nepotism benefactors who cannot be dumped together with Sansar

[A Writer from Osgrid]

It could be the Lindens who left to develope Cloud Party. Why bring in failures from Sansar or High Fidelity?

[Candy68]

Well the next time you’re up at the Linden’s one of the biggest problems They have too many Sims nobody ever sees anybody anymore it’s hard to find other people

[Cathartes Aura]

Did rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic prevent it from sinking? Is bringing in old/new personnel going to turn LL/SL around?

I think the obvious answer is NO... Leveling the Land tier playing field - Everybody pays the same land tier per square meter with the same number of prims. Leveling the Content Creation playing field - Bring back in-world content creation using mesh. Mesh "prims". Mesh deformers. That would be a benefit to 90%+ of SL's remaining residents.

If LL had implemented these policy reversals a decade or so ago when it was OBVIOUS that "their" land tier and content creation policies were FAILING "they'd" be in a much better place.

"They" were ate up with "their" own arrogance. "They" thought "they" were "smarter than the average bear" - with all of "us" lowly residents being "average bear". Everyone at LL HQ and serving on the LL Board of Directors were ate up with HUBRIS. Pooh poohing anyone who raised concerns or questions. And the end result of almost 14 years of this nonsense? F$cking Disaster.

It's a textbook example of why Crony Capitalism/picking favorites hasn't worked in the past, isn't working now, and will never work in the future. "They" assume that we're too dumb to see the forest for the trees. The "we" can't see what "they" are up to. And "they" couldn't be more wrong.

Everything going wrong with LL/SL has been self-inflicted. "You're" "your" own worst enemy. "You" took a beautiful "thing" and permanently f$cked it up. "You" being every past member of the LL Board of Directors. Complete NUMBNUTS.

This Ole Carrion Eater LOVES it when the so-called "Masters of the Universe" FAIL to learn from "their" mistakes and f$ck-ups. Corporate Americas' Siren Song - Just rinse and repeat. Do the same thing over and over and over again. LIE to people. And expect different results. LMAO! ;)

[Anonymous]

Did I miss something? As far as I know you can still create and edit prims in world. If you want, you can still make sculpties. No one uses/makes objects/accessories out of prims or sculpties anymore because it looks bad. Yes SL is from 2003; but it's 2020. It's unfortunate that you think that SL is doomed because you don't know how to use 3D modeling programs or something. I'm a rigged mesh content creator. Whether you want to admit it or not our content is what keeps people playing this game and buying Lindens. If you don't like it, feel free to stay in the past.

[Cathartes Aura]

@Anonymous If what "you" say is correct then SL should be booming. More revenue and residents than ever before. People jumping at the chance to become a resident of SL. Obviously, that is not the case and LL/SL is not in good shape. The policies you advocate for are the obvious reason why.

I never said I was against using the latest and greatest. "Your" words. Not mine. According to "you" we-uns are just too SSSS-Stupid to lern nu things lik yew. We be DUMB... When in reality...

It's all about returning SL to a level playing field - something "you" and those like "you" desperately want to prevent. Obviously because "you" benefit from the currently completely corrupted system. LMAO!!!

SL was booming when everyone paid the same Tier per square meter and had the same number of prims per square meter. SL was booming when in-world content creation was how the vast majority of residents created content. Now it's not.

Raise the bar. Put up barriers. Complicate things unnecessarily. Make content creation as difficult as possible. And what you get is exactly what's happening atm in SL. Less people. Less revenue. Less engagement. Keep going on this path and eventually "they" will shut all this down and turn out the lights.

So, by all means LL/SL, listen to @Anonymous and all the other folks who benefit from the current "System". "They've" been so "correct" about LL/SL policies so far. "Their" ideas and thinking are bringing in more residents and more revenue. Right? SMH. ;)

[TD Gunner]

I agree with @Cathartes Aura. I still make things with prims on my land; it's fun. I think people like @Anonymous are part (notice part; not whole) of the problem. You may not be an arrogant know-it-all but you come off as one. Mesh is just a part of the SL economy; it does not "keep people playing". The social aspect keeps people playing. What keeps them paying is many things.

The SL problem are myriad and SL did this to themselves. The prices are too high. Three hundred a month for a a virtual sim is a car payment for most of us folks, wealthy mesh content creators excepted. Griefing is what did in many of my friends. Bad actors picking on noobs sucked the fun out of it and SL did nothing.

I do not think it too late to save SL but it sure is getting close to the point of no return.

[Mondy]

For something that's dying but still getting 45,000 to 50,000 users logging in every day, that's a pretty strange definition of death.

[Janelle Russ]

SL had turned boring. Used to be many amazing sims people created but got too expensive to uphold. This has shrunk the creation and exploration factor. The whole focus has turned to retail. Events upon events for nothing but shopping. woo.

[Nocturnengel resident]

Take your pick mesh prices greed doesn't really matter sl has simply not been fun since id have to say since 05 or 06 the issue is with the afore mentioned ontop of griefers and highly competitive buisness in a vr world its just not as fun as it once was plus i also agree spendier then going off and buying and spending on other rl items and while sure we could choose to stay in reality the reality is some of us are not pyshically or mentally capible of doing so due to a pyshical or mental disability sooooo ummm yeah just my thoughts

[Montecore Babcok]

Who's paying 300 a month for a sim? You can get one for 229 a month and I'm paying 175.

Who pays a different tier per square meter? Is this mainland or?

What makes a good platform IMO is good performance, quality people, places to go, places for people to play. You can like or hate mesh but lots of people are using it, and want a better product than system layers and prim skirts.

[Sadmary]

The "heavy hitters" probably don't have any other VR jobs to consider anymore except the bread crumbs Eggbert throws at them to come back to man the last sinking VR ship.

Sad

[irihapeti]

the heavy hitters in the post mentioned 2 graphics developers and a systems engineer on the Sansar team, who are returning to the SL team

given the subsequent naming elsewhere of those 3 people then there is little wonder that the SL team member who posted the post, is really happy to have them back

[Sadder Sally]

Ugh.

The core of the game had rotted and there's not enough apologists to plug all the holes in this leaky ship. People need to have something more to hold on to beyond the fleeting gratification of buying some shiny pixel object.

SL has become such a hopeless place that next big trends should be Public Assistance and Social Services.

I have a great idea. Why not take one of your most enthusiastic and popular culture icons, like Strawberry Singh, and evaporate her?

I was half-hoping it was Philip. Somebody, anybody who's alive.

[irihapeti]

about Philip Linden and others of the early days SL management team, making a comeback

i don't think it would be a good idea at all

in terms of the residents who play SL today, these are the same type of people who, in how and why they use SL as they do, broke the hearts of the early days SL management team

any of the early management team who might come back will just get their hearts broken all over again

today's residents are not into move fast and break stuff. Today's residents as a whole body (with the odd outliers) much prefer slow and steady and don't break stuff which is not broken, even when the stuff may be incomplete

[Fionalein]

Move fast and break stuff ony works as long as there is no value involved. People who payed substantial amounts of fees for a service expect something else.

[Koko B. Ware]

Philip got nearly $250 million dollars in severely rounds of start up funding over 7 years and still could not create a viewer with text chat! he completely ignored the high fidelity community, everything residents wanted was one ear out the other. in the end even the small group of diehards came to realize they had been duped!.

It was a blessing him & his good buddies went to milk investor money from high fidelity on the VR Hype Train.

@ Sadder Sally
"SL has become such a hopeless place that next big trends should be Public Assistance and Social Services."

If you need to bl-aim anyone, then bl-aim it on Trump!
He forced tens of thousands out of Hud Housing with crazy ideas that everyone should have a job, they are on the time clock now not logged in.
he has forced all the strong, tough & courageous single moms off welfare, on to a bus to work! no time to play in SL!
Also he has forced all those brothers & sisters on Disability who have 'Back Pain' to get a job cutting them off, they too have disappeared online!.

One thing the birdman knows is Secondlife can only be Good if RealLife is Bad.

[Booboo]

My business of 8 years tanked when SL started allowing Huds that complely bypass market place. I inquired about this and didn't get an answer. Keep all content inworld and on market place. When they allow greedy people to control your money and content, we're screwed. Linden made a mistake ignoring this new way to sell because other developers are taking note. Without market place you've no way to stand out. And hud owner taking 16% of every sale. That's money market place isn't getting.

[ZoeChaos]

Sansar is why SL is "Failing". They put all their eggs in that failed basket. It's boring. They should scrap it and focus just on making SL better. And they should figure out a way to make it work on mobile which I doubt because you have to have a gaming computer to play it as it stands now. I can't see them improving it where you can actually play on the phone. They need to make it less expensive and bring back Sims that don't involve shopping. Some of us want to role-play and not just buy clothes all day.

[U.G. Krishnamurti]

Real world or Virtual world I can guarantee you that as long as you are searching for happiness, you will remain unhappy. The plain fact is that if you don't have a problem, you create one. If you don't have a problem you don't feel that you are living.

[Iggy 1.0]

They have lost a lot of originality in content creation. I don' t know how to fix that. 3D mesh creation is far beyond my skill set. So MP is full of redone items using full-perm templates. That's a big change and a sad one. Can the Heavy Hitters mend that??

[Joana]

Virtual world  or Real world  I can guarantee you that as long as you are searching for happiness,