Linden Lab Brings Back Last Names for Second Life Users -- Including Trump's "Covfefe"

After much anticipation and impatience, Linden Lab has finally brought back last names for Second Life users, with a pretty good explanation of their importance to SL culture on its history:

Back in the day, Second Life Residents were given the option at registration of selecting from a variety of pre-determined “last name” options. The use of shared “last names” helped build community among Residents who found instant kinship and bonding amidst these newfound virtual family ties shared with strangers of the same lineage. Similar to the commodity of dot-com domains, some “last names” held a special status in the community. Some were extremely rare and, in some cases, there were perceived attributes and reputations associated with certain last name offerings.

For instance, one of the original last name options, "Midnight", had real cache in SL culture for many years, especially as it was associated with famed early creators like Mistress Midnight, Torrid Midnight, and Chip Midnight. And yes, the last name option was possibly inspired* by Kurt Vonnegut's Slapstick:

In Slapstick, Wilbur Swain wins the presidency with a scheme to eliminate loneliness by issuing people complicated middle names (he becomes Wilbur Daffodil-11 Swain) which make them part of new extended families. He advises people to tell new relatives they hate, or members of other families asking for help: "Why don't you take a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut? Why don't you take a flying fuck at the mooooooooooooon?"

The first round of new last names are pretty fun and varied and strongly suggest someone at Linden Lab still has a snarky sense of humor:

Yes, "Covfefe", from a bizarre Trump tweet ages ago, by which I mean 2017. But who will be the first to change their name to Freddie Mercury?

Log into your account to check them out. Slight catch: A last name will cost you $39.99 and a Premium subscription. But that's a small price to pay to become known in Second Life as NegativePress Covfefe.

Update, 10:24pm: Responding to this post on social media, Second Life co-founder Cory Ondrejka says, "The Vonnegut connection was generated after the fact". It's my recollection that Philip Rosedale acknowledged Vonnegut as a partial inspiration during my very first demo of SL in 2003 after I brought it up, but I can't find a definitive reference. So I have re-worded this passage to call the Vonnegut novel a "possible' influence.

Comments

[JustACartoon]

40 dollars to get a last name and a Premium account! Nope! That is a rip off and not fair. How long before they go pay only and they loose all those people that have been around ten or fifteen years!

[Adeon Writer]

40 bucks to change your name sounds about right to me. Just enough that the only people who do it are the ones that actually want something serious.

Next step: Delete Display Names entirely.

[Candy68 Resident]

They asked us to pick last names we’d like to use and I don’t see any of those names I see horrible names, and you want us to pay $40 for them I’ll keep the one I have thank you but no thank you.

[Hank]

Agree with Adeon Writer. You don't want to make it too cheap or easy for the trolls, who would *love* to be able to change their names every day. This way, only the serious need apply.

[Hank]

....However, I think it should be open to Basic accounts too. $40 a pop should deter most casual trolls/griefers.

[Nodoka Hanamura]

@Adeon:

Your suggestion is so disturbing I

This lack of a custom name system is pathetic at best and insulting at worst. The Lindens spent what amounts to what i've heard is TWO YEARS on restoring these systems, not providing a custom last name option outside of a pathetic list of names that is half memes and half forgettable ones with few good ones in between? And they have the gall to charge us a small fortune for it?

The Lindens could have used that time and resources elsewhere. They could have worked on cleaning up the old mainland roads or built more railroads or other things like finish ****ing Zindra (Don't care Engineer, do care shovel.) - Improved the Quality of Life, Began work on providing support for Vulkan which could help SL's performance by a bit, but no - they provide what amounts to a spit in the eye and a insult to everyone's patience!

God forbid Linden Lab do anything right. If they did, Planes would fall out of the sky, ICBMs would launch themselves and Phillip Linden would yeet all of Agni and Aditi out of existence before the real world bites the big one!

[Cathartes Aura]

It just keeps getting better and better! A premium account and $39.99 gets you something that any account in 2006 received for $0.00 U.S. - Premium or Free.

Hard up for revenue LL? Trying to shake down your residents during a Global Pandemic? I've already got a Last Name and a Free Account since 2008 - when I stopped paying for anything in SL. LMAO!

Hmmmmm. This Ole Carrion Eater is puzzled... Who would be affected by this and who will pay the most? New Residents. Ole Residents like me already have a Last Name - for Free. New Residents would have to pay out the nose to get one. At a time when the entire world economy is falling off a cliff into Depression.

Yet another Golf Clap for the Brain Trust at LL - The LL Board of Directors. You're f$cking MORONS...

No wonder we're all being f$cked by coronavirus - the same MORONS running LL are the same type of little rich boy/girl MORONS running every country and corporation on the planet. You're ALL BRAINDEAD. ESTÚPIDO...

From up on high in the clouds this Ole Carrion Eater looks down at the flailing, soon to be dead and stinking, remains of SL/LL. And thinks...

LL Board of Directors - keep doing what you're doing. Same mindset. Same decisions. And this flailing, already stinking soon to be corpse of LL will be finished off - for good. Licking my rotten gore encrusted Buzzard beak in anticipation of what a glorious meal LL/SL will be once it finishes itself off... Delish! ;)

[Vanessa]

Cathartes Aura está correta! São os correntistas do grupo Bildeberg, não estão nem aí para a humanidade só lhes interessa os lucros!

Cathartes Aura it's correct! They are the account holders of the Bildeberg group, they don't care about humanity, they only care about profits!

[Antoinette]

I have to agree with Cathartes Aura, the timing on this is absolutely atrocious.

This name change has been on the wish list for years and years. Couldn't they wait just a little longer to roll out this scalping? So many people are losing their livelihood. The Post Office is tanking. People are deferring payments to their homes, autos, and utilities.

I realize that not everyone is affected, but c'mon. LL was quick to jump on the Corona bandwagon with slashing prices for institutions. Yes, institutions need our tears right now. People? Ha ha ha. Let them eat cake!

Come, single file, little piggies and don't be squealing. It won't hurt a bit.

[Joey1058]

I see both sides of this debate. But seriously, folks, didn't any of you see this coming? Of course last names were going to be part of the premium services. Just a heads up: I'd dare say any other new features that will be released in the future are going to be premium features as well. Want something that runs well and doesn't glitch? It's going to come out of your pocket, folks. Everyone else is going to live in primworld. Welcome to the new reality.

[John]

I don't see a problem with it, considering a new head, or breasts costs about $10~15. $40~$50 is a good gate to keep abuse at a minimum.

[Summer Haas]

$40 would be worth it if you could change your key as well. This would allow a person to basically start over but keep their inventory investment (although lose access to product updates).

With this current system, even with a new name, you are still able to be tracked so long as your key remains the same.

[Min]

What is their justification for the $40 fee? Why does it cost that much to change a name? Is the $40 based on a real labor value, or did someone at LL pull that number out of their butt?

[Long Time Last Name Resident]

I'm not paying that for a last name and having to have a premium account on top of that. $20 flat? Sold.

[Fionalein]

Worse yet: you can only view the choices once you are Premium...

clearly a stable marketing genius at work there....

[vwfan]

"What is their justification for the $40 fee?"

So that Ebbe can boast about how their company is "very profitable" and that SL is the greatest "cash machine" ever. This gouge attempt by LL is a bunch of Schiff.

[Adeon Writer]

I wanted to add to my earlier comment. While I feel the $40 price tag is perfectly reasonable and necessary, I do not feel requiring premium should be a requirement,ent and is entirely unjustifiable.

[vwfan]

$40 is not "perfectly reasonable." You can get utility software for Windows for about half of that cost and still have more product capability than a simple name change. Affinity Photo/Designer are both $25 each (originally $50) with so much creative capability and you get lifetime updates.

[Mike]

I think a small monetary requirement to change you name is reasonable for free members...however $40 for a limited name selection is a excessive since the process of doing this is likely all automated so the work is already done to accommodate it whether it gets used or not...and if it isn't automated there is something clearly wrong with LL since it seems the topic has been up for debate for years. If you are already a premium member changing your name should be free since there are already being paid a membership fee...and again the limited name selection is rather ridiculous.

[Adeon Writer]

If you don’t like the names just wait for them to rotate out. You’ve never been able to type your own last name.

[Lenni Foxtrot]

ok, I think the most important thing here, that all of you missed, is that YOU DON'T HAVE TO BUY A LAST NAME! or have a premium account.. ever in SL...
It's an option is all.. as a legacy user, with a real last name, I may not understand your pain in wanting a real name that bad.. but Resident is a fine last name. It's been so many years now, with Resident as your last name..nothing has changed, just keep it! and move on.

[Pull My Finger]

I typed "How much does it cost to change your name?" in google and got this:

In most states, you have to pay a fee (usually $150 to $200) to file your name change petition in court. It also costs a small amount of money to get forms notarized.

So yea, $40 is a real steal to change your cartoon name in a cartoon world. Just imagine how much the cartoon court costs are.

If LL were to stimulate the SL economy in an equivalent ratio to our $1200.00 stimulus checks, they would give each of us about $61,500L. Then the $40.00 name change would be reasonable.

[Lifetime Member]

I don't understand all the complaining, the $40 charge was announced when they said this was going to happen a few months ago when they asked us to submit some last name idea's so I am not sure why everyone is acting all shocked at the price. Maybe ya'll just need something to complain about. No one is forcing you to buy a last name, if you don't like the price guess what you don't have to pay it, It's a choice for those who want too! And you have never been able to customize your name in Secondlife for the ranter a few comments up, there has always been a list to chose from and they haven't always been good options, So I am not sure why it's insulting when it's the way they have always done it.

[Mondy]

What has the current world situation got to do with anything?
As the commenter said it's been 2 years in the making so Linden Lab should wait a further indefinite time period when people have been asking when it's going to be ready?
It's a choice, period. You have the option to do it or not.
As for the price, I would prefer it be available to everyone, but I don't think it's ourageous. I actually do have a last name, but you can change your last name from the predefined selection (not just the current list for those of you complaining, this is just the initial offering, it's going to rotate and they are the current selection/examples) but also you can change the first name, or BOTH , I want to change my first name and keep my last name. That's an option too, something that I've been doing since display names became available. Now I'll be able to actually have a username I want instead of having it via displayname and STILL getting called by my username because people just can't be bothered or because there are still people in SL who refuse to use display names.

[Getit Ngo]

BTW, its not about just last names. You can also ONLY change just your first name if that's what you want, 1 or the other or you can change both. That is totally worth the 40 bucks IMO. I've already paid to have it done on 2 premium accounts, no big deal.

Those moaning are just doing so because they believe it should be free. I don't think it should be and 40 bucks is very reasonable. As was mentioned in other comments YOU CAN STILL USE SL WITHOUT PAYING 40 BUCKS TO CHANGE YOUR NAME, so what's your problem?

[Vrjohn]

Yeah go spend your money on playing dress up, instead of donating to help victims and nurses. VR People are the worst humans.
VR

[R.]

@Vrjohn I've done both.
Yay robots.
-R

[cashcow]

My stalker can use all his former alts again with different names to contact me again now and I won't know. His name changed and the chat history is not linked to his new name anymore. Does my blocking of him still work? His blocking from groups? Does anyone at LL care at all?

[Mondy]

@Vrjohn You're an idiot. Stop assuming that just because peple pay for things in a virtual world they don't donate to important causes in RL too.
This is our hobby, we can buy what we like. Would you ever tell someone not to have a drink or treat themselves to a takeout? It's our *spare* cash, not our only cash.

I support our NHS workers in the UK who are heroes. You're a moron.

[Mondy]

@Cashcow

You should read through the FAQ

"I have banned or muted another Resident. If they change their name, can they contact me again?
No. Anyone you've banned or muted in the past will remain muted or banned after they've changed their name. Their new name will appear in your mute and banned list."

[Ramone]

This is literally the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard I might as well go back till I am VU who also doesn’t give a fuck about the people who plays their games because first of all you’re not even letting us pick our own last names and then you’re going to charge us $40 for it that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard in my entire life this game isn’t even that realistic for it to be 40 fucking dollars