New World Notes

Sansar to Close Sandex, Move Platform to Steam in Search of VR Users

Well this is quite a virtual shoe to drop -- the end of Sansar's virtual currency to US$ exchange (called the Sandex), and a transition to  publishing the social VR platform on Steam:

The cornerstone of our growth effort will be to put Sansar on Steam. Steam is where more than half of the VR market goes to find software. It also is a huge pool of users who are interested in our space and are likely to have the hardware required to run Sansar. We anticipate being able to get onto Steam by the end of this year... n order to do this, we are obligated to make significant changes to how Sansar works, especially in how the Sansar Dollar and process credit system work. These changes, will also make the credit process for Creators far more consistent and predictable. The first change is that we will be discontinuing the Sandex as of December 4, 2018.

Sometimes I feel like Linden Lab's strategy is to do the direct opposite of what New World Notes just reported, because as I posted yesterday, Oculus and Vive usage appears to be flat or declining on Steam. And also, early this year: That only twelve of all the thousands of compatible games have attracted meaningful sales on Steam. And that when it comes to social VR on Steam, only VRChat has a (relatively) large user base, with the rest struggling with concurrencies in the two to three figures. But all that to one side, you can't blame Linden Lab for making what seems to be a hail Mary pass in the face of low user numbers.

Then again -- and this was years before Ebbe Altberg became CEO, and I'm not sure any executive from 2012 is still there, to tell him -- Linden Lab unsuccessfully attempted a similar strategy with Second Life: 

Mysterious New Second Life Continent Takes on Seahorse Shape, Grid of Tracks, New Emoji Island

The vast continent which emerged from the waters last Summer to the far NorthEast beyond grid civilization (first spotted by Tyche Shepherd) has taken on more detail since then. Comprised of 384 sims -- in real world terms, about 16 square miles, i.e. about a third the size of San Francisco -- it now looks somewhat like a seahorse, nibbling on a blade of seaweed. (Is that even a thing? Work with me here.)

Also notable, it comes with a grid of earthen tracks (roads? paths?) and two massive gray rectangles (runways?), one of which is floating in an circular lake. And where, back in August, it included an island in the shape of an emoji saying "Hi!", a new island-based-emoji has taken its place -- now sending a perhaps more mysterious message:

Inside Secrets: Did Linden Lab Ban the Owners of Second Life’s Largest Blog to “Protect” the Virtual Community?

Virtual world gossip leads to death threats, doxxing, and a suicide hotline

Update, 9/24: While SL Secrets is currently among the very most visited user-run SL blogs, it's not necessarily the largest sites -- see this correction post.

If you want to know the current state of Second Life, the virtual world that turned 15 years old this year, consider [one of] its most visited user-run blogs: It’s not about virtual fashion, or in-game events, or roleplay. No: The most popular Second Life blog by far is SL Secrets. According to Similar Web, the site attracted 140,000 visits last month, slightly down from a peak of 170,000 visits, last May -- which very roughly translates to about 20,000-40,000 monthly readers, a significant segment of SL’s total active population of some 500,000.

Launched about a decade ago and loosely inspired by the popular PostSecret blog, SL Secrets operates on a similar premise, publishing anonymously submitted confessions every Sunday -- except with SL Secrets, they’re confessions about life in the virtual world. And where Post Secret entries tend be unspoken revelations about the sender, SL Secrets largely traffics in Second Life-based gossip, virtual drama, and scandalous avatar-to-avatar accusations -- in other words, less like found diary entries from random nameless souls, than a slam book composed during a high school reunion by bitter attendees high on Jack Daniels and amyl nitrate.  

If you want to know the current state of Second Life, consider what just happened to the co-founders of SL Secrets, Lourdes Denimore and Kesseret Steeplechase: For reasons that aren’t completely clear, Linden Lab has blocked both from using Second Life. This week, Kesseret’s SL account was put “on hold” (she sent me a screen grab indicating as much), while last May, Lourdes’ account was “terminated”. (Copied here, the e-mail Linden Lab sent her.)

“I had to call them in order to get that e-mail,” Lourdes Denimore tells me. It explains the ban for repeated violations of Linden Lab’s Terms of Service, specifically pointing to sections 2.7, 5.2, 5.3, and 6.1. Lourdes flatly denies she has done such a thing: “No I did not violate the Terms of Second Life in Second Life.”

However, 5.3 of the ToS includes this highly broad, nuclear option clause:

"We may terminate your Account if we determine in our discretion that such action is necessary or advisable to comply with legal requirements or protect the rights or interests of Linden Lab, the Service community or any third party."

And since both women describe themselves as not currently active in the virtual world, a consensus among many in the SL community has emerged: Lourdes and Kesseret were banned not for anything they did in Second Life, but for what they did on the web, with SL Secrets.

“Banning people for only hosting gossip memes created by others is unfair and ridiculous,” as Cajsa Lilliehook, a longtime SLer, well-known community figure, and occasional New World Notes contributor, puts its. “People should be banned for violations in-world.”

For the record, I asked Linden Lab about the official reasons for Lourdes and Kesseret’s banning, but seeing as the company doesn’t publicly comment on policy enforcement, it’s unlikely they’ll reply. However, the invocation of 5.3 strongly suggests the company sees SL Secrets as a threat to “the rights or interests of Linden Lab [and] the Service community.”

Is SL Secrets a threat to the user community and the company that depends on it? Speaking on condition of anonymity, several well-known SL content creators emphatically say yes -- or at best, characterize it as highly corrosive:

Linden Lab Creating iOS & Android Versions of SL, Job Listing Suggests

Second Life community members have been clamoring for it for years, and now, according to a job listing posted on Linden Lab's website, the company is creating a version of Second Life for iPhones and Android phones:

Linden Lab is looking for an innovative mobile app engineer to deliver a compelling, responsive mobile interface into Second Life. If you’re passionate about the latest cross platform mobile technologies and would be psyched to wake up every morning knowing that your efforts will enhance the largest, most successful virtual world on the Internet then we want to hear from you!

Job requirements include "Experience developing consumer-oriented mobile applications for Android and IOS." Also notable: Based on this job requirement, it looks like the company is planning to create a cloud-streaming version of SL for mobile: 

Experience with AWS or other cloud-based deployment models, especially streaming cloud-based rendering.

Back in 2014, Linden Lab partnered with the now-defunct OnLive to do just that, so it's good to know they're going in that direction again.

Job is remote and "deep familiarity with and enthusiasm for Second Life is a HUGE plus", so this could be a dream gig for SL's many talented community developers. My recommendation, of course, is to hire Alina Lyvette, whose Lumiya viewer for Android (pictured above) has already sold well over 100,000 copies.

Will Linden Lab's New 15% Price Discount on SL Sim Tier & Increase on L$ Purchase Fees Hurt or Help the Company? NWN Does the Rough Math

For Second Life's 15th anniversary, some 15-themed news from Linden Lab:

Effective July 2, monthly maintenance fees on Private Estates are dropping by up to 15%! In addition, one-time land set-up fees are also reduced by as much as 41%. And remember, the setup fee includes your first month’s payment... Education/Nonprofit (EDU/NP) discounted full islands will be re-priced to maintain their 50% discount off the regularly priced full islands. The new price of $124.50 will go into effect at the start of that island's next invoiced billing term.

According to Tyche's latest SL economic data, there's now 15,969 private sims on the grid, So by making this discount, Linden Lab is taking an annual hit of a few million dollars a year about $8 million per year [Update: See Comments].

But wait, Linden Lab has a way of offsetting that discount -- raising the price of L$ purchases by 50 cents:

Second Life Land Developers Have (Mostly) Left, Hobbyists (Mostly) Remain -- Comment of the Week

Good point from "irihapeti", analyzing the news that the loss of private Second Life sims is (finally) slowing:

Most of the sim/parcel ownership downturn I think is that historically a significant number of people obtained land and built on it a space for others. When the others didn't/don't come then the land is abandoned.

Building spaces for others often comes with an owner hope/expectation (stated or unstated) that the others will contribute to the tiers in some way. Item purchases, parcel rentals, donations, tips, group fees, tier contributions, etc. When the hope/expectation is not met then abandon.

Linden Lab has never released any data on the status of the others but I am pretty sure that land occupants today are more proportionately residentials/hobbyists now than in any previous year. Residential and hobbyist occupants who have no expectation that others will contribute to the occupants' tiers/costs.

In other words, we're at the point where SL sims are either owned by "land barons" who have a stable income source -- or folks can afford to pay hundreds of dollars a month without depending on monetizing visitors:

Sansar Beset by "Constantly Shifting Priorities" Asserts Ex-Linden Staffer

Take with several grains of sodium, but there's a new Glassdoor review of Linden Lab by a senior software engineer who just exited the company:

I've been on many projects and have never seen one so badly run - yo-yo management, constantly shifting priorities, rarely a clear line of authority (instead, you get directives from multiple areas), constant employee turnover, and almost no oversight...

On the mostly plus side, our anonymous engineer also notes: "CEO [Ebbe Altberg] is great and actually kind of inspiring (the board of directors.... not so much)." His or her description of Sansar fits what I've also heard from insiders, and you can see the shifting of priorities in just how Sansar was just re-positioned from social VR to a cross-platform hangout space.

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: 

Linden Lab CEO to Make Rare Second Life Appearance on April 20

Put a big red check mark on April 20, SLers, because it's a Very Special SL Day:

As part of our year-long 15th anniversary celebration, we’re making numerous appearances inworld to talk about Second Life and the Second Life roadmap directly with our communities! These ongoing meetups and events will provide opportunities for you to interact with and ask questions to Linden Lab executives and staffers. To kick things off, Linden Lab CEO Ebbe Altberg will be holding two “Town Hall” chat sessions on April 20th at 9:30 a.m. (SLT/Pacific) and 1 p.m. (SLT/Pacific). Ebbe will be sharing his vision for Second Life in 2018 and beyond, as well as taking questions from the community. Got a question for Ebbe? Post it in the Community Forum thread “A Conversation with Linden Lab CEO Ebbe Altberg” in advance of next week’s meeting. Questions will be selected from submissions for as many as can be answered in the time frame. To join either meetup, head over to one of these Town Hall Regions in Second Life on April 20.

Ebbe's avatar-based appearances in Second Life have been relatively rare in the last couple years, likely owing to the company's increasing focus on Sansar. (To a point where some SLers have openly wondered if Linden Lab considered Second Life "the red-headed step-child internally") 

Pictured: Altberg's SL avatar in 2015, when Second Life appearances were more frequent.

Want to Help Philip Rosedale Re-Make His Original Second Life Avatar?

Would someone be willing to re-make me my original SL avatar? I've been spending more time in SL lately (it's just so amazing and great) and I'd like my old look back. This vintage... pic.twitter.com/9kI2EyufXM

— Philip Rosedale (@philiprosedale) March 15, 2018

Second Life fashionistas, here's a chance to show off your skills with Bento, animesh, and all the other killer updates to SL avatars that have been introduced since Philip Rosedale left Linden Lab to found High Fidelity: