The Metaverse

links for 2007-12-29

• New World Notes: What's the Trouble with Ten Percent? Tateru's Take (and Mine) on SL's Low Retention Rates
  Just how bad is that 10% retention rate? Apparently, not bad at all - it's the same as most other MMORPGs.
  (tags: secondlife)

links for 2007-12-24

• Megaprims to stay - Andrew Linden - Massively
  Linden confirms that megaprims aren't going to be removed, but will remain unsupported for now. In other words, use at your own risk.
  (tags: megaprims lindenlab andrewlinden secondlife building)
• The Second Life Grid Grind » Blog Archive » LindenLab does not trust Aristotle verified users.
  File under "Dumb". Despite being age verified, Linden suspended a users because they suspected his avatar was underage. So what was age verification for, again?
  (tags: lindenlab secondlife)

Aleister Kronos on the Colgate "build"

Ambling in Second Life: Brush off for Colgate Smile Power:

"So there you have it. I just have to ask: 'Colgate! Why did you do it?' The cost may have looked overwhelmingly attractive on paper - but you've damaged your brand through a miserly and ill-considered first foray in virtual worlds. I would strongly suggest that you rethink why you want to be in Second Life, what it is you want to achieve and then how you propose to do it."

What's interesting is that the builders - This Second Marketing - have posted a note on the island pointing out that the build isn't the real story. Instead, they'd like people to note that the real story is "the Buzz Agent Team hitting the grid for over 500 hours starting Friday 21st December and giving away the Colgate Smile and other freebies to residents in SL".

It will be interesting to follow up and see how successful this is...

Death of Second Life? Nope

Accenture Scientist Predicts Death of Second Life. Actually, you read the report and he doesn't:

"'The virtual worlds hold out the promise of everything from lower infrastructure costs to new revenue streams,' said Swaminathan. 'But Accenture Labs foresees an imminent drop in interest as businesses hit the limits of closed virtual worlds. Much as circumscribed networks such as CompuServe gave way to the open IP world of the Internet, 'SL' and others will evolve toward much more capable open virtual worlds.'"

Yes, that's right: Swaminathan is, in fact, predicting that Second Life will evolve into an open platform, rather like Linden Lab's own roadmap. Doesn't make as good a headline, though!

links for 2007-12-19

• Electric Sheep Company lays off 1/3 of their staff - Massively
  Ooops.
  (tags: electricsheep)
• Out to Pasture » Blog Archive » Restructuring
  ESC talks about the layoffs. I wouldn't be too quick to draw too many conclusions from this: it would be like making a conclusion about all operating systems on the basis of Windows Vista.
  (tags: electricsheep)

links for 2007-12-13

• Hope for keeping attachments out of where the sun don't shine, even in Second Life - Massively
  The marvellous Nicholaz Beresford thinks he's finally found a fix for the crazy hair up your ass bug. Well done Nic!
  (tags: secondlife)
• New World Notes: New World Newsfeed: CTO Cory Linden Leaves
  There's wall to wall coverage on this today
  (tags: corylinden coryondrejka lindenlab secondlife)
• Cory Ondrejka's departure in his own words - Massively
  (tags: corylinden coryondrejka lindenlab secondlife)
• Philip Rosedale responds to Cory Ondrejka's departure - Massively
  (tags: coryondrejka corylinden lindenlab secondlife)
• [UPDATED] Was Cory Linden fired, or did he quit? - Massively
  (tags: corylinden coryondrejka lindenlab secondlife)
• What's next for Linden Lab
  An interesting look at what the possible differences for Cory's departure might be, with some good points about OpenSim and CentralGrid.
  (tags: coryondrejka secondlife lindenlab corylinden)

Home at last

Online Videos by Veoh.com

links for 2007-12-09

• Age-verification - a matter of informed choice - Massively
  A great summary by Tateru Nino about the misbegotten mess that is age verification in SL. I still haven't verified - the system won't allow me to, failing every time.
  (tags: secondlife ageverification)

Second Life Residents To Get Calls From The Real World -- Second Life -- InformationWeek

Second Life Residents To Get Calls From The Real World -- Second Life -- InformationWeek:

"Linden Lab is working on upgrades for voice communications in Second Life, including the ability for avatars in-world to receive phone calls from people in the real world, as well as Linux support and moderator controls.

Linden Lab is also working on a standalone desktop client for chat."

To both of which I say "amen and hallelujah".

links for 2007-12-01

• Microprim vs Regular Prim on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
  Smart micro-prims for building. No need to torture yourself!
  (tags: building designing prims)
• Disney Localizing Club Penguin for UK
  "Club Penguin has already attracted a significant audience in the UK with its North American service, but we believe there is a real demand in this market for a safe online community destination for children that has local relevance," said...(tags: disney clubpenguin)
• Forrester: Virtual Worlds Crucial to Information Workplace
  In Forrester's new study, "The Seven Tenets Of The Information Workplace," it identifies several Web 2.0 technologies that companies should adopt for stronger information connections: RSS, blogs, rich Internet applications (RIAs), tagging, wikis, and virt
  (tags: secondlife virtualworlds)