The Corporate Invasion of Second Life

Tyburn Franklie writes "Second Life is entering its 'second phase'. With big-name brands colonizing its virtual earth and the media getting worked up into a frenzy of hype, the alternative world is looking more and more like the old one. There are even worries about virtual office etiquette (sorry guys: no guns in the office). And now Linden Labs has words of warning for would-be corporate warriors seeking a Second Life: 'If you are not authentic and do not offer anything to the community, you are likely to be ignored, at best.' Sage advice — whatever world you're in." A lot of overhype here, I think.

2nd Life = Small Time

When I'm competing with Quaker Oats to farm Tempest Keep in Outlands, that's when I'll worry about corporations invading my games.

Re:2nd Life = Small Time

Have you even tried making models and textures for hot grits?

It's harder than it looks!

Obligatory...

We welcome our new corporate overlords...

Now sod off you money grubbing entities! :-p

So when

Is Sony going to demand virtual DRM to protect their virtual content, and install a rootkit on the Second Life servers? Seriously this is all very interesting, but I have to wonder how long it's going to last... will the graphics become outdated, will something new come along to replace it, or will people just lose interest?

Great, that's all I need...

I just spent all my L$ on a new house, and a giant pitcher blew through my wall in a cloud of dust, yelling "OH YEAH!!!" It didn't find any kids so it just left.

Very interesting

This article has some interesting timing given the recent problem on Second Life in which someone has created a utility which supposedly can copy any object, even those that deny copy permissions. This has sparked a huge outcry from the users of SL who are unhappy that all of their hard work could end up wasted if their creations are copied. I wonder how many of those individuals have MP3's or movies they've downloaded without paying for?

Copyrights and Content Creation in Second Life [secondlife.com]

The blog mentions "Copying does not always mean theft", invokes the DCMA, talks about fair use and basically points out that it's the same analog hole that always gets digital media in the end. It will be interesting to see how this virtual world deals with the issue, but already Second Life's spokesperson has indicated that copyright is up to the copyright holder to enforce and they can't really do all that much about the copying.

a necessity?

does anyone else think that this is a necessity of the maturation of a 'cyber' community. Honestly I think that companies will find 2nd life a bit of a red herring and the hype will soon vanish, but only because I don't think virtual communities are advanced enough. give 'em a couple more years and it might be a different matter.

Am i the only one who finds 2nd life totally unplayable because of it's atrocious graphics and nightmarish controls?

That's how it works.

Something cool is found by the edge-of-hip peoples.
Company monitors edge-of-hip peoples to find out what is cool.
Company markets the new cool.
Edge-of-hip peoples move elsewhere.
Company killed cool.

The documentary Merchants of Cool [pbs.org] outlines this quiet well (viewable online).

Isn't second life already corporate ?

I tried signing up once, I immediately got pulled on my arm by Linden to get FREE CREDITS!
After I installed it, it proved utter crap (crash-crap), and isn't worth a dime. But you must get the FREE CREDITS, and get YOUR FRIENDS TO SIGN UP!
I wonder when they will give me FREE V1AGRA when I sign up ? And I take it that the first Nigerian money scam will also be in effect real soon...:

Dear sir, I write to you this letter on behalf of Prince Mumbaga of island 123. He has recently been wrongfully imprisoned, but left behind a sum of 10,000,000 Linden dollars. The money is however locked behind a password protected vault somewhere in Second Life, and I need your help to get it out. Please send me 10,000 Linden dollars so I can release the money. Ofcourse, his royal highness will reward you graciously and has already promised to give you 1,000,000 as a reward once the money is freed.
Your best friend,
Ubrantu Kumulu

"second phase" == "B2B marketing blitz"

Clearly the second phase is buying press and spin through under-the-table payments to various industry blowhards. The only way that an underpowered, poorly architected, creatively weak and boring toy like SL could get anywhere near so much press is when accompanied by greasy cash. There is positively nothing "grassroots" about the rise of SL as a "popular" or "powerful" service at all. It's got all the worst attributes of a 1996 IRC server, a 1996 webpage, and and a 1996 three-dee console game, drawn by people born in 1996, all over 1996 dial-up.

What's the point

of a virtual world where you can't go on the rampage and kill everything?

 

Re:What's the point

Apparently the sex. Or at least that's the impression I got seeing HORDES of minimalls, sex shops, fashion stores, and "pubs" scattered around the place. It's like a MMOVSC (Massively Multiplayer Online Victoria's Secret Catalog)

No Guns at Work in a Game?

No guns at work? Ah, man! Why can't I play around at work while I'm playing a game where I pretend to be working?

I suppose this also means that when I find a way buy or craft the Sword of a Thousand Truths, I can't bring it in and show everyone how easy it is to cut the snack machine in half?

Sage advice?

'If you are not authentic and do not offer anything to the community, you are likely to be ignored, at best.'

Or elected president of the United States, at worst.

overhype?!

A lot of overhype here, I think.

Wouldn't this apply by default to absolutely everything in a 'game' in which people go to fake work, purchase fake goods, create fake sex toys, and have their little fake people watch fake little advertisements on the fake subway while wielding a fake gun or having fake sex with a fake person?

Anything to do with second life is 'overhyped' the instant anyone not in second life hears about it.

Sure...

If you are not authentic and do not offer anything to the community, you are likely to be ignored, at best.'

That's what we said to Canter and Siegel.

Paint your wagon

Watch the movie, other than the bad singing it's an analogy to what is happening to the net. At first it was a kind of 'wild n wooly' thing, but eventually civilization moves in. Same is happening with Second Life. Eventually people will move on to other virtual worlds because Second Life is becoming 'too civilized'.

Sadville

I logged into Second Life to see what all the fuss was about. It had all the action of a retiremnt home and all the allure of a burnt out cortina. In order to actually enjoy second life you really are saying you have no life.

read the tea leaves

this is exactly why 2nd life will fail.

Entrepeneurial successes moving forward will empower the individual, not the corporations. Linden is binding it's revenue stream with company contributions, making its direction at odds with what people really want. Who would buy land in an advertising wasteland?

sad - it had such potential.

Good thing 3D technology is getting out there. others will swoop in and fill the gap and give the people what they really want.

2nd life detox?

So it wasn't enough that people had to build sites like WoW detox [wowdetox.com], now we need a "Second Life Detox"?

Disgusting

I found this quote disgusting:
 

She said Linden is using a "hands-off" approach when it comes to the mix of in-world businesses, real-world brands and individual residents, and that at the moment "the concept seems to be working well".

 
Of course its working well - because to the Lindens 'working well' means they don't have to, well..., actually work.

CopyBot

With the advent of CopyBot, and it's potentially devastating consequences on SL's economy, I wouldn't be surprised if SL disappeared before 2008.

CopyBot is a program that allows anybody to copy in-game objects for free. Most objects in SL are created and sold by individual users. SL's owners, Linden Labs, relies on this virtual economy for a large part of it's income. When people can freely copy any content, this will destroy the economy as there isn't really any incentive for people to create and sell items. With no nice items to buy, buying users will also start leaving, making LL even less money.

LL is working on the CopyBot issue; the Open Source client code for it has been removed from the version control system and they plan to add more security measures. But unless they find a way to really stop it from the server side, the code will find a way out and ruin SL as we know it.

Re:Journalists

There sure seems to be plenty. Hang around the Reuters region and welcome centers and you'll see them, and writers/college professers bringing their classes in too.

There's lots of regular newbies too, I see "Ruth" a lot lately.

("Ruth" is the name of the default female avatar appearance)