An interview with Flat Ebbe

Strawberry Singh suggested that we should share our thoughts about second life with you. Thank you for taking time out from your busy schedule. I hope you are comfortable talking at our office here in Brocade.

Since you are still new to Second Life, I would like to take this opportunity to explain my perspective of why most people who are in SL for more than a look around stay.

Whether we see SL as therapy, fantasy, business or entertainment; we are almost universally fulfilling in a virtual sense what we can’t or won’t in RL. The graphic artist who sits under-appreciated in cubical all week gets to express themselves and perhaps make some money. The frustrated business person who will never make it beyond lower management can prove themselves as a land baron or marketing executive. The socially challenged often find that they blossom in SL. Those who long, from a stuffy apartment, for a home of their own can build castles, or live on a tropical island. Yes, for some it is about the sex they would rather be having in RL. I could go on and on – – .

There has been much made of the new user experience and how SL is hard to learn. More to the point, people need more information about what Second Life is! Much more needs to be done with advertising and publicity to overcome the tawdry reputation we have gotten due to Linden Lab’s lazy PR. You need to be asking who stays in SL, not for a day or two but for months; these are the people who keep the SL economy going, and who are most likely to move beyond the most basic accounts. It is a hard nut to crack, I know. A positive attitude and PR promoting the best aspects of SL will go a long way.

Thank you for coming Ebbe, you are a very good listener.

“Some of the best lessons are learned from past mistakes. The error of the past is the wisdom of the future.”Dale Turner

Anticipation and Prognostication

November is upon us, and if recent history is any guide Rod will soon declare the Lab’s projects and goals for the coming year. I will jump in slightly ahead of him with my suggestions, wishes and expectations.

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Terms of Service agreement as it applies to the Lab’s rights to our content. There are pretty clear indications that they are taking a second look at the latest TOS with an eye toward respecting OUR intellectual property rights and their related responsibilities. With a little luck this could be resolved by the end of the year.

Lesson to be learned: This and similar decisions need to be run by some people who “get SL”. There are very few such people left at the Lab (Rod; You think you are among those few, it is clear that you are not.) Typically Lawyers, Upper Management and those who’s primary qualification is “a background in gaming” do not understand what SL really is.

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The Year of the Avatar! The SL avatar has not seen a significant improvement since – – well, ever! It is past time for Avatar2. Some suggestions:

1-More and better bones.

2-Toes and animatable fingers.

3-Skin/clothing layers reconfigured to reduce distortion.

4-Face configuration that blends more smoothly.

5-More and better facial animations.

6-Integrated Mesh Deformer*

It should be possible for SL to have 2 coexisting avatar formats. If Avatar2 is done well it will be possible and acceptable to remove support for Avatar1 after a few years since it will see minimal usage. The trick will be to maintain as much inter-format compatibility as possible while creating a truly new and upgraded Avatar2.

*This does not necessarily mean the mesh deformer developed by Qarl. I am sure there are several possible ways to accomplish this, it is the Lab’s responsibility to select, develop and implement the best one.

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Last Names. This is one of my pet peeves. The feeling within the SL community of a new/old separation based on names persists in spite of our best efforts. This CAN BE FIXED! It will not be easy and no solution will satisfy everyone, but it would heal a wound in the SL community. My link to Rod’s decision is blocked, suffice it to say he set out all the good reasons for bringing them back, then went into a rather childish whine before saying he would not do it.

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Eye-in-Hand Logo. If the company lawyers need something productive and profitable to do, have them work out a licensing agreement so the easily recognized SL Logo can be bought on the usual range of t-shirts, Jackets, coffee mugs, etc. Believe it or not we will pay to do some of your RL advertising that way.

“Some of the best lessons are learned from past mistakes. The error of the past is the wisdom of the future.”Dale Turner

quick note on SL advertising

I discovered an interesting site today where you can monitor the advertising about Second Life showing up at web pages.

Check out http://www.moat.com/search/results?q=second+life

It appears that Zombies and Vampires still predominate with a very few interesting exceptions.

Let the Residents Do It!

For years we have been telling the Lindens that we can do a better job of many things than they can. Is it possible they are listening?

We complained endlessly about the cheesy vampire ads and the poor quality home page pictures. Have you looked at the default Second Life Homepage lately? — WOW! Resident made illustrations with a music theme. A vast improvement, and the creators are credited in the pictures!!! Hopefully this is a first step in allowing the residents to illustrate an assortment of themes on the public facing face of Second Life. (Note: when going to the SL homepage you may be directed to the login page, I had to use a different browser.)

Linden Lab announced that they would not be hosting a Second Life 9^th Birthday event. Instead they will promote events run by the residents via the Destination Guide and through various social media. As Tateru points out, this is a return to the way SL3B was run. It will be up to us to come up with the leadership and initiative to make it successful. Truthfully I have been disappointed in the last couple of birthday events; too much self promotion, too little imagination. There were of course exceptions, but they were hardly worth the lag involved in finding and appreciating them.

“If you want a thing done well, do it yourself.”   Napoleon Bonaparte

Linden Lab’s Advertising of Second Life — really?

It is mentioned again and again; Linden Lab’s advertising / advertising graphics are terrible. In the comments to Serendipidy Haven’s post (reblogged below) it is mentioned more or less in passing several times.

I decided to take a look for myself. First I sent an email to the LL PR department, no reply after over a week – not really unexpected. Next I went trolling around the internet using Philip’s description of SL residents as a guide. I must have scanned a couple thousand blogs, not a single advertisement for Second Life! In fact the only place I find SL banner and side bar ads is at SL related blogs and LL’s own site!

I know that in today’s world of targeted advertising it can be difficult to know what advertising you will see. I did see a few ads for on line games (Thirst of Night and The Godfather), so someone is targeting me.

I have to conclude that if Linden Lab is advertising Second Life at all it is very minimally, and to some target other than who they believe will become SL residents.

They say there are a lot of people signing up every day, and not staying. Other than bots and alts I assume most of these people found Second Life by chance.

That leaves word of mouth, residents telling their RL friends about SL. There are several groups of residents working on various welcoming projects and LL seems to have come around and is being somewhat more helpful to them.

What Linden Lab could do to help us get the word out in RL is give us some tools to work with, nothing fancy, just the same licensed use of the Eye-In-Hand logo most companies do with their logos. Caps, Sweatshirts, Mugs, Stickers, even the jacket Philip wears in the picture below! With a little help, we, the residents could be an advertising powerhouse and the newbies would know what to expect and have a helping hand getting started.

A return to the good old ways

There have been reports in the last week that Linden Lab is returning to some practices they should never have abandoned.

Tuesday Daniel Voyager posted that Rodvik Linden says they are looking into a return to last names! Once a decision is made on how to go about it, implementation is expected sometime in 1Q 2012.

Yesterday Hamlet Au noticed that “Your World. Your Imagination” has returned to Second Life advertising. I have always thought this slogan was the most concise description of what Second life was all about.

Today I got some actual service from a real live Linden (not a Scout, a Linden)! Not just hit and run either, we worked together for half an hour!

Now if I can just get a baseball cap and a coffee mug with the Eye-in-Hand logo my second life will be fulfilled — well almost 🙂

On Bringing Second Life to Life

Most of us have experienced the frustration of trying to talk about Second Life to people in real life only to be brushed off as strange, weird or even perverted. The Lindens could help get real world conversations going if they would take the “eye-in-hand” logo out from under the rock they hid it under and license it’s use on the usual range of consumer products, tee-shirts, mugs, hats, jackets, etc.

The “In SL” Logo they do allow us limited use of just does not make it! I mean, it is very business like and all, but REALLY! It looks like something a rather unimaginative secretary threw together on lunch break!

Maybe there is some copyright restriction, it is not the only use of eye-in-hand around. If that is the case, say so, I will shut up. If not be proud of it, and let that pride shine for everyone to see!!

A few extra bucks from RL product sales could not hurt either.