Linden to outsource Second Life orientation

By Eric Reuters

SECOND LIFE, May 4 (Reuters) - Linden Lab plans to revamp the way it processes new residents by offering users their choice of several privately-owned orientation islands, in an attempt to flatten Second Life’s notoriously steep learning curve.

A list of alternate starting points and privately developed orientations is scheduled to be available for new users within the next month, said Ryan Downe, director of product development at Linden Lab.

“Years down the road, if Linden Lab is still the primary supplier of OI’s [Orientation Islands], we have failed,” he said.

The move comes as Linden Lab is increasingly ceding control over Second Life’s infrastructure, making the software client open-source and laying the groundwork to open-source Second Life servers as well. Customized orientation islands may bolster Linden Lab’s ability to convert culture-shocked and inexperienced users into regular visitors.

The virtual world’s current retention rate is only about 12 percent, according to Linden Lab estimates.

WELCOME TO THE L WORD

For several months, communities such as “The L Word” — a sim based on the Showtime television show — have provided their own orientation experiences. Fans can download the Second Life viewer directly from Showtime’s servers, and they are sent to a customized orientation island.

While Showtime declined to release specific figures, greeters at “The L Word” report their community’s retention rate is about 20 percent.

In addition to “The L Word,” almost 44,000 Dutch users have been registered through secondlife.nl. BigPond, a site sponsored by Australian telecom giant Telstra, and Second Life Brasil, for Portuguese-speakers, also offer software downloads. New residents are sent to ready-made communities to meet others of the same nationality from their first moment in the Metaverse.

The downloads utilize Linden Lab’s Registration API (RegAPI) to designate specific starting points for new avatars. The API, or Application Programming Interface, allows software engineers to interact with Linden’s servers and enroll new residents.

The RegAPI is still in beta, Downe said, and future versions will allow new default avatar appearances, custom starting inventories, and pre-assigned group memberships and roles.

Linden’s changes to the registration process will allow users to start at any of the above entry points even if they download their software from secondlife.com.

NEW STARTING POINTS TO BE ANNOUNCED

Downe predicted in years to come the majority of new users will get their viewer software from somewhere other than secondlife.com. By offering links to community-based orientations on the secondlife.com webpage, Linden hopes to level the playing field for private groups against companies that can offer downloads with customized starting points built into the software. “Some smaller communities don’t have a huge marketing budget,” Downe said.

Downe said he hopes the new community program will go live within the next four weeks. Linden is currently waiting for more third-party orientation experiences capable of welcoming residents. “On our side, we’re completely ready to go,” Downe said. “We’re not sure who will be on the list.”

The first list of new starting points will be those with strong track records of orienting new avatars. “We’re trying to find educational organizations already used to working with new residents or localized groups for communities that don’t speak English,” Downe said.

Linden has not yet decided whether it would send new residents directly from secondlife.com to communities offering fantasy or adult-oriented role play, Downe said.

With 2200 fans, significant traffic, and a positive response from residents, executives at Showtime consider their experiment with “The L Word” a success.

“We’d like to do more in Second Life,” said Robert Hayes of Showtime Interactive Media. The cable network is considering expanding its virtual presence around additional shows such as “The Tudors,” Hayes said.

Christopher Carella (Second Life: Satchmo Prototype) of The Electric Sheep Company (ESC) designed “The L Word” orientation for Showtime, and he said more custom gateways are in the works.

“It’s been very hard for new residents, registering specifically to get involved in a particular experience,” he said. They need to learn how to use the user interface, how to search, and then find the experience. “With a custom registration/OI, you can streamline that.”

But just as users create content throughout the Metaverse, individuals and private groups will soon start building customized orientations themselves, Carella predicted. “Second Lifers are creative and some of them are very tech-savvy,” he said. “There’s nothing in the technology that’s inherently tough to do these things.”

(Full disclosure: Reuters is also an Electric Sheep client.)