Frustrated virtual agencies look beyond Second Life
By Eric Reuters
SECOND LIFE, April 11 (Reuters) - The fledgling virtual agencies and service companies who made it big during the boom years of Second Life are looking toward greener pastures, weary of unmet promises from Linden Lab and drawn by competing virtual worlds.
Second Life’s growth over the last several years spawned an entirely new industry, sometimes called metaverse development companies (MDCs), to shepherd multinational brands into the virtual world. Companies like the Electric Sheep Company and Millions of Us built up rosters full of blue-chip clients who wanted to access Second Life’s demographically attractive audience, and drew investment from real-world media companies and venture capital firms.
But with new virtual world platforms coming online and Second Life noticeably lacking in buzz for consumer-facing brands in the real world, some of the most well-known MDCs are publicly criticizing Linden Lab for shortcomings in technology and usability.
“In 2006, Second Life seemed like the place we could get the most immersion,” said Electric Sheep chief operating officer Giff Constable in a telephone interview. “Linden hasn’t been able to realize the potential of the platform or to make it easy.”
Electric Sheep has produced some of Second Life’s most visible corporate projects, including a tie-in with CSI:NY, and Reuters Island. In December the company laid off about one-third of its staff, mostly from its Second Life-heavy Events Group.
The change of view, as Constable describes it, stems from a series of unfulfilled promises by Linden to improve both the usability of its software, and to implement developer tools that would allow MDCs to customize the Second Life experience for its corporate customers.
He specifically cited difficulties with the CSI:NY project, a cross-promotional event where Second Life played a prominent role in the television show’s plot line and the audience was encouraged to create a Second Life account through a CBS.com gateway. A lack of native programming support made it difficult to bring new avatars into Second Life already wearing themed clothes, nor was it possible to auto-enroll viewers in a CSI-themed group without special assistance from Linden Lab not generally available to developers.
“Second Life is just not at production level,” Constable said. “You want to things to be bulletproof when you’re working with a global brand … I don’t know if we’d do it in Second Life the next time.”
Glenn Fisher of Linden Lab conceded that introducing planned improvements to the Registration API, the program used by companies to bring customers into their Second Life sims, had proved “more difficult than we anticipated.” Improving the registration links between the Second Life Grid and partnered companies remains a high priority for Linden, Fisher said.
Fisher added that brands in Second Life had achieved a return on investment comparable or superior to other Internet-based campaigns. He pointed to the ongoing commitment of cosmetics company L’Oréal as an example of successful marketing on Linden’s grid.
But he said that Second Life isn’t for every company.
“Marketing is easier in a virtual world where the marketer has direct control over the communication in that world. We’ve always taken a decentralized approach,” Fisher said.
Linden Lab enjoys strong fundamentals, including growing demand for hosting virtual land on its servers, its core business. Company founder Philip Rosedale has repeatedly said Linden operates in the black. But as MDCs steer marketing projects towards Linden’s rivals, the company could suffer from a dearth of new users and diminished industry buzz.
Other virtual worlds consultants were more circumspect in their criticism, while acknowledging the trend against working within Second Life.
“Second Life, despite its much publicized travails, has a lot of very loyal users there. We wouldn’t hesitate to go into Second Life again,” said Mat Small of Millions of Us which has worked on Second Life projects with Toyota, Intel and Cisco. “That being said, we recognize that a lot of the growth right now is in youth-centric worlds like Habbo and Gaia.”
Peter Haik, CEO of Metaversatility, said his company is “platform-agnostic.” But while Metaversatility is doing ongoing maintenance and enhancements for existing Second Life clients, the firm has no new Second Life builds scheduled.
“If a client wants to reach an existing community, we’d tend to go towards There.com,” Haik said. While he wouldn’t shy from doing a Second Life build for a client that was “not so conservative,” Haik echoed Constable’s concerns about the ease of using Second Life’s software for both developers and end-users. “You’re likely to hit a wall when building in Second Life,” he said.
Haik sees the larger trend as not so much away from Second Life specifically, but away from the idea of bringing brands into pre-existing communities. He anticipates building purpose-built virtual worlds around specific brands using the Multiverse platform.
“We have a lot of people that want a stand-alone experience,” Haik said. “The client might have a very specific demographic in mind that’s not the Second Life demographic.”
Constable agreed with Haik the industry is trending towards more modest virtual experiences, and tempered his criticism with praise for Linden’s past cooperation. “I’m bullish on virtual worlds,” Constable said. “I’ll keep on rooting for Linden Lab to make progress on their platform, and maybe we’ll be back in Second Life in a significant way down the road.”
Some corrections:
With CSI, we *were* able to auto-enroll people into groups and have preset avatars in custom outfits. This was due to Linden Lab working with us on implementing their new registration process (however, we have not been able to use this registration process for other clients).
The real challenges with CSI came from: 1. people were shy of a download, 2. graphics cards were difficult, 3. passwords had to be emailed and often got lost in spam filters, 4. the first thing people wanted to do was customize their avatar, but the avatar tools don’t interoperate easily with things like custom skins, prim hair, and other attachments.
All this said, the numbers for the CSI project were good, and we still get 4,000 visitors a week coming to the experience even months after the October episode. Linden Lab worked hard with us to make that launch as successful as it could be, and we appreciate that effort.
I’ve written quite often that Second Life still has a ways to go in terms of usability, accessibility, stability and performance.
We do have at least one Second Life project planned for this year, so it’s not that we are totally abandoning the platform, but we are focusing on Web-based technologies while Second Life continues to make progress.
I think Linden Lab can be a great corporate partner, and this is evident by the work that IBM, Cisco, and Rivers Run Red are doing around enterprise collaboration.
I believe that 3D is where this is all heading, and that Linden Lab continues to be a strong innovator. My words probably come across as harsh in this article, but I plan to continue being involved in Second Life and watching its progress. Where it fits our client needs, we won’t hesitate to work on the platform.
Fri Apr 11, 2008 10:04am PDTI would like to point out that SL is losing it’s loyal customer base by fleecing them when ever they are ripe. Most recently are current land owners and the devaluation of thier land by 41% in an overnight move. But this is not the only fleecing, it is a re-currance in thier policies and the “loyal” customer base has begun to open up thier eyes. Some are leaving not because there is a better place to go yet but simply becaus of the consistant immoral attitude of Linden Labs. The “loyal” community base is waking up and walking out in droves. They have been burnt one too many times.
The best hope for Linden Labs is the noobies coming in, and if they can keep the nightmareish stories away from them they may build some trust back up again, so be looking for the old timers early adopter and loyal customer base to be exiting. I would also keep an eye out to see if they continue to fleece the new communities coming in.
For them I believe it is out with the old and in with the new and let’s do it again!
Fri Apr 11, 2008 11:04am PDTOnly the obvious that was ignored as the champaign flowed for these 2 companies while they and Linden ( both of their ceos are ex lindens with a year or so 3D “experience”) cashed the investors and clients checks.
Nothing new, they always blame the tools.
What will be interesting will be the “excuses” made in a year by the same companies.
Enterprise Computing in Second Life?
Fri Apr 11, 2008 12:04pm PDTClarification: Metaversatility has not in any way given up on Second Life, if anything we have more hope than ever for the platform with a number of their recent announcements.
Second Life is without question leading the way for 3D social virtual worlds. As they continue to improve their platform and service offerings we will continue to work with them as it is appropriate for our clients.
Fri Apr 11, 2008 12:04pm PDTHi Eric
You said: “Company founder Philip Rosedale has repeatedly said Linden operates in the black. ”
This was from an interview you did with him in 2007:
Reuters: Is Linden profitable?
Philip Rosedale: Linden is roughly profitable. We’re right at the point of profitability, which for a company of about 200 people is pretty impressive.
Eric — So I’ve seen statements prior to that interview from Philip saying SL is profitable, but nothing solid that post-dates what he said in your interview, and what he said there was that SL is “at the point of profitability.”
Is there something more recent about this? Just curious.
Fri Apr 11, 2008 1:04pm PDTif secondlife is to ever be production ready LL either needs to be replaced or the staff at LL be replaced with real engineers. the constant shuttering of business in sl by disabling core functionality is ludicrous.
imagine a happy family that paid for a dream vacation at disneyworld, their cc is charged, they arrive and are graciously checked in to the hotel, and they head out to the theme park for a happy day. lo and behold, when they arrive at the gate to the park, it is locked. there are people inside but all the rides are closed and nobody is allowed to buy any food or drinks or merchandise. how long would the disney brand carry that company under these conditions?
it is obvious there is nobody with any business acumen employed in any shape or form by LL.
here is your clue LL: the only achievement throwing hardware at a bad design accomplishes is the quarterly sales goal of the hardware salesman. buying IBM hardware these days?
or maybe these episodes of shuttering service to the people that made sl is really related to the secret IBM sims. maybe IBM is doing something and needs the grid services for themselves so the residents are shut out.
this makes no sense.
any “metaverse development companies” hiring content creators? doesn’t look like investing anymore time and effort in sl can be described as anything but stupid.
Fri Apr 11, 2008 1:04pm PDTFrustrated virtual agencies look beyond Second Life - TOTAL BALONEY.
These ‘agencies’ are distancing themselves from Second Life because the campaign THEY have created for their clients have been complete failures. They have failed to attract interest from residents and have become the ‘desert islands’.
I remember not so long ago statements coming from these agencies saying ‘it’s not the traffic that’s important, it’s ‘engagement”. That’s easy to say when the campaigns they have created have utterly failed to attract interest (traffic).
Shouldn’t the headline read: Frustrated clients look beyond Second Life agencies
Fri Apr 11, 2008 1:04pm PDT“Shouldn’t the headline read: Frustrated clients look beyond Second Life agencies”
priceless..:) lol
“blaming the tools and media”
shameless..
Virtual Worlds for Marketing and branding was’nt the issue- the lousy jobs done by those who said they were the -new experts - and the bloggers who “anointed them” as the “metarati” was.
rob.
Fri Apr 11, 2008 5:04pm PDT1. I’m not sure forced-membership in groups is a good thing, nor is forced-dressing. Many people forcibly entered into the Lindens’ Concierge Party Group were creeped out by it, and two people even put up voting referenda on it. It seems like something that could be used to spam and also overly control people. I realize marketers are trying to figure out ways to make people pay or click to join and automatically gain access to group-set only islands, but there’s something to be said for manual screening and invitations when people come to a landing area, it helps on orientation and also removing griefers.
2. Offering forced-group-join as a feature for the entire world, or even some significant number of companies would be a huge draw on the data base in terms of names and their permissions and roles in the group.
3. Forced dressing might be something a goodly percentage of people might hate, and wish to get out of, but not know how yet, with the difficulties of SL.
4. I simply don’t buy that there’s all these people “shy of downloads”. For one, the dirty little secret of flash worlds in the browser is that they take forever to load, too, and often keep needing to reload each time you visit a room or add a feature. And people are used to that. I can’t believe in an environment especially for youth of downloading Yahoo and AIM and World of Warcraft, that people find a download such a downer. I think entering and moving within the world is their challenge, if they pass the graphics card test, and that’s fear of being griefed or harassed and also looking stupid, which is another reason that having live greeters is helpful, or at least the kind of soft landing for self-tutorials and help nearby that you had at, say, L-World.
5. To put all this in perspective, we need to really have a better numbers crunching of the corporate presence that remains in SL, and what left, and the value of the investments they had. That means sending out interns to do manual counting I guess!
Fri Apr 11, 2008 6:04pm PDTFor me what makes SL inviting is the immersive environment and the avatars. I could never move to “another environment” because I can not take my content with me so I have no interest in the other environment.
Here is what I think SL needs. Stability. On good hardware its not bad but I can see average users being turned off.
Speed. This is a big one. they NEED to get it up to a more usable speed on AVERAGE hardware.
Griefing. This is actually easy to solve but they do not make it so.
Grey goo them. When I MUTE someone here is what I want. I want there avatar to turn all grey. No tetures. No Prims. No Particles. No Text. No Voice and MOST IMPORTANTLY No Physics. IE They can not TOUCH me MOVE me Or effect me in ANY WAY. Not even “bump into” me.
This would 100% eliminate the griefing problem overnight for most people and most instances. Right Click Mute Gone.
Fix Sim Crossings. Vehicles are nearly USELESS in SL because of this.
Sat Apr 12, 2008 9:04am PDThey chris - i think your grey goo idea is excellent!
Sat Apr 12, 2008 1:04pm PDTGive things time - It is already clear how to use SL for several things like book clubs, education and cultural initiatives in general. How to use SL for “traditional” marketing is not clear yet, but remember that, in 1994, how to use the web for “traditional” marketing was not clear yet. It was made clear by the first really successful initiatives, and marketing became much less “traditional” as a result. same will happen for SL and other metaverses.
Sun Apr 13, 2008 3:04am PDTI see more and more people building in the new opensim grids.
I was in Central Grid ( http://www.CentralGrid.com )and have talked to many of the new residents. Many claim that most of the functions they need are now active and working in the central grid.
A Large developer in SL is now building a 3 sim cruise ship, others are building combat sims and RP islands.
They have 4 million regions on the grid, and plenty of space to build your world.
Central Grid also allows anyone to connect a grid server and run region from anywhere. This is more of a future for Virtual Worlds.
Prices at 30 usd per month per region of land, makes this a MUST See place.
Sun Apr 13, 2008 7:04am PDTI don’t see why they’re complaining, actually. They should have known all the things that they are complaining of before they did their projects - these aren’t exactly secrets, you know…
Sun Apr 13, 2008 7:04am PDThere’s my 2 cents worth of future…. dot com type boom happened for SL… tons of clients, ESC and a few others to handle em… lots of promises to everyone invovled were made. Expectations were not met. It’s not that the MDCs didn’t deliver…. it’s just that all of em were getting big contracts where they’d show past portfolio of work, talk about big things, wave of the future, 10+million users, and this time we’re gonna get creative….. that pitch doesn’t work anymore… because companies in the real world are now understanding that they dont need to come in, spend tons of money so they can promo how they made it into SL… that whole thang is done…..
However, my predictions: Second Life, Open Life, OpenSim, Open Grid…. whatever they’re calling it these days…. this will be the one that stays as the #1 metaverse…. I guarantee that spending time trying to make money in other worlds isn’t gonna pay off…. No other world will emerge as the #1….. the next internet is going to be OpenSim (or whatever it becomes named) …. and the internet explorer is gonna be Second Life…..
But hey…. if any MDCs want me to DJ and emcee an event in a metaverse other than SL, that’s cool with me, I’ll come over :O)
Sun Apr 13, 2008 1:04pm PDTI have experienced recurrent stability problems with sl, but it’s better to experience after sl grid upgraded to Havok 4 physical engine.. i have confidence whatsoever with sl..
Sun Apr 13, 2008 6:04pm PDTSL is a WAY better experience now than it was a year and a half ago. Yeah, you need a better PC. Too bad, thats called Moore’s Law, exponential technological change is par for the course, so cut your whining and get used to it.
Yeah sim prices are dropping, thats called competition: LL knows it has to compete against independent grids now. Their own operating costs have dropped too. It costs half as much now for the same datafarm server as it did a year ago. Moore’s Law again. LL dropped sim prices 40%, but they’ve saved 50% and are pocketing the 10% difference to boost their bottom line.
Anybody who didnt see a drop in sim prices coming hasn’t been paying attention.
Prices may go up again if LL overcomes their scalability problems to enable 200+ avs in a sim, etc. but a lot of that is also due to user bandwidth limits: users need to migrate from cable internet to FiOS to really keep up with scaling improvements (and if you’re still on DSL, get lost), cause every user will need to download those 200 avatars with their 1000 prim hair, 1024×1024 textures on everything, 30k prims in a sim, etc…
Change is the definition of technology and free markets. Don’t like it, go join Proks soviet russia.
Sun Apr 13, 2008 8:04pm PDTLike the Web, virtual worlds are in essence a collective application and not individual instances of an application. Because of this, our clients have indicated a preference for a platform that isn’t Windows-only. It’s one thing to target a dogpound management system to a single platform, but a platform-exclusive community lacks an essential openness and diversity.
Mon Apr 14, 2008 7:04am PDTEric,
I think you’re way off here, the Second Life Grid is enabling a far greater depth of engagement for our clients. Recent press releases back this up:
We released a press release about our Enterprise solutions last week:
http://www.riversrunred.com/press_detail.php?id=355
We’ve also expanded our San Francisco studio:
http://www.riversrunred.com/press_detail.php?id=354
We also just won/nominated three major Webby Awards, all Second Life projects:
http://www.riversrunred.com/press_detail.php?id=356
The Second Life Grid is far from over, the only thing that changed is that the first chapter has closed.
Tue Apr 15, 2008 7:04am PDTAs a SLer, I can say that one portion of SL economics that’s being missed is player choice- players in SL have chosen to reject the big RL brands, and instead, embrace those which are native to SL. It’s not so much a case of anything failing to deliver, as, a case of a community who’s embracing a virtual world, and thus, doesn’t want the real one shoved down their throats while they’re there.
Tue Apr 15, 2008 11:04am PDTSecond Life has been pushing the envelope for a few years with technology and passion. It’s lack of perceived stability is prt of the price that being “cutting edge” carries. It’s far, far easier to create events and promote brands isl, as Electric Sheep does, than it is to create Second Life.
How easy it is to criticise something that is so complicated but allows you (MDCs) to very easily create things. I create a lot isl and it is easy to terraform, build, script all within what Linden Labs created for us.
My only critique is that I did not create SL. The gall of a successgful MDC speaking from a place where they have made major dollars from the virtual world. The ability to be successful in Second Life does not make one an expert in what a virtual world has failed to do.
Tue Apr 15, 2008 6:04pm PDTGood Luck trying to register a user account at the moment. It seems that Linden Labs has shut down new user registrations. Seems to me from my experience at Linden Labs’ Second Life is a service that does not exist and is not able to be used. meh never going back.
Tue Apr 15, 2008 11:04pm PDTWouldnt it be amazing if people put as much energy and effort in their “First Life” as they did their “Second Life”
I think most of probably stopped playing make believe when we were kids……..its time to step away from the computer, put away the Doritos and move out of your parent’s basement
Thu Apr 17, 2008 5:04am PDT@IntLibber:
Nobody can survive without customers. If LL was to force the upgrade cycle faster than what the average user can handle, they would be losing people. If SL is not to be a niche product catering to existing gamers, it cannot confine itself only to people on high-end gaming rigs. And what is this “users need to migrate from cable internet to FiOS” stuff? Most home users in the U.S. cannot access anything better than cable internet, should all these people go away? Absurd. If you think the recreational users are stingy, wait until you meet the business users and nonprofits! They will choose SL if it is useful and not too expensive. They will more likely choose a virtual world that matches the hardware they have.
Tue Apr 22, 2008 1:04am PDT