End of an era?

Monday, October 19, 2009

I haven’t blogged here in a long time.  I just read through all my old blogs, from my very first post on June 7, 2007 until my last post on March 9, 2009. Especially after the events of yesterday, it all seems very irrelevant – so I’ve deleted them all.

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I’ve seen Second Life go through various changes in the almost three years that I’ve been spending more time and money in this virtual world than is probably good for me. I’ve experienced the exhilaration of being a newbie, the frustrations of weekly SL system failures, and the annoyances of chat lag, painfully slow rezzing and the 25-group limit.

I experienced the go-go year of 2007, which looking back was really the “Golden Age” of Second Life. I experienced the cautious optimism of 2008, despite an increasingly intrusive Linden Lab and a new CEO who spouted a lot of bullshit (pardon my French) without ever delivering much except a fluffy but dysfunctional website and a segregated adult continent, whooo hooo.

Two and a half years later, I’m *still* suffering from the annoyances of chat lag, painfully slow rezzing and the 25-group limit. It’s funny how some things just don’t change.

But most of all, I’ve experienced the joy of having some really fabulous friends. Here I refer back to a Reuters article from December 2007: “… If there’s no ‘goal’ to Second Life, no monsters to kill or experience points to collect, why do so many people log on and spend so much time there? Everyone has their theories, but a new academic study suggests cybersex and gambling are less of a lure than is often assumed. … ‘The data shows the most engaging activities in Second Life are shopping and socializing.’ …”  Well, I couldn’t agree more.

In 2009, I’ve seen Linden Lab steadily taking my friends away – at least those that haven’t already left of their own accord. Yesterday, nine more kids were perma-banned in an obviously organized Linden Lab pogrom, including some of my best friends. Linden Lab seems to be getting more and more aggressive in going after kids. This time, they seem to have also killed all alts and blocked IPs.  (Needless to say, there is little chance of getting one’s money back either.)

I won’t get into the fine points of virtual freedom between consenting adults, because that really isn’t the issue here.  My own opinion is that thought policing between consenting adults is “Big Brother” fascism, plain and simple; if you’re going to start policing virtual or fictional depictions of illegal, criminal or socially undesirable behavior, there is a truly *vast* number of books and movies depicting murders, bank robberies, casino heists and terrorist attacks which are waiting to be burned in large fascist bonfires. And why is it technically so daunting to give consenting adults the same bedroom privacy in Second Life which we take for granted in our real lives?

What *is* the issue is that Linden Lab seems determined to drive kid avatars out of Second Life, or at least to make things so miserable for us that we have little reason to stay.

Whether it’s solving chat lag, slow rezzing, the friggin’ 25-group limit, or finding a way to provide SL residents with privacy in their own homes, it is increasingly obvious to me that Linden Lab isn’t interested in technological advances, or in their residents. The company is being run by a bunch of financial guys who are just waiting to sell it to some major corporatation or investor.  Kids are inconvenient, so … ban ’em all.

It amazes me that Linden Lab thinks they can afford to kick so many people out, given the stagnant or even declining usage stats. Concurrent logs are flat, premium memberships are way down, mainland prices are in the gutter (remember when the minimum price for a 512 parcel was about L$5,000?), and private sims are now selling at about a 50% loss. Anyone want to buy a smelly fish?

So, what do we do about this?  Here are the options which I see:

(1) The status quo: Stick our heads in the sand and carry on in ignorant bliss.

(2) Organize protests. We were reasonably successful doing this in June 2008 when kids were initially excluded from SL5B. But will there be any kids left to protest? Does Linden Lab  care?

(3) We all become very squeaky clean (PG). Many of us already are. The problem is, it’s awfully lonely when so many of your friends get banned, or just leave in frustration.

(4) Be kids only in closed venues. Expurgate all kid groups and references from our profiles. Have a non-kid avatar always at the ready (18+ human, furry, reptile, whatever). Go back into the closet.

(5) If you have a teen avatar, make it a tiny bit older/taller and state in your profile that it’s 18yo.  (This would be an option for me, I guess.)

The biggest issue – and I know I’m not the only one grappling with this – is what’s left for us in this Brave New World which we call “Second Life”. Do I want to keep giving my money to Linden Lab?

If there is one silver lining in this very black cloud, it is that perhaps this all will give K-Grid the boost it needs to become a viable alternative community. We can only hope.