Dusan Writer’s Metaverse » Linden Lab Raises Prices for Non-Profits and Schools

This is very disturbing news (see Dusan Writer’s Metaverse post below) ... & I can't agree more with Dusan.   Even if you don't work in the non-profit world... it is time to look at our alternatives. It sure looks like SL is walking away from education and other Cause based customers. What about .gov sites?  How do these new rates compare to the alternatives?  Once this ‘weeding’ out is done will they be raising prices for us lowly ‘regular’ folk?  Just who do they want for customers?  If I were responsible for my non-profit's media presence I would be looking closely at providers such as rezzable.com or Reaction Grid, etc.  In the mean time I will be checking out pricing at inWorldz for my personal plot… I’ve felt the need to do some remodeling anyway… I can just as easily do it there as SL.  This increase in pricing to Education and Non-profit organizations sure erodes my already faltering trust in Linden Labs.

Quoted from http://dusanwriter.com/index.php/2010/10/04/linden-lab-raises-prices-for-non-profits-and-schools/:

Dusan Writer’s Metaverse » Linden Lab Raises Prices for Non-Profits and Schools

Instituting a 200% price increase, as Linden Lab has done today, seems to me more akin to what a company would try to do if they were looking to exit a particular market and does nothing to change the narrative that the company is ripe for a sale, takeover or meltdown.

 

We do limited work in cause marketing and education. But without any reason given I’m left to guess what’s motivating the Lab, and I can’t for the life of me think of anything other than falling profits, a wish to be a pure consumer company, or some sort of insight into the appetite for higher costs from these communities that I don’t have (a latent desire to, um, spend more?)

 

Regardless of which of these reasons it might be (or is there some reason I’m not able to guess at?) the move by Linden Lab represents nothing short of a blow to their credibility and judgement, and while I’ve long been a supporter of the community and possibilities of the virtual world, it’s clearly time to start dusting off the blog posts looking at the alternatives.

 

While a move in the education market might not seem to have implications for enterprise, my feeling is that this move erodes trust in the viability of the Lab’s strategies and indicates they are taking a lowest common denominator view of who they think their target Second Life user should be.

Dusan writer,Metaverse,Reaction Grid,Rezzable.com,inWorldz,Non-profit,Education,Linden Labs.

Newbie on Mars...

So there has been a bit too much drama over at Linden Labs for comfort. Lay - offs, rumors that profitability isn’t what they claim, fears the viewer will not be supported, talk of a buy out or possibly going public. Once again I am reminded change is one of the only constants. Time will tell… although lately I sort of wish LL was a publicly held company and I were a share holder… and no, it wouldn’t be for the money. However, I would love to vote on a motion to get rid of the CEO. If you were a share holder, how would you feel about the string of failures, Viewer 2.0, Avatel, Voice Morphology, SL Enterprise? ...ouch.


Since I am but a lowly consumer of the Labs product… I thought I would check in again with Blue Mars. I was a beta tester of MetaPlace (another fail that I have a bit more sympathy for) and Blue Mars. So after downloading the latest viewer for BM, I downloaded additional locations. With BM you can’t think like SL. There are not sims or regions, but there are cities (which may really be golf courses, island, etc). Each is separately downloaded (all accessible from a dashboard like front end available after logging in) and quite large. Clearly BM values graphic quality the most to the disadvantage of slower less powerful machines. They allow some user content. To build for them you need to sign up as a developer and be able to work with their tools and or 3rd party tools such as Maya, 3D Max and Blender. As far as I can tell when entering on a standard account (vs a developer) there is not in world creation. If you ask me – this will be it’s biggest weakness… well that and apparently no Flying!

Clearly they have a long way to catch up with the depth and richness of SL. I fear the folks at Avatar Reality (makers of Blue Mars) underestimate how important in world user created content is. However, give them time, they recently implemented an economy and there is at least one notable crossover with an SL community (Caledonia). There is also a developing social world as well… regular events, movie and bowling nights, hunts, etc.

Below is a brief 1 minute machinima to give you a sense of what it looks like and how you move, also below is a shot of the log in screen with list of current events, etc.

While I am not ready to bail on SL (have faith) I do believe the multiverse has plenty of room for both SL and BM.

Blue Mars Newbie from Robward Antwerp on Vimeo.

So feel free to comment... do you explore other virtual worlds?

Dusan Writer’s Metaverse » The Why of Virtual Worlds, and Selling Second Life

Dusan Writer’s Metaverse » The Why of Virtual Worlds, and Selling Second Life

Are you up to the challenge? Are you open to the change?

Read it and weep if not... read it and live it if so.

I cannot say it better.. Dusan Writer on the "Why" of Second Life...

You see, you don’t come to Second Life to play a game, or watch a movie, or attend a concert, or even, really, to hang out with friends. You come to Second Life because you’re ready to have your worldview challenged.

Forget about a movie where you relate to and are moved by the characters and story. Now, there is no plot line, you ARE the character, and you’re about to be more engaged than you believed possible.

You might run a business, fall in love, hang out with friends, explore, be shaken, enriched, scared, or enlightened. But you’ll be hard-pressed to emerge unchanged.

You probably don’t set out to do much more than waste some time, have a look around, try to figure out the rules, find someone to hang out with, or attempt to crack the puzzle of why you keep ending up with a box on your head. And if you’re not open to change, to shifts in perception, then Second Life probably isn’t for you.

And finally... as Dusan puts it:

Is It Hard? Hell, Yes


The future is difficult.

Second Life is difficult.

Get over it.

Spread The Word