Avatars United
Something interesting has happened :) Linden Lab has acquired a Swedish company - Enemy Unknown AB - and their social networking site - Avatars United. And... everyone is happy about it! Residents are showing a lot of enthusiasm. Moreover, it seems the site has already become a hip place, within just a few days. So popular, that the '503 Service Unavailable' message shows up every once in a while because the server is overloaded. And it seems all up-to-the-minute avatars have a profile there.
I find it quite interesting, cause you know what happens usually :) Basically any move by Linden Lab is highly criticized by SL residends, whether it's fair or not. I think the upbeat reaction to this acquisition is quite remarkable and tell us a little about residents' needs. I'm curious how things will play out but this made me think about something else as well. This acquisition might be just one of many significant business decisions coming from Linden Lab in the near future. I'm not necessarily talking about other acquisitions but about decisions that will change Second Life as we know it - and I'm guessing it will be most harsh for long term residents. Something has changed - and that is the way Linden Lab look at Second Life. It's not 'our virtual world, our baby, our dear project' anymore - it's a product now. And a product should bring profit. This attitude is not bad, though - it will help Second Life stay on the market. The 'dear attitude' is good for beginnings, when the project is small... but if you don't change it fast enough, your project might fail, despite your best intentions. So I guess Linden Lab actions and residents' needs will finally meet, one day in the future.
In the meanwhile, feel free to unite with me ;)
I find it quite interesting, cause you know what happens usually :) Basically any move by Linden Lab is highly criticized by SL residends, whether it's fair or not. I think the upbeat reaction to this acquisition is quite remarkable and tell us a little about residents' needs. I'm curious how things will play out but this made me think about something else as well. This acquisition might be just one of many significant business decisions coming from Linden Lab in the near future. I'm not necessarily talking about other acquisitions but about decisions that will change Second Life as we know it - and I'm guessing it will be most harsh for long term residents. Something has changed - and that is the way Linden Lab look at Second Life. It's not 'our virtual world, our baby, our dear project' anymore - it's a product now. And a product should bring profit. This attitude is not bad, though - it will help Second Life stay on the market. The 'dear attitude' is good for beginnings, when the project is small... but if you don't change it fast enough, your project might fail, despite your best intentions. So I guess Linden Lab actions and residents' needs will finally meet, one day in the future.
In the meanwhile, feel free to unite with me ;)
2 comments
Oh, there are a lot of critical - and even VERY critical - voices about that. The site's usefulness is rather limited and there are a lot of concerns about the fact that the connection between the AU name and the avatar name are not checked at all. But you are right, the site gets swamped so there HAS to be some need for it.
ReplyDeletePerhaps I generalized too much saying 'everyone is happy about it' ;) I saw those complaints but what I meant is that all the criticism seems more balanced than usually and actually points the flaws of the site instead of bashing Linden Lab. Plus, there are positive comments which usually are rare, and the number of newly created accounts seems to be overwhelming.
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