If Hate Groups Feuded About Events Like We Do (Comic)

A new controversy flared this week across the Second Life community. The spark wasn't an action by Linden Lab, but a stream of posts and counter-posts about the value of One Billion Rising. It made me wonder whether the same kind of infighting goes on between people promoting agendas of hate and violence, rather than of support and peace.

My Take on the Amazon Game Category Controversy

Current secondlife.com main image

A promotion for Second Life on Amazon sparked a controversy yesterday, centering on the virtual world's placement in the Video Game category. Tateru Nino wrote:

". . . it is certainly embarrassing to be associated with the idea of Second-Life-as-a-game. Many folks do consider we dedicated Second Life users to be a bit crazy because we ‘play’ this ‘game’, when they know from having tried it that it is not one. The ‘game’ label seems to make most people unable to look beyond it, and see its essential potential (realised and unrealised, both) as a content platform."

Gaga Gracious posted:

"If it wasn't for the fact Linden Lab is headed by a game's industry heavy weight like Robvik Humble I think they could be forgiven for marketing Second Life as a game package on Amazon recently when everyone that knows the beleaguered virtual world and has experienced it would, in the majority, be inclined to say it is not a video game".

Although I sympathize with the general objection to categorizing Second Life as a game, the criticism is misplaced in this instance. This move isn't a reflection of some overall Linden Lab initiative to reposition Second Life as a game, it's because Amazon's program to distribute software linked to outside accounts is called Game Connect:

Game Connect is a service provided by Amazon which enables customers to discover and purchase virtual items on Amazon.com and have these virtual items sent directly to their linked game account . . . Customers can link their existing Amazon.com accounts with their account in your game to purchase digital items, delivered directly to their linked game account.

Take the time to click through Second Life's primary web presence and it's easy to see that Linden Lab is not marketing Second Life as a video game. What they're doing with Amazon and Steam is adding distribution channels equipped to sell their software.

Interview with Zombie Linden on loginURI Controversy

You can find more substantive information on the story here and here.

The Roots of the Rift Between the Second Life Community and Linden Lab

(This post continues yesterday's rebuttal to Second Life's Survival Seriously Threatened by Second Life Users' Hate and Fear of Change.)

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. Proverb.

If the Second Life Community has a chip on its shoulder when it comes to change, there are good reasons. Over the past three years, Linden Lab has instituted a string of decisions that changed its relationship with the community from a feeling of trusted family to an atmosphere of cold-blooded commerce.

The shift started in 2008 when Linden Lab decided it was time to grow up and act like a "real" company. In March, 2008, it issued a new Trademark Policy negatively impacting hundreds of the most active and committed community members who had commercial sites or blogs using "Second Life" or "SL" in the title or url. As Gwyneth Llewelyn recounted at the time, the decision reversed a four year history of Linden Lab actively encouraging the community to use the trademark. The unilateral decision galvanized the Second Life community to hold a three day bloggers strike. (It also inspired the creation of @SecondLie, the fourth ranked Second Life Twitter personality who posts multiple times per day with humorous commentary Linden Lab and Second Life.)

Although I didn't understand it at the time, the community's heated response to the Trademark Policy was much more about a perceived breach of trust than the actual issue of Trademarks. After years of Linden Lab encouraging the belief that community members were equal partners in the creation of Second Life, they pulled off the gloves, brought out the lawyers and reminded everyone that it was their world, not ours.

I'm busy with final preparations for today's VWBPE Keynote, so I'll stop here. Stay tuned for Part Two.

You Don't Own Crap Redux: Linden Lab to Create Adult Ghetto

Linden Lab announced today some "upcoming changes for adult content." Beyond the dizzying spin, it looks like:

• explicit content on the mainland will be banished to a special continent
• estate owners will have to flag explicit content
• only age-verified residents will have access to the above
  

Others, such as Dusan Writer and Crap Mariner are doing a good job of walking through the implications. I just want to once again remind everyone that YOU DON'T OWN CRAP in Second Life. Linden Lab can do as they please, and they will. If we don't like it, we all know where the door is. Or is it the Rabbit Hole?