this pushed me over the edge – the new vp of marketing post
i love the “marketing aspect” of online stuff but not when it’s money, money, money!
the new marketing person says: “an X Factor that helped people get into the game and helped them discover all the rest of the possibilities there”
well derr, i think those residents that have not yet been chased off kinda have an idea of the possibilities, that’s why they hang in there. Second Life is wildly creative and all you need to do is listen to the 1000s of online voices yelling every day at you. they are all yelling about being creative! the possibilities are already well known, just listen to the customers that love you!!! sheesh
“I’m excited about the prospect of helping to build a product that really empowers people to express what they’re about, and that can make a real difference in their lives.”
she already does not get it! people have felt empowered (i did) and it did make a very positive difference in my life. so get out of the way, listen to residents that give a sh!t. ugh, makes my blood boil . . .
“I think we’ve only just started to see what can be done here”
is she from frigging Mars? get in-world and you will see some of the most creative people in the world and the amazing and beautiful things that have been made. more beauty and creativity has come and gone in Second Life than she will ever see first hand . . .
and she does online learning, give me a break! my subQuark has spoken at more conferences about the use of SL as an eLearning tool than the number of times she has been in-world so far . . .
and her bent is gaming focused, too bad Second Life is not a game, seems a poor employment match (unless . . . )
i think what set me off is that it seems that Linden Lab has been going on and on about becoming more profitable or about money (the teen grid doesn’t make enough, shut it down – fire them all, we need to be more solid)
i love what marketing can do (share a message) but not what its focus typically is (make more money) and just sharing a message effectively (marketing) will make more money if your message is true (Guy Kawasaki did that for Apple and made them incredibly profitable, but they never went on and on about making more money, they made a product that people think is cool and works well!)
maybe i am overly sensitive to it, but i get enough of the profitability crap in my day job, i don’t need my creative joy and escape to be so outwardly focused on making money all the time
i need a shower . . . =\
You have to wonder why she’d go to LL at this time, when despite what Philip says, LL’s prospects look the worst ever.
And, I suppose she has no choice but to present the image she has in that post…so full of enthusiasm.
I think SL peaked in potential possibilities the summer before the Openspace fiasco. What was that? The summer of 2008?
Micheil Merlin
4 Sep 10 at 12:46 am
for me, the openspace debacle was the turning point of my SL experience
Jack Linden had told people in the concierge group that openspaces could be rented out
i think free market should have been allowed to run its course – overloaded openspaces would have eventually gone away
the 12 we had ran smoother than full sims – only three homes, and reserved 1000 prims for public use
8 months was not long for that product and blaming people for going to the prim limits set by Linden Lab was very poor – that would be like Coke saying that drinking the full two litres of Coke in their bottle is bad for your health and it is your fault for thinking you could drink all two litres
i’m sure she is paid rather well (no idea what a VP in San Fran makes, maybe $250k?). take the money and run (you’ll be run out later) =)
Ener Hax
4 Sep 10 at 9:34 am
A person of a more optimistic outlook would summarize the SL open-space ordeal as simply a poorly planned, and ill-advised product by Linden Labs analysts. As it turns out it was a product (in LL’s eyes) that turned out to be not feasible. Sometimes a business makes a mis-step and these things happen.
A person a more pessimistic outlook would say it was a classic bait & switch technique to raise revenue at a time it was needed.
For those who wish to determine if their outlook on life is either optimistic or pessimistic should read the intro definition of “Bait & Switch” on Wikipedia. Those that say “That doesnt apply to the Openspace situation”, congratulations, you are optimistic by default.
Those that say “Oh, that fits perfectly” – well you are pessimistic. AKA a pragmatic Business person who can for-see early trends and signs, and probably predict the outcome.
Take the test! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bait_and_switch
Breen Whitman
4 Sep 10 at 8:11 pm
i agree with poorly executed but i also think they could have been more honest and not blame users for using all 3750 prims! and then to lower it down to 750 and 10 avs. i was dummy enough to keep one as a park and those were the costliest prims! had they simply said “wow, this did not turn out as we had planned and the poor performance of some of these reflects poorly on the rest of SL”, then i would have been fine with it
as it turned out – getting rid of them did not seem to make SL better or worse. in fact, none of the decisions – adult policy, XStreetSL, TOS changes, enterprise, teen grid, firing 100 people, M leaving, Philip returning – seem to have much effect on Second Life at all
Ener Hax
4 Sep 10 at 11:49 pm