wow! i was reading a very short but impactful post on Tateru’s blog about kids under 16 being effed in Second Life! =(
does someone at Linden Lab actively sit around and try to figure out ways to make customers upset?
so what had been announced as 13-15 year olds being allowed on some sims seems to have changed course to having to wait till you are 16
if you are one of these affected kids, you should show Linden Lab how to make a better virtual world and strike out on your own with a teen only grid! this makes me think of the 15 year old girl a few years back that borrowed $8 from her mom to buy a domain name and by the time she was 16 she had a million dollar business making MySpace themes!
kids – they are way smarter than you think =)
this is mind boggling and i for one love kids and their creativity and lack of life’s shackles we all tend to get as we get older. i guess Linden Lab is doing their best to keep from developing new users
A “teen-only grid”? Do the Sandmen come to get you and derez you when you get old?
Maggie Darwin (@MaggieL)
28 Nov 10 at 2:30 pm
lol!!! i love the sandman thing! nah, they just put you on an ice float on and old person’s sim to drift around in a circle! =)
Ener Hax
28 Nov 10 at 2:47 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Ener Hax, Mimi Muircastle. Mimi Muircastle said: Great post! agree –>teens are very wise & resourceful!! RT@iliveisl sheesh, new post – Linden Lab hates teens http://bit.ly/eZIKJI [...]
Tweets that mention Linden Lab hates teens at i live in science land -- Topsy.com
28 Nov 10 at 2:57 pm
Total crap. I thought all their new ratings (moderate, adult, etc) was to enable them to allow teens in the main grid, restricting them from places they shouldn’t be.
Robert Rowe
28 Nov 10 at 4:51 pm
The rating system has been botched since the start. This does really blow on many levels =(
Ener Hax
28 Nov 10 at 5:04 pm
LL and their decisions… what can I say?
Seems like they could simply keep the Teen Grid open (at least for ages 13-15), and perhaps drop ‘free’ accounts (on teen and/or main grid).
Teens pay for cell phone ringtones/games/apps, WarCraft fees, etc… so what’s another 5 or 10 bucks a month? I’m assuming that there are paid accounts on the teen grid already, but I could be wrong.
Would you stay in SL if free accounts were dropped? Would this help reduce the problem of griefers? Or would it be a disaster for LL?
What do you think? What’s it worth to you to stay in SL? Would you simply abandon it if there were no free accounts?
Are there OpenSim worlds that you would pay a small monthly fee to be a part of (assuming such a payment system were ever implemented)?
I’ve enjoyed the last few posts, about the value of virtual worlds, and how expecting everything to be free has caused some problems, in both virtual life and real life.
DreamWalker McCallister
28 Nov 10 at 7:49 pm
good point on paid memberships and i think it would be worthwhile to do just for the sake of griefing. heck, even a no frills $10 per year account would reduce that in a big way!
i am so thrilled *rolls eyes* that you have enjoyed the last few articles. i also enjoy reading the articles by someone that i admire a lot, i just wish she’d speak up a bit more! =p
Ener Hax
28 Nov 10 at 8:24 pm
Many of LL’s decisions for the past couple of years haven’t seemed to make sense. But the oddest string of decisions seemed to have started with the layoffs. They probably started before that but that just marks a time for me when they became really bizarre.
I’ve said this before. Contrary to what they say in public, it really seems to me they have accepted that they can’t grow SL any further and just want to let it coast along pulling in whatever money they can with as little investment as possible, until someone buys them out.
Micheil Merlin
28 Nov 10 at 9:53 pm
OK…and all of this surprises any of us how?
brinda allen
28 Nov 10 at 11:26 pm
@DreamWalker McCallister
Absolutely I would stay if paid was default…heck, look at WoW… that’s what 15 a month?
As I saw above even a nonminal fee would stop a lot of BS
brinda allen
28 Nov 10 at 11:29 pm
nicely put Brinda, indeed “this surprises us?”
it is a shame because Second Life is still the most accessible and largest virtual world of it’s type. with the cost of a sim, you’d think they could be more customer-focused rather than whatever this is! =\
Ener Hax
29 Nov 10 at 2:38 pm