i know people think i bash on Second Life (maybe because i express the way i feel about them *shakes fist about cancelling account*). but for years i praised them to high heaven
for those looking for hope, here is an anonymous Linden Lab review from august 29th on Glassdoor.com
“There is hope.”
Pros
Even with all the recent turmoil, Linden Lab still has some of the best people to work with, and one of the most interesting and challenging projects as an engineer.
Cons
Still way too much chaos. If you’re not highly self-directed you’ll find it difficult. Some of the senior management was terrible, but it looks like many of them are leaving now.
Advice to Senior Management
Really focus on the transparency, and make sure that you give middle management the room to actually shape direction.
there is no doubt that Linden Lab has some really sharp people. nothing else can touch second life for how well it works at the moment. if this is an honest review, then the bit about chaos certainly is seen externally by some of the decisions lately (seriously, display names as a project?)
i have no ill will against Second Life – i won’t ever go back to Second Life (i can’t since my account is gone), it’s just not right for me anymore
but it is “right” for many people. maybe if the right people (the wrong ones) do leave as this person says, things will turn around
Second Life is 99% there! it just needs that last one percent
“If you’re not highly self-directed you’ll find it difficult.”
The grass is always greener. Some graduates start jobs that are highly constrained. Within two years they resent the control.
Worse still is the Micro-Manager, leaving an employee with no need for self direction, as their job becomes a railway carriage with the path of any day as set as a train’s destination.
A true innovator yearns for a “Skunk Works” environment ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skunkworks_project ). It sounds like Linden Lab provided some of that mantra.
Mind you, if one is a non-innovator, enjoys drudgery, then perhaps LL is not the place for this person(the glassdoor review writer).
Breen Whitman
1 Sep 10 at 12:02 am
well put and it is hard to deduce much from a short review. many small companies (less than 500 employees) are large enough to absorb poor decisions and some poor management but small enough that those egos do steer the company down it’s path
i don’t see how “doing less better” includes display names and a secondary viewer? unless viewer 2.1 is so poor that in order to improve performance it is easier to start over
without good direction, it is hard to say what would be good on their part
would browser-based help? probably if their focus was business. but dropping Enterprise seems to say business is not a focus
integration with facebook? perhaps that would provide an initial spurt in growth, but i don’t see those types of new people staying long
is Second Life too vague? i mean, people drawn to it, are they looking for something to do? rather than what i tend to see in OpenSim – people looking for a place to do their own thing
only time will tell – LL seems to not know how to value their customers
Ener Hax
1 Sep 10 at 12:17 am
“LL seems to not know how to value their customers”.
This is true, and one of the more baffling aspects of LL.
As mentioned in another post they seem to not value customers of several thousand dollars of tier per month.
In most other enterprises, purchasing even as little as $1000 of services per month ensures you have your own account manager by the vendor, with your own direct dial.
Additionally, is the double whammy of letting customers go with a technical or creative bent, who can go into OpenSimulator and immediately create a wow-factor….and then write about it.
This blog is one example, and Zonja Capalini is another. Awesome ideas, good articles, and impressive images portray OS as a real alternative. And Linden has allowed them to wander away.
That tipping point gets nearer every day.
Breen Whitman
1 Sep 10 at 12:42 am
wow! *my head swells* i do love virtual worlds and really love the creative outlet they offer
i like staying busy and need definite tasks to keep my enthusiasm going or i get bored
running the small estate was fun and sometimes tedious but something i enjoyed – but i get more respect from my TV cable account at $40 a month
i never expected Linden Lab to worship me and i rarely submitted tickets (i think 3 live chats and 2 tickets in 3 years). one live chat was just to say thank you for setting up my fist sim so quickly (it wasn’t automated yet and could take up to 2 weeks back in the $1675 for a sim days)
thank you for the kind words and while i am in-world a lot, the thing i have going for me is persistence over anything else and i suppose passion =)
Ener Hax
1 Sep 10 at 8:28 am