Key Economic Metrics through January 2008
Friday, February 22nd, 2008 at 8:29 AM by: Meta LindenHi Everyone!
I have published our monthly key metrics in excel, open document, and google doc formats. Links to these current versions are updated on our Economy page.
Concurrency, usage hours, and total resident-owned land continue to grow at a steady pace, while our count of Premium users dropped slightly again in January as we work on designing a better Premium offering.
You can come and discuss these or any other metrics analysis questions with me at my office hours in Beaumont, now on Thursday mornings at 8 AM (better for European customers) and Fridays at 10 AM.
I’ll put a reminder here to please keep comments on-topic and civil - we are open to constructive feedback but please keep it specific and on-topic, thanks.
February 22nd, 2008 at 8:53 AM
A better Premium offering sounds great. What might the changes be?
February 22nd, 2008 at 9:00 AM
Get freedom back to second life and you will see a rise in premiums.
February 22nd, 2008 at 9:08 AM
@ #2 What exactly do you mean? Honestly comments like yours are a waist of space. You said absolutely nothing. If you want LL to listen to you you have to be a lot less vague then that.
I swear half this blogs comments sound like a crazy guy rambling on the side of the street.
February 22nd, 2008 at 9:08 AM
TY, Mata!!
/me votes svc-835 for how to make owning mainland (aka going premium) better.
Also, any thoughts on getting stats on how many users use windows/mac/linux?
February 22nd, 2008 at 9:09 AM
Its pretty much pointless to offer any perks to Premium if the game is pretty much unusable due to all the show stopping bugs that go ignored for months in favor of flashy novelties. I was a premium customer but dropped it after I see I was throwing good money after bad.
Start listening to the customers finally, stop adding alot of junk and concentrate 100% on stabilizing the grid and people may pay to play.
February 22nd, 2008 at 9:09 AM
you can own land on mainland with no payment info on file when you buy for group and rent ‘tier’ donations at much less then rates LL charges. why would anyone want to be premium?
February 22nd, 2008 at 9:21 AM
@Eric - the community team, specifically Everett and Robin, have been meeting with residents to discuss this very topic for a while now. Many suggestions have been discussed and I’m sure they would welcome your input as well. Certainly there are additional features, such as @Sindy mentions SVC-835 that should be promoted and discussed in those meetings, and definitely if we feel they are pertinent to improving premiums they should get associated with MISC-763 which is the metaissue on improving Premiums. Please help vote and discuss these options, thanks for your help.
February 22nd, 2008 at 9:38 AM
Well, if there was something worth paying for, like proper instead of worsening performance, maybe not so many would stop paying lol.
Honestly, premiums have been dropping for ages. When you take off the numbers from the referral bonuses you give out, you are losing 10-15% of premiums EVERY single month, ie rotating your whole membership in 8 months lol.
You think that might indicate you’ve got things wrong, and what people want is stability, better performance, less scams and IP theft, and not more endless shinies that just make things worse?
I mean, active user count isn’t going up is it? oh, it’s just recovered from the drop in October :-O
February 22nd, 2008 at 9:40 AM
@ 5 Phil: Right on the button dude.
@ 3 Dante: It’s unfortunate you don’t understand what Bobo was talking about, but that doesn’t mean he’s rambling, and it doesn’t give you the right to flame him. Anyone acquainted with the last few months decisions from LL know exactly what he’s talking about.
Now mind you, I don’t agree with him. I think the decisions to stop gambling and shut down the banks are sensible. They’re not restrictions of “freedom”… they are reasonable user protections. TRUE freedom means protection from abuse and likely harm… not the ability to do whatever we durn well please (regardless of harm to others).
Not sure I agree with the way LL carried out the ban, but that’s typical LL for ya. Great ideas, poor implimentation. Still, there are some other things going on in SL that I wish LL would have the guts to step up and shut down. I don’t think Second Life was ever intended as a focus gathering for the worst perverts on the planet, and IMO it degrades the environment for LL to tolerate things that are obvious offenses to humanity. (They shut down the Nazi hate groups. So there are limits). I’m no book-burner, but there is a definite line between being tolerant and being stupidly so.
“Some people are so open-minded their brains fall out.”
How does this all effect key metrics? Because all of these are rock-core, foundation issues that determine how people will use SL, whether they continue to use it, etc. One thing the key metrics never seem to point out is that SL has lost something like 90% or more of the users that have ever tried the system. That’s a pretty solid metric.
Something else not indicated by the metrics: People who have long ago “quit” Second Life are still listed as residents on SL. How do I know? Because I completely shut down an avatar more than a year ago. I mean completely. Removed payment information. Told the system to wipe the av out. The system responded, telling me the avatar would be kept online for 60 days in case I changed my mind, after which it would be deleted. And guess what? The avatar is still online, still receiving email from groups more than a year later.
So I guess that explains how LL retains a large number of their 12 million + “residents”. Interesting how the key metrics don’t reflect such facts. Myself, I’m greatful for that. Because what that shows us very effectively is how many “residents” no longer use SL, for whatever worth that may be.
Myself, I don’t think the key metrics really reflect the heart of what is going on with Second Life. As one person put it, “A 10% growth in food production with a 40% growth in population isn’t healthy growth”. Sure, the food production increases, but the population is going to starve.
Myself, I’d rather see key metrics produced by a 3rd party source, one that isn’t biased toward LL and SL, that shows the TRUE growth/failure/health of the system.
February 22nd, 2008 at 9:50 AM
Scuse the double post, but I just noticed something in key metrics, a real eye-opener.
“Jan-08 2,210,107,914 $8,231,372 24,420 261,269 197,700,000 $744,564″
Now, the last two figures are titled, “LL L$ sales” and “LL US$ sales”
Now if I understand correctly… is this indicating that LL is actually selling L$ on the open market? (Something LL swore they would never do. Yet another broken promise).
If I’m misunderstanding, LL, please set the record straight. Because the titles of your key metrics make it appear that Linden Lab is competing against its customers by selling their own L$ on the open market.
Now, if that’s not the case, if that refers to LindeX sales (which is doubtful) that falls far short of the acclaimed “$75,000″ a day in such transactions (or is it more by now?).
Bottom line point: the key metrics really aren’t as informative as they need to be.
February 22nd, 2008 at 9:54 AM
To Paraphase Benjamin Disreali “there’s lies, damned lies and SL Metrics”
February 22nd, 2008 at 9:56 AM
Love these numbers. HEY ! your getting better in doing funny numbers. Bt still its not belieable……….Nice try……….You still believe people are that dum to believe them? Just say it they are as real as the possiblity of phyically walling with your rl body within sl…..WOnderts when the rah rah kiddies wil come in and do their best kissy kissy with here…………
February 22nd, 2008 at 10:19 AM
This has nothing to do with the metrics, or maybe it does in some ways-I am using the windlight viewer, it is almost the same as the regular as far as lag goes and it is much more beautiful thatn the regular but, my friends list does not show up a lot of times-I would like to file a bug report but it takes a technical degree, I have called support to tell them and they tell me to file a bug report-it is simple;
MY FRIENDS LIST DOES NOT SHOW UP WHEN I USE WINDLIGHT!
will this get seen? it is the closest I can manage to the reporting process, (things could work simpler in SL)thanks!
February 22nd, 2008 at 10:48 AM
@ 13 Atrhena Whizenhunt
hey hun it isnt very hard at all to file a bug report
Torley Linden has also made a wonderful video that would help you learn step by step here:
http://blog.secondlife.com/2008/01/17/tip-of-the-week-18-how-to-report-a-bug/
and the follow up to this one is one:
QUICK-Searching the Issue Tracker
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAlXK5hSVMc&eurl=http://blog.secondlife.com/page/5/
or you can check the Jira site for known issues related to your problem and if it is there or your file the report pass it to others who are having same issue and have them report on it aswel. (”IT” being the URL linking to your report)
If there is anything i can help with your welcome to contact me in world. maybe we can find the FIX together cause i had same issue with the friends list on windlight but i am now using the dazzle client.
Hope this helps in some way.
~kitten
February 22nd, 2008 at 10:49 AM
“ADDED NOTE”
Addi to Jira site is:
http://Jira.SecondLife.com
February 22nd, 2008 at 10:56 AM
i don’t have a ’solution’ but i do have obervations:
1. The stats DO include “Active Users”, for example, 544,000 active users in January 2008. So that helps avoid the issue of being confused by 12 million registered users, of which many are inactive or gone.
2. The stats show “Premium Users” as 92,000 in January 2008 and yes that IS a low percent. It’s held at that level since October 2007 and was growing rapidly before in last 2006 through early 2007 with a weird drop in July
3. As far as incentive for Premium User, for me it was always the stipend and the land allowance. And beyond that the right to buy an island. Unless something drastic was removed from free accounts (like the Build menu ? ability to upload images ? ) not sure what incentive there would be.
February 22nd, 2008 at 10:59 AM
Key Second Life metrics for January
The latest Second Life metrics and statistics are out from Meta Linden this month, covering to the end of January 2008. Details about how Second Life fared ….
February 22nd, 2008 at 11:11 AM
16 said…………3. As far as incentive for Premium User, for me it was always the stipend and the land allowance. And beyond that the right to buy an island. Unless something drastic was removed from free accounts (like the Build menu ? ability to upload images ? ) not sure what incentive there would be.
Well is they took away from building the freebie accounts. Can you imagen what SL would look like? Even more free objects for those that at that point can`t build to start with. Might not make that much differeance but I say just limit the amount of play time they can use while in game. That will
do it.
February 22nd, 2008 at 11:14 AM
A comment about Jira, well if people just add add add add add add so called bugs its nowonder the poor people doing those reports don`t get half of them done right or on time. We need a better faster more reliable system. This one just is not working as it did at the start.
February 22nd, 2008 at 11:25 AM
When you got a “do-drop-in” game where a BA is able to sit on their butt, open a store with BIAB and make money and buy land from estate owner, pay a small monthly tier fee, why pay for a PA? And not to mention the multiple alt. BAs that keep pouring in the door like a bunch of Army ants simply to game the system.
The incentive for BA is a lot sweeter.
The incentive to go to a PA right out of the gate would have to be extraordinary! People lust for money and land. That $300 a week could be raised to $500 a week. You got some old charter accounts that are getting $1000 a week. Pretty sure their one time incentive is all used up. Usually the more money you have the more your going to spend or save.
First land incentive didn’t go over well. Even the LL newbie continents turned into a ghost town sims. I think that failed because no one wanted to live in a structured environment. So offering any type of land deal wouldn’t work. Someone would find a way to beat the system, tag on a extortionate $95,000 price and call it rare.
I think the bottom line incentive is money. $2000 to start $500 a week. If they should decide to cancel within the first month billing period, then their account goes on hold for 30 days with NO stipend!
February 22nd, 2008 at 11:25 AM
@ 19
it’s a matter of everyone doing their part to help.
If people try and think for afew abou t anything NEW it isnt always going to work like what we are used to… and in understanding that POINT we can then see why NEW takes a while to work right.. if no one reports then nothing can be done to FIX the issues at hand…
right?
Report and VOTE the issues with most votes will get delt with in it’s own time..
andwe in time will get it moving along faster and better then the old way.
we can waist our time “going on and on” about the bad in things.. or we can suck it up and become a part of those who help FIX IT!
I myself want it fixed so i will report and VOTE
just my thoughts….
February 22nd, 2008 at 11:40 AM
I am not new to jira. I used but frankly speaking there should be a better system. Just like the older one that it replaced it became over run with reports that had little to do with real problems that caused be solved if they took alittle time to figure out the problem. Slowly this system is becoming just like that one. How many bug reports are showing daily on jira? How many are really be dealt with reight? Love to see the stats on that. Meaning real numbers…….
February 22nd, 2008 at 12:15 PM
@16: “with a weird drop in July”
When gambling was banned and the real estate market collapsed.
February 22nd, 2008 at 12:23 PM
I’m a premium account holder because I support SL. I just wish SL supported me. I own land and have a business .. which is hard to run when I can’t build .. and people can’t tp to visit .. or buy because SL is borked again. Right now the asset server is down .. and of course there is no mention in the blog of all the problems. The metrics are spin control. The reality is that the real supporters of SL the premium accounts are leaving SL because LL refuses to FIX it!!!. They would rather spend time adding new flash to attract new customers that don’t contribute anything .. than fix the system so the people that do contribute will stay.
February 22nd, 2008 at 1:00 PM
Land is to hight & Sl need to flood market again im About to leave sl Because of price Gaging land owners !!!
February 22nd, 2008 at 1:12 PM
#20 - you’re on the right track - think cash or some facsimile is the best incentive -
your math won’t work out though - 500/week=2000/month
unless someone’s paying their premium account by the week, SL would end up paying their PAs to be PAs, rather than making money off of them . . . i can’t see them doing that
change land tax structure, maybe . . .
February 22nd, 2008 at 1:33 PM
There’s not much value in premium membership unless you want to own land, I’m glad this is being discussed and have been at meetings where Robin has raised the issue and asked for feedback.
The 8am meetings aren’t great for Europeans who work full time :p to be honest I think Europeans get the better deal out of office hours already. Are European premiums falling faster than other parts of the world?
February 22nd, 2008 at 2:05 PM
What i love to see is the average (perhaps min, max) land price per sqm on Mainland sales. Definitly not including the skewed saleprices on private sims, where sim owner get their money by different tier pricing. Just measuring apples where aples are eaten.
All in all, it will give a good indicator how land sales fare in SL, ofcourse there will always be differences, beachland is more valuable than a steep mountainrif, but those should be fairly constant against the average sqm price.
February 22nd, 2008 at 2:07 PM
“Are European premiums falling faster than other parts of the world?” Probably, because premium accounts are only beneficial for mainland which attracts VAT to EU residents.
February 22nd, 2008 at 2:09 PM
The only numbers that mean anything are the total numbr of residents and the total hours. More free accounts, more time online. Makes sense untill you try and talk to these “residents”. I can point many areas that have “residents” dancing, sitting, etc to get their mealsy camping revenue. And hey, if that’s the way you want to use your sim resources, more power to ya. But, I bet my boots, if these places would cease to exist, the inworld hours would drop.
Good luck trying to make anything out of these numbers. All fluff to clam the masses.
February 22nd, 2008 at 2:14 PM
The best thing to add to “Premium” accounts would be the ability to have SL store a copy of all your inventory on a seperate database server so if you happen to loose your items during a sim rollback / database error / other crash.. you could fill out a request and your backup items would be re-synched with your online / inworld inventory. That would probably be the best reason ever to have a premium account.
February 22nd, 2008 at 2:19 PM
This probem may be because their are just too many bots in sl this is having a real effect on the markets because sl is becoming far to automated in my opinion. Example new users carnt earn money even camping was a good way to introduce users to earning money but now camping bots have taken that away from users, Also automated landbots are starting to affect the land market in a big way this affects the land stats because they buy everything below market value. Users now relise they dont even have to look at their pc they just run bots and go to work or get on with reallife so they are not interacting with the world like normal Avs. Basicly we need more players and less bots. But its still a impessive Platform
February 22nd, 2008 at 2:32 PM
@ 16 & 18 and all the others…. What are you trying to do, give LL ideas of how to further degrade the system? You people have got to be kidding.
Do you know what would happen if LL further limited what Freebie accounts can do? We’d see SL become an un-peopled wasteland. People would get fed up and go find something else to do. Already apparently 90%+ of those who have tried Second Life have found it not worth their time. Now you’re proposing further limitations so that even more people make the same decision? How is LL’s view toward premium vs freebie accounts even any of your concern?
I may not be pro-LL… but at least I don’t stand around trying to think of ways to get LL to slice their own throats. Lordy, some folks just don’t think. LOL
February 22nd, 2008 at 2:40 PM
The key thing that will improve metrics is an overall feeling of confidence on the part of individual residents, and of third parties with time, money, and energy to invest in the second life platform.
A barrier to that feeling of confidence, in my view, is the perception that a few key members of the Linden management are not up to task (or in Cory’s case, gone).
Robin and Philp are well suited to roles within Linden Labs, but the scale of present day Second Life calls for more experienced, seasoned pros. Philip would make an excellent chief evangelist. The Tao of Linden ‘choose your own work’ philosophy, however, is not suited to the service and what needs to be accomplished. Robin makes too many missteps in setting and explaining policy - this is not her strong suit.
Cory was a great technical contributor, but there has not yet been a Linden tech lead yet who has dictated priorities internally, shown the leadership needed, and who has proactively communicated with the residents on a frequent basis.
In short, there need to be world class pros in the roles of CTO, VP of Community, and CEO. These are the three key roles that need the most leadership right now. Doing this will build confidence. It will inspire renewed investment in SL. That, in turn, is going to have a huge impact on metrics.
One hopes for the Board of Directors to step in and do the right thing.
February 22nd, 2008 at 3:12 PM
Statistics are like a drunk with a lampost: used more for support than illumination.
Sir Winston Churchill
February 22nd, 2008 at 3:26 PM
@10 Blinders,
LL has been selling L$ on the open market since August 2006. And yes, they have been selling on the open market. And no, they never promised not to sell on the open market, I’m not sure where you got that idea from. If they don’t sell L$ on the open market, where else would they sell them? Look at Page 4 of the latest metrics for the history of LL L$ sales.
Now, maybe what you mean is that LL is not using Market Sell orders, their sales are all Limit Sell orders, that is how they stabilize the L$ exchange rate. As far as I can tell, that process has not changed.
http://blog.secondlife.com/2006/08/31/linden-dollar-economy-update-1/#more-253
http://blog.secondlife.com/2006/10/03/linden-dollar-economy-update-2/
February 22nd, 2008 at 3:36 PM
@31 I like that idea, alot.
February 22nd, 2008 at 3:37 PM
What does LL expect? Let us see what they done: Framerates drop with every new shiny upgrade while system requirements rise accordingly, Making extremely buggy alpha versions of the client software available for public download and praise them as the “future of SL” is nothing but foolish (as if the official client were not buggy and sloooooow enough). The forced introduction of voice obviously is not a worthy enough “improvement” to attract new customers or keep the old ones, same for the winded light (see above). The ban of gambling left the international audience speechless. The abandoning of the first land program last summer shows it´s results by dropping new premium numbers. VAT is all but an attraction to european customers, who certainly were not amused by the ridiculous way LL introduced it.
LL is tallking of a “bonus” for premiums now. I would applaud if they reintroduce the first land program.
I cannot agree with any restictions on free accounts, Logically free accounts turn to premium accounts when the people using them are attracted enough. Obviously they are not, and obviously the premiums are no longer. The conclusion is that both fractions seem to suffer equally - and this is the core problem.
SL never was a classic “gamers” paradise and probably will never become one. It´s hard to fly a spaceship on 12 frames per second (for five minutes until the spaceship crashes on region crosing - PC included) on a computer which serves perfectly for this in any average shooter game. The average age of SL users is not comparable to the age of the average “gamer”, too. SL is a metaverse, a social network. LL should fix on this and give residents and newcomers a rock solid, user friendly and attractive platform. Not shiny features no one needs and wants this way. And LL should start talking to the people. Inworld.
February 22nd, 2008 at 3:40 PM
Allowing Premium Accounts only to have the right to upload textures, sounds etc, like that’s a great suggestion, pay to be able to pay to upload, it’s not really an incentive, it’s more of a reason to leave.
Land is the problem and how much it costs. Land presently is used as a asset by some to buy and sell for a profit, it’s like LL is offering a two tier land system, you can buy Mainland through auctions from LL or buy a Island direct, or if your so unlucky not to be able to buy a SIM from auction for whatever reason you can buy from residents at an inflated price, this locks people out from interacting with the game.
It should be that you have an EQUAL privilege (I know its not a right) to own your first space in LL at a set rate and it doesn’t have to be anything at all like First Land was set up.
Also if you want to rent land whether it be on the mainland or on private islands you should be a premium member.
February 22nd, 2008 at 3:51 PM
@16 and @23 Weird drop in July 2007.. that was also when voice was introduced and grid stability went to hell for whole month. (And has never fully recovered.)
February 22nd, 2008 at 4:12 PM
I agree we need to offer either more incentives for premium accounts. I am a premium account holder because I feel if I am using a service I should help support it.
A person having a basic account can own land on a private sim and other than not getting a small stipend every week, there is nothing differant betwen them and I.
Something has to be done about all these free accounts flooding SL.
I do not mean the ones who are legimate people who are out here creating things and helping make SL a nice place through their interactions in world, but the ohter basic accounts that are created for one purpose and that is to stalk, harass and grief people.
These are the people who just feel SL is nothing but a game.
SL is more than a game. it is a platform from which businesses are made, social contacts are built and even attend a RL college.
People who think SL is nothing but a game need to go back to Xbox or what ever else the kids are playing these days. People who do not pay for something have a tend to not care because it is free.
“I don’t think Second Life was ever intended as a focus gathering for the worst perverts on the planet, and IMO it degrades the environment for LL to tolerate things that are obvious offenses to humanity. (They shut down the Nazi hate groups. So there are limits). I’m no book-burner, but there is a definite line between being tolerant and being stupidly so”
What people do not understand is by allowing the above you are ta;lking about will end up with the the big companies leaving SL and they pump a lot of money into this game and through their advertising bring more residents into this world.
Allowing illegal content like rape and other violent acts towards people can end up in SL being shut down for all of us. The IDV coming up soon is not to take your rights away but to protect both the residents out here as well as LL themselves. If it was not illegal, then why are the Law Enforcement agencies out here investigating these sims that promote this type of behavior? Like one of the people I used to socialize with from one of these places told me ” if they have a basic acount on this sim, you can bet they are underage.” very disturbing and shows the obvious need for IDV.
The old saying “if you do not like what is going on in these sims, do not go there” does not fly. One they do not stay on these sims. They bring their demaning attitudes towards women and other groups of people outside their sim and harass people. When I see people acting up like this I read their profiles and a large portion of them are from these sims.
Why would a person pay for a service full of people who act this way? Could it be a lot of people are fed up with the underage residents that are out here ruining the SL experiance for others? Think about it.
The older premium players are leaving and being replaced by basic griefer accounts created easily by these underage kids who do not belong out here.
In my opinion give premium residents a higher stipend and put strict limits on basic accounts. maybe even a trial period to see if this is something you would like to pay for later like a lot of other services do. When the new viewer comes out with IDV make it across the board to both protect these young children as well has put some kind of control over the griefing and harassment that is going on. People who have thier confirmed RL name attached to the account might think a little more before acting up and if they do and are removed from SL, they cannot just turn around and create a new basic account and pick up where they left off.
My two cents.
February 22nd, 2008 at 4:31 PM
I suggested this before: pick some of the new features that have got a lot of votes, but aren’t otherwise getting any traction inside LL, and that make sense as a limited new feature, and make them a premium bonus.
February 22nd, 2008 at 5:00 PM
Stability is always the key. Nobody is going to buy anything if they can move easily for two minutes and then feel like they are stuck in jello for another 15 minutes. The concentration on the ads was a great first step in cleaning up sl of garbage.
Don’t make new land with so many empty spaces. Reclaim land from people who leave the game and resell that before making new islands and new land. There are too many fantastically beautiful places with nobody in them, sl ghostowns and attraction owners kill themselves trying to get the few available people to their attraction.
That would be the premium features I would be interested in.
February 22nd, 2008 at 5:00 PM
How bout you clear out the inactive or totally abandoned accounts from your oh so proud “Look at how many users we have” list? I think that at least half your active accounts are actually alt accounts, and therefor should NOT be included in your figures, since there is only one person behind two, or more accounts.
Are you brave enough to do this? Nah.
Greta
February 22nd, 2008 at 5:55 PM
Enhance Premium memberships AND eliminate griefers at the same time by deleting the content tab from the build menu for free accounts. Think about it.
February 22nd, 2008 at 6:33 PM
http://youtube.com/watch?v=B6JAJVAGC9M&feature=related
Just watch it… ^.^
February 22nd, 2008 at 6:58 PM
It just occured to me that the Age Band section mentions an “Unknown” Age Bucket.
Wasn’t a birth date always required to sign up? Does that number reflect charter accounts and/or pre-launch beta period accounts? Just curious.
February 22nd, 2008 at 7:28 PM
I am a basic account holder and last saw my minority in the 1970’s. So this stuff about BA’s being a bunch of kids is just easy cant with no quantitative evidence to back it up. I would further offer that since most crime is committed by adults in society, that you get SL users over 18 who act like morons isn’t all that surprising. Half the population, after all, has an IQ in double figures. All you can do is demand that sim managers and LL keep a tight reign on miscreants.
As for the sexual stuff, they have already eliminated age play (a move I support) and I personally have yet to see anyone engaging in it. In addition, the rape stuff mentioned above is consensual even if that is hard for some to comprehend. The sims that feature practices I personally find distasteful, such as scat, etc, I don’t go to. So stop attempting to be a self appointed morals weasel and leave adults who wish to engage in some vicarious sex play alone. Sex is a part of life in the real world and that it shows up in SL (mostly as just dumb fun) should not shock anyone with a brain. Really, some people need lessons in minding their own business. Besides, if sex was washed out of SL, it really would become a ghost town.
For example, I have been seeing more Japanese turning up in the english speaking sex sims. If SL does away with those sims, those users will just chuck SL when Meet Me comes online in April. Meet Me will be devoid of sexual content but will be oriented toward that country’s users linguistically and culturally, which SL is not, though it has kind of tried. So the sex is actually an incentive for many Japanese to keep returning to SL, like it or not.
As for why advertisers are leaving SL, I’m not sure they should have gotten involved in it in the first place in terms of opening offices or dealerships, etc on it. SL shoots itself in the foot because its traffic figures for each sim are so screwy as to be laughable. A better thing to do would be to list how many people are on a particular sim at any given moment (with a metric for how many of those are camping) rather than the bogus numbers they presently print in the search engine. I have gone to sims that supposedly have had over 50,000 visitors over the last whatever (what, two months?) and it is deserted. I go back again, there are two people. Conversely, I have been to sims that supposedly haven’t had anyone tread them and suddenly there are half a dozen folks there. This leads to a lot of frustration by users and people churning the teleports seeking sims that are actually populated. I can’t help but feel this adds strain to the system. So this must be corrected and the sooner, the better.
Furthermore, SL should be telling us how many different IP addresses are using it in a month as a truer measure of its actual user base. Counting avatar utilization is well, useless. The virtue of touting the IP number should be obvious since it takes into account one user owning several avatars but still recognizes him as only one entity.
And since Windlight was updated AGAIN, bloating my computer even further with these never ending full new versions that are mandatory downloads (or so it says on my computer), This has to stop. Either offer bite sized patches that fill in problem areas or have a longer lead time for the whole enchilada so that we don’t have to uninstall Windlight every now and again to reclaim what has become wasted hard drive space. If Firefox can do it, so can LL.
I love SL, so don’t get me wrong. It really is fun. But this can still be done better. LL has some real smart people, though I feel that perhaps they take on too much with all the competing versions (I’m pretty ignorant abut computers, but are Havok and Dazzle really that necessary?) of clients and thus stretch their resources thinner than necessary. Or so at least it seems to me, fwiw.
February 22nd, 2008 at 7:50 PM
How many of those 500.000 users are camp bots?
Wish someone with too many time on his/her hands would actually count that for us.
I bet it is an interesting figure!
February 22nd, 2008 at 8:05 PM
When I signed onto Second Life just over 2 years ago it was a rising star, the only virtual world worth considering spending your time to make things, socialize, and explore in. Here are some factors that made SL a place that held value and made it grow.
1. There were no free accounts. You could sign up for a trial account but in the end you would have to submit your bank info and pay to be a member of the SL community. Membership had value to it’s users.
2. Land prices were rising steadily, as they did so, the SL economy over all was much more vital, growing as well. Land flooding by LL hadn’t started yet, and so realestate investors had the confidence to buy and sell. In turn players in SL typically had money in their wallets.
3. Performance wasn’t perfect, but the vast number of changes hadn’t been forced upon users in the frequent, unthinking fashion that would occur later on
4. Faith in the permissions system was still intact. Opensource experiments hadn’t introduced copy bot or other methods into widespread distribution yet. The perception was that your hours of work in SL were safe.
5. Live help still existed, and a perception of LL’s commitment to functionality was more prevalent.
6. People were actually optimistic about new shiny things being introduced.
SL still touts itself as the only virtual world of it’s kind available, but by the end 2008 that claim will be very hollow indeed. New worlds employing higher performance graphics engines are already growing and taking away the element in SL that was willing to pay to be here.
Eve Online isn’t even as broad based as SL but has grown steadily alongside it, now sporting over 200k PAYING members, subscribers, and this in a sci fi world, where there is business but no content creation. What gives? Better graphics, better stability, better communication between players.
Blue Mars promises an advanced 3d model of Mars after it has been terraformed, allowing not only business, land ownership, but also content creation. Their Mesh based graphics system will allow literally millions of polys in any given frame of view, SL currently displays polys well below that, in fact the graphics quality of SL is still basically stuck in the 1990s. Reality is the key to creating an immersive, addictive environment.
Active Worlds, which oddly looks a bit like SL but is much more lame was the preeminent virtual world of the 1990s, now they boast 5000 premium members and dropping. What is happening to them, clearly is a fate that awaits SL if they don’t change their policies and work out the issues causing customer disatisfaction.
I see my entry is getting too huge, so I will cut the list short, but there are more MMOVWs (Massive Multiplayer Online Virtual Worlds) waiting in the wings to steal us all away from SL. And I’m not even mentioning WOW, or EQ as stats.
All of these games lack the broad based scope of SL but pose a major threat of dragging away premium members of this world because they have invested themselves in creating value for their members. Not creating a “free” world for pseudo members.
If SL cannot redirect the economy, land values, etc. into a steadily upward trend like it had 2 years ago, loss of members, even free members will be exponential.
End free accounts except for alt accounts of premium members. It will hurt badly in the short tem, and increase stability in the long term.
Stop restraining market growth by flooding new land into the game every time the price goes up. Let land work as an investment.
Don’t stop the new shinies, but get a handle on when to introduce them. Stability, and functionality should come first, then careful introduction of cool new things.
SL doesn’t have much time left to keep it’s preeminent standing as the best VW in the RW. All of the interesting activities in SL depend on SL remaining financially viable for it’s members. It really is about money.
That’s my personal view, with all flaws and inadequacies of reason that are part of my character. I really believe radical action is required to keep SL from fading away.
February 22nd, 2008 at 8:29 PM
Are Island owners counted as Premiums? They probably should be. Personally stipend is a waste of time I would be just as happy with paying whatever it works out to be less to recieve no stipend. And it would take one more task from LL servers to calculate.
Land, islands should never be worth more than $1695US unless they have content. LL need to be able to supply islands near instantly.
Free accounts are primarly used for free bots, the actual residents are a minority nowdays.
February 22nd, 2008 at 8:45 PM
Greta: They do clear out abandoned accounts. Look at the Linden dollar parcel auctions … most of those are parcels owned by abandoned accounts.
Inky:
* Rising land prices were choking the economy. They made a few speculators rich, but other people quit expanding because they just plain couldn’t afford it.
* There were major performance problems 2 years ago. Sim limits were 40 but practically a sim with 20-30 people in it was likely to crash. With more than 10 people you sometimes had to remove all your attachments before you could cross a sim boundary or teleport.
* People were already copying products from SL before copybot or the open source client - copybot just demonstrated that people were demanding perfection of something that was inherently imperfect. The biggest cost of copybot? People are STILL buying those useless “copybot detectors” that spam everyone in the sim.
And I don’t see *anyone* pushing a product that’s even in the same category than SL other than the far less sophisticated “ActiveWorlds” and “There”. I’ve looked, too. Everything I’ve found more recent than SL is fundamentally locked in to a single game or to a single theme. If you can show me something that’s even in the same ball park, please do. Eve Online and Blue Mars aren’t it. What do you see that’s actually coming online this year?
February 22nd, 2008 at 9:20 PM
Argent, one thing I see that could be very well to functional stages by the end of this year is Open Sim. That is likely to be SL’s biggest direct competitor. From what I’ve seen, the people associated with that project are very serious about what they’re doing. Yes, they’re not even close to functional yet. But neither was SL the first 3 or 4 years. Open Sim has made an incredible amount of progressin the few months they’ve been in operation. I think it’s quite possible they will eat LL’s lunch.
Reagarding Key Metrics and LL’s honesty in presenting the facts, here’s one’ key metric I would like to see:
How many UNIQUE, non-alt users have visited the board in the last 7 to 30 days.
We find these stats absolute: Visitors over the last 60 days seem significant. But if we look back 30 days instead, that number drops like a rock. And if we look at the last week, that number drops through the floor.
I figure a person who doesn’t use SL once in 7 days is probably an alt account. So likely that 7-day figure more closely reflects the actual, active membership of SL.
Again LL, we’re not dummies. No one believes the stats presented thus far. So how about presenting information that is valid. That’s why people complain about these metrics, because they don’t believe they’re “key” and they don’t believe they accurately reflect the actual health and membership of Second Life.
February 22nd, 2008 at 9:25 PM
Oh, one other key metric I’d like to see….
L$ sales divided by BASIC (free) and Premium (paid) members. In other words… who buys the most merchandise?
That might give us some real data to put behind this free vs premium argument. So far, the solutions I’ve seen above are pretty lame and will only serve to harm SL.
You don’t encourage people to become Premium members by restricting Free members. That will just make people angry and leave SL. You encourage people to be Premium members by offering them BONUSES. And it better not be “bonuses” that free members are already enjoying or again, you’re going to tick off a lot of people.
Just because a person is a “free” member doesn’t mean they never spend money on SL. It just means they don’t give that money to Linden Lab.
February 22nd, 2008 at 9:38 PM
OpenSim is using the same client as SL. So at the most it’s going to remain a poor cousin of SL, especially the way it’s tied to a virtual machine environment on the server.
Show me something significantly better, something with those “higher performance graphics engines” you’re talking about. I’d love to see it.
February 22nd, 2008 at 10:37 PM
Stability stability stability
Take some time off from doing anything else and stabilize the grid. When a sim goes down, give an in game warning at least for scheduled outages. Say a green grid looking symbol=a-ok, yellow countdown=30 minutes, red= 2 minutes. Maybe PAs could get TPed to a safe grid- like meet new people and don’t loose yer stuff, wile us BAs just get the warning.
I third post 31.
Limit BAs to transferring 5000 L$ per month if I’m not running a business 20 USDs is plenty to spend on stuff and if I’m running a business then I should have a PA.
February 22nd, 2008 at 10:43 PM
I think Entropia Universe for all it’s faults has a chance to pull away paying SL users. It offers a more stable platform in terms of performance. It is good not only for content creation and marketing, but also touted as high performance enough for action gaming. This is something many people wish SL could do. But I also understand Entropia does not have near the population yet, and has an incredibly huge, slow download in order to get started. Avatars are of superior quality, with more options for individualizing, graphics speed is faster too. I hear they don’t have flying or mappable teleporting. I haven’t taken time to try them out either, I am too fully invested here which is why I am so concerned. But Argent, you asked for a name. The real drain will be multiple names, as disinterest in what SL has to offer grows.
In referrence to permissions issues and things getting copied, I used a key word in that paragraph that I should probably emphasize, PERCEPTION, that creations were safe from theft. That perception is fully gone now in SL.
Yes processors were slower and so sims had less population capacity, and two years ago they could get away with that. What do they use now for a class 5 sim a dual processor? Do they use Quads? Doesn’t seem like it, but it would be a good idea. We also saw far less asset server issues and inventory loss at that time, search was more or less reliable until about a year ago, actually it seems to have improved recently, though others tell me they don’t think so.
you said, “* Rising land prices were choking the economy. They made a few speculators rich, but other people quit expanding because they just plain couldn’t afford it.”
More than a few speculators were making money instead of losing money on land transactions. And though things looked pretty cluttered even then, Ad farms today are no longer ignorable. The economic growth is on the record, not even close to matched a year later.
Holding it’s own, or losing members is a bad sign for any business, SL included. Growth is the only indicator of future survival and properity, are we really seeing growth in SL and it’s virtual economy?
February 22nd, 2008 at 11:04 PM
Well, these metrics are for us to use and look at. Maybe we can’t figure them out, but they are helpful in a way.
I keep on checking posts here and there and become confused, on a post on metric we started commenting about lag or I don’t what.
We all know there is instability, sometimes we tp and get stuck in lalaland or the whole sim just collapse… But come on these guys are still trying and things are becoming better. And whatever we say, it is easy to know that we have new citizens, I keep on bumping to atleast 10 on daily basis even when trying to avoid popular places…
LL thanks and keep up what your doing, yes we need faster upgrades and better performance, and as a premium I would like to get better perks as well.
As for the metrics, well keep them coming
February 23rd, 2008 at 12:02 AM
“the real world and that it shows up in SL (mostly as just dumb fun) should not shock anyone with a brain. Really, some people need lessons in minding their own business.”
Read below and see why it is all of our business in SL what happens on these sims, It sounds as if you need a lesson or two on both the law and the terms of service.
“In the UK, it was announced on 30 August 2006 that possession of depictions of rape would become a criminal offence [1], including those involving consenting adults, and images which are faked.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_pornography”
“The diversity of things to see and do within Second Life is almost unimaginable, but our community has made it clear to us that certain types of content and activity are simply not acceptable in any form. Real-life images, avatar portrayals, and other depiction of sexual or lewd acts involving or appearing to involve children or minors; real-life images, avatar portrayals, and other depictions of sexual violence including rape, real-life images, avatar portrayals, and other depictions of extreme or graphic violence, and other broadly offensive content are never allowed or tolerated within Second Life.
Please help us to keep Second Life a safe and welcoming space by continuing to notify Linden Lab about locations in-world that are violating our Community Standards regarding broadly offensive and potentially illegal content. Our team monitors such notification 24-hours a day, seven-days a week. Individuals and groups promoting or providing such content and activities will be swiftly met with a variety of sanctions, including termination of accounts, closure of groups, removal of content, and loss of land. It’s up to all of us to make sure Second Life remains a safe and welcoming haven of creativity and social vision.”
So yes it is not only illegal, it is putting the rest of the people in Second Life at risk by losing everything to Law Enforcement closing down Second Life due to the small percentage of people that think this is fun.
I recall all these people saying Second Life was going to fold when gambling was banned. It appears to me there are a lot more people online now than there was when gambling was legal.
I read a study that said that out of the people surveyed in Second Life only 2% were there to gamble and only 13% were there for sex.
I do not see Second Life crumbling and going out of business because people cannot do harmful things that are both against the law and the terms of service.
February 23rd, 2008 at 12:56 AM
I would become a premium member tomorrow if they brought back live ingame help and gave the entire jira system a swift kick, to be replaced with real Lindens chewing some real asses because of all the angry IM’s they are getting from CUSTOMERS not getting what they paid for.
February 23rd, 2008 at 5:20 AM
how about offering nolag and theft protection for premiums?
February 23rd, 2008 at 5:22 AM
How about http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/MISC-944 ?
February 23rd, 2008 at 5:46 AM
Insky:
The change in sim crossing behavior was not caused by improved hardware, it was caused by improved software. I’m talking about the SAME sims on the SAME class servers.
Entropia universe is no different from any other MMORPG. You are restricted to their theme, and building content is barely a step above fish mining. It’s got nothing to do with Second Life.
Land speculators making money during an economic bubble are irrelevant. A bubble is a zero sum game, and when it burst (as it inevitably did) everyone who made money during the bubble was matched by someone who lost money when it burst. I have friends who bought land near the peak, despite my pointing out that the land prices were unsustainable, and they got burned when it burst.
And, no, the bubble didn’t “grow the economy”. It didn’t create anything of long term value, the way people like June Dion or Hyasynth Tiramisu or Whinge Languish do. Their businesses have grown steadily in SL, they have been conservative with their expenses, and they’re continuing to flourish. THAT is what drives real economic growth… not short term virtual land bubbles.
The music industry have a perception that their “product” should be safe from copying too. That’s been proven wrong, and they’re ever so slowly moving away from the idea that they have to have unbreakable copy protection… as Steve Jobs argued back when he opened the iTMS with its ‘honor system’ quality DRM. EMI’s made the plunge, the rest will follow. The perception that copy protection is “impossible” is not restricted to Second Life, and what’s been happening in SL is just a reflection of what’s happening in the world.
The only way to have a hope of restricting copying is to build a world where real content creation is impossible, where all you’re allowed to do is pretend to be creating things, like in Warcraft, like in Extropia. There’s no room for a June Dion or a Hyasinth Tiramisu in that kind of fake world, so no matter how cool the graphics are they have nothing to do with Second Life.
February 23rd, 2008 at 5:59 AM
Oh man, Entropia is even more messed up than I thought!
Let’s compare it with Second Life, where anyone can do something like this…
//A simple rocket script. Launches object up when touched.
//Sit on it for an interesting ride!
default {
touch_start(integer i) {
llSetForce(, 0); //FLY!
}
}
Here’s how you get special powers in Entropia:
MIND ESSENCE is a refined energy substance needed to use the different MindForce abilities. MIND ESSENCE is made by combining VIBRANT SWEAT and FORCE NEXUS using the ENMATTER REFINER. You must have MIND ESSENCE in your INVENTORY in order to use MindForce abilities.
When standing near a creature, the sweat gatherer may activate this MindForce and literally gather sweat (VIBRANT SWEAT) from the animal. This is DONE by activating the GATHER SWEAT action from the ACTION LIBRARY.
Hands up everyone who wants to go around “sweat mining” before they can run canned scripts blessed by Linden Labs.
February 23rd, 2008 at 7:35 AM
@36 Max Desoto:
“LL has been selling L$ on the open market since August 2006. And yes, they have been selling on the open market. And no, they never promised not to sell on the open market, I’m not sure where you got that idea from.”
False. Until they decided to start selling L$ they create, Philip swore up and down that they would *never* sell L$. From the economic town hall held August 30, 2005:
http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=59668
Philip Linden: A: Explained the payment-to-sellers options already. LL will always just facilitate a transaction between buyer and seller. We will not ‘hold’ the currency, set pricing, or create new L$ to sell.
…
Philip Linden: Hannibal Lektor: My question is from so far back you always said LL will not be involved in the sell or trade of $L. How do you defend yourself from your own history and how long til you aren’t the middle man ?
Philip Linden: A: There is a difference between serving as a market between users and minting L$ currency to sell for our own profit.
Philip Linden: The latter is what we have always explained does not make sense for us to do, because it would make the economy unstable and provide no revenues for currency sellers.
And, from another thread around the same time, Philip said:
http://forums.secondlife.com/showpost.php?p=214370&postcount=55
“We think it is important that L$ be bought from other users, not from us. Beyond being a fair way to establish a market, this means that incremental money spent buying things in SL goes into the pockets of those who created the content, not LL. This is a critical component of organic growth.”
February 23rd, 2008 at 7:51 AM
As one of those underaged bots, i mean free account holders, it is in no way fun to read suggestions that I should either lose the ability to script or build or both. To also limit the amount of L$ I should be able to transfer in-game would just be another nail in an already shut coffin.
I came to SL to script and build and ended up meeting quite a few nice people. I’ve created things that made it possible for others to have more fun and along the way I learned a few things. I’d say thats win-win for everyone involved.
Limiting my ability to create things and getting money for it would turn what I’d like to call a very good thing into something almost completely uninteresting for me. Now I spend a few hours per day creating and being social while adding to the diversity of SL and I would think three of four times before getting an upgrade to a premium account since that would take much of the fun out of this. Forcing anyone interested in creating content into paying for that ability would at least snub my interest.
The problem with griefers is always there when something like a community forms online and, as far as I know, technical solutions are often more clear cut than social ones. The same thing goes for copy-bots. Griefers can be dealt with more easily if creating alts is more expensive and if IP-bans are used, for example. Since I focus on scripting, copy-bots don’t bother me too much but there will always be this kind of problem when content has to be sent to a client to be rendered.
Either change SL into a static content environment or handle theft and griefers via the support channels. The latter is the only viable way, as I see it.
One might play with the idea about moving more of the social power to the residents. One suggestion is to add a voting system where residents can put down a vote for the banning of another griefing resident. If enough residents agree, an IP-ban is created for somethings like an hour. For every time the resident misbehaves and gets voted out of the system, the ban gets longer.
This can then be tweaked in a number of ways. Lindens are immune and perhaps the vote of a premium account holder counts as two votes or more and the vote of a Linden counts as ten votes or something along those lines.
Yet again a technical solution adds a clear cut way to handle some of the problems.
February 23rd, 2008 at 8:12 AM
Increase again the weekly pay and maybe people might return to being paying members.
February 23rd, 2008 at 8:32 AM
The blog entry contains some interesting, and unrealistically upbeat, claims. The trends graphs that we can drill down to show more of the story, and it’s consistent across all metrics.
SL had dramatic growth at the end of 2006 and possibly into Q1 2007. Thereafter growth across all metrics appears to have peaked and stalled. We also see some declines and then modest recoveries in some metrics.
The message from the data is pretty clear - in order to grow the service and be a sustainable business, Linden Labs needs to come up with new strategies. And unless they’re sitting on a pile of cash and/or want to raise another round of funding, it’d best be done soon.
P.S.
I love the service, when it’s available.
February 23rd, 2008 at 8:45 AM
2007 was a difficult year for Second Life. 2008’s not looking much better.
The establishment of anonymous accounts in June 2006 opened the doors to underage players. This resulted in international legal scrutiny, increased exposure to legal liability and damaging media coverage. Linden Lab responded by intruding into residents’ sexual relationships and expelling two consenting adults for underage roleplay - even though no underage players were involved. Refusal to close the anonymous accounts and dogged insistence on an ineffective and unsound ID-based age verification system cost Linden Lab considerable political capital with no benefit. ID-based age verification is no better at screening underage players than credit-card verification, nor is it more ‘fair’. It rarely works for residents outside their home jurisdictions and, in many countries, it may not even be legal.
While anonymous accounts may have launched Second Life’s dramatic growth phase (October 2006 to June 2007), failure to formulate a land management strategy resulted in a speculative bubble as Linden Lab first starved and then flooded the mainland market. Islands ceased to be an attractive alternative when LL raised tier charges from $195 to $295 early in the cycle. Worst affected were the very residents who comprised the growth phase. The unexpected policy reversal on gambling in July further undermined Linden Lab’s credibility. Growth stopped. Premium accounts and total hours remained flat throughout the second half of 2007.
The overnight imposition of VAT (15-25% sales tax) on European residents (40% of SL’s population) in September not only trashed European landowners, but it caused considerable friction between European and North American residents as Linden Lab, a supposedly global company, began charging based on regional factor prices. It also led to the crazy situation whereby European landowners (some owning dozens of islands) who shifted their tier to North American business partners lost access to Live Chat support.
Longstanding problems of asset management, grid instability and poor customer service have undermined residents’ confidence in Second Life’s entire technological and managerial infrastructure. While organic deve