Linden and the Fetid Core? Or simply a lack of direction

If you’re a business exploring options for leveraging the Second Life ‘platform’ there are further indications that our friends at Linden either have no sense of direction, have plans under wraps that impact their ability to provide answers, or just don’t give good service.

Nobody Fugazi posted on his frustrating experiences to understand the commercially licensing costs of the SL viewer. Aside from the perception that Linden would prefer not to talk to you (unless you’re worthy enough of a future press release) he has been put in a position where he can’t provide information back to a client on options for a custom viewer.

While I’d argue that the push-back he got from the SLDev list is primarily because of a widening belief that the idea of multiple viewers may further fragment the SL landscape, rather than an aversion to open information, I can’t quibble with the lack of service and support from Linden.

Anyone remember the Grid?

Announced with much fanfare by Linden as a resource for businesses wanting to work in SL, it’s really nothing more than an elaborate brochure with links to sources on the main site, WIKIs, etc. Lack of updating reflects, to my mind, either confusion, a lack of focus or resources, or an early indicator of a shift in strategy.

While corporations continue to pile into Second Life, the coming flood of competitors including entries from Asia may have Linden either looking at a joint venture, IPO, or shift in strategy. The lack of a significant impact by the Electric Sheep Company on their CSI New York venture leaves me wondering whether SL’s days as a potential consumer platform are numbered, smoothing the way towards more collaborative, educational and training type activities once considered the primary domain of ActiveWorlds.

Linden always treads a fine line between its various interests groups, and has adopted an open source strategy that is half in half out. It needs to negotiate the interests of the user community (and its interest groups), the property communities (mainland vs. island and those who have built objects in world vs. those who would import them from 3rd party applications), businesses, and developers.

Prokovy Neva looks at this balancing act and sees a ‘fetid core’, and I won’t argue that (especially as I don’t have the history to know). Nobody sums up:

It is easy to speculate that the Electric Sheep Company got a special deal – but effectively negating any option others might have through not having information available seems like the creation of a market owned by Linden Lab and the Electric Sheep Company. Whatever the reasoning, the fact that the information is not available to people who may be considered competitors of the Electric Sheep Company or part of some exotic group that Linden Lab whispers information to does seem unfair. It is dangerously close to giving even Prok some credence when it comes to the concept of a ‘Fetid Inner Core’ – I won’t agree with that, but if you read the facts, it is certainly hard to make an argument against it.

It’s interesting to note that the idea of the fetid core, or whatever you want to call it, has a long and well documented history in online gaming. Developers rely on a dedicated, passionate group of early adapters to drive a game and then, if the game is to have wider adoption, cuts the core loose. There is extensive literature on how this is handled – might be time to send the Lindens to a game developers conference to see what they can learn that can be applied to ‘LifeSims’.

What seems increasingly clear is that Linden has not communicated a clear vision of where Second Life will be a year or 5 years from now if evidenced by its actions. It speaks a good game about portability but excludes, for example, Multiverse from considerations around a portable avatar. It speaks a good game about creating a more open architecture but sends mixed signals on timing, plans and progress. It speaks a good game about opening its arms to business but then leaves its brochure-ware online and does little to support business.

On a separate but related note, Nobody – you are not alone. I have 4 requests in to Linden on various business-related issues to which I’ve not received a reply in weeks or months. I’d suggest you not sit around staring at your in box, I don’t suspect the reply will come any time soon.