April 26, 2006 at 9:05 pm was my birth in Second Life®, or rez day. Today is my 4th Rez Day in Second Life. Unlike my three previous rez days, this one is bitter-sweet in that I no longer have the faith.
No longer do I have any faith in Linden Lab to actually execute a robust metaverse offering capable of meeting true market demand. I no longer have the faith that a true 3D world wide, one avatar, grid will develop soon. And once again it all comes down to money.
Oh well.
When I did my recap last year, I stated:
Overall I view my first three years as a success, both professionally and personally. I wonder what will happen in year four.
Year four saw the ending of my full time work in Second Life. It saw all of my clients end their efforts in-world. It saw the closing of Los Arboles and Meta Magic Studio sims. It saw my average in world time go down from averaging 60 plus hours a week in world to less than two.
Oh well.
It will be interesting to see how Linden Lab is able to fight off some of the lawsuits coming at them. I am especially interested to see the ruling on the Plaintiffs Carl Evans, Donald Spencer, Valerie Spencer and Cindy Carter class action lawsuit against Linden Lab on property ownership, misrepresentation and fraud. I recommend reading Tateru Nino’s article on this lawsuit on Massively.
Oh well.
I believe the adoption of rich 3D virtual worlds for real world work is more than three years away. I think “light immersive” virtual worlds are a freakin joke and are nothing more than 2D websites pretending to be virtual worlds. They suck!
I do have faith in the metaverse, but it will not be led by Linden Lab. I do have faith in the power of user created content. I do have faith in social networks.
Keep up the faith! Technology at the bleeding edge is not for the faint of heart or impatient mortals – or corporate decision makers.
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