Monopolies
Viale Linden says there are no monopolies on gateways. It would be interesting to know what is required to open a gateway and how to go about opening one. It appears one must respond to a Linden Request for Proposal (RFP) and agree to pay tier on 4 regions. Setup fees are waved, which I think is US$1,000 per region. What one gets is supposed to be better placement in Search for region names to which the winner gains exclusive use and promotion of the regions in the Destination Guide and other Lab run promotional efforts.
The exclusive clause in the proposal would seem to indicate there will ever only be one user with the right to use the Zindra name in region names, which seems like the definition of a monopoly. It also gives credence to the idea that Zindra Prime will be the gateway.
The Zindra name can still be used in group names and region descriptions. So, groups like Zindra Alliance can remain. This suggests that a sharp SEO person would be able to out-place the official Zindra locations, thus minimizing the value of the ‘exclusive use’.
There is also an interesting clause in RFP.
Linden Lab’s promotion [is] contingent upon the group providing a positive experience for all Residents interested in adult content and reserves the right to cancel promotion at any time and may take actions in accordance with its Terms of Service and related policies and procedures.
The clause itself indicates someone is inexperienced and shortsighted in regard to Second Life wrote it. I doubt legal reviewed it. Failing to define ‘positive experience’ and tying it to ‘all’ residents makes it impossible to fulfill. The result will be an arbitrary implementation of positive experience by the Lab. Giving them complete freedom to stop promoting whenever they choose. It looks like a lawsuit waiting to be filed.
Unhappy Residents
Nothing is really implemented yet and we already have residents unhappy with the change. So, the chance of all residents having a positive experience is nil.
See the thread ZINDRA & Zindrans Betrayed ?? DT Zanzibar put a perspective on the situation that is all too common a scenario when it comes to dealing with the Lab. Consider DT’s viewpoint. DT points out that often without choice residents were moved to Zindra, sort of a Trail of Tears thing. After two years of rebuilding businesses based on the Zindra name the Lab gives all that advantage to a private group that in many ways will be seen as a competitor to those residents and as likely to benefit from their past hard work.
If the Zindra Prime regions are to be the new gateway, it is especially galling that they are not even on the Zindra Continent. This is a big issue when one considers how the World Map is used. The Zindra continent is not even visible in the World Map from Zindra Prime.
Giving ALL residents a positive experience is very unlikely.
Promotion
The promotion of Zindra and Adult Content by the Lab has begun. You can see the promotions that have gone out. An email explaining how to update to Age Verified. A post Age Verify email is sent with an invitation to visit Adult Content areas. Presumably these are the beginnings of more Lab promotion of Adult Content.
The first is the email sent to those that have not yet age verified. The second email they get if they age verify.
The Lab is to promote the gateways in the Destination Guide. Getting in the Destination Guide gives any region a boost in traffic. It does tend to deliver a large number of noobies, which is not always a good thing. The LEA Art Shows are having a problem with people arriving from the Guide after a show starts. The ‘What’s Hot Now’ is a problem in this regard too. Arrivals and departures are still big lag producers, nothing like they were a year ago, but still a major factor.
Zindra Alliance is helping people with being listed in their Zindra Alliance Directory. It provides a more experienced users than the SL Destination Guide.
Lindens without History
The common scenario in Second Life that upsets residents and I’ll suggest limits player life in SL to an average of 2 years (reference) is the lack of the Lab staff having access to the History of Second Life.
The scenario I see repeating, even in my short almost 4 years, is new employees coming in that have no clue what SL is or what the residents are doing and creating. One would think the Lab’s staff view resident creation as being limited to Minecraft carving of the renderable world. They seem to think Second Life is ONLY a game people play without serious cash investment. Second Life is much more like a web hosting company in many ways. In other ways it is like a shopping mall. It seems new Lindens don’t get the importance of these distinctions. They arrive with their ideas of what they think SL is and what will improve player retention and change the structure of SL. This is like telling a web site owner they must change their company name or in a mall move their shop. Both of which essentially destroy ones brand name and customer relationships. In such cases a business’s customers think the business just simply disappeared.
I think we see the contrast in Lindens that have been around SL for a time and those that haven’t. I also see differences in those that listen and try to understand SL and its residents and those that think they know SL and what they are doing. Mark Kingdom is probably a good example of the SL Clueless. He oversaw the greatest decrease in user hours and concurrency I’ve seen.
The result is that any developer that plans to do anything serious with Second Life as a business has an approximate 2 year window to succeed and cash out. I am sure anyone that does serious study for a new business venture figures this out and passes on SL. The unfortunate part is there is no way to get stats on how often that is happening. Nor is it apparent in SL stats how many SL users have been lost because the Lab’s inept handling of SL marketing and users. They all lump together in a group we can call Users that Left.
Many believe that Lab management thinks gameification is a simple bullet to fix player retention. I think it is a bit more complex on the Lab’s part but no more accurate. I think they plan is to give SL Users better tools to build better attractions in SL to improve SL user retention. I can see how Lab management would get that idea from looking at Facebook games. I also think the real obstacles to player retention are completely invisible to the Lab’s management and staff.
Summing It Up
The current events in Zindra and related Adult Content efforts are a microcosm of Second Life. The Lab’s project managers work out a direction with SL users in an interest group and everything starts to move forward. People are upset and others are on board, but a group starts to move forward and invest time, effort, and money. They become invested. The group grows.
At some point Lab management decides something is not working and something else must be done. It obviously is not working because Facebook has more participants. The whatever-must-be-done they come up with may have already have been tried, but because current staff has no history to learn from: they don’t know. Upper management is unaware of what is in progress and working for SL users. So, employees are tossed out or leave because they know they can’t honestly implement it or know enough history to see failure for the decreed changes. All progress is lost and things are reset to zero. The changes frustrate the users and a significant portion of them leave or remain but avoid participation with the Lab in the changes and avoid new ventures. Progress is lost and worst of all any learning from the process is lost.
It is a frustrating environment. So, it should be obvious why player life stat is 2 years at best and why player retention is unlikely to change.
We may see higher in-SL-hours and more concurrency in the future, if the learning curve can be reduced and usability issues resolved. But, that only gets more people simultaneously involved. The 2 year path to the exit doesn’t change, meaning retention does not change.
Those involved in Adult Content have a mess on their hands. On a larger stage, all residents have the same mess to deal with. Second Life can be fun and profitable and it is growing. Just don’t get caught in thinking that the Lab’s business has any aspect of helping your business.
this topic of the newly created ‘adult hub’ regions is hotly being discussed in the Adult Content forums (I should know..Im one of the hot ones!)
Some of the larger issues:
1. Viale’s scheme to sell off ZEXPO island to do this ‘welcome center’ turned out to be a major mislead: these new adult hub regions are not even on mainland. They are just extra regions connected to the Freedom Continent (private organisation, not an actual LL continent, by the way), so they are geographically connected to a private concern.
2. Even though these regions are NOT on mainland and are part of private estate, they are named Zindra North, South, East, West and Prime. 100% misleading and a marketing disaster. This is an isult to any mainlander AND will cause real damage. Traffic redirection, branding confusion, etc. Those region names MUST be changed.
3. Because the sale of ZEXPO island was failed, the Island’s ongoing Seasonal Events Program was interrupted for no reason and we have lost valuable momentum in a deadend situation.
4. The Freedom Continent seems to take an approach of ‘subdividing’ Sl adult content in categories (a gor-hub, a bdsm-hub, a CARP-hub, etc)…this is a losing game and is just asking for discriminatory practices. LL and its endorsed programs (such as this) should never be in the business of prioritizing lifestyles, companies, religion or politics.
5. Nothing against the Freedom Continent. I always understood their genesis so be a healthy reaction to the original Zindra migration. But they are about sex. No doubt about it. I cannot see in any way how the approach fits the mission of a more sophisticated adult SL that is about ‘more than sex’
Check out the Adult Content forum and join the conversations!
Excellent points…
*sigh*
I have only peripheral involvement with the Zindra continent, however “Lindens without History” is very important. It has been said endlessly for many years, The Lindens Need To Spend Time In Second Life! At least those who make decisions do. A game coder with no in world understanding should be relegated to “cog in the LL machine” status, just do as you are told! Senior Lindens coming in from the outside need to spend *lots* of time in world, and not just at art shows, get down and dirty with the residents! That, after all, is what alts are for 🙂
I visited this new hub area and stopped in at some of the Freedom Continent sims to have a look around. I was curious to see if Bondage Ranch had changed much since the last time I had visited a few years back.
It is perhaps a good idea to direct noobies who express interest in adult activities to a central area where they can find information on what kind of adult activities can be found in Second Life and direct them to people and sims that provide that. It would be important to provide or sell space for people to advertise their sim and activities and give out landmarks. Hopefully this advertising could be categorized and arranged to make it easier to find what one wants. I will have to watch and reserve judgement before commenting on whether or not I think the new hubs do that job and do it well.
I think the breakdown grouping Gor, Nordic, Medieval, Greek, and other historical types of role play together is misguided. These are very different things, and not all of these are necessarily adult only oriented. I think it depends on how it is done. If the hope is to attract sim owners to connect their sims to this hub, it is doomed to fail. The idea that one could cross from one to another to role play is in serious error. Having a group of plaid wearing, axe wielding Scottish reivers invade a Gorean sim is totally wrong. Even among Goreans there are groups who will not role play together based on their interpretation of what Gor would be like.
Coming from a Gorean orientation in Second Life, I am a bit spoiled. Some of the most beautiful builds in Second Life are Gorean. There is cohesion, a feeling of cities and countryscapes, of actually being in a place. Travelling around the Freedom Continent, I did not find that kind of cohesive vision. It felt like chaos over-run with commerce. Everywhere I turned I saw advertising or shops, and very little content. I don’t think I could bring myself to join my sims to such a disorganized and un-beautiful place, whether they be Gorean, D/s or anything else.
If this new hub area is just a place to put up ads for sims in different categories that are grouped together, giving out landmarks, then it should be fine. We do desperately need ways for people to find other people and places that share their interests.
Rational thinking and well expressed. The mixing of types makes sense to those not involved in any of the types. Otherwise, it makes no sense and is, as you state, a problem.
What the hubs will be is unknown. We are 5 or 6 weeks past the due date for the proposal winner announcement and I have yet to see an official Linden announcement. While researching this I remained confused as to what was what and who is doing which.
Sunday’s Zindra Alliance meeting should be interesting. Noon SLT/PT, Sunday @ Bronlen.
I am amazed anyone would think trying to categorize lifestyles would ever work properly in such a free and diverse world such as SL. I never saw that as a way forward. Within the Femdom world, for example, there are so many variations and crossovers into so many other styles. It’s actually a bit insulting to be labeled in anyway, let’s face it. (I noted with much derision that ‘femdom’ is tucked deep into the ‘bdsm’ category in the adult hub’s setup. This is an artificial and very insulting assumption. Femdom is not bdsm) Also, there are SO many barely categorizable and unique adult places in SL. It’s a maddening prospect to try to ‘catalog’ them. This is not what LL should be doing anyway. Not their business. Search does that.
Note: Zindra Expo group will also be having its meeting on Sunday, for a change (at 1PM)
http://zindrabusiness.blogspot.com/2011/11/zindra-expo-group-meeting-sun-nov-13-at.html
I agree…
Categorization is something humans do to make handling information easier. For categorization to work people have to understand it. No one can ever understand all the nuances, branches, and exceptions to the rich variety of things and ideas humans have created. Computers handle the raw data and sort it into manageable sets humans can deal with. Allowing people to learn how to find information via computer search is far more productive than having an arbitrary collection of people making arbitrary categories and groups of information based on their incomplete knowledge.
It is human nature to think we can and must manage things. History shows that a good measure of anarchy and freedom result in the best solutions and environment for most human efforts and tasks. The challenge is getting the right balance of anarchy, freedom, and organization.
As you said, search will categorize, you have to categorize if you have limited space by count of letters you can use, or by numbers of regions for example.
Btw. I wonder where the dom in femdom is coming from?
And actually you categorized BDSM, and limited it, as you said that femdom is not just BDSM, so what BDSM is then for you?
fantastically stated.
A great way to ‘manage’ is to inspire, and promote others to expressing themselves and their passions. Identifying the talents within a pool and letting them shine. (thats one real example of organic movement: a good facilitator need only identify the talent and help ‘nudge’ the process along. The best projects give voice to everyone this way)
Organic movement does not mean promoting competition, bias or directed paths (thats micromanagement at least)
When I think on the way ZEXPO Island did operate and the currently-doomed Zindra Promenade was going to operate, they were all simply projects of inspiration, to allow anyone (the more the better) into the process to be expressive and become engaged. (I feel all the other Zindra Expo projects were set up the same way). The projects demonstrably brought people into the process (attraction) and kept them involved in future projects (retention). More people entering the world of Adult SL.
Hmm…fits the supposed LL mission perfectly.
Infohubs with adverts and guided experience don’t do this. You MIGHT redirect traffic and get some specific sales to specific merchants, but that is not a real retention plan.
Creating a dynamic and interactive space that is open to all IS the way to do it. To bring in more creators. And by doing it this way, you can avoid any issues with categorizing people by lifestyle or other criteria. It’s truly a ‘free market’ system.
Guided Infohub filled with adverts, organised by kinks? A theme park strategy?
NOTE: In the end, if someone wants to try it, sure, go ahead, but naming it Zindra-whatever is wrong.
NOTE2: and don’t forget, categorization AND prioritization of lifestyles? Isn’t that a direct road to promoting lifestyles and isnt that a direct road to discrimination troubles later?….best avoided
Add to the scenario the most recent debacle where the LL ‘community manager’ is attempting to remove the Zindra-identity from the very successful Zindra Help Vortex, trying to micromanage that region’s content to bring in advertising, and trying to undermine each and everything the managing staff does there. The actual volunteers who manage that place are being 100% ignored, and their voices dismissed, in favour of a very small group of voices who troll the forums. Yes, loud whiners are getting their voices heard over hard-working volunteers, and the transparency of this favouritism is amazingly clear at the inworld ACUG meetings as well as the forums. People have clearly demonstrated hatred for a program are seriously being listened to, about that program’s future. Think about it: would you TRUST to ask a bank robber how to build the best security system for the same bank he wanted to rob? Under the codeword ‘inclusiveness’, this manager is trying to wreck the success story of Vortex and get the current staff to quit (my opinion) because who could do their job while its constantly being undermined? This is a new era: LL rep forcing a very specifci agenda onto residents, chasing away the talent, and operating with obvious bias and discrimination.