Rod Humble Leaves Second Life

This came as a surprise. I am a bit behind on things Second Life. There has been a death in my extended family. That Rod Humble has left is another loss I’ll grieve.

I see the announcement in Jo Yardley’s blog: Rod Humble leaves Linden Lab. There is also a thread in the SL Forum: Rod Humble leaving Linden Lab. I suppose this is about as official as it gets without an official announcement from the Lab.

Hamlet on New World Notes has confirmed it: Rod Humble Leaving Linden Lab CEO Role to Start New Art/Entertainment Company, Reports Rod HumbleContinue reading

Rod Humble Interview – July

In July AllThingsD.com published an interview with Rod Humble that I missed. You can read it here: Linden Lab CEO Rod Humble on Second Life’s Tween Years (Q&A).

There are some interesting points in the interview. One is about mobile. The Lab apparently has a working viewer for mobile phones and tables, sort of… It seems building a user interface is pretty hard and likely the reason they have not been released.

Rod also says they are watching Valve to see if they build a console box and Android for their box. The existing consoles don’t seem to interest him.

There is also a hint of where Rod is at in promoting Second Life™. In talking about companies directing the content of their games Rod was pointing out the Lab intentionally avoids that. The interviewer was contrasting Twitter’s directive help and pointing out how they advise media outlets to Tweet, I read that as directing content style. Rod replied the Lab is interested in that, which I take to mean content direction advising and direction choosing. But, if he were to let the company do that he feels they should be very good at it. I gather he has not gone that direction because of his saying this, 2013, is the first year he has felt Second Life performance is ‘good’. He says the Lab may look at reaching out more next year, 2014.

It would make sense to not go 100% on a promotional program to bring people into SL if it was not performing well. One only promotes things when they are proud of them. So, we may see the promotion of SL change in 2014.

It is a short interview. But, there are some interesting insights.

And Yet Another Interview with Rod Humble 2013-27

These just keep popping up. Ciaran Level in Linden Lab CEO Rod Humble on Second Life’s Tween Years links to the article on AllThingsD: Linden Lab CEO Rod Humble on Second Life’s Tween Years (Q&A).

Rod Humble Interview

Rod Humble Interview

Also Jo Yardley has an article, up about the same interview: Oculus Rift in Second Life goes public late summer!

Again Rod comments on Second Life’s performance and how it has been a prime concern. Rod says that this year he believes he will be able to say, “Hey, performance is good.” I definitely will go with ‘better.’ But, I’m going to have see more before I’ll say ‘good.’ I also suspect it is going to be ‘good’ for SL.

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Rod Humble Interview 2013-25

Jo Yardley (Another Rod Humble Interview) caught an interview with Rod in the SF Chronicle: Will Second Life have a second life?

I think this interview is well worth the time to read. Rod reveals some interesting bits of information about Second LifeTM. Like most of the 400,000 new monthly subscribers are not coming from advertising. Also the best selling items in both The SIMS and SL is hair. Lots of work has been done to reduce lag and more work on reducing lag will be done this year. The makeup of employees has changed with most now being designer engineers that can express creativity in code. The employee headcount is still about 200. A next generation virtual world is coming in a few years. 36 million people have tried SL and left. Rod plans to get them back.

Rod seems to have good free market ideas for SL.

Jo has also published an article on how the media is being lazy and miss representing  Second Life. See: The problem with the media. I’ve commented on that one, I think she will approve the comment. It was still in moderation last I looked.

Rod Humble Interview 2013-24

There is a new interview with Rod out. You’ll find it at BOSL in their latest magazine: June 2013

We learn that Welcome areas will be redone. Alpha and Beta testing will start in the next few weeks.

BoSL Photo of Rodvik Linden

BoSL Photo of Rodvik Linden

Rod provides a compelling description of what Second Life is. So, if you’re ever at a loss for when someone asks you what SL is, read the article.

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5 Minutes Isn’t Enough

Drax’s World Maker’s video interview with Rod Humble is great. But, there is much more information than what Drax could fit into five minutes. Also, video is suited more to right-brain thinking, at least as Drax made it, a blend of words, sounds, and images. I find it an emotionally uplifting video that is invigorating.

Jo Yardley's Blog

Jo Yardley’s Blog

But there is more left-brain information that came from the interview. There are things that fit into the “If this… then what about … and mustn’t this mean…” thinking.

The additional information can be found in an article published on Jo Yardley’s blog: The Rod Humble InterviewContinue reading

Drax Files – World Makers Episode 7: Rod Humble

Drax put his latest episode of the World Makers out today. This is a fun interview with Rod Humble. It runs 5 minutes and there are some interesting bits of information.

If you have listened to Rod’s 2011 speech at UC Santa Cruz’s meeting Inventing  the Future of Games, you may not be able to pick up on some of the context included in the video. See Rod Humble Speech Released for a brief summary and links to that video.

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