M? Is that you? M?

It’s actually funny how the Internet news scene works. For example, a lot of Second Life news is reported in Australia, Africa and especially India.

So, I found, in India via the India Times Infotech page, news out of San Francisco about Second Life, as told by Mark Kingdon, a.k.a. in-world as “M” (Cute, by the way – get the James Bond connection?) I have been saying for the last six-months or so that Second Life will be undergoing an overhaul in the new future.

By the way, everyone knows Linden Research is the parent company of Linden Lab, which owns and runs Second Life. My references to Linden Lab are indirectly aimed at Linden Research as a whole. (Do you like the way I so diligently placed copyright and trademarks in there? pffft)

When I say ‘overhaul’, I am not referring to the back-end server and viewer upgrades and all the experimental gadgets for interfaces and things like that. Nothing ‘tech’.

Rather, by overhaul, I’m referring to Linden Lab’s ‘interference’ with the residents of Second Life – how things are done, what is and is not allowed. In other words: governance. Thing will be tightening up, I have no doubt. The proverbial noose is slipping tighter as it were.

Linden Lab had always proclaimed they would simply keep the world inside Second Life alive (technically, via the hardware and connections and all that,) but remain hands-off with everything that goes-on inside. At least, that was the initial vision.

And that’s how it was… until the “ageplay” (which is really not what everyone thinks it is) issue came into light. Not as much about the ageplay itself, but because alleged real life child pornography was involved. Linden Lab got a really bad wrap out of it, no thanks to incredibly unscrupulous reporters and sensationalism story-telling which smells a lot like bogus hype and dizzying spin.

But I digress.

This put Linden Lab into the media spotlight in a negative light. obviously no one likes to be in a negative media spotlight. However, the lab, in my own opinion only, decided to take a closer look at things going-on in world. They decided to take a closer look at the whole gambling issue. And, seeing how cruel and unethical the media can be, with their spinning and sensational alarmist and all that – perhaps it was thought “hey wait a minute – there are some serious laws in effect in the United Sates, where we are, that could be twisted and bastardized to make it look like we are in violation of – and be shut down.

Because Linden Dollars (L$) can be exchanged for real life United States Legal Tender currency, it could be construed that U.S. Currency is being wired over the internet for the purpose of gambling. Thus, banks (including Pay Pal, a U.S. Company) could really get the jitters about this.

Linden Lab decides to take the proactive measure of shutting down all gambling based on what might happen, no matter how unlikely.

Even though the “sex play” in Second Life is figured to be a paltry 15% of SL users or so, that area of activity seems to always get attention whenever Second Life is mentioned in the news. Even most short little blurbs.

Well, McDonalds, Sears, Wal-Mart, and so many other big-named, early-adopters of new technology and internetisms will definitely shy away from Second Life – partly because of this infamous publicity surrounding SL as a whole, since perceptions – as wrong as they may often be – are everything.

So, Uncle Phil decides to hire a big gun. In walks Mark Kingdon. Mark’s job is to turn Second Life and, by extension, Linden Lab and Linden Research legitimate. The only way to do that is to bring-in the big corporate types as customers. Get them to use Linden Lab’s product: Second Life. The only way to do that is to mop-up the mess.

So, how do you mop things up?

Simple, put frog into pot of water on stove, slowly turn heat up over time so the frog acclimates to temperature rise without really noticing it. Then, eventually, frog is cooked … and dead.

So, “M” has to start somewhere. Why not with some of the biggest things current customers, the residents, are complaining about? First it’s a few little things, including a policy about advertising and extorting virtual land owners over 16-square meter parcels.

The policy put into effect was relatively successful – in that it terminated most bogus advertising. However, the oily scumbags who’d come up with the idea in the first place will react and find ways around the policy. Which they have. Simply remove the bogus advertising and put something else just as unsightly in it’s place, or create the tiny blocks of parcel in the middle of larger parcels and leave them empty – but place them for sale at ridiculously over-priced rates.

Anyway, using the “advertising extortion” excuse, Linden Lab now makes it’s first introductory yank on the leash of residents of Second Life and asserts governance control as it proclaims, rightly so, it is the ‘estate manager and owner’ of all sims that comprise the “mainland,” and will now assert it’s authority in what can and cannot be done on the mainland. (See Linden Lab’s announcement here.)

Of course, the announcement is that this is happening due to resident complaints and the like. Yes, true. But it is likely not the motivator.

Rather, it likely has to do with the land-glut created but the availability of “open space” sims: low-cost, low tier full simulator regions known as estates and set on the grid all by their lonesome selves. Of course people are going to jump on those – total control? No nasty neighbors? So what if they only have 1/10th the number of prims? Only need so many for a house and other fun stuff… like sex beds and sex sofas and sex kitchens and sex tubs and sex dining tables and sex… er… Well. There you go. I have now provided the requisite “Second Life is all about sex” routine.

Anyway, people are bailing from the mainland into these open space estates. Either to buy for themselves or to rent from a private estate owner. Linden Lab already admits their primary income is from land tiers (hosting fees, essentially.)

So, the mainland really needs to be cleaned-up or no one wants to be there. Hence step one: drop the hammer. Take control, make rules and policy and tell the residents what they can and cannot do on mainland parcels.

In a nutshell: it is not allowed to be ugly.

But more importantly: “it is not allowed…” Linden Lab now takes direct control of governance issues. And they will continue to do so, more and more.

I predict this, though I have no idea how long it will take: Eventually, sooner or later, all mainland will be “PG”. If you want “mature” anything – it will have to be on private estates. That way, Linden Lab can easily and plausibly claim they take no responsibility for what happens on private estates. They are simply hosting.

Now – what leads to my proclamation of doom and gloom that Linden Lab will seriously restrict what residents can and cannot do in Second Life (even if only on the mainland)?

The very first paragraph of the article I spoke-of at the top of this post (emphasis is mine):

SAN FRANCISCO: Linden Research Inc, the developer of the Second Life virtual world, will make the service easier to use and court more business customers as it gears up to compete against Google Inc, Chief Executive Officer Mark Kingdon said.

Then let me know what you think about it? I mean… really.

Tags: SecondLife, Linden Lab, Blogosphere