There's a certain amount of background anticipation among Second Life users about the "very important announcement" that Linden Lab tipped to be a part of former chairman Mitch Kapor's speech on the morning of 7 July. At least among those users who are aware of it, which seems to be very few. The ripples of that anticipation, however, have spread far wider.
'Blizzard has bought Linden Lab,' I hear for the ninth time today, and it's early yet. Another item in my mailbox from a user tells me that they are sure that Electronic Arts has snapped up the virtual world operator. Two more pitch IBM as a potential purchaser, and five insist that an IPO announcement will come on the day.
What's interesting is that of all the material people are certain enough to send on to me, they all relate to a sale or an IPO, essentially taking the business out of the hands of its current owners, and it all seems to be presented with an astonished, yet hopeful air.
What's clear is that each of the people giving credence to the rumors seems to see that as a good thing. As a positive move that will somehow turn the clock back, and then reconverge on some near future, a brighter more stable situation, with a relaxation of recent strictures, cuddles and happy smiles for everyone.
A golden age, set somewhere in Candy Mountain beyond the magical bridge of hope and wonder, by all accounts, and that makes me feel a whole lot like Charlie the Unicorn. Perhaps you don't, as users, have a lot of faith in Linden Lab and seem to feel that almost any other owner may be better.
Ask yourselves how much worse it could be, if a sale or IPO took place. Yes, it could be at least that much worse, and quite possibly more. Oh, yes -- it could wind up much better as well, but based on grim and bitter experience, we know which way to bet. For most potential owners, Second Life would be a delicious treat, except for one sour portion that they would rather push from the plate. That would be you, the users.
At the end of the day, though, we here at Massively don't put any credence into either a sale or an IPO announcement upcoming in July. If we had to bet, we'd put our money on an Enterprise product marketed and supported through IBM as a partner with Linden Lab -- or viewer support for a new technology, and here Kapor's 3D camera demonstration comes immediately to mind, though it may yet be too soon for those.
The viewer source code release branch has not been updated for a while for some "major changes were pushed into release" and the code not to be in evidence for a while yet, we have a server update going in this week with none of the changes made public and an announcement coming up in two weeks' time. Maybe that's all just a big coincidence, but that certainly smells a lot like a new-technology announcement.
Mono, we already know about. If it turns out to be just about the new Mono script runtime engine, we (and you, I suspect) are going to be pretty disappointed.
So, let's leave aside the rumors of the usual suspects buying Linden Lab -- what do you think Kapor will reveal during his 7 July keynote? A big thing, or a big snooze? What are you expecting to hear?
