This week, we cover the final installment of our summarized history of Second Life and Linden Lab (check out the first installment or the second, if you missed them). It's only possible to cover a tiny fraction of the events that took place in the space we have here, but the highlights paint an interesting picture.

We'll be working our way from 2008 to June 2010, and looking at what future directions we expect from there.

Continue reading The Virtual Whirl: A brief history of Second Life, 2008-2010 and beyond

The Virtual Whirl: A brief history of Second Life, 2008-2010 and beyond originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 10 Jul 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It has long been a matter of considerable debate among virtual-environment pundits about what constitutes an 'active user'. In some ways, subscription MMOGs have it a lot easier than many other kinds of virtual environment. You can always count paying subscribers, and that's all that matters.

In a general-purpose virtual environment, free-to-play or 'freemium' model, though, counting active users is important. Trends in active users measure the health of your user communities, as well as allowing you to credibly measure your virtual-world's e-peen compared to that of the competition.

Continue reading The Virtual Whirl: Is one hour enough to be considered an active user?

The Virtual Whirl: Is one hour enough to be considered an active user? originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 05 Jun 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Linden Lab's last CFO (Chief Financial Officer), John Zdanowski oversaw one of the largest growth periods in the history of Second Life. That growth came to a bit of a shuddering halt around the time of his departure last March, though we think that's just coincidental [We'll be looking closer at the 2009 Second Life metrics later this week].

Throughout the comparatively flat second, third and fourth quarters of 2009, the CFO's chair has remained unwarmed, but Linden Lab announced today that the position has now finally been filled by Bob Komin.

Continue reading Linden Lab appoints new CFO

Linden Lab appoints new CFO originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Taser International Inc have filed a lawsuit against Linden Lab (and others, including some present and some departed) staff. We got a hold of the April 17 complaint yesterday, and have been going through it since then. We've got a summary of the complaint and issues for you, but we won't be linking to the complaint due to the presence of what may be considered to be pornographic images in Exhibit 2. The "crack den" reference in the headline is a recurring phrase in the legal complaint. You'll see why.

If you want the one-sentence summary, Taser seem to have failed to do their homework and basic research, but their case doesn't seem to be entirely without merit either.

Continue reading Taser International vs Linden Lab: Crack Den crackdown

Taser International vs Linden Lab: Crack Den crackdown originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 21 Apr 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Linden Lab's CFO (Chief Financial Officer) has parted ways with the successful virtual-environment developer, though the circumstances under which this parting has taken place are not abundantly clear. All the signs have been there for some weeks, and we've been trying to get final confirmation (which has arrived at last).

John Zdanowski's stint as CFO has seen the largest period of growth in Linden Lab and Second Life so far, with Linden Lab execs reporting record profits during the last quarter of 2008. By all accounts of the Lab's financial performance Zdanowski's departure would seem to be due to no failure on his part. Indeed he seems to have served the Lab admirably during his time there.

Continue reading Linden Lab CFO departs

Linden Lab CFO departs originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 27 Mar 2009 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Linden Lab has, for a very long time, published quite an array of statistical data about Second Life through a regularly updated (when it worked, which it didn't always) set of statistical data feeds (mostly collected by aficionados and researchers). During mid-January, two sets of those feeds suddenly stopped working. A bug, we thought, as data-quality for the statistical has traditionally been exceptionally poor, and it was far from unprecedented.

The two casualties were total signups and the number of users logged into Second Life in the last 60 days. Interestingly, though, just after the data ceased updating, Linden Lab purged approximately 800,000 user accounts. Now, we've got no official statement from the Lab that the sudden cessation of the published data is due to a bug or due to policy -- However the sudden stop in publishing signup data, coupled with the sudden cull of nearly five percent of those signups makes for a heck of a coincidence, don't you think?

Continue reading Linden Lab purges nearly a million inactive Second Life users

Linden Lab purges nearly a million inactive Second Life users originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 15 Feb 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

John Zdanowski (AKA Zee Linden) has published Linden Lab's Q4 Second Life metrics from 2008 mixed with an annual summation. It reflects a considerable number of positives, but reads a bit like one of the paradoxes of motion from Zeno of Elea.

There is so much spin on these figures that you'd be well-advised to keep your fingers clear. Yes, Second Life experienced significant growth during 2008, and there was indeed growth in Q4 as well. None of the figures are wrong (except for the figures reported for reduction in land, which are credibly refuted elsewhere), but like Zeno the time frames used for the comparisons jump between using comparisons between years and quarters. As such, closer reading gives a different impression than a quick skim.

Continue reading Second Life 2008 results

Second Life 2008 results originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 19 Jan 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

October metrics for Linden Lab's virtual environment, Second Life are not yet formally available, but Lab CFO John Zdanowski wound up giving out a link to the information in advance, so we have the figures to work with. September was not a good month by these metrics, and we were interested to see how October panned out.

Your key takeaways for October are a continuing plunge in premium accounts, and a reduction in overall economic activity. User hours, however were up. A more detailed summary follows after the jump.

Continue reading Second Life October metrics: More falls

Second Life October metrics: More falls originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 19 Nov 2008 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Much has been made of a statement recently by Linden Lab's new CEO, Mark Kingdon, that 'Premium subscriptions are immaterial in our overall business.' You see, in a sense that's pretty much spot-on. Unless a premium account owns more than 512 square metres of the Linden Estate (colloquially known as the Second Life Mainland), that account is either only very small revenue for the Lab, or actually represents an ongoing cost to them.

Linden Lab's CFO, John Zdanowski said, 'The revenue we generate from premium subscriptions is largely offset by the stipends we pay out to these account holders, so this decline doesn't have a material impact on our business.'

Either you're on an older premium account with a 500 Linden Dollar per week stipend grandfathered in, or you're on a newer premium account with 300/week. There's also a choice of plans, ranging from monthly to annual. Let's take a look at the relative values.

Continue reading Premium accounts and the Second Life business model

Premium accounts and the Second Life business model originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 14 Nov 2008 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Linden Lab's CFO, John Zdanowski is better known to Second Life users as Zee Linden, though we think of him more as a Zeno, after Zeno of Elea, who baffled, annoyed and amused pre-Socratic thinkers with a set of seeming paradoxes, many of which revolved around the adjustment of frames of reference and measurement -- and, whatever their original intention -- amply display the follies that arise from doing so.

You can pick up all of that from yesterday's Q3 2008 world metrics from Zdanowski, entitled 'Q3 closed on a high note with an unusually strong September'. You might want to check September's published figures against that report, and see if you agree with 'unusually strong'.

Continue reading Second Life's "unusually strong" September

Second Life's "unusually strong" September originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 13 Nov 2008 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Unlike Second Life's 2003 Tax Revolt, which (at the time) went unnoticed by the mainstream media, the current revolt over void/openspace simulator server pricing is drawing attention in places where a lot of potential customers are being exposed to it -- and it's early yet. More words are doubtless being drafted over the weekend to run on mainstream Web-sites and newspapers.

By mainstream (a word that has an awfully slippery definition), we mean widespread. There are at least three other effective and correct definitions of the word at least one of which conflicts with that, but let's just go with what we have and leave those other definitions for another time. You know what we mean.

Continue reading The revolution in the news

The revolution in the news originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 02 Nov 2008 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Second Life users are already calling it Second Life's second revolution. Outside of Linden Lab's in-world Land Team offices, capacity crowds of users have been gathered through much of the day, though there's been nary a Linden Lab staffer in sight. People are cursing, newcomers are asking for protest signs, and there's angry chatter in over a dozen languages. There are a lot of Europeans here, which is not unexpected. They have to pay VAT on top of any additional costs.

There is talk about switching the signs and banners for flaming torches and pitchforks, because, if nothing else Second Life users find value in tradition. There are even discussions about picketing Linden Lab's Battery Street office in San Francisco.

All of this started yesterday at 6PM SLT (US Pacific time) when Jack Linden, head of Linden Lab's land team, announced a price-rise to void simulators (known to Linden Lab as Openspace sims). The reaction since then has been ... robust.

Continue reading The spirit of 1776: Second Life's second revolution?

The spirit of 1776: Second Life's second revolution? originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 28 Oct 2008 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Linden Lab certainly showed signs of fear when Google's Lively kicked off its public beta. Now we're seeing signs more akin to terror, panic or desperation. 'Who wouldn't be concerned when Google comes after their business?' said new Linden Lab CEO Mark Kingdon to Bloomberg.

Given recent changes and marketing pushes, you can see Linden Lab's management showing a sheen of sweat. Curiously, it seems that Google isn't after Linden Lab's business -- Lively's certainly no competitor to the business that Linden Lab has. However, what Google represents seems to be a threat to the business that Linden Lab wants to have.

This week saw the hiring of Frank Ambrose (AOL's head of technology for infrastructure and network services for a decade) as Senior VP of global technology. While Ambrose has more tech knowledge than the average suit in his position, his primary competencies seem to be negotiations, coordination, contracts and costs -- which all marries up nicely with Linden Lab making a push into corporate, government and military sales, and hiring additional staff to do just that. We're not sure what they're going to be selling, exactly, but virtual environment meeting spaces are probably right at the top of the list.

	Are you a part of the most widely-known collaborative virtual environment or keeping a close eye on it? Massively's Second Life coverage keeps you in the loop.

Continue reading Linden Lab sets terror-alert level to 'Google'

Linden Lab sets terror-alert level to 'Google' originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 09 Aug 2008 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

While the announcement of the Google Lively public beta may have taken many by surprise, apparently it did not take Linden Lab unawares -- their Second Life messages were already lined up and ready to go.

Indeed considering that information about Lively's launch was available to a number of people who were close to Linden Lab, either as partners or ex-staffers, it seems silly to suggest that Linden Lab might not have known Lively's public beta launch date, unless those contacts were aflame with considerable, searing resentment.

Wheezing, clanking and dripping oil from dark and unnameable apertures, one of Linden Lab's most neglected subsystems -- the marketing machine -- arose from it's years-long slumber and went about it's ponderous, mechanical business.

Continue reading Peering Inside: A media campaign

Peering Inside: A media campaign originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 14 Jul 2008 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Weighing in at 1.5 billion square metres (579 square miles, plus change), Linden Lab's virtual world Second Life stacks up at the same size as Cedar County, Iowa, which we've chosen to give you a convenient physical world comparison for size. The figure comes from Linden Lab CFO John Zdanowski's (Zee Linden) quarterly metrics report for Q2 2008.

A sudden surge in land area was attributed to a drop in simulator prices earlier in the year, along with changes to purchasing conditions and capacity of Void simulators (also known as Openspace simulators).

Continue reading Second Life grows to the size of Cedar County, Iowa

Second Life grows to the size of Cedar County, Iowa originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 09 Jul 2008 02:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Cinemassively: Current TV talks about A Virtual Recession originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 15 May 2008 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Some of you may have noticed that your billing for Second Life is no longer being done out of the United Kingdom but is now being done from the USA. Since there was no announcement of a change, we asked Linden Lab about that, back in the first week of January -- especially as it seemed that some users were still being billed from the UK, and others from the USA (and a few users with multiple accounts, from both countries). There seemed to be little consistency.

Within a week, we had a basic answer. Linden Lab's John Zdanowksi (Zee Linden) responded, "There was shift in billing, though the change only happened for new customers or existing customers who re-entered their billing information, so that there would be no chance of disruption."

Continue reading Peering Inside: Linden Lab's new billing provider

Peering Inside: Linden Lab's new billing provider originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 12 May 2008 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Cinemassively: Zee Linden discusses Linden Lab's finances on Metanomics originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 26 Apr 2008 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Linden Lab's Chief Financial Officer (CFO), John Zdanowski (better known as Zee Linden) will be taking questions for one hour on Petunia Island in Second Life on Sunday, 4 November at 11AM SLT (US Pacific). If you've got questions about Linden Lab or Second Life that only the CFO can answer, prepare your questions and come along.

Be prepared, Zdanowski is apparently going to be present with video and voice, rather than in his avatar as usual - so there's not much point in showing if you don't have the network or equipment to support it.

Linden Lab CFO question and answer, this Sunday originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 03 Nov 2007 07:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.