In a move that will no doubt perplex, flummox and befuddle many media commentators and technology columnists who erroneously believed that Second Life was a Web 2.0 social networking tool, Linden Lab has acquired social networking site, Avatars United (and developers of same, Enemy Unknown AB). This also has the side-effect of shooting down any semblance of Wallace Linden's identity piece last week being an overture of a conversation, instead making it look like the usual introduction to a Linden Lab fait accompli.

We've written about Avatars United on a couple of previous occasions, but never really had much call to get involved ourselves. The social networking tool includes a large number of MMOGs and non-game virtual environments, being best known for it's strong application support of open-ended space-based MMOG, EVE Online.

Continue reading Linden Lab acquires Avatars United, Enemy Unknown AB

Linden Lab acquires Avatars United, Enemy Unknown AB originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 30 Jan 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Traditionally, Linden Lab's blog communications have seemed to be reserved for things that had been finalized, were being finalized but already set in stone, or may not have been set in stone but gave that appearance by being nearly identical both before and after user-feedback. All this punctuated by a smattering of video tutorials, infomercials and statistics.

Wallace Linden's recent attempt at (what we think might possibly be) a productive conversation on Second Life identification linking looks like a bit of a failure, mostly because it seems to have failed to distinguish itself from these traditional developer/operator communication patterns.

Continue reading Will the real topic please stand up? Anatomy of a community communications breakdown

Will the real topic please stand up? Anatomy of a community communications breakdown originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.