For the Estimated 1 in 3 Users Not In Wealthy Nations (Comments of the Week)
Very good point from reader “Alelangel Verenova”, responding to my survey on interest in Second Life’s new Premium+ account offering, which will costs up to $25 USD a month:
Here in Latin America there will be a major NO answer, basically because the exchange to our local money. It’s an important amount per month, even per year to consider only for a “game”. Maybe it could be worth it if you are a creator and you earn good money on Second Life, but besides that, for this side of the world, it’s expensive and useless.
It’s a very valid point! Based on recent user data, roughly 1 in 3 visitors to SecondLife.com are from Latin America and countries across Asia and Europe (see the full below) outside the wealthy G7 nations, where $25 a month is pretty modest fee for many hours of online entertainment. Here in Los Angeles, for instance, 25 bucks will pretty much get you just two (2) movie tickets, i.e. 3 hours of entertainment. In most other parts of the world, however, $25 is enough to buy a week or two of groceries.
To reader Luther Weymann, a retired tech exec who now enjoys Second Life in his free time, the solution is obvious:
One of the core problems with the marketing of Second Life is its USA-centric thinking and lack of global focus. For example, many international companies have successfully achieved enormous sales increases with “per country pricing.” In India, you get Netflix Standard 1080p with almost all the movies for $8.50 a month or about half the USA price. In Asia, GoDaddy pricing for hosting varies from one-fourth to a little more than one-half of USA pricing. The giant Unilever multinational consumer goods company sells its products all over Asia for slightly more than 60-70% of the USA and much lower than Euro pricing. And the result? A considerable increase in overall revenue and net profit for companies who understand the sales possibilities when pricing their products by what the market will bear in each country.
If I’m counting correctly, 35% of these visitors live in countries where a $25/monthly fee would be pretty drastic. So why not offer them a country-based price they can actually afford?
Linden Research can get lists of IPs and proxies that most VPN providers use. It’s not an endless list; updated lists are available for sale. Linden Research can know when a consumer uses a VPN to get a lower price from another country. Netflix and many others do this also. It’s not foolproof but very effective in per-country pricing marketing. Linden Research can buy domain names by country or geographic area and have IP redirect to, with sign up, and pay for SL websites with per country or per area pricing. It is not an impossible task to assemble these technological and marketing components and set in motion a global method to expand Linden Research’s revenue and the SL user base. But doing something like this depends on whether you own Linden Research as an investment or if you’re into it like a true entrepreneur would be.
I live in a one of the wealthier countries but i am on a fixed low income because of a disability. I cannot afford to invest any real life money into SL. So i had to make the choice to make my money inside of SL. I have many friends who had to make the same choice, from all over the world. In discussions about SL i often miss that viewpoint. It is possible to earn an income in SL to afford things such as land and the premium subscription. You just have to be dedicated and creative.
Totally agree with the logic behind country-based pricing! LL, if your intention is to make money, (with a bonus order of equity), change to country-based pricing!! Totally, totally agree.
The metaverse: a latter-day Second Life, without legs?
IMAGE: Second Life (Linden Labs)
One of the biggest concerns when discussing the metaverse, and particularly when those conversations are of a strategic nature, is whether it will be do-over of Second Life, the Sims or assorted immersive video games like Roblox or Fortnite?
With virtual environments such as video games, the character and the journey are vertical, restricted to gaming. It’s true that some young users use them as discussion forums as well, that concerts can be held virtually and that some platforms allow users to créate their own video games within a video game, but in practice, we’re still talking about video games.
That said, let’s not dismiss video games, after all millions of young people spend their spare cash on weapons, clothes, objects, on them. As technology progresses, their potential will expand.
Second Life was different, even if it was largely recreational (and for some people a first foray into virtual sex), transcending the video game and instead becoming a place where many companies came to acquire islands, to build environments and buildings, and to develop activities. In 2007 I gave some classes and lectures in Second Life, along with a few tips on using it (in Spanish). For the developer company, it was a major source of income: an island was equivalent to renting space on a server, and building anything on it meant additional payments, hiring designers and developers for it, etc. People also spent money on avatars, shopped and bought all kinds of clothing and accessories, and there were even companies that flirted with the idea of using it as a working environment — and we’re talking about 2003!
Now, in many ways, the rise of the metaverse evokes the same kind of sensations for many, albeit with an obvious caveat: although Linden Labs and Second Life are still out there, the reality is that their use became increasingly geekier, more extravagant and, moreover, less interesting. All those companies that invested money in Second Life at the time got out sooner or later, in many cases leaving their islands and avatars there, and the craze simply fizzled out. Just another fad.
And here we are again: the hype has attracted plenty of companies to the outfit formerly known as Facebook, with Microsoft and others interested in participating on their platforms, which in many cases are glorified video games with a virtual reality viewer to make them more immersive. Many companies make large purchases of these viewers to train their users, to give an image of modernity and to be able to say they’re in the metaverse… although they still have no idea why or how long it will last. Others acquire virtual “properties”, which are simply space on a server and virtual maps of leading cities, trying to convey a sense of urgency and scarcity that in practice, no matter how we look at it, is simply not there.
For academic institutions, the metaverse could be a place to educate their students, allowing them to feel comfortable enough to hold a meeting or undergo a job interview in a virtual environment, attend a class or give a presentation. After all, if a lot of companies are venturing into the metaverse, it may make sense for educators to follow them.
From there to the metaverse becoming the future, rather than a video game that will hopefully go out of fashion in a couple of years, depends on how many people decide to explore what in the final analysis is little more than an interface. Looking to the future, I think the idea of redefining the internet around blockchain, decentralization, tokenization, smart contracts or Distributed Autonomous Organizations, is much more exciting than an interface built on a video game engine and on a peripheral, the virtual reality viewer, which nobody would surely want to wear for more than 30 minutes.
In many ways, despite efforts to make the metaverse look like the future, we’ve already been here. Without visors, but with similar paraphernalia, and with companies desperate to look modern. Interesting? Everything in technology is, even if it’s déjà vu and subject to the usual hype cycle. Anyone who thinks the metaverse will be run by a single company selling space on it, along with the viewer, will be proved wrong, because the metaverse can only work if it is open, interoperable and with multiple participants. If you don’t believe me, take a look at Horizon Worlds, Mesh, Decentraland or the other pretenders: we lived through this at the turn of the century. And what’s more, we had legs.
of course we do share the opinion that “Second Life Is Dead nor is it just a fad”. We feel SL will live on as long as there are people like you that support what we do and keep creating such wonderful worlds that all of you do.
Have A Great Week From All Of Us At Zoha Islands/Fruit Islands
Update: the issues described blow have also been noted on Nvidia drivers 512.95 and 515.48. If you encounter similar issues please check for driver version (go to Help → About in the viewer and then look for the line “OpenGL Version: X.X.X NVIDIA YYY.YY”, where Nvidia YYY.YY is your installed driver); if you note a different driver to 51.6.40, please consider adding a note to the two official Jira linked to below, and in a comment on Beq’s NvidIa forum report, so other can see potentially affected drivers. Thanks.
It is being reported that the latest Nvidia driver version 516.40, issued on June 15th, 2022, is causing issues for Second Life Users running either Windows or Linux who have updated to use it. As a result, the general advice is not to update to this driver for the time being.
In summary:
The issues are apparent when running the viewer with Advanced Lighting Model (ALM) enabled.
They can cause objects to flash or blink in and out, or can display rings or lines across in-world objects (as shown in the image below).
Image showing some of the artefacts created during scene rendering following an update to the Nivida 516.40 driver. Image courtesy of ermanart / BUG-232264
The following bug reports provide further information on the problems reported thus far:
For those who have updated to driver 516.40, two courses of action are currently available to try to correct:
Minimum: disable ALM (Preferences → Graphics → uncheck Advanced Lighting Model. Note that this may not work when under Linden Water in Second Life, per BUG-232268 (above).
Recommended: revert to an earlier driver version or use the Nvidia Studio Drivers instead.
Again, please note that the issues are driver-related, and so not something either Linden Lab nor TPVs can address themselves.
Have a Great Week From all of us at Zoha Island and Fruit Islands
This week we are shining a spotlight on Sam King-Slain (Dropyour.Knickers), a skilled singer, songwriter, and musician who credits Second Life for assisting his journey in self-discovery. Watch him play live at SL19B later this month!
How long have you been in Second Life and how did you first hear about it?
I’m 11 years old in Second Life which makes me about 250 in SLife experience. I heard about it after me and one of my childhood friends were playing the Sims. I think we googled ‘virtual world’ and it was the first one that popped up.
You are an award-winning musician with quite the talent for songwriting. Second Life and the humorous and perhaps frustrating situations you encounter in this virtual world are the main topic of your songs. Tell us more about your music career and how it all began.
I’ve always been into writing songs, raps and poetry so it wasn’t totally out of character for me. But roughly 5 years ago, myself and a few close friends were hanging inworld at a recording studio and it just struck me how funny it would be to write something about Second Life. I remember saying brb and 20 minutes later I jumped on mic like ‘I gotta show you guys what I’ve done!’
That was the day I wrote my first song ‘TP Me‘ and the chorus was literally ‘tp me, tp me, I’ve got a platform in the sky’ and everyone had it stuck in their heads for weeks! I think we all knew we were onto something and I just knew I could write more so I went away and wrote ‘Relog‘, ‘Crosshairs‘ and ‘Prim Love‘ and with each song just came more laughter and enjoyment. It was those guys that said ‘Sam we have to do a concert’ and that was when we set up a little warehouse sky box and threw our first show – I felt like a true Second Life Pop star, with my name in lights and it was a hit!
My friends had made merch and set the stage up and we felt like we had really injected the fun back into Second Life. It ended up with us having a full sim with a Record Label Office and a venue and we started going around inworld to all our favorite spots asking if I could do a show. It was hard to get people to buy into the vision but I knew all I had to do was convince them to listen to one song and they got it.
Do you play any musical instruments and how do you compose the music for your songs?
I have played the guitar and saxophone from a young age in real life. My song writing process is usually quite simple. I’ll feel inspired, go away, and find a beat or play a tune on the guitar and then record and write simultaneously until it’s done. It’s very rare that I’ll step away and come back to a song. If I feel it then, I just have to write something in that exact moment and I have to finish it then and there.
What genre would you say your music falls in, and who are some of the musicians that have influenced your style?
I would say my genre is varied, like my music taste. Sometimes I rap, sometimes I’ll do an acoustic song or something on the piano, and sometimes I’ll do something people can dance to. Overall for Second Life, I like to keep my music light hearted, fun and relatable. Some musicians I look up to are J Cole – a lyrical genius, Drake, Bon Iver, Beyonce, Juice WRLD & Lil Peep. I’d say my acoustic music is heavily influenced by Ed Sheeran – gotta keep it in the UK!
One of your songs reveals how Second Life assisted in your journey of self-discovery. Can you share in what ways SL has impacted your life?
Second Life has saved my life in a lot of ways. I’m from a conservative quiet town on the South Coast of England and being myself was pretty much out of the question as a kid. I struggled with my gender identity and Second Life gave me a means to explore that. I met the love of my life (we’re back together now 10 years on!) and that taught me things about my sexuality. It’s funny because in a game where you can be literally anyone – it has given me confidence to be my true self. I have met so many wonderful people from all different walks of life and it has inspired an abundance of self reflection and growth. I’m proud of my gratitude towards Second Life and I never shy away to say how much I appreciate the game – it really is whatever you want it to be. To some it’s just a game but to me it’s the place I’ve expressed my most authentic creativity and made genuine, life long connections and friendships.
June is Pride month and in Second Life many members of the LGBTQ+ community find this to be a safe space to express themselves and feel empowered. You have been very active in Second Life raising awareness in the past, can you share more about that and if there are any activities or events that you’ll be taking part in during this coming month?
Last year I wrote a song “SL Pride” which sort of depicts why pride is so important to me and how Second Life has helped me along the way. I won’t go into much more detail than I did above because I’m much better at singing out my words than speaking them.
Last year I did two big Pride performances – Burrow & Co for SL Pride and Pride at Home run by Tink Hax. Both events were hugely successful and we raised a load of lindens for various LGBT charities with a variety of really talented people. This year I’m booked for two Pride shows so far – Pride at Home and one at a fairly new venue called Eleventh House.
Tell us about some of the other Residents in Second Life that inspire you and whose work you admire.
Someone who believed in me at the start of my SL music journey when no one did is DJ Gracie (Gracie Barbosa). Not only is she one of the most talented DJ’s on the grid, has come to every show of mine and performed along side me, she has also created The Little Tokyo Rooftop which is home to the Dream Team – a collaborative of creative artists who bring love and good vibes to the grid. Gracie is very humble about what she has created on SL, but the sim is free for all and she is always making rl donations and sending out school supplies to kids in Africa. Lil Tokyo Rooftop does a Bumpin’ Brunch event every Sunday and I’d really recommend dropping down! Check out Lil Tokyo Rooftop’s Facebook page.
Another collaborative that really deserve recognition is WWBH: We Will Be Heard – Founded by Daisatella Slain, Bars Simpson, November Justice, Pinky Banks, Roshambo Dench. It’s hard to put into words what these ladies have achieved in the last couple of years. It started in 2020 with their Black Lives Awareness Event, it was so successful and raised somewhere to a million plus lindens for charity. These guys do a whole month of events, rl speakers, parties, art exhibitions, open mics, museums and raise as much as possible for the chosen cause. Last year was WWBH: Girl Power – Bars Simpson put together one of the most jaw dropping interactive inworld museum experiences I have ever seen – our whole community was involved and it showcased beautifully the issues surrounding women’s rights. I was honoured to perform in the closing show. Their next project will be for Mental Health and I am so excited because this bunch pull it out the bag every single time, truly it blows me away and I’d love them to get some coverage for their next one – I think it’s something Second Life would be extremely proud of. You can still check out their first Black Lives Awareness website and the LinkTree to last year’s Girl Power where you can find their IG/FB and more.
I know I’ve talked for ages but I just have to give Tinkers a shout out! Tink Hax has done absolute wonders this year. He’s always raising loads of awareness to various LGBT charities, creates a beautifully colourful Pride sim for people to explore at Pride at Home and runs the Pride shop&hop. Tink created Love to Ukraine and I’ve never seen someone raise so much money in such a short timescale. They raised L$6209987 which ended up being £17,500 – an incredible amount of money which I’m sure helped so many people in such a crisis. What a guy! Check out the Pride at Home Facebook page.
Where can people see you perform or hear more of your music? Please share links to your sites, social media accounts, and destinations you regularly perform at.
I’ll be performing at Pride at Home at the end of this month, Saturday 25th June 6pm SLT. I have a good feeling about this one, hopefully see you all there!
Also just want to say although I’ve mainly stopped doing small occasions/parties, I’m always down for a good cause so I will happily come perform at your event if it’s going to charity!
And Linden Lab, if you ever want me to jump up on stage at one of your big Second Life events, just say the word and I promise I’ll keep it PG!
Well Sam, we heard you! Watch Sam perform live at SL19B later this month!
Sam has graciously recorded a PG version of his song, Relog, for us. Watch the music video on our YouTube channel.
We hope you enjoyed learning more about Sam’s many talents and enjoy his music as much as we do. We’ll see you at SL19B listening to his live performance!
Have a great week from all of us at Zoha Islands and Fruit Islands
Reader Rant: Other Companies Are Delivering on Meta’s Metaverse Vision More Than Meta Itself
Longtime reader Martin K. has a pretty excellent rant responding to Meta’s vision for the Metaverse from its global exec Nick Clegg. And while I might recommend taking some of it with some dashes of sodium, Martin hits pretty hard:
Maybe the most interesting aspects of that essay are the things that Meta is doing today but Nick Clegg is not talking about. For example, regarding “Economic opportunity — how we can give people more choice, and maintain a thriving digital economy.” The evolving metaverse crypto-scene is full of scams, fraud, rug-pulls, Ponzi schemes, pyramid schemes, bubbles without any real value, etc. What is Meta doing to protect their users? They just introduced NFTs on Instagram this month.
Or regarding “Equity and inclusion — how we can make sure these technologies are designed inclusively and in a way that’s accessible.” Contrast this with all the people who are excluded from using Horizon Worlds today: To use Horizon Worlds, you need a Oculus Rift or Quest 2, but Meta still requires a Facebook account to use a Quest 2. In fact, they don’t sell the Quest 2 in Germany, because bundling products in this way is probably unlawful in Germany. Even Quest 1 users cannot use Horizon Worlds (unless they run the app on a PC). Users outside Canada and the U.S. must not use Horizon Worlds. Users below the age of 18 years must not use Horizon Worlds.
That’s not quite fair, you may think; for instance, Horizon is still in beta, right?
More from Martin:
Is it fair to complain about these limitations of a beta version? Horizon Worlds has been announced in 2019. At the age of 2 years and a bit, competitor Rec Room has been available on HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Windows Mixed Reality, and PlayStationVR with a special COPPA-compliant “junior” mode for players under(!) the age of 13 years (and more platforms following soon after).
Or regarding “interoperability — the interconnections of standards, systems and applications that enable people to travel seamlessly between one part of the metaverse and another.” One form of interoperability of HTML is that you click a hyperlink and get to a website. In Horizon Worlds, you cannot set up a portal to another world without explicit permission by the owner of that world. It’s like you have to ask a website owner for permission to set a hyperlink to their website.
On Meta Quest, the most successful metaverse competitors for Horizon Worlds are VRChat and Rec Room. But Meta Quest users wouldn’t know about them when looking at Meta’s lists of “Most Popular Apps“, or “Games to Get You Started“. Their own app store does not properly inform their own users about the most popular apps on their own platform. That’s how far interoperability goes for Meta when it comes to interoperability with competitors.
As always: It’s actions, not words, that matter.
In fairness to Meta, Rec Room and VRChat do show up at the top in the Quest store, under Most Popular Games. (See above.) Meta seems to be going for a Netflix-style recommendation system that’s not necessarily nefarious. Then again, to Martin’s point, other companies are delivering on a version of Meta’s vision faster than Meta, while not introducing questionable NFTs. (VRChat recently made a Definite No statement against those.) And if Meta had a ranking chart of most used apps, it’s almost certain that VRChat and Rec Room would be up there in the top, and Meta’s own platform fairly far down below.
Thanks to Adeon for help snooping Meta’s recommendation system.
Have A Great Week From All Of Us At Zoha Islands/Fruit Islands
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Linden Research can get lists of IPs and proxies that most VPN providers use. It’s not an endless list; updated lists are available for sale. Linden Research can know when a consumer uses a VPN to get a lower price from another country. Netflix and many others do this also. It’s not foolproof but very effective in per-country pricing marketing. Linden Research can buy domain names by country or geographic area and have IP redirect to, with sign up, and pay for SL websites with per country or per area pricing. It is not an impossible task to assemble these technological and marketing components and set in motion a global method to expand Linden Research’s revenue and the SL user base. But doing something like this depends on whether you own Linden Research as an investment or if you’re into it like a true entrepreneur would be.
Posted by: Luther Weymann | Monday, July 11, 2022 at 11:21 PM