Comments on: Yankee Group: 'Second Life' doesn't live up to hype

A report from the analyst firm says the popular virtual world isn't really all that popular and that its growth stagnation indicates that its relevance is waning.

[MyRightEye]

Many of the 2nd life users are just AI bots

Many, if not most users are just bots, computer generated
personas. How many 2nd life users have you ever met in real life?
Ever wondered why it's none? One day someone will investigate
2nd life and it's all going to be over.

[alphapolitan]

Wrong

Do you have any idea what you're talking about? Don't you remember the real life second life convention cnet reported several months ago?

[Willibarb]

wrong wrong wrong

Most people that you meet in Second Life are real people, although I'll admit that half of them are "asleep" near devices that hand out Linden Dollars.

[epeckham]

Most of the hype is from News.com

The funniest part about this article is that almost all the media hype about how great Second Life is has been coming from a couple of writers at C|net and news.com

They even make news out of the fact that Second Life is mostly full of hot air and devoid of value.

[play7]

Lindens as Cnet reporters

Daniel Linden your refering to.
Media hype is nothing new, but full of themselve Linden writer on Cnet are.

[Len Bullard]

Baby or Bathwater? Pick Your VR Service Vendor Wisely

Well, Daniel, you can't disagree with the poster about the CNet hype. Since you wrote a lot of those articles, perhaps you might step back as an analyst and try to bring some perspective to this minima in the hype cycle. You jumped in with both feet into a market without understanding it. Now is the time to review.

Some things to consider:

1. As a business world, the attraction to SL is like ANY web site: eyeballs and traffic. Worlds with the technical problems SL has can't keep the traffic coming. Everyone in the VR business knows this and the cost of content are the to basic business problems that must be solved up front. Picking a solution means you have to understand how cost of content and cost of services collude to narrow your choices.

2. Is SL an entertainment site or a business site? Despite all the ranting about the cool factor, the 3D web, and so on, these are still simply MU web sites. Content type proximity is the same as having shacks next to the upper Beverly Hills. Gated neighbors pick their near neighbors. Location Location Location. In the nightclub metaphor Rosedale picked up on, you can't mix the hard drinkers with the pot smokers. It just doesn't work. A nightclub picks a demographic and culls for it.

3. Assurances of security and privacy are fundamental to most businesses. 3D hosting for business and 3D hosting for the virtual living room are two different businesses sharing overlapping technologies. Those assurances are part of the service contract. Read it. Can't find it? Find another provider.

4. The web clients for a true metaverse need to be free but profiled. IOW, the client on the PC doesn't/shouldn't be the client on the mobile. They should be profiles of the same language. That is the best way to get the costs of the content down and to ensure there is a healthy competition for client innovation and service costs. If you find your provider developing core technologies at this late date, find another provider.

5. Standards already exist for these. If you are a company wanting to get into this market and don't want to pay VC or startup vig, or even trap your content inside a Google warehouse, find the standards that are mature and IP-unencumbered. They do exist. That way your company doesn't have to risk indemnity problems later or watch the content die as a result of an SL folding in the face of a market slump. 3D content is VERY expensive. Shelving it because a client died means you picked unwisely.

Hype is never a reason to enter a market. OTOH, a slump is not a reason to abandon one. If your VR vendor cannot adequately forcast business results based on the combo-pack of services you purchase, you do need to find one that can.

[Info_Max]

Finally, the Big Media feces up to SL Hype

We have been saying this for a long time that SL sucks :(
It is true what other poster has written, if it was not because of the Hype of SL by news.com and other arms of Big media SL would not be even what it is now which is pretty much nothing. After all who wants to download a 40MB software to chat in a 3D world that is cartoonish at best.
If you want to chat, you will use a product/service such as SiteSticky which is instant to use and takes 1 second to load.
If you want to have a business meeting you will use a product such as eAuditorium which offers all important application sharing & voice conferencing
features that a business needs for a (productive) business meeting.
If you want a 3D world to play in, you will use a service such as WOW that is 3D rich and is action packed.
If you want to go to a business to buy something from them, WHY IN GODs name would you go to SL to do so, you would go to their Web site to do so.
So SL is totally useless.
Only reason that Big media was Hyping it is because some big silicon valley investors had/have investment in it and they were Hyping it to dump their stock on the people.

[Willibarb]

The real problem

The real problem with Second Life is that it is simply not the same place that we all signed up for. A couple of years ago people were rewarded for being friendly, hosting activities that people enjoyed, and creating nice places the people wanted to visit. Now all those incentives are gone. The people that remain are the semi-pros who manage to make money and those who are using Second Life as a 3D chat room to keep in touch with old friends or use it as a backdrop for Internet radio. In short, Second Life has become dull and lifeless.

[play7]

LOL on a IPHONE?

Please Daniel don`t be so 1984 about this.

Second Life is no closer on a Iphone, then its useabilty on a Apple Computer. The reason why numbers are going down is people are getting smarter. They are learning that Second Life is nothing more then 13 year olds running around Second Life as women. Making money as escorts etc. If thats not bad enough the lag will surly hit you, if not that the gay people that say there are women but are men will cut your Second Life experience fast. How many of the Lindens themselves are ga? How many say they are women but are men? The Yankee report is not only right, but they could have said even worse. Daniel Linden You are very lucky