Relay for Life and Exploits!

SL as a Game, Sorta

Linden Lab loves to play this game called, "Let's release a patch right before a major release!"

They played it before SLCC last year, before the third anniversary party this year, and they played it again with Relay for Life this week. Now, sometimes they luck out and sometimes they don't. This time they had problems.

Fortunately for me, my interview with NY1 News somehow got done in the 2 hour window between when Linden Lab finished patching Wednesday, and when the grid totally got shut down later that day. Then it was down all Wednesday evening until something like 8 or 9 PST when RFL was putting finishing touches on everything. Then last night, apparently people figured out how to have access to move any object that you can sit on. Ouch! So, grid's still down, supposed to be up any minute.

Reiteration:

If Linden Lab wants to beat out other Metaverses, the outages have to stop. The only way you can make reasonably sure that this happens is if every single patch has more than 3 or 4 days to preview it. I don't mean "just the major patches". I mean every single patch, excepting the occaisional "OMG Emergency Fix!".

This is whether Linden Lab considers it trivial or not. Time and time again Linden Lab takes stances on patches like, "Oh, it's a no-brainer that we're doing XYZ" where XYZ can be a radical change to Second Life due to consequences unforeseen to Linden Lab.

Lindens are busy working, not playing

And that's actually a problem. Every Linden I talk to is up to their ears in work, and so the truth is even Philip is quoted saying, "I wish I had time to play in Second Life more, but my job gets in the way." How then are Lindens supposed to know what really goes on in Second Life and the real issues? I talk to Lindens who aren't aware of certain changes or major trends in Second Life.

Suggestion: Mandate Play Time

That's right, Philip. If you're reading this, please consider what I say. Mandate that Linden Lab employees are required to, while being paid on the clock, to spend a certain amount of time each week just exploring on an alt. Track the time on a board in the office. If people don't meet their requirements, pull them off whatever they are doing until it's done. I believe employees need to constantly be in touch with the products and customers.

I'm pretty sure I'm borrowing this idea from some places that I've read; I know I've heard of companies doing this before. And yes, I realize they're supposed to be doing it regardless in their free time, but we've already quoted you having a problem with that, and I doubt you're the only one.

Back To The Relay

So, the Relay sported a ton of people. I ran about 10 laps, which I racked up 8 just testing the Running Assist script I made - thanks to Jerry for that idea, where people can run and still be able to talk with their friends at the same time.

I'm really happy that something like the SL Relay for Life exists. I love that the American Cancer Society is reaching to virtual communities for support, and in the post-Katrina world, numbers show that Internet donations are much, much less expensive to obtain than mailers or phone call drives. This is the future, people, expect more of it!