Rosedale Quits CEO, Kapor's Vision, The Problem with Second Life, and The Future

Kapor and Rosedale: Visionaries

If you live under a rock: Philip Rosedale was the founder of Linden Lab, creator of Second Life, the first popular online 3-D virtual metaworld. Before Second Life, Rosedale made a bunch of money coding some streaming stuff for Real. Mitch Kapor founded Lotus back in the 80s, whose software was considered the first "killer app" and quite literally aided the world into using computers for widespread commercial business use. Kapor and Rosedale both changed roles at Linden Lab recently; Philip stepped down as CEO to become Chairman, and Kapor stepped aside as Chairman to remain a board member.

To understand the ramifications of these moves and what these two fine innovators are going to be doing for virtual worlds, let me juxtapose a third individual, a virtual world power-user named Eric Rice.

Spin, The Gadget Hound

Last night on Twitter I had a fun back and forth with blogger, writer, and gadget-hound Eric Rice (SL: Spin Martin) regarding his frustration with Second Life. Namely, Eric has multiple sims, has experienced bad performance, and recently can't even log onto Second Life Mac client with the latest patch. He's so frustrated because he invests hundreds of dollars into Second Life every month and basic things like logging in, walking around, or being billed on time are flubbed.

Each represent a different failing of Linden Lab. The first being a lack of proper resources in QA to test Macs, the third being Linden Lab lacking the proper infrastructure and/or staff in customer service, and the third being the technology. Spin is somewhat of a developer - he builds, he creates a great deal of I.P. content, though he's not a programmer. He's used to spending money on things and having them work.

Now, I empathize with Eric's frustrations, even though I called him out on Twitter last night.

Some of the things he complains about is inexcusable. I count my lucky stars that Linden Lab hasn't messed up billing for my company, because I've heard too many horror stories of messed up billing locking up accounts. I came close when Linden Lab failed to bill my AMEX card because they had outsourced billing to Ireland and AMEX had flagged that as suspicious. But that's a pittance of a problem when compared with, say, Anshe Chung, the poster child of entrepreneurial success in Second Life, being locked out because the timing of when Linden Lab billed simulators was out of order and locked her account.

Other issues raised by Eric Rice are less blatant. Why doesn't the current release work on his Mac? Why does he have problems doing "basic" tasks like "walking" on his PC, which he describes as a "God Machine" he purchased recently? Mac releases have always been somewhat behind the PC version, though, on the flip side, sometimes a release will come out and break the PC one, but Linux, for example, may still work. For the record, I told Eric to call concierge support.

No, Seriously, It's Not a Game, Right?

And then there are issues that Eric just is not fully appreciating. From Twitter last night, "This 'not a game' shit, has to stop. STOP. Because that's probably the whole architectural problem. I have just HAD it." and then soon after, " BTW, I can run fucking CRYSIS flawlessly. CRYSIS. Explain that one to me."

And I did explain it, of course. Crysis is a game with static content made entirely by professional developers and QA'd to death for any system. Microsoft's recent "Games for Windows" effort has included a huge push to ensure Windows games *just plain work*. The game, like any other major video game release, has a Hollywood-sized tens of millions of dollar budget. On top of that, you don't have pesky things like:
- User generated content driven by an in-world building engine
- Scenery that changes every day
- Tens of thousands of users occupying the same space

And so on and so forth, but at the same time, Eric represents the enormous percentage of users that *aren't* sticking with Second Life - people that either don't make it past orientation, don't see the value in Second Life and don't settle down, or just get frustrated and leave. So why aren't they staying?

Linden Lab is to Blame for the Game Perception

Gee, maybe it's because Linden Lab's whole marketing push from Day 1 has been to make it look like a game?

The evidence:
1. The name "Second Life". The screams out MMORPG. I've always thought the name stinks and have not been afraid to tell Linden Lab that to their face. While the metaphor is apt, Rosedale referring to Second Life as the ultimate Lego kit during speeches doesn't exactly scream "web platform!", either.
2. The website. Second Life has always had a game-like website. It's geared toward users having fun, exploring, socializing, etc. There's never been a business-driven site, though I and other have suggested this over and over.
3. The interface. It's a video game interface. You use WASD or arrow keys to move around, there's a 2-step pie menu for doing actions, buttons are arranged at the bottom like a video game HUD.
4. The lack of integration with the web. This is perhaps the saddest to me, since decade-plus old ActiveWorlds had this as a basic feature.
5. It's been marketed at gaming conventions, Linden Labbers have spoken at Serious Games Summit, etc.
6. There is a lack of ability to "be yourself" rather than a fictional avatar. Rosedale is definitely an Immersionist.

Mitch Kapor Explains The Universe
(at least, the metaverse)

The overview of his speech from my notes, for my readers to follow along:
1. SL in the DOS era
2. Kapor's epiphany
3. Business use in a world dominated by global warming
4. 3-D camera tech and new interface
5. Why virtual worlds have taken so long
6. Comments on Rosedale stepping down

1. SL in the DOS era

Kapor, being a veteran of software, the Internet, and personally overseeing Second Life as its til-a-few-days-ago Chairman of Linden Lab, sees the technology driving Second Life (and metaworlds) as analogous to Personal Computing and the DOS era. DOS was not a friendly interface, and even when Windows came along, it was still a far cry from the way we use computers today. At the same time, DOS represented an interface that had come a long way in and of itself.

2. Kapor's Epiphany

Kapor was watching Suzanne Vega perform in Second Life (a show produced by my company, incidentally) and realized that Second Life was no longer an island to itself; he had seen two worlds overlapping and working together. Of course, Second Life faced (and faces still) a glut of challenges to make the worlds working together more seamlessly. Its these challenges that Kapor focused his talk.

3. Global Warming and Business Consequences

Kapor is a very far-looking individual. He related that global warming will have a serious effect on the way business operates. He specifically noted that there are no near-future alternative air-travel propulsion alternatives, so businesses will have more and more reason to meet in virtual worlds for meaningful discussion. "Virtual worlds will work themselves into the fabric of daily life" Kapor predicts.

But to get there, we look at the crazy, steep-learning-curved virtual world interfaces. For example, Linden Lab's own research states that the learning curve of Second Life is approximately 20 hours; this is basically the time shown of hours logged on where users generally stay after completing that mark. Before 20 hours, they are much more likely to not continue to use Second Life. 20 hours is a huge learning curve for an Internet interface. So why is Second Life so difficult to learn? Well, my analysis:

- Lots of features
- Game-like interface unfamiliar to non-gamers
- Orientation area is crowded, confusing, and outdated
- Users are inundated with so many things to learn all at once, rather than using a more proven method of introducing them over time or in discreet, isolated steps

Kapor continues with his speech, focusing on interface innovations.

4. 3-D Cameras

I've been talking about using 2-D cameras to control avatar facial expressions for years. However, Kapor's recent research is in 3-D cameras.



Pictured above Mitch Kapor (MitchK Linden, bottom right corner) shows a slide about his 3-D camera research at Kapor Enterprises. On the left on the slide is an avatar flying; on the right is a human raises his arms to activate flying mode. Kapor indicated that they would have a demo for YouTube within days / weeks.

He noted that 2-D cameras did some neat things, but weren't sophisticated or nuanced enough to be an intuitive enough control as can be done with the added dimension. He described his prototype set of controls as owing to the Segway human transport, leaning forward to move forward, etc.

How teleporting between places will work, or clicking? Maybe an air mouse like Gyration's?

5. Why Virtual Worlds Took So Long

Virtual Worlds have been around on computers since the mid-80s. However, Kapor reasons that technology has been the main limiting factor, between video cards, processing power, broadband, and the variety of other technical hardware obstacles. So the 3-D camera initiative is at a time Kapor considers just reaching viability. And, FYI - he predicts these 3-D cameras will become cheap and available for mass retail by Christmas season 2009.

6. And So, Philip Steps Down as CEO

The inevitable question was asked, and Kapor replied with a very similar response as the official press release. Well, obviously.

In Rosedale's own words. (full blog entry)

In the words of my company, Involve:
"Philip created a visionary platform that has changed forever the way we think about how individuals and organizations will use the internet. He demonstrated beyond the shadow of a doubt that it is possible to deliver shared experiences in a robust, immersive social networking environment. That’s a huge contribution, not just to technology, but to society."

To paraphrase Kapor from his Life 2.0 speech Wednesday:

Philip Rosedale switching to a Chairman role will "make the company a lot stronger" and be able to face competitor challenges.

And this is where I am in deep agreement with Mr. Kapor.

Rosedale leaving CEO and staying as a visionary role has a strong potential, provided the new CEO isn't a suit-without-a-tech-brain, on taking Second Life from the Beta-ware 1994 Internet type system it is now into a viable, ubiquitous platform. We should applaud Rosedale for being able to realize that Second Life has come a long, long way, and while he and his staff deserves huge credit for how far it has come, a fresh set of eyes and hands needs to examine and mold Second Life.

It boils down to a matter of perspective. Rosedale has been working on Second Life for over half a decade with code, and really most of his life in his head. He has a set of assumptions and biases that are intrinsically unescapable. While I'm sure he spends a great deal of time examining and questioning his own perspective, I'm sure he also realizes that at some point, he'll always be Philip Rosedale and an outside perspective helps tremendously. That's why companies have advisory boards anyway, right?

So, time to look at virtual worlds with a new interface. This emphasizes why it's so important for competing virtual worlds to be out there and offer different feature sets. And while Linden Lab will certainly take a bit of a new direction with its managing, I still have to wonder - when is Second Life going to really play nice with other virtual worlds? With the Internet, even?