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Second Life Scores $11 Million
News.com reports that Second Life, the virtual world run by Linden Labs, has netted $11 Million in venture capital funding from the Globespan Capital Partners group. From the article: "The company makes its money by charging players use fees for land they buy and build on. For now, the company isn't profitable, and it's not clear when it will be, said Catherine Smith, Linden Lab's director of marketing. However, she told CNET News.com that Linden Lab plans to use its new funding for aggressive international expansion, as well as for hiring intended to boost its infrastructure. "
Is the game any fun?
Religion for nerds. Stuff that really matters
Has second life ever made any profit, ever? Granted that the people who invested think that there is money to be made in 2nd life, but I see 12-year olds running virtual brothels ( http://www.alphavilleherald.com/archives/000049.ht ml ) as the game's only economic vehicle for making any sort of US currency. I suggest that if they want to blow money, I have a bridge in a MUD that I can sell them.
Lagito ergo expectabo
Second Life is a great concept, and playing it one cannot help but think of the amount of potential it has. Large amounts of that potential are only being held back by logistics issues-- one wonders if they had just slightly more resources to work on the clumsiness and poor documentation of their scripting interface, or the application performance issues, how much better (and potentially more mainstream-friendly) Second Life could be.
Hopefully this new cash inflow will be used to bring Second Life toward its full potential (and won't just disappear into Mr. Linden's shirt pocket).
Another thought, this investment comes strikingly close on the heels of GDC. Anyone else wonder if the investors maybe just saw Linden's speech at GDC and were impressed?
Here's how that one works out. Movie + popcorn is roughly $15 for 2 hours of entertainment, which is $7.50 per hour. I'm figuring on 10 hours a week for an MMO. That's an hour a day on weekdays and 2 and a half hours on weekends, which is probably overly conservative. So that's 40 hours a month, which works out to roughly $0.37 per hour. Obviously that equation gets better if you play more, and vice versa.
You may not go out to movies eather, I don't much do it myself, but I do find that looking at the MMO fees in that way can provide perspective.
If forums teach us anything, it is that logic and critical thinking should be required courses in the public schools.
Is slashdot any fun?
People generally expect different things out of a glorified chat room than they expect out of, say, Halo 3. But that doesn't mean the people using the glorified chat room spend any less time there, or that they enjoy it any les.