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For SLReports.net
There may be soul-searching going on among the Linden Lab's staff, and that soul-searching may revolve around the central question--"What did we ever do to these people?"
While trashy European Tabloids have been hashing and rehashing the ridiculously mundane details of the divorce of a British Couple over the two's Real Life disconnetion caused by the duo's obsessive use of Second Life and World of Warcraft, Eric Kragel, formerly Eric Reuter of the Thomson Reuters News organisation and beat reporter within SL, has caused a firestorm of secondary media re-hashing that makes James Frey look like Hemingway and Eason Jordan reminicsent of William Shakesphere.
Indeed, so many uninformed "journalists" are so convinced that "Second Life is Collapsing" that the echo effect, what the Reagan Whitehouse and members of the Iran-Contra "Enterprise" called "blowback", has seen even the most inconsequential bloggers chime in with the death knell.
Take their opinions aside from the facts that over 200 Universities and Colleges have presences within Second Life, with more sure to follow.
Take their not-first-hand-observed observations with the grain of salt in considering for every major RL company that leaves Second Life, three more pass them on the way through the door in.
Let us ignore that all the major branches of the US Military have begun to stake claims within Second Life, and a Presidential Election saw vigorous efforts by both sides to use the platform to advance their cause.
Why don't we discount that while the RL economy collapses under the pressure of a subprime credit meltdown, the SL economy is plugging along even after the deflating effect of the recent change in Openspace Price Policy.
The S&P 500 reached a 32 year low recently but all 4 SL stock exchanges remain viable and active. BizInformer's Greg Cruey recently wondered, "There are uses for Second Life other than just sales and marketing. One of the most common is virtual conferencing. Everyone logs into Second Life instead of flying to Chicago or Atlanta and spending the company's money on a hotel room. The development of Second Life leaves businesses with a lot to consider. Among the questions: Can you afford to ignore it...?"
And the recent Winter Theme issue of the Time Style & Designmentions in the bleak time there are"luxury shoppers who were indulging by buying virtual products at the site Second Life. (That is no cheap habit, though: a woman featured in the article had spent nearly $10,000 in the last two years buying virtual luxury gear for her virtual luxury self.)"
Slashdot's Tateru Nino asserts "The notion that there's some sort of collapse or widespread flight of business and enterprise usage within Second Life (like cockroaches fleeing from bright light) seems to be little more than media fabrication. Every month we hear from an increasing number of business people in Second Life -- people whose businesses are using the virtual environment to derive direct benefits or figuring out if or how it makes practical sense to use Second Life within their own organizations." Even with such evidense, latecomers to the "End of Second Life Hurricane Party" were joined by some sort of ill-concieved and executed blog purporting to in some roundabout fashion be associated with--or at least completely trample the copyrights of--"Turner Broadcasting", the cable giant that owns CNN, stated recently, "Second Life is writing its own doom. Key to the fall of Second Life, is the company that runs it - and their administration of the game. Linden has given in-world residents the right to build, act and transact as they see fit, however, they have not given them the right to govern themselves. They cannot really manage risk in currency, nor have any voice in legal issues, or otherwise be represented in any meaningful way. Linden is dangerously disconnected from the social experiment it created...At present, it is likely that SL will continue its downward spiral. In uncertain economic times, SL top management can claim with some reason - their need to establish the basic parameters of the world and secure their company against lawsuit. That set of rights, however, that engage creativity and democracy - are at times opposed to profit motive and corporate return. A non-intuitive leap of understanding would save the company, and its product. A bill of rights delivered to the residents - that has meaningful provisions including the right of self governance including laws that can be made to be at odds with the political systems of other countries real world. A chance to determine their own fate economically. And the right to express oneself without spying or monitoring.Statistically speaking. SL will be gone in two years. Tops."
Even the kernels of truth that may come out in the mostly poorly-researched negative news articles relating to Second Life may in some cases be enlightening, only if to show us within the world how those with no exposure whatsoever view it, what about Eric Kragel? How did a former beat writer for Reauters end up taking a step down to writing a blog for "The Silicon Valley Insider" and end up creating more news than he could ever muster before?
Kragel has been taking potshots at Second Life every since he assumed the "duties" at his new post, almost as if he is a jilted lover who remains bitter over the breakup. Prokofy Neva of Second Thoughts theorizes, "I bet I know what happened to make Eric suddenly start backtracking on his previous enthusiastic attitude toward Second Life: not only did he get a girlfriend, but that girlfriend probably came over to his house and stared at the screen in sort of creeped-out wonder and bitched about his hours online in SL. Oh, it wasn't that he had a relationship *on there* -- but what could be more creepy than an online relationship (to one who sees it that way) but doing an actual job writing about, oh, sex bed lawsuits?! She probably demanded that he stop -- or let him know that he would lose her if he kept sitting up nights on line in a virtual world because she found it stupid. There's nothing more sour than a relationship where one person loves being online and the other doesn't, and has no online life of their own -- they will do anything to shame and guilt-trip their partner into stopping, and it works much of the time." Neva presses the idea forward, "Oh, sure! Just as ridiculously speculative and downright nasty as Eric's comments on Second Life and its users, which he has managed to spew phenomenally all over mainstream media, with the help of the kind of regurgitation that he himself makes a living at now on at his new tech-writing gig. A day doesn't go by on the Google news reader for Second Life that I don't find yet another vengeful new taker for Eric's uber-cool Valley-wag style commentary on SL from his "Insider" perch, "It's like watching the paint dry" and "the buzz is gone". Today it's Forbes.com, which takes up half an article that is supposedly about "Second Life's Second Wind" shovelling up Eric's dis again -- and even claiming Reuters "pulled him," when it is actually more accurate to say that Reuter's chief correspondent, Adam Pasick, lost interest and wandered away, Eric enthusiastically took the place of his AFK boss as a cub reporter, then, frustrated, left to get "a real job" as the company was indifferent to what was happening."
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