Open Space Sims Madness

Watching the Open Space Sims drama is like watching a whirlwind and trying hard not to get sucked in to it. I get the issue – severe price hikes based on poor grounds and reasoning. And there is no doubt that’s bad practice. Ok, got it. But it’s what’s happened in response to it that has made me cock my head to the side and say “huh”.

What started off as a rather disappointing announcement by Linden Labs has turned into this, just as a taste: At the lighter end, the humourous attention-raising approach http://www.pradprathivi.com/latest/wrong ; some helpful and thoughtful suggestions here and there as well http://baileylongcloth.wordpress.com/2008/10/30/debate-continues/ ; reflections on what happened leading up to Linden Lab’s decision and how it fits into a history of bad calls by Linden Labs – and you’ll notice in this one you gets a heads-up of just how many posts and groups were starting to set up in response to the issue  http://raulcrimson.wordpress.com/2008/10/28/openspace-sims-another-linden-mistake/ ; accusations of effectively Linden Labs lying – with evidence of ulterior motives http://www.vintfalken.com/raymond-conspiracy-theory-is-ll-gaming-us/ ; and, of course, protest groups with serious infighting leading to dissolution of those groups then setting up of rival groups, with what appears to be major misrepresentations of people’s motives for their actions in regards to those groups *takes a breath* http://foo.secondlifeherald.com/slh/2008/10/vryl-valkyrie-n.html .

From a human-behaviour-observing point-of-view I find this all highly fascinating, and a bit tiring too; it can be draining to constantly be reading such high level of emotion. I have some pretty strong philosophical based views on what Linden Labs did in terms of economic theory, governance, and a bit to say about contractual rights too, but right now I’m just going to keep those to myself. I would be sharing those views from a somewhat dispassionate sideline since I don’t own land in SL. Yes their decision about Open Space sims will effect me because of those who do own such land, but I’m not directly effected and it will be relatively easy for me to adapt to any changing SL realities in response to the issues. So for now I’m just going to keep my hand out of this particular fire. I don’t think anyone would attack my views, hell they’d be very likely to whole-heartedly embrace them under the current climate, and god knows I’m not afraid of standing up calmly and rationally for any views I put forward, or being persuaded to view the world differently by a competent argument based on sound premises. But I don’t have the time or passion to get involved with this particular issue and the heated responses at this point; my RL is on overload and just trying to keep up with the constantly changing situation in regards to Open Space Sims is sucking up what little on-line time I have left.

In particular, I don’t want to encourage people in-world to send me anymore notecards, links to petitions, (in particular I keep being given the same notecards and links over and over *sigh*), or start up extensive conversations with me about it. I log into SL to escape and relax and have some fun, and I do whatever I can to help other people achieve these goals too. And this issue meets none of those criteria. So I’m just going to leave my good and influential friends to battle this one out and instead quietly support them with happy thoughts and distractions in the breaks they take from fighting the good fight, since that’s probably the most I have to offer them right now anyway.

At least this whole topic has given me rich ground for future posts: I’m going to be discussing why I’ve never become a paying member of Second Life for starters, and around about now that decision is really starting to feel vindicated.