The founder of Linden Lab’s online virtual world Second Life, Philip Rosedale will rejoin the project as strategic advisor to guide its entry into the metaverse..
Although he is negative about the interoperability of content in the metaverse, describing it as “a total flop”, believes that a future based on NFTs is the way forward in the long term.
Second Life is a universe of online social games that was launched in 2003, when the word “Metaverse” was only used by Neal Stephenson fans.
Since leaving his position as CEO of Linden Labs in 2008, Rosedale has made a name for itself in the virtual reality (VR) ecosystem. In 2013, he created the social VR company High Fidelity.
Philip Rosedale returning to Linden Labs (breaking news today) definitely reminds me of Steve Jobs in the 90s returning to Apple #secondlife #metaverse
— Andrew Oleksiuk (they/them) (@Andrew_Oleksiuk) January 13, 2022
Philip Rosedale going back to Linden Labs (news flash today) definitely reminds me of Steve Jobs in the 90s going back to Apple
In a January 13 announcement, High Fidelity said it is investing in Linden Labs with both cash and what are described as “distributed computing patents.”, including two relating to community moderation in decentralized environments.
“Virtual worlds don’t have to be dystopias”Rosedale said.
“Big tech giving away VR headsets and building a metaverse on their ad-driven behavior modification platforms is not going to create a one-size-fits-all magical digital utopia.”
How will the future be?
In an interview with Cnet Technology, Rosedale said that, In addition to exploring the possibility of adding VR technology to Second Life, advanced avatar animations using face-tracking cameras could also be a future possibility..
“Using the webcam to animate an avatar is a very interesting middle ground,” he said. “Not enough people notice that space, it’s one I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about.”
As for bringing new ideas like interoperable non-expendable objects to Second Life, Rosedale will need some convincing. In the metaverse, interoperable content are items that can be purchased on one platform and moved to another.
He referred to the way branded content can negatively break the fourth wall on Metaverse platforms, saying that in the short term, “content interoperability is one of those things only a brand could love”.
“As a way to connect the games more to each other, it is a total failure. The short-term idea is nonsense.”
But nevertheless, did not reject the use of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), saying that the “long-term idea is totally correct”. Second Life already has its own economy and currency, the “Linden Dollars”.
According to Rosedale, 375 million items are sold on the Second Life marketplace each year, for about $2 each. In his opinion, these articles are already essentially NFTs.
They are all NFTs: basically the core idea of allowing digital assets to be marked and tradeable and shareable,” he said, adding that this concept is only “going to grow bigger and bigger and bigger.”. Of course, these objects within Second Life are not recorded on the blockchain and therefore cannot exist outside of the game, essential properties of NFTs.
In its nineteenth year of operation, Second Life claims to have an annual GDP of $650 million, with over 8 million unique items sold on its Marketplace..
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