Follow Up: The Continuing SL Death Watch?

Echo Omega: One of the Original Second Life Marketing Campaigns, circa 2004.

It has been almost a year since I wrote a post asking the question, What’s With the Second Life Death Watch? Recently in the comments, I was asked to provide on update. With the release of Second Life’s 2009 Economy Wrap Up, now seemed like a good time to take a look. I’ve been less involved with Second Life in the past year than in previous years, as I’ve been very involved with the local technology scene and busy with my first life, but I am still very intrigued by the possibilities virtual worlds offer going forward.

A few highlights:

• The total SL economy grew to $567 million in 2009, a growth of 65% over 2008.
• Gross resident earnings were $55 million in 2009, a grown of 11% over 2008.
• The total amount of L$ in circulation is L$6.95 billion, or US$26.5 million.
• Residents spent 481 million hours in world in 2009, 21% growth over 2008.
• Total owned land reached 1.85 billion square meters, up 7% of 2008.

A lot of Second Life’s figures have certainly gone a bit flat. User concurrency has been stuck around 80,000 for some time now after peaking around 88,000 in March of 2009, and while repeat monthly log ins have increased, it hasn’t been substantial. However, over the past year, the team has been focusing on a new version of the Second Life client software (Viewer 2.0). The new user experience and interface have long held Second Life back. When the current client was developed in late 2003, as part of the version 1.2 release, I’d wager that 95% of the population were content creators. The viewer was geared towards the needs of scripters, builders, and early adopters, and hasn’t seen a major revamp since. Now, I’d wager that less than 1% of the population are content creators, yet the interface persists.

The release of “Viewer 2.0″ is going to have a lot to do with whether Second Life continues to plateau and fall off into decline, or provide the shot in the arm the virtual world really needs to take it to the next level, and make it more accepted in the mainstream. 2010 is the year we will see this play out… and I’m excited to watch it happen. More than that, I’m excited to be excited about Second Life again, and I am hoping that “Viewer 2.0″ will provide that opportunity.