Kotaku: Linden Labs

Battling Post Traumatic Stress Disorder With A Virtual Suicide Bombing

Mike Fahey — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 17:20:00 EST

The Humvee drives down a crowded street in a foreign land. A child waves. Merchants display their wares. Suddenly soldiers raise their rifles as a suicide bomber runs into the street, detonating his lethal package. This is virtual PTSD therapy. More »

Second Life Maker Laying Off 30%

Michael McWhertor — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 20:00:00 EDT

Virtual world creator Linden Labs is restructuring in an effort to "generate efficiencies and support investment in new platforms." The quick translation on that into English is that the Second Life maker is canning 30% of its workers. More »

PlayStation Home And Second Life: Worlds Apart

Mike Fahey — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 21:00:00 EST

Ever since PlayStation Home was first announced in January 2007, people have been calling it Second Life for the PlayStation 3. We take a look at what separates these two very different virtual worlds. More »

Presidential Candidates Sticking To First Life

Stuart Houghton — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 19:20:00 EDT

The Houston Chronicle wants to know why none of the US Presidential candidates (by which I mean the two that could possibly win - sorry, independents, maybe next time) aren't using Second Life in their campaigns. More »

Linden Labs New CEO Slowly Rezzing

Mike Fahey — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 20:20:00 EDT

After last month's resignation of Linden Labs founder and CEO Philip Rosedale, Kotaku readers have had only one question on their minds - is there any way I can get Grand Theft Auto IV early? The answer, of course, is no, but the knowledge that the Second Life company shall soon be in good hands will help massage the disappointment out of your collective furrowed brow. Former CEO of digital communications agency Organic Inc., Mark Kingdon is only one alphabetical space away from having an awesome last name. What he does have is an MBA from the Wharton School of Business and a BA in economics from UCLA, and he's just thrilled to be here.

"To me, the CEO role at Linden Lab combines perfectly my passions for art and design, business and technology. Until Second Life, we experienced the digital world passively in two dimensions. By enabling users to create a rich and immersive virtual world, Second Life is transforming the way we connect, collaborate, learn and transact online.

Kingdon will assure the role of CEO on the 15th of May, spontaneously appearing in the office with his hair attached to his ass and a boot sticking out of his chest, his clothing still loading. It's an SL thing. More »

Second Life CEO Stepping Down

Brian Ashcraft — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 08:40:48 EDT

Linden Labs founder and CEO Philip Rosedale is stepping down. The Second Life developer will seek a CEO with more management and operational expertise. Rosedale will stay on as chairman of the company's board. Even though SL has been the victim of hype machine backlash, the company says that no crisis has lead to Rosedale stepping down. What's more, the company added that an IPO was under consideration. Says the Linden founder: More »

Second Life, Don't Believe The Hype

Brian Ashcraft — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 03:00:08 EDT

Last year was all about Second Life. The MMO was portrayed as teh future. Has it panned out? A new study from Boston-based research group Yankee Group states that the user growth rate hit its peak in October 2006. From the study: More »

Time Magazine Hates Second Life, Too

Maggie Greene — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 12:00:20 EDT

Despite being something of a mainstream media darling, there's at least one magazine out there that thinks Second Life sucks: Time has a short and sweet piece up on the '5 Worst Websites,' and coming it at number five is the MMO that Kotaku readers love to complain we still write about - Second Life. More »

Second Life Looks Just As "Fun" In Real Life

Michael McWhertor — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 20:20:22 EDT

Granted, I've never actually "played" Second Life, as online social interaction is two spots higher than attending a Russian-American "bear" cuddle party on my list of enjoyable pastimes, and the closest I've come to partaking in Linden Labs' eyesore of an alternate reality was an aborted download of the client this past winter. When I think of Second Life and its ilk, I think of this. More »

Second Life Case Going to Court

Kim Phu — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 14:40:00 EDT

Well, it was bound to happen. A Pennsylvania attorney/ex-Second Life citizen is taking Linden Labs to court claiming that they illegally took away items he "allegedly acquired using an exploit by a SL user". Shortly after, he was banned and lost "everything". A Pennsylvania court has already denied two requests from the San Francisco-based company to dismiss the case. More »

Second Life Getting Sky Upgrade

Brian Ashcraft — Tue, 22 May 2007 02:00:56 EDT

Add atmospheric conditions to things MMO Second Life offers. SL's creator Linden Labs has acquired atmospheric rendering tech WindLight and 3D cloud simulator Nimble. WindLight gives 3D environments realistic haze and Nimble creates, well, realistic 3D clouds. Said Linden Lab's Cory Ondrejka: More »

Linden Labs Responds to Open Letter

Kim Phu — Fri, 04 May 2007 14:40:00 EDT

Not too long ago, concerned citizens of Second Life posted an open letter to Linden Labs about the growing number of issues that have affected SL since its recent boom. Last Thursday at a town hall meeting, the publisher tried to address those concerns through an open forum held in the virtual world. Speaking on behalf of Linden Labs was CTO Cory Ondrejka who was often the victim of some heated caps-locked comments. The participants of the town hall meeting weren't satisfied with the fuzzy time frame Linden Labs had for resolving the outstanding problems, and were also infuriated at the fact that Linden Labs rarely responds to complaints and issues that are pointed out to them by residents. More »

Second Life Citizens, Unite and Take Over

Kim Phu — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 13:40:00 EDT

Concerned residents of Second Life have watched patiently as the past two years the virtual world has grown from a tiny community into an entire empire. It's grown so fast that the day-to-day maintenance and upgrading of the site hasn't caught up and now an open letter has been circulating listing some of the problems that Linden Labs need to fix. Some of the issues includes the inability to backup inventory losses, issues with friend search and friend lists, transaction problems, and more. But of course, true to Second Life form, they're trying to be super nice about it: More »

Japan, Brace Yourself For Second Life!

Brian Ashcraft — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 08:00:39 EDT

Okay, I know SL. You know Second Life. But a good chunk of Japan has no friggin' clue. That's all about to change. The game's maker Linden Labs is rolling out a version for The Land of the Rising Sun. What do the pundits think? Real money at stake, an active virtual world — the scare factor is just kicking into gear. An IT expert tells tabloid Shukan Shincho: More »

Second Life's 13 Most Beautiful Avatars

Brian Ashcraft — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 06:00:15 EST

The beauties of Second Life get portraits. Based on Andy Warhol's films 13 Most Beautiful Women and 13 Most Beautiful Boys comes a series of canvas-mounted portraits by Italian artists Eva and Franco Mattes. These avatars were created by actual Second Lifers. Most likely, the inevitable pictures portraits of these avatars' creators to follow. Brian Ashcraft More »

GDC 07: Party Time - Linden Labs

Mike Fahey — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 11:41:24 EST

While McWhertor and Crecente were attending the Sony press event last night, I decided to take the folks at Linden Labs, the creators of Second Life, up on their offer of free food and drink surrounded by people I didn't know. Then I changed my mind, and then fate changed it back. While searching for the venue the road it was to be on suddenly stopped. Being of strong will, I immediately gave up goig, only to stumble upon the newly ressurrected road nearly a mile further along. Dark forces were at work at the Linden Labs party, and I wasn't allowed to not go. As with many high-concept 90's horror movies, no where was this more evident than the bathroom. More »

Second Life: Bastion For Terrorists?

Brian Crecente — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 15:00:04 EST

Game Politics has unearthed an interesting story on the Counterterrorism blog about the potential Second Life has for nefarious people. More »

Feature: Unconventional Life

Brian Crecente — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 13:00:53 EDT

By: Wagner James Au More »

Second Life Gets Second Wind

kotaku.com — Wed, 29 Mar 2006 17:40:00 EST

Linden Labs, the makers of Second Life, have scored another round of funding, to the tune of $11 million. The company's not profitable, and doesn't know when it's going to be profitable, but this cash should keep them in servers and admins while allowing them to create Japanese and German versions of their online world, as well as develop a simpler interface so you don't have to be some sort of techno whiz to have cybersex with an anime squirrel in a field of gumdrops. More »

Second Life "Jail" Unveiled

lsmith — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 10:40:32 EST

Second Life "Jail" Unveiled" alt="Click here to read Second Life "Jail" Unveiled" src="http://cache.kotaku.com/assets/images/9/2006/01/sl_cornfield5-thumb.jpg"/>

Only instead of a jail, it's a giant, empty cornfield that Linden Labs uses as a virtual "timeout" according to Clickable Culture (we grabbed the image from there, too). The cornfield is a place where temporarily suspended accounts are sent, folks the game has banned are just unable to log in. What's in the cornfield? An extremely un-fun and slow moving tractor and a host of TV's playing a 1940 film, Boy in Court - it sounds perfectly awful, like jail should be. More »