Reuters Decides Second Life is Old News

You may recall that around two years ago, the Reuters news service decided to open up its own in-game news bureau in the virtual world of Second Life. Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime even did an interview with Reuters in the virtual news bureau.

Now, however, Reuters is pulling the plug on Second Life. According to reports in The Register and Guardian, Reuters has officially pulled its embedded reporter "Adam Reuters" (real name Adam Pasick) out of Second Life. "We're still reporting on Second Life, but only as part of our usual tech and media coverage," explained a Reuters spokesperson.

Eric Krangel, who used to report for Reuters in Second Life for a year and a half, shed some more light on the virtual world over at Silicon Alley Insider. "So what happened? Is Second Life dying? No, but the buzz is gone," commented Krangel.

He continued, "For all the sound and fury over recent price hikes and layoffs at Linden Lab, Second Life has a community of fanatically loyal users. Since Linden Lab derives its revenue from user fees, not advertisements, Second Life is much more likely to survive the Web 2.0 shakeout than most other startups.

"It's hard to say what, if anything, Linden Lab can do to make Second Life appeal to a general audience. The very things that most appeal to Second Life's hardcore enthusiasts are either boring or creepy for most people: Spending hundreds of hours of effort to make insignificant amounts of money selling virtual clothes, experimenting with changing your gender or species, getting into random conversations with strangers from around the world, or having pseudo-nonymous sex (and let's not kid ourselves, sex is a huge draw into Second Life). As part of walking my 'beat,' I'd get invited by sources to virtual nightclubs, where I'd right-click the dancefloor to send my avatar gyrating as I sat at home at my computer. It was about as fun as watching paint dry."

Krangel goes on to make recommendations for Linden Lab to improve its business, including making the virtual world of Second Life more accessible, easier to use for "newbies," and abandoning the idea that it's a business app.