Geez, It's the FIC Again

Many people think I enjoy obsessing about the FIC (the techno-elite Feted Inner Core at the heart of the world of Second Life) and writing about it over and over again. But it sure does get goddamn boring. And here we go again with possibly the most astounding revelation ever made about the whole Linden-FIC thing:  here we have none other than Cory Linden himself explaining matter-of-factly -- as part of a smackdown of your humble correspondent among the high-falutin Terra Nova blogerati -- that:

As for how prospective LL employees find us -- by my rough count -- at least 1/3 of LL's employees were hired after we met them in Second Life, which is about as many as have been hired based on employee referrals. The rest are the usual mix of recruiters, random meetings, Game Initiative "Breaking In" conferences, and random resume submissions. To my knowledge, none have been hired based on encounters in MMORPGs.

That astounding revelations means that not only are 1/3 of the Linden FIC, as the Herald has reported, but probably something more like 2/3 -- because Cory admits that employee referrals make up "as many". Employees who spent 24/7 in SL and made compelling projects that landed them LL jobs are likely to have friends in SL too -- or RL friends that will tend to be of the tekkie/geek/gamer variety.  Urizenus Sklar over at the Second Life Herald has been rather, erm, graphic about what he thinks this process is akin too but I'd phrase it more delicately:  there is such a thing as eating too much of your own dogfood. I can't imagine the Lindens can ever get the critical distance they need from this galactic enterprise of theirs if they are "all on the same page" as Pathfinder so classically put it that time in the IRC.

And to think this revelation all came about as a study in "World of Warcraft as the new golf" -- a place where anthropologist Thomas Mallaby said on Terra Nova that prospective game devs would go to meet game company execs on their off-hours.

Of course Second Life isn't a game.

Cory Linden is like a rock star. With his non-gay earing in one ear, his untucked shirt and jeans, his combo straight/conservative Naval background and wacky/liberal game dev job today, he cuts an imposing figure. He strides right out into the audience at the SL Community Conference, brandishing his mike, and rapid-fires a bunch of techno-geek talk about server this and Havoc 2 that and XPC the net thing...and then all the geeks go wild, peppering him with questions. "It hurts me even more than it hurts you that we don't have Havoc 2 yet," he moans mournfully, nurturing his mike.

Havoc 2 is some kinda physics/movement thing that, if I understand it correctly, will make it possible to play golf and drive cars whole bunches better than you can now in SL. That means, the suburban experience that we just haven't been able to adequately simulate in our world is not entirely out of our reach, we must merely be patient.

At his concert -- I mean talk at SLCC -- Cory also answered my question abruptly, too. After I dug past the techno stuff, which was mainly about "it's on the to-do list," I got my headlines: "No Herald on a prim; no debate of policy on the voting page." You might conflate this even tigher: "No Democracy on A Prim, Says Linden".

What this means is that we will not be able to bring Internet connectivity and linkage into the world, such that people can click on a prim and get immediate viewability of a web page, i.e. the Second Life Herald, inside the world. And the debate on policy means that while the Lindens will continue to encourage voting proposals on game -- erm I mean client -- features, they don't want to have that function used to debate policy, i.e. about a bill of rights. They won't be doing those windows.

I'm glad to hear this first bit, actually, because I think web connectivity merely disrupts the fabric of the immersive world and makes SL more of a 3-D game dev and tekkie resume world than it already is, although I imagine it can be defended with all sorts of educational/political/social applications might also take off. It's going to take some doing. And without the ability to whiteboard -- to stand around and sketch out pictures and words together and change them singly or collectively -- we''ll have to keep using this clunky interface of notecard-SL IM-Yahoo-RL email-f2f meetings that we now have patched together around SL.

But I'm straying from my topic (that never happens!). And that's that a Linden has delivered a smackdown -- and a smackdown that hilariously revealed there is more of a FIC than I could have ever imagined. I thought the Lindens were made up of maybe, oh, 3-6 former residents, some of whom I knew about. I figured the rest came from job fairs that they had at game conferences, or their colleagues in the field, or from other game companies, like the There guy. Anybody can send them a resume, of course, but by saying that Second Life itself is where they want to take a look-see of you, they are announcing their world as essentially still in beta, and still for paid beta-testers. I wonder if they ever use their god-like powers to be invisible and listen in on people's conversation to talent-spot, and check out prospective employees not when they appear dressed in suit and tie with their fabulous portfolio of "visual representations of data" at the Linden Recruiting Center, but when they are humping a hot call girl at Barbie's, or dressed up in their female av sucking dick, or -- if they are the PG sort -- fighting with their neighbours over who is going to get the prim land and who is going to tell that asswipe with the rotating particle-spewing tower to blow himself off the grid. It adds a whole new dimension to the job-search notion, eh, the idea that your prospective employer can snoop on your more private moments in a game?

Robin Linden once said, "The FIC is an interesting myth." Well, actually, it is an interesting actual story LOL -- that gets more banal and dull with the re-telling. Now that we can see practically half or more of Linden Lab is made up of residents -- meaning it is a highly specialized and elite vanguard of people -- I guess we can close the case. The ultimate influence of the game company is to *get a job in it*. Talk about influencing game features! Gah. It boggles the mind.

Just think -- all those resentful fucktards on the forums...hankering to be Lindens...then GETTING to be Lindens...and then using their powers to settle scores. If you doubt that they do that, you have never read Shakespeare or studied human nature in high school.

You start wondering...is it like my old Russian classes during the Cold War? One by one, people would disappear from our ranks. They weren't going to work in academia or humanitarian work like some of us, they were going to go work for the CIA or some other espionage outfit. One day they were sitting next to you struggling with verbs of motion and those awful gerunds ("the having-gotten-up-from-her-chair girl entered-once-quickly-and-left-again the store") -- the next day they had taken off to foreign countries to meet exotic people and kill them. You never saw them again. Or you might suddenly see them years later at a conference with a nametag with some acronymn in a place like Reston, VA and you'd wonder where they were.

In the same way, people who were once very visible characters in the SL world flash across the sky...then disappear. Maybe some of their close friends know that they have Become Lindens. Evidently they must Take An Oath not to reveal the connection between their old SL avatars and their new Linden selves. They can apparently keep those old avatars but there are apparently some sort of rules about how they then deploy them. You start to wonder...where is StoneSelf Karuna? So quick with the put-downs and the set-straights on the forums, constantly getting into every Linden thingie...and now...where is he? Did he Become a Linden? And how about Cubey Terra...did he leave because (as rumor has it) that he was a silent partner in the crashed GOM? Or did he Become a Linden? And if so...WHICH Linden? There are people who try to become Lindens...and fail the final interview stage, but remain in the game. Do they get another try? Will they remain ever embittered, inside the "Walled Garden" of SL as Tony Walsh calls it...but forever outside the Garden Party inside?

All I can say is what I said to Cory in the high-falutin Terra Nova blog:  I invite you to consider what kind of world you are making in this fashion.

Which brings me to my subject today: fighting the FIC. It is so wearisome, and most of the FIC of course is invisible, outside one's reach, either becoming a Linden, or meeting Lindens in secret or semi-secret (like all the Lindens stacked up on the intriguing sim island called Better World the other night).

The FIC who continue to bite on my ankles like noisome vermin include Cristiano, Nolan and their various supporters/alts/fans and the debate goes something like this:

ME:  "Aren't you ashamed of yourself, telling Cocoanut she's a hypocrite for taking two 512 plots for a total of 1024 m2 for $9.95 times 2, when you have a free 4096 for $9.93 in your second year of being a charter member."

FIC:  "You're an ugly old lady who has no life."

ME:  "Given that you benefit yourself from the 10 percent tier bonus on group land, and that the groups that benefit from this include many projects that enhance SL, aren't your motives in campaigning against the 10 percent benefit rather suspect, and revealed to be mainly  those of jealousy, spite, and the desire to prank people and make them cry?"

FIC:  "You're a paranoid schizophrenic living on welfare."

See, it's not much of an interesting dialogue.

So, given that I've decided to write the novel suggested through the NaNoWriMo process starting Nov. 1, something has to give. In contemplating what areas of my various lives have to give, it was a no-brainer to pick:  "answering the FIC on my blog" indeed "blogging at all" and "responding to Herald articles". To these three time-sucks, I could add a fourth:  "fending off and discussing FIC attacks in SL." I'm figuring that with my schedule requiring a 1000-word-a day production or so, I'm simply going to have to conserve my energy.

So, I'm spraying plenty of Cutter around my ankles and putting on my sturdiest socks and shoes and hiking off to NaNoWriMo land now : )

Comments

[ReallyRick Metropolitan]

Funny you brought up the part about Lindens not being able to reveal their old SL avatars.

Just yesterday at Waterhead a "Newbie" Linden was helping out. Their profile described them as "New Linden - Not New to SL." I jokingly asked, "Who were you?" thinking that there was this rule that they are not suppossed to reveal their prior avatar idenity.

They said that in fact it wasn't against the rules and then proceeded to tell me their avatar first name and last inital. Immediately recognizing the first name I mentioned the last name and was told, "Yep that's me."

*shrug*

[ReallyRick Metropolitan]

Funny you brought up the part about Lindens not being able to reveal their old SL avatars.

Just yesterday at Waterhead a "Newbie" Linden was helping out. Their profile described them as "New Linden - Not New to SL." I jokingly asked, "Who were you?" thinking that there was this rule that they are not suppossed to reveal their prior avatar idenity.

They said that in fact it wasn't against the rules and then proceeded to tell me their avatar first name and last inital. Immediately recognizing the first name I mentioned the last name and was told, "Yep that's me."

*shrug*

[Prokofy Neva]

Shrug all you want Rick. Don't extrapolate from one experiment with a new Linden who may not have learned all the written and unwritten rules yet. Other Lindens refuse to tell you. I know of one Linden very specifically who did this with me at SLCC.

They may not have a written rule. And they may also just not go out of their way to tell you.

Don't you find it goddamn wierd?!

[Aimee Weber]

The standard corporate hiring routine practiced today is hardly ideal rather it’s the product of necessity. You read an applicant’s resume, talk to them for an hour, and then risk thousands of dollars on their training, salary, and benefits in hopes that they will help your company grow. It’s an insane practice but for most companies there are few alternatives.

Not so for Linden Lab! Many of their applicants from the player pool:

1. Have demonstrated their ability to perform the exact tasks they will be asked to do on the job.
2. Have months if not years of demonstrating their disposition and character.
3. Have shown a passion for Second Life through their voluntary participation.

And Linden Lab is hardly the only company that does this. Anybody who has established a relationship with any corporation is a likely candidate for hire. Some routine examples include independent contractors who are offered full time positions, students who go on to instruct at their school, and as somebody mentioned on SLHerald, pub clients becoming bartenders.

If the number of players who were qualified AND interested in working for LL were higher, I suspect you would see a percentage greater than 1/3. But it would seem a good percentage of employees are still hired off the street after a quick read of a resume, an hour chat, and a whole lot of hoping for the best.

Oh, and Rick is right. There is no official or unspoken rule against Lindens revealing their player identity. I don’t find it the slightest bit “goddamn weird” that a Linden would feel comfortable revealing themselves to positive contributors like Rick while keeping YOU in the dark. I cannot even imagine a scenario where revealing this information to YOU would be a good thing. You are constantly on the hunt to damage Linden Lab so don’t be shocked when your prey refuse to expose their jugular vein to you.

[Cubey]

Am I a Linden? If you'd asked, I might have told you. ;)

[Cienna Rand]

Prokofy's Razor: Given two equally predictive theories, choose the most complex conspiracy.

[Prokofy Neva]

Aimee, the only question for me is: why YOU don't get a job with Linden Lab? You're able to *perfectly* spout the company line -- and I mean PERFECTLY! Is that because you already have a contract with them for things like the four-five appearances of your avatar on their front page?

[Prokofy Neva]

Um, are you a Linden, Cubey? There, I asked you. And it's not about whether they tell their little pals like Aimee or whether the refuse to tell me and keep ME in the dark. Either they tell the public or they don't.

[Aimee Weber]

Prok I'm holding out for a job as a writer for your blog here at Second Thoughts.

I have no professional writing experience, I dispise you, and I think this blog is garbage. According to you I'm the perfect potential employee! :D

[Cubey]

Thank you for asking, Prokofy. Nope. Unfortunately, I am not a Linden. Better luck next time. ;)

[[email protected]]

Prokofy, they are everywhere. And they don't just have one alt, they have several. They coddle the new fic, people you hate. Be careful what you say to who. Your paranoia is not unfounded. They're after you. Trust no one.

[Tenzin Tuque]

Wow, the insults are flying. Jerry Springer style!

There is a valid question here about the lack of transparency in Second Life: who runs SL, how policies are made, who ultimately benefits etc. -- and similar concerns tend to dominate RL democracies, so it is inevitable that SL authority and governance will come under greater scrutiny.

Here's a parallel question, of broad relevance, I think. We are players and consumers, to be certain, but given that SL isn't really just a game, will it remain the RL equivalent of a very nice gated community patrolled by private security -- or will SL evolve beyond that?

If SL is to evolve as something beyond mere game, then we needs dissidents, as well as in-world independent media, all for obvious reasons. Flaming posts and personal attacks and whatnot keep it in the sandbox. Heck, I've yet to see an appropriate media/IM/group discussion mechanism that might take this kind of debate -- vital democratic debate in RL terms -- beyond sniping.

I'd prefer not to take sides in the above patter, because my RL journalist instincts say I need to learn more, but it is a little discouraging. Prokofy has reported some interesting facts, as far as I can tell, so reducing it all to paranoia really dimishishes the original and relevant question: who, really, runs SL? That is an essential and ongoing set of of democratic questions in RL. It probably deserves more attention in Second Life too.

[Gwyneth Llewelyn]

... of course, all this assumes that LL wishes SL to be ruled in a "democratic" way.

After all, I have rarely seen anyone despising the "benign dictatorship" by the Lindens. Rather the contrary. People tend to sense that's the way to go, democracy just means corruption at all levels, etc. etc.

Well, what do you get from benign dictatorships? Meritrocacies and "elites" ruling over the rest of the world. So, why am I not surprised? :)

Seriously speaking... I cannot blame LL for *trying* to get the best employees for their company. One thing is for certain: picking one member of the community means zero training, and a knowledge of what that member has actively done for SL. That's a perfectly reasonable business practice. Like so many others, I also used to recruit from my customers and/or partners.

Of course, there is an alternative — release SL into the Open Source, get just a tiny team to do the last-minute-checks on a release, mantain the grid, and well... let the users do the rest. After all, so many already volunteer their precious time to: a) do business, and keep the economy flourishing; b) create content; c) do free classes and training; d) help other users (free technical support!); e) give feedback, clean bugs, propose workarounds and new features; f) do free marketing/advertising; g) meet new people, give conferences/workshops, organise conventions; h)even work for free getting new customers to join! Well, LL hardly needs employees that way :-)

[Prokofy Neva]

I'm not at all sure it's a good practice for a business, but I wonder if it is a good practice for a country or a world. After all, if the U.S. government only hires foreign-service lifers for jobs, they get foreign-service lifer type of "handism" or bureaucratic intertia. There's a reason why presidents aren't civil servants with 20 years of service in a government department, but lawyers or businessmen. The same is true of the UN, where the phenom of third-worlders spending their entire careers inside the UN bureaucracy, like a Kofi Annan or his son, creates an environment for corruption. The reformers who have shaken up the UN are figures like Mark Malloch Brown or Paul Volker who are brought in from other fields, not the UN bureaucracy.

Any reasonable human system that seeks ways to refresh and correct itself is not going to let 1/3 to 2/3 of its ranks come from that system itself, that's folly. There's no justification for it. Especially in something that calls itself bleeding edge, etc.

With all that voluntarism and all those players-turn-Lindens, what you get are the SL forums -- vindictive, nasty group-think perpetually reinforcing itself. This is the 'exemplary' result of the methods you are touting, Gwyn.

[Tenzin Tuque]

K, so Linden hires AVs -- hardly a crime. But in the business world, the threat of political and social in-breeding is likely not as pronounced as it is in SL. Cause SL is a much more closed system. And RL has due process mechanisms like courts and laws and elections to (hopefully) keep misuse of power in check.

So if people have worry about high-tech cronyism or a clique-ocracy in SL, I don't blame them. It's not as though there's enough clarity and accountability in place to patently disabuse those worries. And if you own land here or create income here, the nature and stability and quality of the regime is of paramont concern. I personally am interested as someone who's reported on newly democratized countries like Mongolia or protest politics in China -- if only because the barriers to democracy or greater accountability are oddly similar at times.

I build Tibetan monestaries in SL, but to envision SL politically behind poor little Mongolia (former communist sattelite) is an issue of broad concern. And if folks want to obsess on the newest graphic engine or just play Tringo at the expense of engaging in inevitable politics, then it'll be Big Brother (a really nice one who dresses well and proffers soundbyte-perfect IT wisdom) that'll be changing our diapers for the forseeable future.

And most would agree that SL has more potential than that. Perhaps SL needs to be bigger, more people, more diversity, more questions?

[Prokofy Neva]

Very well said, Tenzin! I couldn't have said it better...and didn't. Somehow, experience with these communist regimes prepares one for a good critical analysis of this closed society of SL, run by all its *partorgy* -- I mean liaisons. SL can always say it's not like RL when it's convenient; or say it is like RL when it's convenient.

Well, I hope that you and others will take up the good fight against this closed society because it's a killer.

[jules]

"I hope that you and others will take up the good fight against this closed society because it's a killer." - prokofy

It's a "killer" ?. LOL What a drama queen you are.

[ReallyRick Metropolitan]

From the MOTD:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v325/ReallyRick/MOTD.jpg

[Prokofy Neva]

Rick, they've been doing this for at least six months, it's on the MOTD loop that revolves around every few weeks. This is part of a Linden counter-intelligence operation to sow confusion and dilute the true meaning and implications of the term by making it seem "a parody" and "humorous" and "something to slip in with a term like C++" but hmm, we know better, no?

[Prokofy Neva]

Rick, they've been doing this for at least six months, it's on the MOTD loop that revolves around every few weeks. This is part of a Linden counter-intelligence operation to sow confusion and dilute the true meaning and implications of the term by making it seem "a parody" and "humorous" and "something to slip in with a term like C++" but hmm, we know better, no?

[oiuh4krjn2o3]

"This is part of a Linden counter-intelligence operation"

LMAO