As someone who has built and inhabited virtual worlds for 15 years, I find the story of SL fascinating. Pretty good technology, passable worldbuilding tools, an ecosystem of companies building islands for major brands and the media certainly did their job over the last two years.

So why is SL stuck in a rut? Simple. SL is impossible to understand for newbies and there is nothing to do. People need some sort of direction when entering, some gameplay, anything to get them engaged. This has been rehashed a dozen times over.

I went to the SL recruiting party last summer in Boston. Interesting group of people, but nobody was into the business side of things, it was real estate dealers, sword sellers and other fringe folks.

Linden and they told me to go work for Rivers Run Red or Electric Sheep!

Maybe some Apple designers need to go into SL and work their magic.

An IPO at this time would be a debacle.