Subculture Fetish

I suppose someone, in some department, at Linden Lab thought that this ad looked "wholesome".  Never mind that the Second Life mesh does not allow for child shapes, this "child" looks like a small woman with mature sex characteristics.

Linden Lab has been burned repeatedly over the child avatar issue and yet they still insist on jumping over this third rail.  As if the umpteenth time they go around this controversy, the outcome will suddenly change for them.

There is not and never has been a popularity of child avatars on Linden Lab's grid.  Its a sub-sub culture that only draws attention to itself through vocal proponents among its small numbers.  Not to mention the many TV exposes from international news reporters that investigated the possible pedophiles that partake in this subculture.  The majority of residents are quite happy with being adults and enjoying their adult status in life.

So why is Linden Lab pushing this upon so many?  Some have speculated that its target market are customers of "The Sims".  But this particular ad was sent to older customers of Second Life.  Most of whom are not interested in child avatars or playing family.  Others have suggested that there are employees in Linden Lab who like child role play and use LL to condone their choices in world.

To new customers this ad can not do anything but cause confusion.

This is just another indication to me that the Lab has no idea who its core audience is for their world.  Instead they are themselves fractured among their own employees into different subcultures.  And each of these groups are infighting inside Linden Lab while attempting to bring attention to their own gangs.  I would have thought that Mark Kingdon would have been able to get a handle on this situation.  But it seems the unruliness of Linden Lab's employee culture is even too large a problem for him to handle.  His hands may be tied because the employees who give him the most trouble are probably rooted in the most sensitive areas of the company.  Mainly the coders, developers and engineers of the grid itself.

There is an attack video laying blame for Linden Lab's troubles on Kingdon's doorstep.  But I don't think that is the problem at all.  I think its Linden Lab's own employees that are the problem.  They have too long been able to steer the ship according to their fetishes.  Its tearing the company apart.  Which this wrongheaded ad is a sign of the misrule.