Linden Lab weighed in on Yankee Group's highly dubious figures this-morning, even as the Yankee Group was apparently hurriedly distancing themselves from the 12 minutes per month claim that has been spreading so far recently. As we've discussed in the past, the mainstream media loves numbers. Exceptionally large and exceptionally small ones are a favorite. There's not much better way to catch their attention than with a surprising number, and the "12 minutes per month" claim was just such a number.
"One number seems to be a lightening[sic] rod for a lot of attention," Senior Analyst Christopher Collins. (via Virtual World News)
As reported by New World Notes, on VWN, Collins tries to convince us that the rest of the report holds water, while trying to sweep the "12 minutes claim" under the rug.
The basic point is that Second Life is too chained to desktop computers to be a success, so (we presume) like World of Warcraft, Everquest and Lineage and similar massively-multiplayer 'failures', Second Life will remain relatively obscure and unknown - a non-entity, in media terms.
Collins tries to handwave off the number, most notably failing to perform just about the one face-saving maneuver that I think would succeed: Coming clean. If you screwed up the math, just come out and say so. We've all made mistakes, and sometimes very public ones.
On the other hand, if you really feel that your reasoning was valid then detail it - show your work! - and the rest of us can use that to judge the veracity of the rest of the report.
