Ebbe Altberg CEO of Linden Lab has said this week on Twitter that we can expect to see last names launch in a matter of weeks. Not months. It’s very close apparently.
The lab could be launching this around the Easter period at best estimates. Probably more likely before the end of April 2020. Anything later than that is not good enough.
More updates soon.
On Thursday 21st November Linden Lab posted a blog post on the return of last names. Last Names is now the most requested feature apparently on the lab to do list. The lab are now “furiously” going to make Last Names available by the end of January 2020. Last Names will be picked from a list and users can help Linden Lab curate the list.
Name Changes will be exclusively for Premium members at an additional fee (to be confirmed). Changing either First or Last Name will be available as a single transaction (US dollars TBC). For anyone signing up to Second Life in 2020 they will continue to have “resident” attached to their name unless they opt to Premium.
Linden Lab are holding a Last Names competition starting 16th December 2019 for all Second Life users (Basic and Premium users) to suggest suitable last names to the pool of last name options. The lab will pick five lucky residents will be able to change their names free of charge. The contest ends on 15th January 2020.
There is now a big demand for Last Names in Second Life and it’s good to see the lab finally pushing ahead with a possible release sometime in the first few months or so of 2020. It’s more likely to happen in 2020 from the sounds of things.
Other announcement updates this week…
On 24th September 2019 Linden Lab posted a tiny bit on the return of Last Names almost hidden away in the middle of the blog post. The latest new status is now “Stay tuned for updates on when to expect the return of Last Names“.
Here is the only section relating to Last Names..
More to come!
There’s more in the works, too! Stay tuned for updates on when to expect the return of Last Names, availability of a new mobile app beta, changes to Premium options, improvements to Events, Search, the Destination Guide, and much more.
It’s good the lab are still thinking about returning Last Names but giving no projected time estimations on when that will happen is just not good enough sadly. During the past year including the recent Second Life birthday celebrations the lab have been saying “it’s still being worked on” and there are still complications associated with this process.
It would be nice if the lab could let the Second Life community know in-depth on the progress it’s making. I’m guessing we may hear something before the end of 2019 or early 2020 at the latest. It could possibly be rolled out before then. Linden Lab should of never got rid of Last Names in the first place I think.
Don’t forget the lab promised this was going to happen last year at number 7 in the list via the fifteen reasons to celebrate Second Life 15th birthday blog post.
7. The return of Last Names – You’ve asked for it (a lot!), so we will provide a way to customize your last name in Second Life! More details will be available later this year.
I ran a poll earlier in the year back in April 2019 and here are the results..
The poll received 57 votes and 93% say YES they want to see Last Names return again.
Here is a new poll set up today below to see if the overall opinion has changed or no…
Poll: Should Last Names Return ?
June 2019 Update
On 25th June at the SL16B Meet the Lindens event Oz Linden talked about Last Names in Second Life. The latest news is that the lab are still working on it by knocking it down one system at a time. Oz Linden did not mention any estimated time frames on it. Oz said “we are getting there” and “making progress”. It will be done in the future.
The lab are still moving forward with the idea but it is disappointing to hear it may take much longer to roll out now. April Linden said this is a very hard problem to solve. I do believe it may be apart of the new super premium package coming out later this year.
Why is it taking so long ?
It’s because all of the Second Life services were built to assume last names would never change. All of these have to be found on the system and altered in the right way = one by one for changing last names to work correctly.
Brief summary…
Full Video
At 28 minutes & 20 seconds the discussion starts on Last Names.
Other interesting updates from the session..
Bakes on Mesh & EEP
Web Based Viewer
Mobile Viewer Development
There was a final question at the end on how many Lindens there are at Linden Lab?. Oz, April and Patch did not answer this question. I would imagine at least 300 – could be less or more than this number.
Ebbe Altberg who is the CEO of Linden Lab will be live at SL16B Auditorium today from 2pm SLT. I’m sure we will hear more about whats coming soon for Second Life and all the latest developments. There will be mentions of Sansar and much more.
Arrive early and there will be live stream of this event via YouTube.
Don’t miss it! 🙂
